The Labour Party will not make misgendering a hate crime, as revealed in a parliamentary response to a written question.
Home Office Minister Lord Hanson responded to Baroness Jenkin's question about criminalising misgendering, stating, “The Government has no such plans.”
The party does not plan to make it a legal offence or treat it with special provisions under the law.
This clarification comes two years after then, in opposition, Keir Starmer claimed that Labour would make “every” LGBT+ crime an aggravated offence, carrying a potential two-year jail sentence."
At the time, he said, “It’s time for tougher hate crime laws, so every LGBT+ crime is treated as an aggravated offence.”
In July this year, Prime Minister and Labour leader Starmer stated that transgender women do not have a right to access female-only spaces amid confusion over Labour’s stance on which lavatories transgender people should use.
He asserted that biological males who have legally transitioned should not enter areas designated for women, insisting those spaces “need to be protected.”
His comments came after two of his frontbenchers declined to say whether someone with male genital parts should be allowed to use women’s lavatories.
In an interview with one of the leading UK dailies, Starmer was asked a question posed by author JK Rowling about whether people who are born male and have legally transitioned should be able to use female-only spaces.
This marks a shift in Labour's stance on these complex issues, suggesting that the party wants to avoid further complicating an already polarised public sphere.
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