Fighting With Pride, the LGBTQ+ Armed Forces charity supporting serving personnel and veterans, has highlighted the damaging consequences of new Ministry of Defence guidance for transgender personnel.
Following publication of an official policy (JSP 889) on 15 October, the charity has heard accounts of personnel being moved into separate accommodation, and being forced to stop using the bathroom and toilet facilities they have used for years.
The charity warns that the changes threaten the dignity, privacy, and wellbeing of loyal serving personnel, while events in the United States are intensifying fears about their future in the British Armed Forces.
Ed Hall, Chair of Fighting With Pride, said:
“Our board has heard examples of what this means in practice: service people segregated and isolated from their comrades, outed as trans by the policy, and making it likely that those service people who are yet to transition will be unlikely to feel comfortable coming out. It is disgraceful that a person serving their country should be treated in this way.”
“These are men and women who have followed the rules their country set for them. Some transitioned decades ago. Some completed their transition before joining the Armed Forces and have served their entire military careers in their affirmed gender. Others transitioned during service through processes that were recognised and supported by their employer.”
“They have built careers, earned the trust of their colleagues, and got on with the job. Now their lives are being upended by requirements that the Defence Estate is plainly ill-equipped to accommodate.”
The revised policy restricts trans personnel’s access to single-sex facilities aligned with their affirmed gender and changes the basis on which communal accommodation is allocated. Fighting With Pride has serious concerns about inadequate alternative facilities, involuntary disclosure of transgender status, and separation from unit life.
Hall continued:
“Moving someone into a separate room may sound like an administrative solution. For the individual, it can mean being removed from the friendships and everyday relationships that sustain military life. It can also identify them as transgender to people who previously had no reason to know their private history.”
“Every posting then risks becoming another negotiation over where they can sleep, wash, or change, and who must be told about their past. That is an extraordinary burden to place on people whose colleagues can take these basic arrangements for granted.”
Fighting With Pride is challenging the Government to explain the practical value of legal gender recognition following the Supreme Court’s interpretation of sex under the Equality Act.
Hall said:
“Parliament established a legal process through which people could obtain recognition of their affirmed gender. People in the armed forces undertook that process in good faith, satisfied its requirements, and received a Gender Recognition Certificate.”
“What was that process for if the recognition it provided can now be set aside in such fundamental parts of their daily lives?”
“The Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Equality Act and the recognition provided by the Gender Recognition Act have created an evident conflict in people’s lived experience. The certificate recognises their affirmed gender, yet they are now told that recognition does not determine which facilities or communal accommodation they may use.”
“The Government cannot invite people to secure legal recognition, employ them in the service of the Crown, allow them to organise their lives around that recognition for years, and then act as though the consequences of withdrawing its practical effect are somebody else’s problem.”
The charity warns that the treatment of transgender military personnel in the United States has made these changes particularly frightening for the British serving community.
Hall continued:
“Our people can see what has happened across the Atlantic: trans personnel face removal from military service under policies directed solely at who they are, and not at the quality of their service. We are watching experienced, committed people have their military careers ended, and some are asking whether Britain will follow.”
“The Secretary of State must unequivocally affirm that trans personnel have a future in our Armed Forces, and prove it through how they are treated today.”
Fighting With Pride is examining how it can challenge the harmful consequences of the policy and support those affected, including seeking independent legal advice.
Hall added:
“Our charity exists because the Armed Forces once inflicted devastating harm on LGBTQ+ people under policies defended by those in authority. We are still helping veterans live with the consequences. The charity should not overlook the warning signs when another part of our community faces exclusion.”
“Loyal service should count for something. The experience, professionalism, and commitment of these personnel have not changed since this guidance was issued. If Defence can find a role for someone in the service of their country, it must find a dignified place for them to sleep and use the toilet. The Government needs to resolve this situation urgently, before more harm is done.”
