Nadia Whittome, who has just joined Westminster’s Women and Equalities Committee, called for the Government fight back against toxic narratives and show solidarity with the trans community
BILLIONAIRES like JK Rowling and Elon Musk are funding transphobia which is seeing equality in Britain go backwards, a Labour MP has warned.
Nadia Whittome, who has just joined Westminster’s Women and Equalities Committee, called for the Government to do more to fight back against toxic narratives, and that solidarity with the trans community was rooted in Labour values.
Speaking to The Mirror, Ms Whittome, who is part of the LGBTQ+ community, suggested the public had far bigger concerns than trans people, but those concerns were drowned out on social media.
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She said: “It’s increasingly difficult when what we’re up against is a machine funded by billionaires in this country and the US, with political support from countries like Russia as well.
“You just need to follow where the transphobia is coming from, it’s not coming from working class people, it’s trickling down from the top.
“These concerns are not being raised by a cleaner on the minimum wage, somebody stuck in an abusive relationship. Trans people aren’t a threat to them, the threat to them comes from violent men and the structures that keep them trapped, whether that’s low pay, low benefits, not having access to the public services they need.
“I don’t think that’s because a Labour government is the main driving force, I think the main driving force pushing it backwards, there are external forces funded by big money from Elon Musk to JK Rowling, but the Government isn’t standing up against that with a compassionate alternative, and it’s allowing itself to be pushed in that direction.
“I think it’s very sad, I feel very sorry for her, for someone who was once a treasured children’s author.”
Earlier this year the Harry Potter author launched a fund for “women’s sex-based rights”, which “offers legal funding support to individuals and organizations fighting to retain women’s sex-based rights in the workplace, in public life and in protected female spaces”.
Mr Musk has been a frequent critic of trans people, and according to the Wall Street Journal, spent more than $50m to fund anti-immigrant and anti-transgender advertisements by a group called Citizens for Sanity.
Ms Whittome ruled out the idea social media regulation was a “silver bullet”, and that the only way to fight bigotry was “not to give an inch”.
She said: “We see negative headlines about trans people in the media every day, the Tories and Reform continue to use them as a political football, often most damagingly in reference to protecting women from women who aren’t trans, which misdiagnoses the problem of male violence, which is something…done to women both trans and not trans by violent and abusive men.
“The only way we can stop trans people being used as a political football is to stand up for their rights unequivocally, by not giving an inch.
“The party should have learnt this by now, when you start giving an inch, it’s never far enough for people, some are not going to be happy until we no longer have a Gender Recognition Act, which by the way, was an achievement of the last Labour Government. We would do well to continue that legacy.”
JK Rowling declined to comment.