Angela Rayner has stood by her endorsement of a charter which described feminist organisations raising concerns about the treatment of trans children as "hate groups".
When the MP for Ashton-under-Lyne stood to be the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party in 2020, she lent her support to a trans rights charter.
The document dubbed Women's Place UK, among other groups, as "trans-exclusionist hate groups".
Woman's Place UK campaigns for women's rights on the basis that biological sex matters. It is highly critical of trans issues, expressing concerns about the encroachment of trans women into women's spaces.
Angela Rayner has stood by her endorsement of a charter which described feminist organisations raising concerns about the treatment of trans children as "hate groups"
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Rayner's decision to stand by the charter comes in the wake of the publication of the Cass Review, a report into gender identity services.
The review found that there is "remarkably weak evidence" to support gender treatments for children. It also warned that the "toxicity of the debate" is not helping, claiming that people are afraid of discussing trans issues openly.
The trans rights charter, backed by Rayner in 2020, called on its supporters to "organise and fight against transphobic organisations such as Woman’s Place UK, LGB Alliance and other trans-exclusionist hate groups".
Kate Barker, the chief executive of the charity, told the Telegraph: "We hope Angela Rayner will reflect on the Cass review and reconsider her opinion of LGB Alliance. It is not ‘hateful’ for an LGB charity to warn about ideologically-driven, unevidenced medical experiments on young people, most of whom are lesbian, gay or bisexual.
"There’s a much more profound issue at play, however, which is a culture where even senior politicians condemn their opponents as ‘hateful’ with zero evidence and zero engagement. It’s also one of the chief reasons this unprecedented medical scandal has been allowed to continue for so long.
"This year, LGB Alliance will once again apply to exhibit at Labour conference. We hope, in the light of Cass, we will finally be granted the opportunity to attend and engage in civilised and rational discussion."
But a Labour spokesperson told GB News: "We all have a responsibility to ensure discussion of sensitive issues is conducted in a respectful way. That is how the Labour Party will always operate".
Since the publication of the Cass Review, senior Labour figures have come out and retracted or clarified their previous remarks on trans issues. But Rayner is yet to break her silence on the topic.
Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting on Wednesday said he had been wrong to previously say that "trans women are women, get over it".
In 2022, Sir Keir Starmer said "trans women are women". Yesterday, his spokesperson declined to retract the remark, but said: "Of course sex and gender are different, and legally different for good reason."
Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting on Wednesday said he had been wrong to previously say that "trans women are women, get over it"
PA
He had previously said: “A woman is a female adult, and, in addition to that, trans women are women, and that is not just my view, that is actually the law.”
In her report, Dr Hillary Cass said: "I have been disappointed by the lack of evidence on the long-term impact of taking hormones from an early age; research has let us all down, most importantly you.
"The reality is we have no good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender-related distress."
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She said that people have been "caught in the middle of a stormy social discourse".
Cass added: "There are few other areas of healthcare where professionals are so afraid to openly discuss their views, where people are vilified on social media, and where name-calling echoes the worst bullying behaviour."
Responding to the review, Streeting called for the Government to "immediately act", saying that children's healthcare "should always be led by evidence and children's welfare, free from culture wars".