At the Conservative party conference this month we heard deeply offensive and harmful remarks about trans people, specifically trans women, and their place in healthcare settings. These comments have come from individuals in some of the most senior positions in Government. We know this is incorrect and dangerous rhetoric and we stand against the scapegoating of trans people.
Comments at the conference focussed in particular on trans women. Transmisogyny has no place in government or healthcare. Women, cis and trans, face abuse and harm in healthcare settings. Implying that trans women are dangerous to cis women in healthcare settings is factually incorrect and appears intended to stoke hatred and fear of trans people. It misrepresents the problem of abuse in care settings and continues to fail all women.
As mental health organisations, charities, and concerned individuals working in the sector, we stand in solidarity with trans people and recognise the devastating impact of transphobia.
Transphobia perpetuated and intensified in this way impacts people’s lives and their health: a 2023 report by Just Like Us showed that 88% of trans adults between 18 and 25 in the UK have experienced suicidal thoughts.
People should receive care, including mental health care, in the setting that best aligns with their gender identity. This is current NHS policy. Even with such policies, transphobia still operates in healthcare settings and we have a long way to go before care is truly trans inclusive and reflects the protections trans people have under the Equality Act.
As people who advocate for the rights of people who experience mental ill-health, distress, and trauma, we are standing together, committed to speaking out against transphobic rhetoric, policy and practice.
Add your support
We are calling on other mental health organisations and charities, as well as individuals, to add their names in support of this statement.
If you would like to add your individual or organisational signature to this statement, please fill out this short form or email gabrielle.johnson@nsun.org.uk with your name (and if desired, your organisation/role or job title), or if signing as an organisation, your organisation’s name. We will regularly update this page with new signatures below once we have started to collect signatures.
Organisations
- Medact
- Mental Health First Aid England
- DCC-i
- Health Poverty Action
- Linda Laurie Associates
- Suicide Crisis (a charity that runs a Suicide Crisis Centre)
- TMSA-UK
- Rethink Mental Illness
Individuals
- Heather Cobb, Wellness Recovery Action Plan level 3 facilitator
- Ruth Revell
- Jane Haines
- Rachel Eborall, Unite Health Rep
- Maggie Palmer
- Ewan Smith
- Ian Allinson, Author of Workers Can Win! A Guide to Organising at Work
- Kate Edwards, NHS Workers Say NO!
- Nicola Redwood, Unite Branch Secretary
- Lucy Nox, SEND Teaching Assistant, AAT
- Iwo Domeracki a. k. a. Sygin Nox, UNISON Workplace Rep
- Shiraz Hussain
- Gill George, Retired health worker & health campaigner
- Rosie Carter-Rich, Student Mental Health Nurse
- Karen Hamilton
- Mark Salter
- Joanne McBride, Teacher
- Simon Tucker
- Michelle Giles
- Paula Carlington
- Jennifer Duffy
- Sean Duffy
- Pete Goulding
- Abbie O’Connor, Counsellor (private practice)
- Charmaine Hardie
- Joanne Baskott
- Tina Oldridge
- Alison Davy, Community cook up
- Una O’Sullivan
- Charlie Tucker
- Sarah
- Dina Poursanidou, Survivor Researcher Network
- Mark Dale
- Averick Bellows
- Will Reid
- Peter Bampton
- Fleur Perry
- Hannah-Phoebe Bowen, Counsellor in private practice
- Jess Worner, Lived Experience Network Manager
- Eva Roberts
- Anna Fielding
- Finn Dobson, Peer Support Worker
- Natasha Maddison, Therapist
- Ruth Adams
- Dan Bernstein
- Sophie Carapetian
- Jane Appleton
- Daisy Long, Director
- Russ Long, DCC-i – Deputy Director of Operations
- Beckett LeClair
- Ryk Morgan, Volunteer for 3 Charities/Not For Profit Organisations
- Helen Leigh-Phippard
- Danielle King, Clinical Psychologist, NHS
- Elena Hazimin, Medical Student
- Claire, I work with students
- Kate Bowgett, Services Director Groundswell
- Ben Eder, GP Trainee
- Dr Elizabeth Clarke, Rheumatologist, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
- Stephen Anderson
- Rudy Graves RM, LTHT, Senior Research Midwife
- Danielle Butler, Social Prescriber, Leeds
- Kai Alba, Midwife
- Anna Nicholson-Lailey, Palliative medicine doctor
- Beya Khaldi
- Isobel Merrie, Medical Student
- S Murgraff
- Sepeedeh Saleh, Public Health Doctor
- Ben Rossington, Project Officer, Transformation Partners in Health and Care
- Hilary Aster Cornish, Counsellor, Spectra CiC
- Eleanor Piesold, Junior Doctor, Brighton
- Christopher Brockwell
- Helen Pearson, Functional Skills Tutor, Choices College, NHS England
- Tim Hickish, RCN Student Member
- Hollie Higgins
- Sarah Wikeley, GP
- Sandy Dillon
- Jean, Elderly retired
- Mike Hope, Client Support Coordinator, Thompsons Solicitors
- Gwen Vardigans, Retired NHS Nurse
- Piyush Pushkar
- Michael Lewis
- Rebecca Thomas, Junior Doctor and researcher, Liverpool
- Ann-Elin Myhre
- Anushka Patel
- Sara Hagerman, Psychologist
- Liam Torrens, NHS Scotland
- Avi Kaura, Medical Student
- Danilo Paganelli
- John Middleton
- Jennifer Middleton, Service User
- Joanna Seth-Smith
- Catriona Bridger, GP Registrar
- Nathalie Lindell
- Lindsay
- Gavin Robinson
- Charlotte Hooker
- Joy Hibbins, CEO, Suicide Crisis (a charity that runs a Suicide Crisis Centre)
- Paul Micallef, GP
- David Jenkins, Retired Consultant Physician
- Stephen Branscombe
- Paul Colley, Person-centred therapist and supervisor
- Charlie Mangas, Counsellor and Psychotherapist
- Dr. Birgitta Heiller, Director, Island and Solent Psychological Therapies
- Marta Bolognani
- Kit Zinovieff, Psychotherapist
- Richard Bagnall-Oakeley, Psychotherapist
- Tricia Wright
- Christa Drennan, Therapist, Supervisor, Trainer
- Salma Joosub, PCU
- Mark Harrison
- Robert MacGibbon, FRCGP
- Jill Holly Counselling, Counsellor/Psychotherapist
- Jessica Hottinger
- Philip Windeatt
- S Chadwick
- Bryony Budd, Art Psychotherapist and counsellor
- Isabella Leonard, psychotherapist/counsellor
- Ellen Bell
- Sam Segal
- Kris Black, Psychotherapist / Clinical Supervisor / Trainer / Editor
- Luke Woodhouse, LYPFT, Clinical Educator
- Helen Moss, Psychotherapist
- Abi Noushad, NHS
- Phillip Welldrake
- Keith Barber, UKCP Reg’d Psychotherapist
- Dr. Aliya Mackenzie
- Catherine Stevens, Art therapist HCPC registered
- Shneeza Gill
- Dr Mary Gibbs, Our of hours GP
- Sarah Walpole (she/her), James Cook Hospital, Middlesbrough
- Emma Dowson, NHS Healthcare Assistant
- Helen Green, Midwife
- Mandy Coghill, Psychotherapist
- Emma Louise, Systemic Family Practitioner, NHS
- Sarah Butler-Boycott, Crisis Service Manager, Compañeros (Spider Project)
- Katie Wynne, Clinical Lead Transgender Services, LGT
- Katie Glover
- Mary Lynne Ellis, Perspectives Psychotherapy
- Andy Rushton, Counsellor
- Paula Jones, Counsellor
- Sharon Gibbons, Counsellor at Talk together Counselling
- Claire Shaw
- Monica Gallo, Senior Psychotherapist – Centrepoint
- Dr Joyce Leeson, Retired public health doctor
- João Martins, Medact Oxford
- Naomi Adelson, GP
- Alisha Cunningham, Counsellor, NHS Blackpool Teaching Hospitals
- Dr Lauren Evans, MRCPsych
- Alistair Armitage, Hypnotherapist & Counsellor (private practice)
- Jules Mattsson, Paramedic
- Lesley Dougan, Counsellor/ Psychotherapist
- Dr Elisabeth Murray, Retired consultant
- Seb Harding, RMHN
- Jennifer Harding, Psychotherapist (retd)
- Richa Okhandiar
- Annette Ros, Psychiatrist
- Veena Aggarwal, GP Registrar
- Rory N
- Imogen Blacklidge, RN, LTHT
- Tracey Farrar, Retired
- Courtney Buckler, Survivor Researcher and Executive Director at Make Space
- Elizabeth Westwood, Public Health Registrar
- Laura Edmans
- Dr Georgie Bainbridge, The Autism Shed
- J.M. Welch
- E. Dowson, Trainee Counsellor
- Sophie Payling
- Alaina Heath
- James Vipond, Junior Doctor