For those who aren't aware, the British Tory party have spent their time in office attacking trans people. Labour for a long time were sitting on the fence but now have come out and said trans women don't belong in women's spaces, and they also plan to remove healthcare for trans kids. Reform, a far right party, want to ban 'transgender ideology'. Obviously, none of these parties are getting support from the trans community.

This leaves us with two options.

The Green Party, a far left party centred around the environment, want to allow self-ID for trans and nonbinary people, ban conversion therapy, and support LGBT inclusive sex-ed. Their leadership is pro trans and they initially challenged the Cass Review, but withdrew their statement cos there's a large contingent of TERFs in the party who weren't happy. (Edit: it turns out their co-leader supports the Cass Review and wants to remove healthcare from trans kids, however the other leader is trans-supportive). They're projected to get 1-2 seats.

The lib dems, a party of classical liberals, want to legally recognise nonbinary identities, de-medicalise the GRA process and scrap the fee, introduce 'X' passports, and introduce gender-neutral uniform policies within schools, and also ban conversion therapy. One of their MPs, Layla Moran, has consistently defended trans rights during debates in parliament (which is more than can be said for the Green's Caroline Lucas). They have a small TERF problem within their party, but it's fairly fringe. They could get anywhere between 40 and 70 seats.

I think voting for either party is fine, genuinely. I'm glad that there are two who are broadly pro-trans so we can see who we like more, depending on other issues.

The thing that's been bothering me is every single trans activist I follow on social media has been saying "vote green!! Vote green!!", "if you care about trans people at all vote green!!!", and there's been near radio silence about the lib dems.

I think it does us a massive disservice not to acknowledge a political party that is fighting for our rights and has been since before the election. Especially one which is more powerful and mainstream than the greens and are able to appeal to moderate/centrists voters who could otherwise vote Tory. Especially as if the lib dems beat the conservatives, we'd have a pro-trans opposition within parliament. (Edit: especially in light of the green's co-leader supporting the Cass Review, this seems really ridiculous).

I would also say the greens are environmentalists, whereas the lib dems are classical liberals, and I think that actually makes their support for trans people stronger. They aren't doing it to win over the left. They're doing it because it's their core ideology, which is why they have other socially liberal policies such as legally recognising humanist marriages, giving non-married couples more rights, and bringing in a parliamentary debate around assisted suicide.

I can't see any good reason not to at least thank the lib dems for their support. Especially when the co-leader of the Greens has come out against trans kids (tbf fairly last minute, so many people might not be aware of this). It feels like trans activists are just going with the greens cos they're the more left wing party and therefore they get more clout in the community if they support them. Whereas if they promote the lib dems people will go 'ew' and call them 'tory-lite'.

It's honestly disappointing to see. They're overlooking a party we can trust for a party which is more socially acceptable within queer circles. If they wanna vote Green to be left wing then that's absolutely fine, but telling other trans people they're the only party we can rely on is dishonest and disrespectful towards our lib dem allies. I nearly voted Green btw, so I'm not coming at this from a strict 'you should only vote lib dem' perspective.