Four Green Party councillors, including three from Hackney Council's cabinet, attended a pro-transgender rights rally where an effigy of Andy Burnham was stabbed with darts. The protest took place on July 9, the same day former Conservative minister Ann Widdecombe was found murdered in her home in Devon.
News of Ms. Widdecombe's death was not publicly announced until the following day. Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy drew attention to the timing, stating, "It is a shared responsibility of all of us in our democracy to call out and condemn violence and threats against politicians. I hope the Green Party leadership takes appropriate action this time."
The rally was held outside Hackney Town Hall in East London and was organized to protest the Equality and Human Rights Commission's (EHRC) guidance on single-sex spaces. This guidance suggests that transgender individuals should use facilities aligned with their birth sex. Andy Burnham, who is set to become prime minister on Monday according to the provided notes, has stated that the time has come to implement guidance based on a Supreme Court ruling on biological sex.
Video footage of the protest showed individuals stabbing an effigy of the Makerfield MP with darts. While there is no indication that any of the attending councillors participated in the effigy stabbing, their presence at the demonstration has drawn criticism.
Heather Binning of the Women's Rights Network expressed shock that the councillors neither intervened nor condemned the act. "This raises serious questions about whether politicians who oppose women's rights to single-sex services and spaces in the name of so-called 'trans rights' can be trusted to uphold standards of open and healthy debate which underpin our democracy," Binning said. "Frankly it calls into question their basic decency - and in the context of recent events is all the more disturbing."
The four councillors who attended the event were identified as Florence Schechter, a Green cabinet member and founder of the Vagina Museum; cabinet members Laura-Louise Fairley and Alastair Binnie-Lubbock; and Councillor Jas Crowe.
A spokesperson for the Hackney Green Group stated that the councillors attended to show solidarity with the transgender community and hold a moment of silence for transgender individuals who have died due to prejudice and violence. The spokesperson added that the event was held in the context of the revised EHRC guidance, which they believe segregates transgender people and poses risks. "Any protest involves various organisations and individuals. There is no collective responsibility for each attendee to account for the actions of other attendees," the spokesperson told The Times.
The protest was one of at least 13 demonstrations held across the UK against the EHRC's trans guidance. The EHRC's code of practice for services, public functions, and associations, updated in May for the first time since 2011, covers protected characteristics including sex and gender reassignment. The guidance aims to help organizations follow equality law, particularly concerning single-sex services like restrooms and changing rooms. Its confirmation that single-sex services should be based on biological sex rather than gender identity has been welcomed by some women's rights campaigners but criticized by certain transgender rights groups as "exclusionary."
Zack Polanski, whose party won power in Hackney in May's local elections, has been approached for comment.