‘We didn’t have any rights but there was less fear’

UK felt safer in the Nineties says Britain’s first trans judge

- MILLIE COOKE POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

Britain felt like a safer place to be trans in the Nineties than it does now, the UK’s first transgender judge has said, raising the alarm over what she sees as a backslide in attitudes towards trans people.

Giving her first interview since lawyers acting on her behalf began the process of taking the government to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over April's bombshell Supreme Court ruling on biological sex, Dr Victoria McCloud expressed concern that the ruling could impact young trans people who are considering coming out.

"When I came out, things were bizarrely rather better. That was the Nineties - we didn't really have any rights, but there was less of a climate of fear," McCloud tells The Independent. The retired judge, who has been heralded as a symbol of the modern judiciary's diversity, said she no longer sees the UK as a "safe place".

"Since the decision was taken in Scotland, we've seen a declaration of genocidal intent made by the Lemkin Institute in relation to the United Kingdom to warn people about what's going on. We've seen concerns from the United Nations and from the Council of Europe", she says.

In June, the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention and Human Security condemned "recent judicial and governmental developments" in Britain, which they said "attempt to harm transgender and intersex people by stripping them of privacy and segregating them as 'others."

"The Lemkin Institute believes these moves are part of a broader process of erasure. It is not only government action but also the media narrative that has fuelled hostility to and debate about the humanity of trans and intersex people while ignoring their voices," the body said.