Keir Starmer Reported to Equalities Watchdog Over 'Trans Women Are Women' Remarks: UK Media

Transgender women-related comments by Keir Starmer have provoked a public uproar, with Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling asserting that the UK Labour Party "can no longer be counted on to defend women's rights".

UK Labour Party leader Keir Starmer has been reported to England's Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) over his recent remarks that current British law stipulates that transgender females can already be considered women, according to the Daily Mail.

The newspaper cited an unnamed EHRC source as saying that members of the public have asked the equalities watchdog to get involved and that some of them complained that Starmer is misrepresenting the law.

A former Labour minister who spoke on condition of anonymity told the Daily Mail that "there's not a single person in the country who used to vote Labour, but backed [Prime Minister] Boris [Johnson], whom Starmer will win back by appealing to trendy teenagers and woke students with this drivel".

"He needs to get out of London and listen to people in places such as Sedgefield, Walsall, and Bassetlaw who will have no problem telling him in plain English what a woman is", the minister added.

They referred to comments that Starmer made in an interview with The Times earlier this month, when he was asked to define what a woman is.

"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", Starmer argued, adding, "it has been the law through the combined effects of the 2004 [Gender Recognition] Act and the 2010 [Equality] Act. So that's my view. It also happens to be the law in the United Kingdom".

The Labour leader called for a "considered, respectful, tolerant debate" on the issue, also stressing that both the Gender Recognition Act and Equality Act "need to be reformed".

Among those who criticised the Labour leader's comments was Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, who accused Starmer of misrepresenting the legislation.

She tweeted that "the Labour Party can no longer be counted on to defend women's rights" and women are "scared, outraged, and angry at the deaf ear turned to their well-founded concerns".

"I don't think our politicians have the slightest idea how much anger is building among women from all walks of life at the attempts to threaten and intimidate them out of speaking publicly about their own rights, their own bodies, and their own lives", Rowling stated.

The author, who has long been under fire for her own stance on trans rights, also asserted that the legislation-related reform contributes to an "attack" on gay people, "especially lesbians", who are targeted for "not wishing to be redefined and for refusing to use ideological language they find offensive".

The 2010 Equality Act contains a provision that envisages "changing the definition of gender reassignment, by removing the requirement for medical supervision". The legislation is aimed at providing legal protection "from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society". The Gender Recognition Act, which came into force in 2005, allows people who have gender dysphoria to change their legal gender.

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