Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Title: What will happen to trans rights if Dems take the White House? The UK could hold the answer.
Link To:
Article (https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/07/what-will-happen-to-trans-rights-if-dems-take-the-white-house-the-uk-could-hold-the-answer/)
Author: Faefyx Collington
Date: July 2, 2026, 12:00 pm EDT
Trigger Warning: This article discusses suicide.

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Brief summary of the article
The article compares the future of transgender rights under a possible future Democratic administration in the United States with political developments in the United Kingdom. It discusses Keir Starmer's record on trans rights, Andy Burnham's possible leadership, and whether politicians with pro-LGBTQ+ histories will defend trans rights once in power.

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Main Points of the Article
"We may soon get an answer in a strange place: an upcoming leadership contest in the United Kingdom that has many parallels with our own future elections."

"Under two years of Starmer's leadership, trans rights took a beating."

"While not perfect, Burnham has a pretty decent track record on LGBTQ+ rights that goes back a long way."

"Burnham has a chance to turn things around for trans rights."

"Whether Burnham is willing to risk his favorability with more right-wing voters who have bought into anti-trans misinformation can tell us a lot about what political advisors might be saying and how a Democratic president might function in the wake of Trump's scorched-earth approach to trans rights."

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Best Wishes Always
Sarah B
Global Moderator

Burnham is one minister. The numbers in the labour party don't offer much hope for trans rights here.

We shall see.  A lot can happen between now and the 2028 election.  Heck, it's not a given that the 2026 mid-term election will happen.  The extremist organizations driving the US to fascism (Heritage, ADF, etc.) will do whatever they can to preserve their hold on power.  As bad as things are in the UK, it's hard for me to see parallels with the current US situation.

Quote from: Devlyn on Yesterday at 04:29:41 PMBurnham is one minister. The numbers in the labour party don't offer much hope for trans rights here.

I strongly disagree with this. There is a groundswell of disquiet among the Labour back benches about trans issues. A lot of the more quiet ones are simply either keeping their heads down waiting to see which way the party goes or have been brown nosing Starmer in the hopes of getting a junior minister role. Burnham is unlikely to give jobs to many of the current front bench, blairite, more right leaning politicians. We could see a complete re-balancing of the political stance from Labour.

I would imagine that trans issues will not be forefront in the list of things Burnham has to sort out but they will be on his list. For me Burnham is the right choice and should have been the choice before Corbyn took charge. We could have avoided all of this turmoil in the first place.

On June 10 we had a post about the EHRC vote. There were 106 votes in favor of trans rights (out of 650). Approximately 40 Labour votes, and approximately 60 Lib Dems.

I'd love to be wrong about the chances we have, I really would. But the reality doesn't look good.

https://www.susans.org/index.php?msg=2342864

I know our conservative and extreme right politicians are watching the US and Britain political scenes and are putting together ideas to implement here.

Top of the list is immigration and then transgender issues.

Unfortunately in the U.S. I strongly believe that our rights will be among the first sacrifices to the alter of bipartisanship.