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‘I lost my candidacy because I’m trans’: English Green Party member Kathryn Bristow
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Kathryn Bristow was named on 8 March as a Green Party candidate for the UK’s 2021 local government elections – the first openly trans woman to be put forward by a political party in Bristol City. But less than two weeks later the party formally suspended her and selected another candidate, who was not trans, to run in her place.

Now, in an exclusive interview with openDemocracy, Bristow talks publicly for the first time about what happened – and why she’s suing her party over gender-based discrimination. “It’s because I’m trans,” she says, about why she lost her nomination. “It’s clear that I’ve been deemed a risk to the party’s reputation for being transgender.”

“I put female as my sex on the census, and said [that I would do] so publicly,” Bristow explained. A complaint to the Green Party regional council, submitted by Hazel Pegg, then the party’s internal communications coordinator, argued that she was “breaking the law” and “bringing the party into disrepute” with these actions. The Census Act 1920 requires everyone in England to answer questions in the census accurately, though a 2019 amendment makes questions on sex and gender voluntary.

On Monday 17 May, the international day against homophobia, transphobia and biphobia, Bristow filed a court case at Bristol County Court, suing the Green Party for discrimination based on gender and requesting damages for injury to her feelings. She said there are no scheduled court dates right now, and that she is currently in talks with the Green Party on how to proceed.

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‘An immediate and ongoing danger’

“Kathryn is an immediate and ongoing danger to the reputation of the Green Party,” wrote Hazel Pegg in the 13 March complaint – seen by openDemocracy – which triggered the process that led to Bristow’s suspension.

On 19 March, Bristow received an email from the party’s complaints manager – also seen by openDemocracy – informing her of “a temporary no-fault suspension” as a result of this complaint. This suspension was rescinded at the next council meeting in June, but by then she’d lost her chance to stand in the local elections (6 May).

Pegg’s complaint cited tweets in which Bristow announced her intention to mark her sex as female on the 2021 census. She said “Kathryn’s public utterances have clearly brought the Party into disrepute and have moved from Twitter to the national press” – citing articles about Bristow in the Daily Mail and Spectator (both right-wing publications) and “a very lengthy mention in Graham Linehan’s blog”. Linehan is a well-known television writer and vocal opponent of what he calls “trans ideology”.

jane fae, chair of the UK charity Trans Media Watch, told openDemocracy that the Daily Mail and Spectator routinely publish “significantly skewed” articles about trans people.

“We should take opposition from [these] publications as a sign that we are moving in the right direction, rather than as a warning sign,” said a spokesperson for the LGBTIQA+ Greens (a party subgroup that represents the priorities of LGBTIQ members). They called Bristow “a stalwart campaigner for the party, and for trans people everywhere.”
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[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/trans-uk-green-party-kathryn-bristow/
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