THE UK felt like a safer place to be transgender in the 1990s than it does now, the country’s first trans judge has said.
Dr Victoria McCloud told The Independent that she believes there is a backslide in attitudes towards trans people and that this could impact on young trans people who are considering coming out.
Last week, it emerged that McCloud had instructed lawyers to take a case against the UK Government to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over the Supreme Court’s ruling on biological sex.
The April judgment ruled that under the Equality Act 2010 women are defined by biological sex, excluding transgender women with a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC).
Following the ruling, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), published interim guidance that essentially banned transgender people from using single-sex facilities of their acquired gender.
Speaking to The Independent, McCloud said she no longer sees the UK as a “safe place”. “When I came out, things were bizarrely rather better,” she said.
“That was the Nineties – we didn’t really have any rights, but there was less of a climate of fear.”
McCloud, who has retired as a judge, added: “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.”
The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention and Human Security has condemned “recent judicial and governmental developments” in the UK.
In June, they criticised an “attempt to harm transgender and intersex people by stripping them of privacy and segregating them as ‘others.’”
The Institute said this was part of a “broader process of erasure”, citing both government actions and “media narrative” fueling “hostility” against transgender and intersex people.
McCloud left the UK in 2024 and now lives in Ireland. She says she is now “very cautious” when she returns to London.
“When I come over, I don’t see it as a safe place to go,” she said.
“Lovely cis[gender] friends are great at helping me to stay out of risky situations where I might be confronted or even potentially assaulted, because, of course, my face is quite well known.
“I’m particularly at risk of becoming a target of some of the more extreme people from the gender critical ideological movement. And that’s a worry. But I think it’s important that I do carry on, and I do have to come back for things like media interviews and so on occasionally.”
McCloud has set up the Trans Exile Network to help other transgender people who want to leave the country.
