Today, a new Conservative Government has been elected and many service users have been reaching out to us asking what this means for the future of trans and non-binary children and young people.

As with any new Government, we see this as a fresh opportunity to work towards a better world for our service users. 

Reform of the Gender Recognition Act is, of course, a major priority for us over the course of this term. We must ensure the reform process launched by the previous Conservative Party leader, Theresa May in 2018, is honoured and completed under Johnson’s Government in a way that recognises all trans and non-binary people, including children and young people. A large number of us gave them our time and our trust and now it is time to make positive change. 

During the election campaign, Mermaids wrote to each major political party to ask them to remember trans and non-binary young people in their manifestos and we repeat here what we made clear then:

We are ready and welcome an opportunity to discuss GRA reform as well as other issues impacting young trans and non-binary people today including healthcare, education and criminal justice. 

We will be contacting the new Minister for Women and Equalities once they are appointed and we look forward to working with them during the next term to Get Trans Equality Done. 

Our team will carry on working with policy makers to ensure the Gender Recognition Act supports all those who need it. We will work with the NHS to ensure everyone has access to the care they need. We will continue to work in education so that every child and young person is supported, whether they are cisgender, trans, non-binary or gender questioning. Every child deserves this. We won’t stop until we’ve achieved acceptance without exception for all trans and non-binary people.

We are as resolute as ever in our mission to Embrace, Empower and Educate.

For anyone in need of our support, our helpline is open Monday to Friday 9am – 9pm.