Yesterday afternoon, Lib Dem Conference passed a motion calling for the EHRC’s Code of Practice to be withdrawn and for work to be done on a cross party basis to work out what changes in the law were necessary to ensure that everyone, women, trans people, everyone can go about their lives in dignity and safety. It is not beyond the wit of people to find a way of doing that, and it is something that can be relatively easy given the political will.

The motion was passed overwhelmingly, as these things usually are. In fact, it looked to me as if the number voting against was even smaller than usual.

There has been much criticism on social media and the actual right wing media by members of the gender critical group within the party. They’re accusing Ed Davey of being in the thrall of militant “trans activists” in the party.

Now, and I say this with love, the idea that Ed Davey takes a blind bit of notice of anything ordinary party members say to him, is a bit of a stretch. He makes his own mind up about things and, like every leader in the existence of this party and most others, takes as much power as he can get his hands on. This is just what leaders do. But the idea that he is in thrall to any of us masses is just ridiculous.

Anyway, what do these “trans activists” who apparently make up around 90% of those in the hall and a probably similar proportion of the online vote look like?

Well, I guess I must be one.

So, what am I like?

Well, I’ve been an ardent feminist for over 40 years. I have spent most of that time being a total pain in the arse on this subject within the party. Over the years, I’ve fought for better workplace environments for women, for safer streets, against domestic abuse and other forms of violence against women and girls, for childcare, against gender stereotyping, for just about every form of affirmative action to get more women selected and elected and I’ve called out misogyny and sexism wherever I have found it. This, by the way, is far from an exhaustive list.

My feminism was born when I went to university and started to understand the structural inequalities facing women in a society that was run by men and working for men. At around the same time, I saw the hostility and discrimination faced by my gay friends. The media was full of homophobic and lesbophobic bile – depicting gay men in awful ways and making out that lesbians were not fit to raise their children.  Today, those ideas are rightly seen as disgraceful, but the focus has now shifted to trans people.

Back then it did not take me long to realise that working together, fighting side by side for all our rights, was much more effective than doing so separately. That’s an approach echoed by Scotland’s foremost feminist organisation, Engender whose comment in the wake of the Supreme Court Judgement last year was that any roll back of rights was a dangerous thing.

In recent years, I helped put together our policy on ending men’s violence against women and girls in 2021, a comprehensive piece of work put together by all the party’s diversity organisations, LDCRE, Lib Dem Women, the Lib Dem Disability Association, Plus. On behalf of the Federal Board, I proposed the diversity measures that brought in all women shortlists for the first time. If you want, you can watch my speech here.

Most of the other prominent voices in favour of trans rights in the party have a similar background and similar view. We might not agree on the minute detail of every policy, we’re Lib Dems after all and always capable of finding twice as many views as there are people in the room, but I’d trust any of them to show up when any of us are under threat.

I will not take any lessons on feminism from any organisation which dehumanises, misgenders and creates a false narrative around any marginalised group of people. In fact, I’ve noticed that many of the most unpleasantly noisy men in these organisations have been some of the greatest barriers to anything I’ve wanted to achieve on women’s rights over decades.

Don’t let anyone tell you that anyone in favour of trans rights sees women as anything other than fully equal members of society.

While I have breath in my body, I will be fighting for the rights of all groups of people under attack, whether they be women, people of colour, Muslims, Jews, old people, disabled people, LGBT people. None of these are mutually exclusive and everyone deserves to live their lives in peace.

And I’ll have the 90% who supported yesterday’s motion right there with me.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social