Liz Truss launches fresh attack on trans rights in speech for anti-LGBTQ+ US group
Liz Truss delivered a speech to the anti-LGBTQ+ Heritage Foundation. (Heritage Foundation)
Liz Truss attacked trans rights and rallied against “woke culture” in her latest bid for relevance.
The former prime minister, who was forced to resign after her financial policy tanked the UK’s economy, delivered the 2023 Margaret Thatcher Freedom Lecture to The Heritage Foundation on Wednesday (12 April).
The influential right-wing think tank, which lobbies against LGBTQ+ rights and rejects climate science, invited Truss to speak on the themes of free markets and free speech.
Claiming that “freedom is being undermined”, Liz Truss criticised “identity politics, which is basically the idea that what group you are in is more important than the person you are”.
She suggested that critical race theory, a framework that says racism is part of the fabric of the US, “says it’s more important how you appear on the surface than what your talents and attributes are”.
Truss continued: “Or, the whole debate about ‘what is a woman?’ that completely subverts basic principles of science and biology. These are all core beliefs that we have seen being undermined, and I’m afraid there hasn’t been sufficient fight back.”
Reflecting on her time as the UK’s minister for women and equalities, Truss noted that she “stopped gender self-ID… without a medical certificate”.
In the role, Truss cancelled plans to reform the Gender Recognition Act which would have allowed trans people to obtain legal recognition without a diagnosis of gender dysphoria.
“We don’t see enough people prepared to take the orthodoxy on,” she continued.
“I find it ironic that there’s so much criticism within our own societies and yet so many people also trying to migrate to our countries” she added, before comparing the US’s “problems with the Mexican border” with the UK’s “problems in the English Channel with small boats.”
“We need to be as organised and as fearless as our opponents,” Truss continued.
“We need to challenge those who seek to cancel people. We need to challenge those who seek to subvert the law of biology.”
Elsewhere in her speech, Truss said “woke culture” is to blame for high taxes.
The Conservative MP stood down as prime minister in October after just 49 days in office. She is the shortest-serving leader in UK history, however the country continues to feel the impact of her disastrous “mini budget”, which sent the pound plummeting.
After a period of silence, Liz Truss is now attempting to revive her career, doggedly championing her vision of a low-tax economy.
She has been linked to the anti-LGBTQ+ Heritage Foundation since at least 2019, when she said it was at the “forefront of Republican thinking”.
