Liz Truss expresses regret at LGBTQ ally label after GB News host says term is ‘activist language’
Former UK Prime Minister Liz Truss has claimed that she shouldn’t have previously described herself as an LGBTQ+ ally.
Speaking in an interview with GB News on Tuesday (23 April), Truss explained that she had described herself as an LGBTQ+ ally in 2021, however she had only done so in order to vocally oppose gender self-ID and keep LGBTQ+ supporters “on side”.
The then-minister for women and equalities opposed gender self-ID, which would have allowed trans people to legally change their gender without medical intervention.
The government’s LGBT Advisory Panel was disbanded in 2021 after Liz Truss opposed self-ID, and legislation promises have also since been dropped by Labour.
When asked by GB News host Steven Edginton during the interview why she used the “activists’ language” by calling herself an “LGBT ally” at the Tory conference in 2021, Truss replied that she “probably shouldn’t have done”.
“I was the minister who stopped gender self-ID,” she continued.
“We were putting forward a policy which was saying that without any checks, a man could declare themselves a woman, and vice versa. I stopped that policy, but what I was trying to do was do it in a way that didn’t offend the broader LGBT community.”
She added: “Should I have been less worried about offending them? Maybe.
“What I was trying to do was keep all of the conservative parliamentary party on side… you have to make compromises about what you say and what you do in order to get policies through.”
Liz Truss has been known for airing anti-LGBTQ+ talking points since she was succeeded by Rishi Sunak as Prime Minister in October 2022. In recent months, she has supported banning trans women from women’s spaces, proposed a law banning changing gender for under-18s, and branded supporters of LGBTQ+ people “left-wing extremists”.
Following Truss’ departure as PM, leading LGBTQ+ activists noted that she would be remembered for her “silence and inaction” on LGBTQ+ rights.
“Liz Truss will be remembered for her many failures, indeed for many in the LGBT+ community she will be known for her silence and inaction on critical matters that have impacted our safety and allowed perpetrators of hate to act with impunity,” LGBTQ+ activist Jayne Ozanne told PinkNews at the time.
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