Green Party leader Zack Polanski says ‘I know what it’s like to be othered’

Zack Polanski opened up about understanding what it is like to feel excluded in society, while speaking at the launch of TransActual’s latest report on the state of trans lives in the UK.

The trans non-profit published its Trans Lives 2025 report on Tuesday (3 March), which revealed the stark impacts of the UK’s anti-trans media on the community.

Nearly all of the 4,008 people surveyed between December 2024 and January 2025 said they had seen or heard politicians express transphobic beliefs, which had a huge impact on their mental health.

The report also found 97 per cent of respondents had experienced some form of transphobia with 84 per cent experiencing it in 2024. The most common sources of transphobia were online harassment (82 per cent), strangers on the street (71 per cent), and from family members (80 per cent).

At a launch event for the report in London, which also included a performance by Trans Voices and a panel, the leader of the Green Party and staunch trans ally gave a speech to attendees about TransActual’s findings and the wider state of transphobia in the UK, whilst setting out that different communities are stronger together.

“I often talk about with the media that I grew up in Section 28, and as a gay man and as a Jewish man I know what it’s like to be othered.

“I’m not claiming for a second that I know what it’s like to be a trans person, and particularly a trans person of colour and many, many oppressions those people face in society.

“But, I think anyone who’s ever felt different, anyone who’s ever felt like they don’t belong or they’ve not felt included – not even not felt included but they actually haven’t been included – because people or one person decided not to include them, can share that struggle, can empathise, can understand.

“And you know what?” he continued. “That’s pretty much everyone in this country.

“I think there are very, very few people who have never had the experience, or have always had the experience of always being there, of always being welcome in the room, of always knowing that this room is for them.

“But that means together, we are so much stronger, and we are so more powerful – so much more powerful than sometimes we can feel.”

Polanski added that when people come together to work cross-party and cross-campaign “nothing can stop us”.

“When they come for one of us, they come for all of us, and nothing is more powerful than our solidarity.”

Polanski was elected leader of the Green Party of England and Wales at the start of the September after defeating Adrian Ramsay and Ellie Chowns by 20,411 votes to 3,705.

The 43-year-old regularly speaks out in support of trans rights, including going toe-to-toe with Piers Morgan and the BBC over transphobic rhetoric.

Under Polanski’s leadership the Greens won the Gorton and Denton by-election, which took place on 26 February following the resignation of Labour MP Andrew Gwynne.

Hannah Spencer received 14,980 votes, beating out Reform’s Matt Goodwin who was also hotly fighting for the seat.