Helen Belcher is a British Liberal Democrat politician and LGBT+ campaigner. She co-founded leading UK trans organization Trans Media Watch in 2010.

When I transitioned in 2004, and before that while I was working out whether transition would be right for me, use of women’s loos and women’s changing rooms was essential. Access to public toilets is vital for basic everyday tasks like shopping or meeting friends.

“If you can’t use public loos, you can’t travel or go shopping anywhere. It drives trans people underground.”

Access to changing rooms is vital when you’re fitting yourself out with a new wardrobe. And changing gender usually requires a whole new wardrobe. Going to the gents wearing a dress or a skirt – well, I won’t even go there, because I didn’t. The whole idea, when you’re feeling fragile and vulnerable, of knowingly walking into a place where you are, at best, going to “get looks”, is just so outlandish that it doesn’t bear consideration. For me, in the early days when I was considering transition, clothes shopping was always with a female friend. They provided good company as well as essential style advice.

Stepping beyond the ‘specialist shops’ and experiencing the whole variety of clothing choice out there was liberating beyond belief. I felt I could, at last, fit in rather than stand out.

The impact will remove trans women from public life

But last week the UK parliamentary equalities committee interviewed the government’s senior minister for equalities, Liz Truss. The select committee’s job is which is to hold her and her team to account.

Truss started with a preamble, during which she made the following dog-whistle:

“… and make sure that wherever people live, wherever LGBT people live, they’re safe to go about their daily business without fear of crime and harassment.