Sam Smith speaks out for trans people as UK government increases attacks

As criticism of recent anti-LGBTQ+ comments made by top members of the U.K. government grows, Sam Smith posted a message of support for the country’s trans and nonbinary community.

“To all trans/non-binary and gender non-conforming people in the UK right now…” the singer wrote in a post to their Instagram stories on Wednesday, “You are not alone. Your humanity and your life MATTERS. Sending every one of you so much love.”

Related:

U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak caught on video mocking trans women

Sunak joked about trans women’s genitals as fellow lawmakers laughed along.

Smith’s message came as critics blasted Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for blatantly anti-trans comments he made during a speech at the U.K.’s Conservative Party Conference Wednesday.

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“Patients should know when hospitals are talking about men or women, and we shouldn’t get bullied into believing that people can be any sex they want to be. They can’t. A man is a man, and a woman is a woman, that’s just common sense,” Sunak said to applause.

Following Sunak’s speech, broadcaster India Willoughby, who is trans, posted a video on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, blasting the prime minister’s comments. “What I just heard from Rishi Sunak is absolutely outrageous,” Willoughby said, adding that the prime minister’s comments risked putting trans people in danger and could incite threats to their lives.

“We now have a British government and a prime minister that has said that it doesn’t recognize trans people,” she said. “If you don’t acknowledge a group of people exist, then obviously that group of people don’t have rights, they don’t have entitlements, they’re not worthy of respect or any form of legal recognition or acknowledgment. That’s what the conservative party want for trans people.”

Sunak’s anti-trans comments came a day after U.K. Health Secretary Steve Barclay announced a plan to ban transgender patients from single-sex wards at National Health Service hospitals.

Speaking to Sky News on Tuesday, U.K. Home Secretary Suella Braverman agreed with Barclay’s proposal. “Trans women have no place in women’s wards or, indeed, any safe space relating to biological women,” Braverman said, nodding to the anti-trans misconception that trans women pose a threat to cisgender women and girls. “The health secretary’s absolutely right to clarify and make it clear that biological men should not have treatment in the same wards and in the same safe spaces as biological women. This is about protecting women’s dignity, safety, and privacy and that’s why I’m incredibly supportive and welcome the announcement.”

Braverman also recently sparked outrage when she suggested that fearing persecution in their home countries due to being a woman or LGBTQ+ should not qualify refugees for asylum. Her comments drew a rebuke from the United Nations and sparked protests in London over the weekend.

On Tuesday, a coalition of more than 200 human rights organizations led by U.K. LGBTQ+ nonprofit Stonewall sent a letter demanding that the government commit to protecting women and LGBTQ+ asylum seekers.