UK Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab has weighed in on the long-standing debate regarding trans rights, asserting that it is "obvious" that "a woman can't be born with a penis", The Sun reported.
His remarks came amid a new report by the Policy Exchange think-tank titled ‘Transgenderism and Policy Capture in the Criminal Justice System’. The report claimed that law enforcement’s adoption of gender identity self-declaration instead of using biological sex factors puts women at risk. According to Raab, however, the measure has not caused any transgender sexual assaults in female prisons since 2019.
“I think we’ve got the right approach," he said.
The think-tank has blasted the British Ministry of Justice for the decision to adopt self-declaration for gender identity, arguing that it undermines women’s rights and creates problems for both female suspects and victims.
"Practices which treat biological males as women are causing harm to victims of crime, staff in the criminal justice institutions, female prisoners, and perhaps to trans-identifying offenders," the report said.
Many UK politicians have already weighed in on the trans row, including Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Labour leader Keir Starmer. The prime minister stated that he believes trans women should not be competing with biological females in sports, and argued that biological factors are "overwhelmingly important" in determining gender.
For his part, Starmer has been reported to England's Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) after saying that current British law implies transgender females can already be considered women.