What does the Green Party manifesto say on LGBTQ+ issues?
The Green Party manifesto has made several pledges towards LGBTQ+ people. (Getty)
The Green Party’s 2024 election manifesto is finally here and with it, several pledges of interest to the LGBTQ+ community.
The left-wing environmental party’s manifesto was published on Wednesday (12 June) following the arrival of manifestos from the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives earlier in the week.
In its newly updated manifesto, the Greens pledge to increase taxes for higher earners, safeguard the NHS, introduce rent controls, and much more.
“We reject the pessimism of the other parties who don’t believe we can safeguard our publicly funded health system, [who think] that we can’t provide warm and secure homes for everyone, that tackling the climate crisis is too challenging for us,” the party’s co-leader, Adrian Ramsay, said to The Guardian.
“This manifesto isn’t more of the same, it’s a look at what things could be like – and soon, if we’re willing to invest at the rate necessary and to be bold and ambitious.”
The manifesto also makes several promises directed towards the LGBTQ+ community, including a pledge to “meet the needs” of the community and other marginalised groups.
What does the Green Party manifesto say on equality and LGBTQ+ issues?
The Green Party manifesto comes in three separate formats – an easy read version, a short version, and a long version.
In a joint foreword, party co-leaders Adrian Ramsay and Carla Denyer – an out bisexual woman – write that voters in the UK “are feeling insecure” and are “deeply worried about the future.”
“We live in one of the richest countries on the planet,” they write. “Yet nurses are using food banks, our children’s schools are crumbling, a roof over our heads is all too often unaffordable, and hospital and dentist appointments are like gold dust.
“Our promise to you is that all this can change. We can create a greener, fairer country together.”
Its first major pledge comes under its section on mental health and neurodiversity, in which it promises to provide a “readily available tailored provision” for the LGBTQ+ community, children and adolescents, older people, and communities of colour.
It also pledges to retain a “full, evidence-based and age-appropriate” sex education curriculum which will include discussion of LGBTQ+ people and trans people.
The Green Party vows to implement self-ID
Under its section on defending human rights, the Green Party writes that it unequivocally supports self-ID – the act of changing a gender marker without the need for surgeries or a medical diagnosis.
Currently in the UK, trans people are forced to undergo a medical diagnosis for gender dysphoria before they are allowed to change their gender on legal documents, while non-binary people are not recognised at all.
The Green Party promises in its manifesto that it would formally recognise non-binary and intersex people on legal documents through an X gender marker.
The spousal veto, which forces trans people to seek permission from their spouse to change their legal gender, would also be scrapped under the Green Party’s leadership.
The NHS, HIV prevention, and everything else
The Green Party’s main pledge for healthcare is to minimise NHS waiting lists through an £8 billion reform paid for through increased taxes for higher earners.
The aim will be to reduce the administrative burden on GPs to give them more time for face to face appointments with patients and allowing hospital referrals more easily.
As well as this, it has also pledged to end new cases of HIV by 2030 by using a “joined-up approach” that includes easy access to HIV prevention pills online, in pharmacies, and from GPs.
“We will renew successful opt-out HIV testing programmes in A&Es in all areas with a high prevalence of HIV,” it continues.
Various other smaller pledges the Green Party makes that could affect LGBTQ+ people include various human rights pledges, such as advocating for campaigns to minimise hate crimes, particularly against women and girls.
It also promises to implement equal employment rights for all workers alongside its move to a four-day working week and a move to minimise pay gaps.
“The Green Party has been going from strength to strength,” it finishes by writing. “When we tell the truth, aim high and offer hope, voters respond.
“Now it’s over to you. You can choose a fairer future for us all. Vote for real hope and change. Vote Green.”
