In order to be inclusive of as many sexual orientations and gender identities as possible, Mr Steerpike uses the acronym LGBTQIA2S. Readers won’t need to be reminded that this stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning, Intersex, Asexual and Two spirit. During a debate in the Commons this afternoon, Tory MP Alicia Kearns preferred the somewhat punchier four-letter ‘LGBT’. Her fellow MP, the Alba party’s Westminster leader, Neale Hanvey, then ditched the letter ‘T’. Kearns’ response was furious:
‘He is absolutely right but there was one digit missing from his LGBT. We do not divide the LGBT community in this place.’
Kearns then went on to accuse Hanvey of ‘suggesting that trans people do not exist’:
‘I will not stand for that. When you say LGBT (and) you remove the ‘T’, you suggest that they are lesser. When you choose to eradicate, that is wrong.’
🚨 NEW: Tory MP Alicia Kearns criticises an Alba MP for removing the “T” in LGBT
— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) March 1, 2024
“You’re suggesting that trans people do not exist… that they are lesser than other LGB people. I will not stand for it” pic.twitter.com/BcSE9Q3LmC
Other MPs called on Kearns to sit down so that they could have their say but she initially refused:
‘No, I am not going to give way on this point because I will not hear more erasure of the transgender community.’
Kearns did eventually allow someone else to speak: fellow Tory Danny Kruger – who rebuked her:
‘She talks about ‘erasure’. The way she just dismissed suggestions from (Hanvey), suggesting that his view is completely invalid…please can we have a debate with more civility than this?’
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