‘Being inclusive is not only the right thing … it is a strategic necessity’

Dr Julia Ehrt, executive director of ILGA World, praises UNISON and tells conference: “It is time for LGBTI movement to learn – trans exclusion weakens your own cause”

Dr Julia Ehrt, the executive director of ILGA (International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association) World addressing UNISON LGBT+ conference 2022

“It is safe to state that trade unions – including and in particular UNISON – have had a huge impact on global LGBTI organising,” delegates to UNISON’s annual LGBT+ conference in Edinburgh heard this afternoon.

Addressing conference, Dr Julia Ehrt, the executive director of ILGA (International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association) World, said that she was especially proud that her first keynote speech was to an organisation that had been so important in the fight for rights.

Yet this came “despite the fact that I have been doing this work for two decades”.

So why had such a major speech taken so long? This formed the cornerstone of her speech, as Dr Ehrt sought to explore the reasons for that.

It was not, she explained, about herself,“but a story of trans representation in queer movements”.

ILGA is the largest international, membership-based LGBT+ organisation in the world, with more than 1,800 member organisations in 169 different countries.

But Dr Ehrt asked delegateswhether there were other trans and non-binary people in the hall and whether there were other trans and non-binary people holding workshops and speaking at the event.

“Those were very odd questions to ask – weren’t they?” she said.But it revealed how much had changed.

“My first ILGA Europe conference was the one in Vienna in 2008: there was one workshop on ‘trans issues’ – and if I remember correctly, it was the only workshop in the whole four-day conference about trans [issues].

Since then, though, “things have drastically improved when it comes to trans organising”.

What was needed to achieve this was to first establish the issue as a human rights one.

“What gay and lesbian organisations had understood quiet early on was that we are fighting the same fight – today we would say issues pertaining to sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristicsare connected – we are in essence fighting the same fight.”

Time had been crucial, said Dr Ehrt. Time to emancipate trans people, time to build them and time to heal, after the experience of many trans activists within mainstream gay and lesbian organisations was “quite harsh and painful”.

Clarifying, she told delegates: “It is time for LGBTI movement to learn – trans exclusion weakens your own cause.

“If we fail to embrace the diversity of the movement we seek to serve – it makes us and our legitimate case vulnerable,” said Dr Ehrt.

“Being inclusive is not only the right thing to do from an ethical and moral point of view – it is a strategic necessity: because if we do not do it ourselves – if we fail to walk the talk – this weakens our own cause. It makes us and our legitimate case vulnerable.

“And I think we shall never forget that.”