OPEN LETTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER FROM LGBTQ+ YOUTH GROUPS

To:

The Rt Hon Andy Burnham MP

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

10 Downing Street

London

SW1A 2AA

Date: 22 July 2026

Subject: Joint Open Letter Regarding Government Policies Affecting Trans and Non-Binary Children and Young People

Dear Prime Minister

We are youth work organisations who every day support LGBTQ+ children and young people across the UK to feel safe, build community and friendships, have fun and feel proud of who they are. We believe your government is failing trans and non-binary children and young people, and we are writing to ask you to stop, reflect, and set a new direction on this area of policy.

Since coming into power, this Labour government has:

  • Completely shut down access to gender affirming healthcare for children and young people.

  • Encouraged professionals to view parents and carers who support their trans children as a safeguarding risk, damaging important relationships for young people who often lack other supportive and trusted adults in their lives.

  • Introduced new guidance on Relationships and Sex Education in England and Wales that makes it far harder for schools to teach trans inclusive RSE with confidence or to provide effective support and information for pupils who are trans, non-binary or questioning their gender.

  • Approved a new Code of Practice to the Equality Act that will segregate trans children and young people in everyday settings and community sports, as well as excluding them from the specialist services they may desperately need.  We are also concerned that this Code of Practice will have a negative impact on trans young people’s employability, at a time where levels of unemployment for young people are nominally a key concern of the government.

  • Introduced safeguarding guidance for schools and colleges in England that will impose strict segregation of trans children from gendered toilets, changing rooms and PE; routinely ‘out’ trans, non-binary and gender questioning children to their families and peers;and make it far harder for schools to support trans children to  socially transition. This will have a direct negative impact on young people’s engagement with education and will damage their attendance and future prospects.

  • Announced plans to introduce a social media ban that risks increasing isolation and exploitation among LGBTQ+ young people

Trans and non-binary children and young people already face huge barriers in childhood – transphobia is a significant problem in the UK, and transphobic bullying in our schools is so common that 1 in 10 trans children are bullied every day. Your government, instead of protecting this small group of vulnerable children and young people, is making their lives far harder – you are building a world where there are almost no spaces left that can be relied on to be safe and welcoming.

All of the organisations who have signed this letter work directly with trans and non-binary children and young people. We all support trans young people who struggle with their mental health, including self-harm and suicidal ideation. We all support trans young people who find it hard to stay in school, including many who have stopped attending altogether. We all support trans young people who have been kicked out of their homes. We all support trans young people who do not have a single friend.

We know firsthand how hard it is to be a trans child in the UK. We are begging you to stop making it harder.

Please commit to pausing implementation of these policies that are directly harming trans children and young people. Please instruct your ministerial colleagues to engage positively with organisations like ours, so that government policy making can draw on the expertise of organisations that work alongside these children and their families every day. Please listen to trans and non-binary children themselves so you can understand the impact that your actions are already having on them, and make changes that will support them to thrive.

Trans and non-binary children and young people deserve safe and happy childhoods. They deserve a government with political courage that does the right thing, even when it feels hard. 

They deserve to feel hope in their hearts. 

Please take the time to meet with LGBTQ+ youth organisations, and ask your colleagues leading in Education, Health and Equalities to do the same.  The children and young people we serve need policy that supports them to thrive, not policy that harms them and increases their vulnerability.