03/09/2024
LGBTQIA Newswire Pink News reports that Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has speculated that transgender people under the care of the NHS could be accommodated in "side rooms" off of single sex wards. He made the remarks on LBC, a talk radio network in the UK. Despite the fact that a trans activist group discovered that not a single complaint had ever been made about accommodating transgender people on the ward of their presenting gender, the issue of single sex wards has been weaponised by various politicians from both of the major parties. Pink News notes that implementing such a policy would only increase the deficit of the NHS, as putting people up in single occupancy rooms is more expensive than hosting them in wards. Side rooms are often preserved for individuals who need to be isolated either because of an infection or susceptibility to infection, possibly because of a compromised immune system or after major surgery.