It is time to press for full gender and sexual equality in our law and administration

The case of Tara Hudson, a transgender woman who has been sent to one of the most violent all male prisons in the country for an admitted assault, highlights once again the need for British law and administration relating to gender dysphoria to be overhauled.

As a cysgender gay man I cannot begin to imagine what it must be like to live with a condition where you experience discomfort or distress because there is a mismatch between your biological sex and gender identity, but I don't have to live with medical condition in order to understand the impact it must have on someone's life. Nor do I think that a medical condition should have to be common for the law and administration in our country to be adjusted to take account of it.

Although primitive medical science used to consider gender dysphoria to be a mental health issue, modern medicine recognises that it may actually be the result of the development of a baby while it is in the womb (possibly as a result of genetic or hormonal factors) which causes the brain to develop a gender identity that is different to the baby's sexual organs. Surely this should mean that, rather than mental health professionals being the first port of call when someone seeks gender reassignment, their services should only be called upon in the event that mental health issues arise for a patient.

The fact that gender dysphoria is now known to be a medical condition also means that our laws need to be adjusted to reflect this, not only for trans people but for all people living with this medical condition. In addition to reviewing our prison laws we need to address the question of spousal veto, gender recognition (including the option of gender X for those people who identify as neither male nor female) and the whole complex administration and process of the state recognising that not everyone is cysgender.

Liberal Democrats have been pioneers in the political movement that has steered British society towards equal recognition in law and administration for our LGBT+ communities, and Tim Farron has quite rightly committed to raising the case of Tara Hudson in Parliament.

Our society has come a long way since Roy Jenkins secured the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1967, but we still have a long way to go before everyone is seen as equal in the eyes of the law, let alone in our wider society as a whole. It is time for our party to push for measures that will secure full equality in British law and administration regardless of gender or biological sex. Whether that is equal pay for women, equal representation for all sexes and genders in parliament and local government and boardrooms, ending the blood ban and the spousal veto, or simply recognising Gender X.

* Chair of Manchester Gorton Liberal Democrats, a member of the NW Regional Executive and the English Council and a former City Councillor of 19 years

Read more by Iain Donaldson or more about equality, gender or gender dysphoria.