Plaid Cymru activists want devolution of equalities law to increase trans rights
Martin Shipton
Plaid Cymru is to debate a controversial motion at its annual conference that would commit it to getting equalities legislation devolved to Wales.
The motion will be considered by party members at the conference in Llandudno on October 3.
Proposed by Plaid Pride, the party’s LGBTQ+ section, the motion seeks powers that could allow the Senedd to change how equalities law applies in Wales.
The motion states: “While the Senedd can legislate on many aspects of daily life, core equalities legislation remains reserved to Westminster. Notable exceptions exist where the Senedd has pushed boundaries within its current powers, but this fragmented approach hinders true progress.
“Now that we have a Plaid Cymru-led Welsh Government, it is time that we address this deficit in our legislative framework. Successive Westminster governments have consistently failed to protect and advance the rights of marginalised groups to the standard Wales demands and LGBTQ+ people living here in Wales deserve.
“Conference calls on the Cabinet Minister for Social Justice [Deputy First Minister Sioned Williams] to establish a working group of appropriately qualified people to determine the way forward so that by the end of the current Senedd term, a clear roadmap for the full devolution of equalities is agreed and initiated.
“Conference notes that:
- Core equalities legislation currently remains reserved to the Westminster Parliament;
- Wales is restricted in its ability to fully protect and advance the rights of all its citizens.
“Conference believes that:
- It is time that we address this deficit in our legislative framework to build a fairer society;
- It is essential that a Plaid Cymru government take the relevant steps to protect human rights and equalities in Wales;
- Devolving equalities would bring profound social benefits and allow Wales to lead on progressive human rights legislation.
“Conference resolves that:
- The Cabinet Minister for Social Justice will establish a working group of appropriately qualified people – including people specifically from marginalised or affected groups and also from minorities.
- This working group will determine the legal and political way forward to secure these powers.
- By the end of this Senedd term, Wales will have a clear, actionable roadmap for the full devolution of equalities legislation.”
Responsibilities
Cathy Larkman, director of the gender-critical group Women’s Rights Network (WRN) Wales, said: “WRN Wales hope that Plaid Cymru realise their responsibilities in government and firmly reject this motion at conference. A failure to do so would be a costly distraction from dealing with the real problems facing Wales.
“Setting up a group to try to identify a ‘roadmap’ to devolving equalities law is a complete waste of taxpayers’ money at a time when Welsh families are struggling with the cost of living. It’s a costly distraction from the pressing needs of the NHS, schools and the economy.
“Plaid Cymru’s own manifesto and their website values show that they are still foolishly committed to gender self-ID and allowing men to access women’s and girls’ spaces and services if they claim to be women too. This motion is nothing more than a Trojan horse to try to make that happen and to damage women’s hard-won rights too.
“The Welsh public deserve better than this sneaky misogynistic claptrap. Poll after poll has shown that they do not support self-ID and they understand and value the need for women and girls to have single-sex spaces and services.
“Plaid Cymru appear to have learnt nothing from Scotland. There, an attempt to push through gender recognition reform ended in a political and legal mess, with eye-watering amounts of public money wasted on the court fight and a Supreme Court ruling that rightly confirmed what women had said all along.
“Rhun ap Iorwerth must show backbone and stand up to the ideologues in his own party if he is to be a serious leader, and put women’s safety, privacy and dignity before conference-floor student politics.
“The First Minister and his Cabinet need to pay attention to legal and public opinion – otherwise they risk ending up in an unwinnable legal battle that will cost them dearly.”
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This is absurd. We are members not “activists”. We are seeking full devolution of equalities law not just transgender people. How come you have given extensive coverage to the aspirations of this fringe anti transgender group again? We are trying to gain more devolved powers because we cannot trust England. To protect all of our people and in my own opinion ultimately seek full independence. This single interest mean spirited sideshow, constantly attacking a vulnerable minority that have nothing but exist peacefully, undermines our efforts to build a fairer, more equitable and independent Cymru. We are not Reform. We reject… Read more »
I guess the down voters are against equality.
Or they think that England knows what’s best for us, I guess.
Men are men and women are women; there is nothing “fringe” about this fact. Everyone deserves equality of tolerance, support and recognition; there is no debate about that. The problem comes when the rights of women have to be downgraded in order to accommodate the insane idea that a man who declares himself a woman actually becomes a biological women in that moment with rights to enter womens spaces and participate in womens sport. Nicola Sturgeon destroyed her Premiership twisting and turning to try to make sense of this nonsense position. If Rhun ap Iorwerth decides to lead us into… Read more »
Then she moved to live in England.
Is it a coincidence that ‘gender critical’ activism is largely funded by the same U.S Christian Right who overturned Roe V. Wade, and are now ecstatic that more women are dying needlessly in pregnancy and childbirth than ever? The same Christian Right who fought tooth and nail to prevent marriage equality from becoming the law of the land, which turned out to be a totally unwinnable culture war? Now why would a group of cishet white billionaire men who barely believe that women and LGBTQ+ people are human beings want to co-opt TERFism unless policing outdated gender roles was beneficial… Read more »
Utterly false. It’s just those pesky women standing up for their rights, which men such as yourself absolutely hate.
I believe trans people should be treated with respect and dignity, ergo that means I think cis women don’t deserve to be treated with respect and dignity? What in the world is this weak false dichotomy?
Sorry but i honestly cant see what’s ‘controversial’ about wanting to get equalities legislation devolved to Wales – indeed it should be a basic requirement if we want to build a Wales where human rights are enshrined in law (and protected from a power grab by a future right wing govt at Westminster).
The concern is that devolution of equality rights will be hijacked by the activists to push us into increasingly ridiculous contortions on gender issues. Look what happened in Scotland?
But, overall, I believe in Devolution and Independence. I think we do need these rights devolved as that is the only way we can become mature and serious in our own government.
It’s funny how ” people specifically from marginalised or affected groups and also from minorities.” never includes women and members of the LGB population isn’t it? Just always listening to the trans lobby which has steered policy for years and which has been decreed to be unlawful ( Supreme Court Judgement 16/4/2025). LGB has nothing in common with trans gender. WRN is a pro woman, grass roots organisation that has struggled to be heard as has LGB Alliance Cymru. Listen everyone equally please Plaid Cymru
Let’s be sparkling clear; we are all female or male. Would equality for women and men in Wales mean women’s wages would finally equal men’s for the same job? Or would it pander to that tiny minority of shouty, aggressive, trans-activist men that at the drop of a hat will enable your daughter to take testosterone and butcher her breasts? Think carefully about who is in charge and who pulls the strings.
I’m transfem non-binary so not male or female. You don’t get to tell me what I am.
None of the comments below seem to appreciate that the legal rights of biological women and girls and those of same-sex attracted lesbians and gays are under threat from the ideology that human’s can change their sex. To pander to the idea that men can become women just by magical thought is ridiculous. Even more ridiculous is the idea that children are “born in the wrong body”. Children who reject rigid sex stereotypes are not ill and they should not be medicalised, their bodies irreversibly damaged for life. No wonder the voices of detransitioners are silenced as they are proof… Read more »
Detransitioners are widely promoted by the usual suspects, there’s just hardly any of them.
It won’t happen. You can set up as many working groups as you like, but with so many more important issues facing the country, Westminster isn’t going to give Wales what it hasn’t given Scotland.