Trans politicians election results: May 2016

The results are all finally in! Of the 10 trans & non-binary candidates who stood, one – Anwen Muston – has been elected. This brings the total number of openly trans elected politicians to an all-time high of three, or approximately 1 in 6000 councillors in England. (There are none in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland that we know of)

Congratulations to Councillor Anwen Muston and commiserations to all those who were not successful this time. I hope I will be able to include many of in next years’ reporting!

Whilst the increasing number of candidates standing is good news and 1 in 6000 is close to the estimates for the trans population of England, trans people are far more likely to be politically active and a success rate of one in ten is, unfortunately, quite poor. This suggests that out, trans and non-binary candidates are still not being given winnable seats to fight in local elections. However, it is only since 2013 or 2014 that trans people have been standing in any significant numbers and few people are successful at their first attempt, so this will hopefully improve over time.

Trans
(Binary, or predominantly IDs as such)
Northern Ireland Assembly
Green Party Northern Ireland Ellen Murray
West Belfast party list, sole GPNI candidate
11th place on first preference votes: 0.9%, change: +0.9% [source]
London Assembly
Labour Emily Brothers
London-wide party list, 9th of 11
3 party list candidates elected: 39.9%, change: -1.2%
Principal Local Authority
Labour Anwen Muston
Wolverhampton, East Park Ward
Elected: 56.4%, change: +4.5% [source]
Liberal Democrats Helen Belcher
Wokingham Borough Council, Evendons Ward
2nd place: 38.2%, change +17.8%. (1st Place: 43.2%) [source]
Conservatives Jennifer Kirk
Bolton City Council, Tonge with the Haulgh Ward
3rd place: 14.5%, change: -3.8% [source]
Liberal Democrats Jane Fae
North Hertfordshire District Council, Letchworth East Ward
6th place: 6.6%, change +6.6% [source]
Green Party Aimee Challenor
Coventry City Council, St Michael’s Ward
4th place: 5.5%, change -0.9% [source]
Non-binary
Scottish Parliament
Scottish Greens Anna Crow
Glasgow party list, 9th of 9
1 of 9 elected: 9.4%, change: +3.5% [source]
Principal Local Authority
Liberal Democrats Henry Foulds
Amber Valley Borough Council, Alfreton Ward
4th place: 5.0%, change: +1.6% [source]
Liberal Democrats Maria Munir
Watford Borough Council, Vicarage Ward
2nd place: ~13.7%, change ~-1.0% (Turnout figures for the all-up election have not yet been published, so this is an estimate)[source]

1 comment

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.