And so, with polls closing in the last set of elections less than a week ago it is time for another election – 4pm today was the deadline for candidates in the upcoming General Election to get their nomination papers in.
This year’s local elections saw relatively few openly trans candidates with only three people putting their names forward, and no winners. That might seem relatively few, but county elections often produce a different crop of candidates to district councils and three was at least an improvement on the last set of council elections, 2013, in which no known trans people stood.
Against that background, and given this was a snap election in which parties would have less time to ensure a diverse slate of candidates, it would not have been surprising to find fewer openly trans candidates standing than in 2015.
But politics at the moment is defying expectations, and trans candidates are no exception with a record of six eight nine trans and non-binary people nominated – four Green, three Liberal Democrats and two Labour. This compares well to four in 2015 and none in 2010.
As ever, if you know of anyone I have missed (and you are certain they are out!) please do let me know.
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Helen Belcher Chippenham |
Swing required: 9.1% (2015) -3.9% (2010 – held seat) |
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Aimee Challenor Coventry South |
Swing required: 19.2% (2015) 20.2% (2010) |
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Sophie Cook East Worthing & Shoreham |
Swing required: 15.0% (2015) 15.9% (2010) |
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Andrew Creak Caerphilly (Non-Binary) |
Swing required: 21.0% (2015) No Green candidate in 2010 |
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Charley Hasted Swansea East (Non-Binary) |
Swing required: 24.5% (2015) 16.6% (2010) |
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Dom Horsman North West Durham |
Swing required: 21.6% (2015) No Green candidate in 2010 |
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Lee-Anne Lawrance Runnymede and Weybridge (Non-Binary) |
Swing required: 27.8% (2015) 27.3% (2010) |
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Zoe O’Connell Maldon |
Swing required: 28.1% (2015) 20.3% (2010) |
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Heather Peto Rutland & Melton |
Swing required: 20.1% (2015) 18.5% (2010) |
Photo sources – not all Creative Commons. Please check before reuse:
Helen Belcher, Charley Hasted: Liberal Democrat candidate promotional literature.
Aimee Challenor: CC BY-SA 3.0, credit Green Party of England and Wales.
Sophie Cook: Labour party candidate promotional literature.
Dom Horsman, Lee-Anne Lawrance: Provided by the candidates for use on this blog.
Zoe O’Connell: CC BY-SA 3.0, credit Zoe O’Connell.
I am confirmed. Pink press just seem to delete me from everything.
The “awaiting confirmation” was because Rutland & Melton were tardy getting up their Statement of Persons Nominated.
If you have a photo you’d like me to use, could you send it across? Labour party web site doesn’t have one for you yet, and I tend to use party ones to avoid copyright issues.
Bit confused as to why you’ve labelled the nonbinary person as nonbinary… but not labelled any of the other candidates as trans men / trans women / agender etc
Being a non-binary candidate in a general election is particularly notable, and something where more role models are needed, so worth highlighting. I haven’t gone round everyone else and asked explicitly how they identify. (It’s hard to get responses from GE candidates on non-campaign issues during the election!)