North Herts councillors have backed a motion in support of transgender rights.

At a meeting on Thursday (February 26), councillors voted by 41 votes to one for a motion that will see the council "actively encourage" job applications from LGBTQ+ people, and the council's leader write to the Minister for Women and Equalities to "request clarity" on whether the Government will bring forward new legislation relating to "the rights of trans people".

Councillors also agreed that "the erosion of trans rights threatens everyone's rights" and that the council should "publicly mark and promote significant dates for the LGBTQ+ community", including Trans Day of Visibility in March.

Sadie Billing (Lab), who proposed the motion, said: "Everyone in North Hertfordshire deserves to feel safe, respected and able to live as themselves.

"This motion … makes it clear that discrimination and hostility have no place here and sets out practical steps to keep our policies and services inclusive."

Cllr Billing suggested that a Supreme Court judgement in 2025 that the definition of "man" and "woman" in equalities is based on biological sex had "created confusion and anxiety".

"Legal protections remain but the uncertainty has a real impact on people's sense of safety and belonging," she said.

The motion was seconded by David Chalmers (LD), who said that "attacks and tactics" used against him as "a gay man born in the 1960s" – he said he had been "labelled a paedophile, mentally ill, a threat to society, a danger to children" – were "being levelled now against trans people".

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He warned: "The hate and scars left on my generation of gay men turned many to alcohol, drugs, and even suicide.

"I have lost too many friends over the years, and now I am seeing that same diet of fear and shame destroying the lives of trans friends."

The sole councillor to vote against the motion was Ralph Muncer, leader of the Conservative group.

He said that the Supreme Court's judgement last year did not "weaken the legal protections for the trans community" or the wider "LGBT community".

Cllr Muncer continued: "We have to be careful in what we seek to do to ensure that, yes, we encourage applications for jobs from a variety of different communities, but equally, that we are not discriminating against communities of whom we are not actively seeking to encourage."

He said he was concerned for "women's rights", and added: "I find it somewhat hypocritical that an administration who seeks to ensure that the protection of women and girls is very much at the forefront of … policy, is content with allowing biological males to go into changing rooms, to go into toilets, that biological females and young girls frequent."

After the meeting, Cllr Muncer said the motion had been brought forward with "good intentions" but that he was concerned it could lead to the council acting in a way that would conflict with the Supreme Court's judgement from 2025 or be deemed unlawful and lead to the authority facing "a costly judicial review". Labour councillors denied those claims.

Elizabeth Dennis (Lab), said it was "an absolute nonsense" to suggest that "women's rights suffer where we support trans people".

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"When we fail to acknowledge and support gay rights, lesbian rights, trans rights, we also fail to acknowledge women's rights," Cllr Dennis added.

Her party colleague, Tamsin Thomas, said she was "furious" at Cllr Muncer's comments. Cllr Thomas said she had attended a women's safety event in Hitchin with more than 100 women who had "a very vibrant discussion about what they perceive as fears".

She said the prospect raised by Cllr Muncer of trans women in bathrooms "just didn't come up".

"It wasn't in their mind, it's a manufactured fear," Cllr Thomas said.

Joe Graziano (Con) backed the motion. He said: "One of my best mates was a man and transitioned.

"In an idealistic world, we should be to a point where we shouldn't be discussing this at all, where everybody is respected for who they are, end of."