| Abbreviation: | TSN |
| Formation: | October 2020[1] |
| Type: | Community interest company[2] |
| Purpose: | Defence of transgender rights and opposition to organised transphobia |
| Key People: | Shash Appan |
| Affiliations: | Consortium[3] |
| Region Served: | United Kingdom |
The Trans Safety Network (TSN) is a transgender organisation based in the United Kingdom that aims to document and analyse information on organised anti-transgender movements.
Trans Safety Network was launched in October 2020, in response to what it saw as an increase in anti-transgender campaigns and political lobbying in the United Kingdom. The ultimate impetus for the group's establishment was reports of DVDs on the "transgender agenda" being mailed to schools. TSN determined that they originated from Truth in Science, a Christian creationist organisation.[4]
In November 2021, TSN was incorporated as a Community Interest Company (CIC), whose founding Directors were Shash Appan and Nichola Phoebe Queen.[5]
On 24 June 2023, the group's director, Jess O'Thomson was assaulted and injured while reporting for TSN by far-right demonstrators organised by Turning Point UK at a Drag Queen Story Hour event in Lewisham, with another activist left bloodied.[6]
In May 2022, the TSN investigated misinformation spread by right-wing politicians that the shooter in the Uvalde school shooting in the United States was trans.[7]
In August 2021, the group analysed Tweets directed at Rape Crisis Scotland over its hiring of Mridul Wadhwa as CEO, finding that around half of the thousands of Tweets originated from around 30 accounts.[8] In April 2023, the group publicised restrictions being imposed upon tweets containing LGBT-related keywords on Twitter, including disabling previews.[9] [10]
TSN has been active in criticising the treatment of transgender people by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).
In February 2022, TSN was a co-signatory to an open letter calling for a review of the EHRC by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI), consignees included: Stonewall, Liberty, the Good Law Project, Mermaids and LGBT Youth Scotland.[11] In 2023, O'Thomson, met Victor Madrigal-Borloz, the UN independent expert on sexual orientation and gender identity, who was preparing a report on LGBTQ rights in the UK.[12] TSN opposed a recommendation from the EHRC to amend the Equality Act 2010 to replace rights and protections based on one's legal sex with "biological sex".[13]
In 2022, TSN opposed attempts by the government to exempt gender identity from a proposed ban on conversion therapy.[14] In June 2023, the group accused the Territorial Support Group of having "targeted trans protesters" at a counter-demonstration to a far-right anti-drag demonstration in London.[15]