The delusions of the global trans community are not confined to sex or gender.
People think they can change their identity by the power of thought. In America there have been several notorious cases of White people ‘identifying’ as Black. They can do it for a variety of personal reasons including career, the accumulation of social capital, or the perceived benefit in specific careers or communities. They still look silly though.
Examples from or relevant to English public life:
1. Anthony Lennon – Actor and theatre director
Background: Born to Irish parents having no black relatives or ancestors, who identified as mixed-race and was awarded funding as a Black artist. Context: He had grown up in a multicultural area of Liverpool, was often assumed to be Black, and so eventually leaned into that identity. Reaction: Once this came to light (2018), it stirred debate over cultural appropriation and identity politics in the arts.
Category: Psychological identification / Career opportunity / Social capital
2. Ali G / Sacha Baron Cohen (fictional persona) – Comedian
Context: A white, Jewish comedian who created the character “Ali G,” a parody of white suburban youth trying to emulate Black or South Asian culture. Purpose: Satirical commentary on cultural appropriation, race, and class. Reaction: While comedic, some critics questioned whether it perpetuated stereotypes or mocked real cultural experiences.
Category: Parody with underlying commentary on identity appropriation
3. “British Muslim converts” in media or politics. While not deceitful, some white British converts to Islam have been embraced by or claim strong identification with Islamic cultures (e.g., embracing Arabic dress, names, or political causes). Examples: Lauren Booth (activist, broadcaster; sister-in-law of Tony Blair).
Category: Cultural immersion / Political or moral solidarity
This doesn’t equate to claiming a different ethnicity, but it reflects how cultural identity can shift beyond inherited ethnicity. UK law and funding structures don’t typically allocate resources based strictly on self-declared race or ethnicity in the same way the U.S. sometimes does, so we get fewer such cases. British society has been more cautious about race-based affirmative action, so there’s less material incentive for people to claim another ethnicity.
The Rise of the Trans English
Signs you may be Trans English include a distaste for genuinely English people and an insistence that you’re English just because. Such people form part of the Trans-Rational community here in the UK. Sensible people point out that claiming another identity can invalidate lived experience, and can also be a form of identity theft, or cultural appropriation. Unlike gender transition, national identity is typically rooted in ancestry, history, and shared experience—not personal self-identification alone.
You just need to ‘identify’ as English. Does that sound familiar? Wasn’t that the definition of a woman, someone who identifies as such? If wearing a woman’s dress doesn’t make you a woman, how will living in London make you English?
Why are they claiming to be English?
Exploiting post-colonial guilt – After Empire, there was pressure to include former colonial subjects in the national identity.
Multicultural policy – Since the 1990s, government policy has encouraged “inclusive nationalism” to maintain social cohesion.
Fear of ethnic nationalism – Elites fear that if “English” remains an exclusive ethnic category, it will fuel resentment, extremism, or exclusionary politics.
Civic convenience – It is easier to govern a population when identity is based on citizenship or location, not ethnic difference.
Registering a claim -This is particularly relevant in England, since the majority of the UK’s immigrants live in England. Calling yourself ‘British’ isn’t much of a stakehold in a political union of four nations, none of which you’re indigenous to. Hence the need to dilute the idea of Englishness to the point where anyone can call themselves ‘English’.
So Who Are They?
It’s usually politicians who do this. And, as with transgender people, most of the suspects are male. You won’t find Diane Abbott claiming to be English. No-one says that Shamima Begum is English either. Famously trans-English people include Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, and former prime Minister, Rishi Sunak. The infamous trans-Scottish MSP, Humza Yousaf, admitted to Pakistani journalists shortly after being elected as First Minister, that Pakistan was actually his homeland and that he was really a true “son of the soil”.
Some David Lammy quotes:
“As Caribbean people we are not going to forget our history“,
“As a Black, British, Caribbean son of the Windrush and descendant of slaves I just voted against the hostile environment”
“An ethnic Englishness, tied to toxic assumptions about group supremacy, has put down deep roots in recent years.”
Lammy’s family come from a former Dutch colony in the Caribbean. No sign there of being English, but he makes the claim now.
Since the summer of 2023, London Mayor Sadiq Khan has publicly affirmed his English identity on at least two notable occasions,
Prior to this, in 2008 in a Guardian article, he identifies his ethnicity as being from overseas. Sadiq Khan is identified as a member of the “Pakistani diaspora” in a 2012 study by Bradford University ”In 2007 there were around 257 councillors and mayors of Pakistani origins and in 2009 there were 4 members of parliament, two were cabinet minsters, Shahid Malik and Sadiq Khan, and one peer Lord Nazir Ahmad.” This 12-page academic paper doesn’t even contain the word ‘English’ in its description of Pakistanis living abroad. I mean, if he were English, would his office have published this:
Sadiq Khan claimed that Rishi Sunak was English, because “he even has a Labrador”. In 2015 Sunak is quoted as being British, Indian and Hindu at the same time. In 2025 he changed his mind, “I mean, of course I’m English. (I was) born here, brought up here, yeah, of course I’m English.” I don’t see that spending your childhood in England specifically makes you English either. Nobody says that Bonnie Prince Charlie was Italian, and he was born and brought up in Rome.
For politicians calling yourself ‘British’ isn’t much of a stakehold in a political union of four nations, none of which you’re indigenous to. Hence the need to downplay and dilute the idea of English identity in England, to downplay and dilute to the point where you can claim to be English yourself.
In a 2015 interview with Business Standard (cited on Wikipedia), Sunak said: “I am thoroughly British. This is my home and country, but my religious and cultural heritage is Indian.” No mention then of being English. In 2023 in an interview to the Hindu newspaper, “I’m hugely proud of my Indian roots”. Rishi’s parents were born and brought up in Africa. Surely his roots are in Africa? Rishi Sunak’s parents don’t describe themselves as Africans either, although both were born and brought up in African countries. Strange that…..
They have never claimed African identity; instead they—and Sunak—consistently emphasize Indian heritage and descent, though raised in East Africa and later in the UK. Being born didn’t apparently make them African, but being born here does make you English?
In support of Rishi Sunak, the shadow foreign secretary, Priti Patel, told Sky News this year: “I do consider myself English, and I’m an Essex MP, so I do frequently say The Only Way is Essex. I do, of course I do.”
https://x.com/i/status/1896133969084645874
She said she couldn’t relate to the point that English was an ethnic identity. Would anyone with English ancestry say that? Would we say that about her parents’ ethnicity or identity? She was born in 1972 to immigrants from Uganda. Does that make them African? The Indian press don’t seem to think so. When she was elected the Indian press made no mention of any Englishness on her part. “Priti Patel, Britain’s first Home Secretary of Indian origin, has her roots in Tarapur in Gujarat’s Anand district, from where her father Sushil Patel’s family come “. To be fair though, this may have been an expression of solidarity with Rishi Sunak’s Labrador and its Indian owner.
She refers to her identity in an interview in the International Business Times: ““We are British, indeed,” she stated. “We work here, raise our families, and go to school, run businesses. We have just as much stake in Britain’s future as anyone else.” She goes on to describe herself as a “British Asian.” Even as recently as 2018 she was still describing herself as British: “I’m British first and foremost, because I was born in Britain.“ She told the BBC.
Does Being Born And Raised Somewhere Count?
Being born here doesn’t make you English, any more than not being born here prevents you from being English. In the latest USA census 45 million Americans claim an English identity without being brought up here too. Many English people were brought up abroad without gaining the identity of their host nationality.
Some trans English people argue that being born here makes you English. They don’t tell us why that makes it so, and it’s not a rule they apply symmetrically. Rudyard Kipling was born in India, without becoming Indian, as was George Orwell. Known to the whole world as the very British Hermione Granger and friend of Harry Potter, Emma Watson, was born in Paris. She ain’t French though. Eddie Izzard, the English Comedian and well-known member of the trans community, was born in Yemen. Think about it for a moment. If a French married couple living in London have a baby, is that baby then English?
Many of the children of British servicemen and diplomats were born and brought up abroad. They still retained their English, Scottish and Welsh identities, inherited through their parents. I mean, no-one suggests that Bonnie Prince Charlie was Italian. King Abdullah was born in Jordan, but educated and brought up in Great Britain and the United States. No-one suggests that he is British or American, or he might have had trouble becoming king.
English is an identity along with Black, Indian, Pakistani, Irish and Estonian. People don’t lose their identity by born or brought up abroad. Black people didn’t stop being black when transported to the Caribbean and didn’t stop being black when they remigrated to Europe. For four hundred years they retained their identity, not assuming anyone else’s.
Don’t tell me you’re English because you’ve “lived here all your life”. You ain’t dead yet. You haven’t live all your life.
Conclusions
Englishness has historically been an identity tied to ancestry, homeland, and culture. The current push to redefine it dissolves its meaning, turning it into an empty civic term. The logic of inclusion is not applied evenly across other nations or ethnic groups. Real cultural identities do have limits, and those limits are what make them meaningful. These are coherent and historically grounded points. Many people quietly agree with them, even if they feel constrained from saying so in public.
The fact that they have a rule which only applies to Englishness, but not other identities, or English people, tells you their rule is based on discrimination and only to the English, and it’s therefore wrong. The same rule should apply to, and for, all national identities, not just applied against the English.
See Also
https://notwokedot.com/how-sadiq-khan-became-english/
https://notwokedot.com/david-lammy/
https://notwokedot.com/english-identity-displacement-how-i-became-the-wrong-sort-of-englishman/
