A poster reading "Vote Green Party" on the back of a chair

My name is Cade Hatton, and I’m running to be the Equality and Diversity Coordinator. I’m trans, my pronouns are he/they, and I’m disabled.

It took me nearly a decade of being diagnosed neurodivergent to use the disabled label for myself. I am autistic, I have ADHD and dyspraxia, and it took my physical disabilities to get severe for me to accept that I am disabled- and I always have been.

When I decided to get off the sidelines of the party – I’ve been a member since the age of 16, but after university, my engagement lapsed – it was because of trans rights and my concerns with the party. I saw leaders resigning over  spokespeople accused of transphobia, and fury and fear from a lot of the queer community. I came to my first conference in nearly a decade in 2021, and I spent most of the next couple of years with a focus on trans rights.

I could spend ages going over everything I did as social media officer, then co-chair, of the LGBTQA+ Greens, but I won’t. I hope my record speaks for me. I no longer think that the biggest problem in the party is transphobia – the few loud voices are hard to ignore, but we see at conference their motions defeated and progressive motions passed.

The problem that I now think is the most significant within the party, affecting many people on a day-to-day and significant basis, is ableism.

The party is full of it, most of it completely unintended. Decisions to use venues that aren’t accessible, just because no one thought to check whether it was. Not considering the accessibility of public transport, or what a disabled activist or candidate can do in an election. Target To Win is seen as the perfect guide to winning elections, and people use it as a reason to deny prospective disabled candidates, as they can’t campaign in the traditional ways. Challenging accessibility functions or requirements because someone doesn’t understand why it would be needed.

Some of our most respected representatives use ableist language, equating climate crisis denial with a lack of intelligence or insanity. We see trans advocates telling bigots they’re mad or deluded- as if that doesn’t push away members of the trans community with mental health issues. The use of ableist language is so pervasive in the party that even being asked not to use it is seen as offensive by some.

The party has not shown that accessibility and inclusion are a focus for anyone currently in post. To my knowledge, no current member of GPEx identifies as disabled (please correct me if I’m wrong!). This ends up with disabled members excluded because they just don’t get seen or heard. We need more disabled people in the room.

I’ve experienced it with partners. At first, it really isn’t common sense. Helping a disabled person, especially a partner, isn’t the same as helping a non-disabled person or supporting a non-disabled partner. But it’s easy to learn when people are pointing out what you don’t know yet.

I don’t always like the phrase ‘a rising tide lifts all boats’- I think it ignores too much of capitalism’s darker side – but when it comes to accessibility and inclusion, if we are ensuring our spaces are fully accessible and inclusive, they will be better spaces for everyone. Having allergen information visible and clear as standard at events, ensuring meetings are at reasonable times with reasonable breaks, even ensuring getting on stage at conference is easy- all of these things would benefit everyone.

It is an uncomfortable irony that I wasn’t able to properly present my motion to conference last year, the Disability Voting Paper, a motion 3 years in the making that updated our Disability policy chapter as a whole. The chairs asked someone else to present, while I was going through the bowels of the venue to get to the lift to the stage.

It’s embarrassing. It’s frankly humiliating to know that if you were able-bodied, you would have easier, better recognition. That no one thought that it would take me a little longer to reach the stage.

I don’t want anyone else to ever experience that again. We need a voice in GPEx to call out when we choose a venue that isn’t suitable, or when we need to ensure that processes are in place to ensure no one is so completely overlooked again. Part of that is also the Access Team, a project I started 18 months ago that will be coming to Bournemouth in October. I don’t just want to shout about the problems – I want to work on ways to fix them. We need to provide training, proper training, to all our national and regional bodies, but what we need is a foundational change- prioritising accessibility and inclusion, not trying to shoehorn it in afterwards.

We can be doing politics differently. We say we do things differently. I think it’s time we put our money where our mouth is.

Cade Hatton is a candidate for the Green Party’s equality and diversity coordinator

Image credit: Jon Craig – Creative Commons