Melissa Harker

@melissa.green

450 Followers 165 Following

29, 🏳️‍⚧️, 🏳️‍🌈 & ♾️ Green Party Councillor in Gateshead, GPC member & LGBTIQA+ Greens Co-Chair.

A screenshot of the government's draft bill on "ending conversion practices" which reads: (2) “Conversion practice” means (subject to subsection (3)) any conduct carried out by a person towards an individual with the intention of— (a) causing the individual— (i) to have or not to have, (ii) to believe that they have or do not have, a sexual orientation or a particular sexual orientation; or (b) causing the individual— (i) to have or not to have, (ii) to believe that they have or do not have, a transgender identity or a particular transgender identity.
A screenshot of the draft bill to "end Conversion Practices". It reads: (3) Conduct which (a) is carried out by a person towards an individual with such an intention, but (b) is carried out in the course of providing health care services to the individual concerned, is not a conversion practice unless the person acts in such a way that falls far below the standards reasonable expected of a person in their position.
Melissa in a black t-shirt standing in front of a background of squares of various shades of the pride flag and different languages.
Melissa standing in front of a housing estate. In the front is the text "Cllr Melissa Harker" and underneath "Bridges, Gateshead". Imprint: Promoted by Pam Woolner on behalf of the Green Party, c/o PO Box 78066, London SE16 9GQ
There is a letter with a plastic see-through window. Through the white envelope window you see "24 April 2026" in it with "Ms Melissa Harker". The address is covered by a thumb. The Return address at the top of the letter is the RVI in Newcastle.
A dark green background with white text. The heading is: "Darlington has shown that it was not really about "women's safety".". The body states: "Darlington Greens amended a motion which was brought to Darlington District Council that was inspired by the Bassetlaw motion. We flipped the motion’s intent, by removing exclusionary language, protecting trans people from blanket exclusion and doubling down on protections for women." Then in bold: "Is that why Reform is so upset?" Imprint: Promoted by Pam Woolner on behalf of the Green Party, c/o PO Box 78066, London SE16 9GQ
A photo of an external door of a Class 220 CrossCountry train (from the inside, obviously), and outside you see lovely County Durham fields through the window. Lovely day. Less lovely seating arrangement.
A braided MagSafe charging cable plugged directly into USB-C on a CrossCountry train.
Councillor Dulston speaking while his colleagues ahead of him have their head in their hands.
In the distance, past the public gallery you see Cllr Dulston (Conservative) clearly frustrated and making faces in his disappointment.
A photo of the sign outside Darlington Borough Council. It's a blue background with a white logo.
White background, black text: "Thank you!" in big, "Thank you for placing your trust in me to be your Co-Chair in 2026 alongside Kat Bristow." A bar chart is underneath. Melissa got 201 votes, 179 in the first round. Kat Bristow got 181 votes, with 161 in the first round. Ash Routh got 149 votes, with 113 in the first round. Steve Braines got 77 votes and was eliminated, and Re-Open Nominations got 11 votes, and was eliminated. There were 18 Exhausted votes in round two. Produced and promoted by Melissa Harker as part of their campaign for election to the LGBTIQA+ Greens committee. This is not an official communication from the Green Party of England and Wales or the LGBTIQA+ Greens.
Behind a photo of the candidate, bordered with a rainbow, are the words "ELECT MELISSA". Candidate statement excerpt: "Over the past year I have stepped up to organise our AGM. I have worked with Kris to deliver the LGBTIQA+ Greens hustings. I helped kick off these elections. When we have lacked administrative capacity, I have taken responsibility and initiative to deliver at critically important moments." Quote by the candidate for Co-Chair, Melissa Harker. Produced and promoted by Melissa Harker as part of their campaign for election to the LGBTIQA+ Greens Committee. This is not an official communication of the LGBTIQA+ Greens or the Green Party of England and Wales.
Telegraph article. "Another motion put forward for consideration at the party’s spring conference would end all blanket bans on transgender athletes in women’s sport. The motion was tabled by Melissa Harker, a press officer for the LGBTIQA+ Greens pressure group." It then has a photo of me with the caption: "Melissa Harker, a Green trans campaigner, is calling for an end to the transgender bans in women’s sport" It goes on: "Ms Harker’s policy proposal warned that blanket bans have “serious consequences for gender-diverse and global majority [of African, Asian, Latin American and Arab descent] peoples’ mental and physical health”. It went on to claim that “historical colonial and Eurocentric attitudes” have long affected elite sports and continued to have an impact. If passed, the motion would be required to call on all sporting bodies to allow trans athletes to compete, working towards a long-term ambition to “undo the toxic environment around trans, intersex and gender non-conforming people in sport”."
Kier Starmer scrambling to pick up a bunch of papers detailing a US-UK deal at the G7 in Canada while Trump just stands there and lets him.
Five people standing outside with a new build housing estate in the background. From left to right: Pat, Mark, Melissa, Rachel and Patrick. Melissa, Pat and Patrick are holding bright green clipboards. All five people are smiling.
Melissa is smiling in the front with a black jumper with a Green Party logo on it. Behind her is six people: five men and one woman with bin bags and some have litter picks. Everyone has Green Party badges.
13 people surrounding multiple tables with teas and coffees on the table. There are various ages, races and genders of everyone surrounding the table, in the front is Melissa, wearing an #ElectTheDolls Tee
6 people around a pub table with a lot of decorations on the wall. Caption at the bottom reads: Promoted by Pam Woolner on behalf of the Green Party, c/o PO Box 78066, London SE16 9GQ
A shot of some canal boats in a canal, as well as the Leeds skyline. Hotel on the left, apartments on the right. Grey clouds above but very much sunny.
Melissa and Joe holding up our Green View newsletters in Trinity Square.
A trans flag flowing in the breeze at a protest.
From left to right: Ruth, Rachel, Melissa, Richard, Joe and Campbell with litter picks and blue bin bags pose together for a photo opportunity before heading out.
A microwave oven in a bush with components exposed.
Melissa, Joe and Pat from the Gateshead Green Team posing in Village Heights in Gateshead, with plenty of greenery among houses and fences in the background. Tagline of "Promoted by Pam Woolner on behalf of The Green Party, c/o PO Box 78066, London, SE16 9GQ" at the bottom of the image.
A poster from Zack Polanski's leadership campaign, title: I voted for Zack. Zack Polanski. Bold Leadership. Now. promoted and produced by Zack Polanski as part of his campaign for election to the post of Leader. This is not an official communication from the Green Party of England and Wales.
Melissa in white top and black trousers speaking in front of two microphones in Keel Square in Sunderland.
The various pride flags, from top left to bottom right: the gay flag, in its various shades of green and blue; the rainbow flag, in its classic rainbow colours; the lesbian flag, in its various shades of orange and pink; the bisexual flag, with its pink and blue, split by a purple stripe; the asexual flag, with its black, grey, white and purple colours; the pansexual flag, with the pink, yellow and blue tri-colour; the bigender flag, with various shades of blue, purple, white and pink; the agender flag, with various shades of black/grey/white and a light green stripe; the non-binary flag, with its yellow, white, purple and dark grey colours; the demiboy flag, with its various shades of grey, with blue and white stripes seperating them; the transgender flag, with it's classic blue, pink and white colours; and the demigirl flag, with its various shades of grey, with pink and white stripes seperating them;.
Dear Mark Fergusson MP, Heading: Expression of Concern with Respect to Backsliding of Transgender Equality in the UK My name is Melissa Harker, and I serve as one of the Lead Campaigners for the Bridges ward within the local Gateshead Green Party. Additionally, I hold the roles of Secretary and Elections Officer for the North East Young Greens, as well as Digital Communications Officer for the national LGBTIQA+ Greens. Professionally, I work as a Software Developer for a remote-first B Corporation that enables individuals to lease electric vehicles through salary sacrifice schemes. Most importantly - and particularly relevant to the purpose of this letter - I am a transgender woman. I, like many, watched in horror yesterday as the House of Commons debated the recent Supreme Court ruling. I watched in horror as your colleague, Bridget Phillipson MP, instead of using her time to address parliament and put trans people at ease, instead chose to dedicate the time to political points scoring with the Leader of the Opposition on the other side of the benches. I watched as your colleague refused to reaffirm your manifesto promises to allow trans people to live and exist in dignity, especially after she earlier made a comment stating that myself and other people like me must use toilets that align with our gender assigned at birth (or "biological sex" as she put it). I'm sure you are aware of your party’s record during the previous government. One key piece of legislation is the Equality Act 2010 (hereby referred to as the EA2010).
A tweet from JK Rowling that reads: Happy International Fake Oppression Day to everyone who wants complete strangers to know they don't fancy a shag. This tweet was accompanied by a photo from Switchboard (a LGBTQ+ support charity) that reads: International Asexuality Day April 6th Asexuality is where a person experiences little to no sexual attraction. Asexual people can form deep emotional connections & relationships but don’t experience sexual attraction in the same way as others. The tweet has 2.3 million views.
Four people standing with litter pickers surrounding many black bags of which a good deal of those bags are full. From right to left: Mel, Rachel, Claire & Pat
The Aromantic flag, the colours of which, from top to bottom: green, light green, white, grey and finally, black.
Screenshot of the article that reads: "Parents in the group were also engaged in anti-trans conversion practices on their children, as detailed in their private online forum. Some went as far as describing sending their children to non-affirming therapists, cutting them off from supportive friends and teachers, removing their internet access and destroying their gender-affirming medications, clothing and pride flags."