by Rona Jamieson
In January 2021, Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States of America and, as a consequence, he removed the ban on trans people entering the military that was imposed by Donald Trump. The removal of this ban is obviously very significant, however, this got me thinking about transgender rights in the UK and how, whilst America are making steps towards equal society, the UK are rapidly creating a more hostile environment to be a transgender person.
There are many reasons that have come into play in the last year, which show the lack of equality that trans people experience on a daily basis. The first is that trans teenagers are not able to access hormone blockers from a young age, as they have been disallowed for trans people under 16, when this is the best time to use hormone blockers. Most teenagers go through puberty between the ages of 11-16, therefore by banning under-16s from accessing them, this means that trans teenagers experience more body dysphoria as their body changes with nothing to stop this. In the last five years only 0.09% of English children have been referred for specialist gender identity services, which will only decrease as under-16s cannot get access to hormone blockers.
Not only is it hard for trans youths going through puberty without any means to stop the changes in their body, but body dysphoria is also a required diagnosis in order to change your gender legally under the Gender Recognition Act of 2004. Gender dysphoria has to be diagnosed by a specialist and waiting times for these appointments are over 3 years because the Conservative government have under-funded the NHS significantly. This diagnosis is only one part of the requirements that must be met in order for a trans person to change their gender. To me, this feels like a direct attempt by the government to suppress trans people and in many cases, this often means that many trans people choose private healthcare.
One of the easiest ways for a trans person to transition is to take hormones (whether that be oestrogen or testosterone) but, in order to receive this, a trans person needs to have been diagnosed with body dysphoria and, even then, getting hormones can take over 3 years. This means that it can take over 6 years, through the NHS, for a trans person to even start transitioning. Even though not all trans people transition, this means that those who do choose this path are made to suffer body dysphoria for an extra 6 years, which would be unnecessary if the government had the correct funding provided to the NHS. This also ends up in many trans people choosing private healthcare, rather than be in a body that doesn’t feel like theirs any longer. Therefore, there has been an increase in just giving pages for young trans people, who can’t afford to go private but would rather do that than wait 6 or more years.
However, the critically under-funded NHS is not the only reason for a transphobic Britain. The current UK government are setting out plans to increase policing on gendered public toilets and scrap gender neutral toilets. By increasing policing on gendered toilets, this plays into the myth that trans people attack cis-gendered people in toilets, therefore making people think that they should be afraid of trans people using a toilet that isn’t conforming to their genitalia. This is definitely not true as I, a cis-gendered woman, have never felt threatened using a public toilet because there could be a trans woman in there. Gender neutral toilets are also necessary, as people who do not assign to a particular gender do not want to be faced with dysphoria when they are trying to use a public toilet. Personally, I believe that all toilets should be gender neutral as they are in the majority of houses across the UK, so there’s no reason that shouldn’t be the same in public.
Trans people have a right to use the toilet, especially seeing as lots of trans people end up homeless due to not being accepted by their family and so will rely on these more. There is an email template which I have linked at the bottom of this blog post if you want to help throughout these plans.
Amnesty international have also published a web page about the very obvious plans that the UK government are trying to get away with in the most recent times. They are trying to set out plans to make it illegal to change your gender from the one you’re assigned at birth. If this were to pass, it would be hugely detrimental to the lives of trans folk up and down the country as, no matter how they dress and express themselves, they would still have to use the gender they were born as on all official documents. As a cis-woman, I can only imagine how soul crushing that would be every time you had to disclose your gender. If this were to pass in parliament, there would be a whole generation of trans people that hugely suffer every day from just knowing that they weren’t legally recognised in the gender they identified as.
However, it is not just the UK government that are planning roll backs on trans rights. The University of Leeds are planning their own roll backs affecting both trans staff and students. According to a post on Instagram and Facebook, made by the Leeds LGBT+ society, instances of transphobia will no longer be required to be treated as a ‘serious disciplinary issue’. This means that the university will be able to determine what the ‘most appropriate’ policy is to tackle this issue, and therefore potentially tolerate transphobia within the university. Of course this is worrying but, unfortunately, it is not the only issue that they are proposing to roll back on. They are also making adaptions to not have to treat gender reassignment information with the upmost confidentiality. This will lead to not only students being misgendered but also staff. The university are using language that is intentionally weak and vague to seem like they have more equality than they really do. There is a link at the bottom of this post to the petition as well as the original Instagram post.
To sum up, Britain is becoming more and more transphobic under a Conservative government, especially as, in their 2019 manifesto, there is no mention of trans rights. The Labour party’s manifesto, from the same year, mentions fighting against the Gender Recognition Act of 2004, but as Tories would still hold seats in parliament, the chances of this passing are slim to none. As a society we need to be more intersectional and stand up for trans rights, especially when it comes to black trans women.
Petition - Leeds University Transgender Policy: www.change.org/leedsunitranspolicy
Original post by @luulgbtsoc on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CMDQ8wGHDfj/?igshid=fcls48vbq6hr
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