Current status...

OK, this is not a good time to be transgender in the UK.  I haven’t blogged for a while; I have been posting on Bluesky and Facebook.

On Wednesday last week, August 5th (aka the Inglorious 5th), the new EHRC Code of Practise emplacing transgender segregation came into effect.  The guidance itself comes from the Supreme Court ruling about the meaning of ‘woman’ in the Equality Act (2010); the decision was that ‘woman’ means a ‘biological woman’ and is predicated on the supposed binary and immutable nature of sex.  Those, in turn, are scientifically unsound something to talk about another day…

The thing most people take in first is that the guidance, which covers services and providers (rather than workplaces), says that transgender people must not use the toilets of our affirmed sex and must use the toilets of our birth sex.  It also says that if we pass as a member of our affirmed sex we must not do that either.  We are supposed to plead for third or gender-neutral spaces to be made available and to plan our days, days out and holidays accordingly.  In other words, we are supposed to be on a urinary leash.

It’s worth pointing out that the guidance is not about toilets in the way that segregated water fountains in the USA were not about refreshment.  ‘Separate but equal’ has not worked out well in other countries and it won’t work out well here. 

Trans support groups and a number of legal sources are advising that the guidance places responsibilities on service providers, but that there is no legal duty on transgender service users to follow it.  If I were to follow the guidance, I could go to our local Country Park, where they have gender-neutral toilets in the Visitor Centre but woe betide me if I were in need of a wee at the local Showcase cinema, where the accessible facilities we are supposed to use are in gendered toilets.  Civil disobedience, anyone?

I will be carrying on using the Ladies.  I have been using them for the last 39 years. So much for last year’s Supreme Court ruling bringing clarity to the law!  The new guidance is unworkable.  There was genuinely a plan that transgender people would have to produce our birth certificates to be allowed into public toilets but that, thankfully, has been dropped.  “Your papers, please” is not a good look and even the EHRC realised that.

In spite of the fact that the guidance does not cover workplaces, many people are assuming that it does or should.  Many employees are worried - rightly or wrongly - that they could be dismissed for gross misconduct if they continue to use the toilets of their affirmed sex.  I know for a fact that trans-exclusionary guidance for employers and workplaces is being discussed.  Various paragraphs have actually been published by reputable news sources.  There are workers who are having to leave their jobs knowing that finding a new one will be extra difficult, and I have seen friends in tears over the effects this is having on their working lives and careers.  They are looking at leaving careers they truly care about.

Transgender people are in absolute despair – I am in the very privileged position of having completed my sex change (reclaiming the term!).  I mostly work at home but on office days I work in a building with gender neutral facilities. Also, I am just three months away from retirement, but I am seeing the effects of the guidance on other transgender people, who are devastated and fearful.  All because of a ‘protected belief’ that sex is binary and immutable.

What you may not know is that following the Sullivan Review of data, statistics and research on sex and gender, the way that patients’ sex is recorded on medical records has changed. Until last week, the sex marker on my records on the NHS app showed me as female.  That marker no longer shows and the sex marker now in use is ‘sex observed at birth,’ outing transgender people to anyone within the NHS with access to our records.  It doesn’t appear on your profile on the app.  I will ask what my record says when I go for my flu jab.

The Sullivan Review, as well as the EHRC guidance, separates us out in NHS care and premises so that, for instance, a transgender woman can no longer be placed on a women's ward but can equally not be placed on a men's ward.  I’ll also be interested to see whether I am called for my next mammogram.  For emergency care, the policy is probably academic because everyone gets whatever bed is available (if there is one available), but I know from talking to other trans people that they are avoiding NHS care wherever possible and really do not want to go into hospital. The consequences of that could literally be fatal. 

You may have seen that Amnesty International (UK) recently released a report on the erosion of civil rights in the UK, and a report listing the organisations behind this erosion.  Many of those organisations are gender critical/trans exclusionary, affecting how they interact with transgender people.  A billionairess author complained about this, and they withdrew both reports in very short order.  The billionairess also offered to fund anyone else’s lawsuits regarding this.  She has already funded a number of court cases targeting transgender people, having announced and set up a fund for this purpose.  Our concern is that this action has set a precedent where any organisation that criticises gender critical policies or actions is open to lawfare.

I have to admit that I am not really OK.  All this hurts badly and I had to take a day off due to sheer despair last week.  Within the space of an hour, knowing that the EHRC Code of Conduct was coming,  I saw the effect of the Sullivan Review and saw a draft of a model policy for employers.  Chunks of that policy had already been published by Metro and online, so it had no real surprises.

However – here I am and here I am making my stand.  I will not be bullied and cowed. I will live my life to the fullest, doing the things I love with the people I love.  I haven’t seen a marsh harrier so far this year, or a fulmar, and I plan to put that right*.  There are films to see, immersive art to experience, concerts to hear...

 

*I saw a peregrine last week, perched on a not-yet-completed hotel opposite the desk I was sitting at.  Bonus!!

ps - CAn you see the geology behind the Transgender Pride flag, to give it some texture?  You've got to love the Chalk.