Posts in category: Articles of Interest

Today marked a significant step for the transgender community.  In this article: http://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/t13/ – the World Medical Association has made several clear statements about being transgender.

Please take the time to read the statement first.

This is quite well timed with the current Transgender Enquiry being undertaken by the Women’s and Equality’s Commission in the UK.

It backs up a lot of things that the transgender community have been pushing for from a recognised medical authority.

1. It recognises that gender isn’t binary (in the preamble, not as a statement)
2. It recognises that people should be able to self-identify
3. They have used the term ‘gender incongruence’ to represent the core idea that your gender identity can be dissonant with that assigned at birth. This is *not* a mental disorder.  The term ‘gender dysphoria’ is reserved for any psychological outcomes from that incongruence (e.g. depression, anxiety etc.)
4. It recognises that every effort should be made to assist someone with gender incongruence to both improve the life of the individual and assist with preventing gender dysphoria
5. It fully recognises the term transgender and disassociates it with sexuality completely
6. It rejects any idea of coercive treatment or forced behavioural modification to ‘fix’ being trans
7. It rejects the idea of permanent sterilisation to be allowed to live in the gender role of your choice.

Let’s break those seven points down in more detail and understand the impact this has on the UK and worldwide.

The Gender Binary

‘Others choose to identify their gender as falling outside the sex/gender binary of either male or female’

The UK still has this antique concept that gender is split into boy and girls with nothing in between.  Other countries have already taken this further by introduction of gender neutral passports and an ‘X’ gender instead of just M or F. Facebook has taken this much further with a custom list of genders and preferred pronouns which is incredibly inclusive.

Internationally the recognition of living outside the gender binary is very varied, especially in highly religious countries whose doctrines aren’t flexible.  Putting it simply, gender is as much of a spectrum as sexuality and individuals should have the right to express and choose their gender to whatever degree required, and this should be recognised some way within the law of that country.

Self-identification

‘The WMA emphasises that everyone has the right to determine one’s own gender and recognises the diversity of possibilities in this respect. The WMA calls for physicians to uphold each individual’s right to self-identification with regards to gender.’

The UK system still has a gate-keeper system where someone else gets to tell you if you are ‘trans enough’ to be diagnosed with gender dysphoria.  Not passing that gate (which can involve two clinicians) can mean no treatment at all.  Plenty of trans people within the UK have fallen foul of this gatekeeper system, and whilst the UK is making strides to solve this issue, self-identification is still a long way off.

Other countries within the Europe (notably Ireland and Malta) have already adopted this standard.

Gender Incongruence

‘The WMA asserts that gender incongruence is not in itself a mental disorder; however it can lead to discomfort or distress, which is referred to as gender dysphoria (DSM-5).’

This one statement is probably the most significant statement in the entire document.  Just like the abolition of homosexuality as a mental condition, this is the one step that the transgender community and all its activists have been campaigning for.  Recognising that having gender incongruence, or being transgender, is not a medical condition but simply an aspect of ‘you’ is a massive step forward.

Gender Dysphoria itself should still be kept as a medical condition. It stems from fighting the fact that you internally feel one gender – when your physical manifestation may be a constant reminder that you are not.  This is one of the hardest struggles a trans person can face.

Every Effort

‘The WMA urges that every effort be made to make individualised, multi-professional, interdisciplinary and affordable transgender healthcare (including speech therapy, hormonal treatment, surgical interventions and mental healthcare) available to all people who experience gender incongruence in order to reduce or to prevent pronounced gender dysphoria.’

This statement backs up the idea that providing the right treatments and supporting someone who is transgender in living their lives will dramatically improve their mental and physical well-being.

Equally focussing across the spectrum of hormonal treatment, mental healthcare and surgery loosens the public perception that being trans is simply about surgery.  Recently television shows in this country have been very focussed on genitalia and surgery and not focussing on the underlying issue that being transgender comes from the inside, and surgery is sometimes not even on the agenda.

Sexuality

‘Finally, it is important to point out that transgender relates to gender identity, and must be considered independently from an individual’s sexual orientation.’

Everyone who is transgender recognises that their gender identity is totally unrelated to their sexuality. We can be straight, bi, gay or any other sexuality.  And our sexuality can change as a result of hormonal treatments.

However public perception seems to focus on being trans as being gay (particularly in the case of trans women, who are more visible to the public).  Even the UK is still facing this misconstrued public perception, with articles appearing in the media as recently as last week in the Daily Star.

Coercive treatment

‘The WMA explicitly rejects any form of coercive treatment or forced behaviour modification’

The language in this statement is incredibly strong, and represents a clear statement that any of the so-called ‘conversion therapies’ that have caused plenty of trans people to take their own lives should be discontinued.

This has been outlawed internationally in other countries already, although strong religious groups still see this as a viable option (‘praying the trans away’ or ‘God made you a man’ being some of the common memes).

Sterilisation

‘The WMA reaffirms its position that no person, regardless of gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status, medical condition or disability, should be subjected to forced or coerced permanent sterilisation (WMA Statement on Forced and Coerced Sterilisation). This also includes sterilisation as a condition for rectifying the recorded sex on official documents following gender reassignment.’

Whilst not a pre-requisite in the UK (which does have an elaborate process for legal gender recognition), some other countries (including, surprisingly, Spain and Italy) require sterilisation before allowing legal gender recognition.

Transgender people don’t fit into a convenient category, part of the problem is people trying to categorise them.  So a trans woman may still have a fully functional penis, or a trans guy may still be capable of bearing children.  There is no logical reason why they should be sterile.

Firstly I’d like to start by thanking everyone involved in this debate, it was very lively and thought provoking, all of the questions raised were excellent and the speakers communicated some very personal experiences which added significant gravity to the proceedings.  Paris Lees did an excellent job of mediating the questions (even when she got her left and rights mixed up), and the rest of the panel was eloquent and open.

 

The key things I took home from this debate are as follows:

1. There is no such thing as a ‘tipping point’.  It’s just increased awareness, and anything that brings more awareness is good, providing it’s handled in the right way.  Otherwise we are on our third, or perhaps fourth, tipping point which clearly doesn’t make any sense (as we’d be upside down by now perhaps?).

2. We need allies and advocates more than anything else, so anything we can do as a community to drag in friends, colleagues, family, celebrities or anyone else to our cause should be championed.  We are a small but growing community with strong protection in this country around our rights but that doesn’t stop us being persecuted, bullied or prejudiced against.  And when you look internationally it’s a complete mixed bag depending on where you grow up as to how well protected you are.  Some countries have horrific and unjustifiable human rights records and persecute trans people (and plenty of other minority groups), and other first world countries aren’t faring much better either.

3. There is no singular trans narrative.  This is a point the media forgets quite often as that doesn’t sadly sell issues. Individual stories (and awesome photos) sell stories.  Equally everyone’s transition journey and process is different and no less valid. This causes a lot of confusion in the public as they like to see things from either a binary perspective or from a process perspective.  When you mix in the fact that people do things in different orders, skip steps out entirely and in some cases just totally ignore whole elements of the transition process it’s no wonder anyone without a frame of reference find it hard to understand.  Personally I’ve experience discrimination within the trans community because my journey is different from theirs.  There is no ‘more valid’ way to be trans than anyone elses.

4. Your happiness comes from within, through self discovery, understanding and acceptance.  ‘Owning your inner bigot’ was a phrase used by Dr Kate Stone that really hit home with me.  She described how your shame at the possible reaction of society at large to yourself is part of the fear that grips people and keeps them trying to play out the heteronormative/cisnormative role that society expects you to have.

Breaking that mould and stepping out with the over attitude of ‘I don’t care what you think’ is hard work, but once you are out there it gets easier every day.  You are the person that controls this, you determine what you *think* other people are thinking.  People look at you all the time whatever your gender presentation; you just become subconsciously hypersensitive when you are presenting outside the gender norm.  This is a natural human reaction that is built in – we like to fit in and conform. Overcoming this reaction isn’t something you can do overnight.

Dealing with that for me is the biggest issue I have right now.

5. Education and awareness are some of our biggest weapons.  Someone raised the valid point about mandatory religious education across cultures yet there is no similar concept in sexual education.  No-one gets introduced to being transgender (or for that respect homosexuality) at school level, and the point was raised that parents get sweaty palms at the mention of sex education.

Personally I know our local charity is trying to promote this awareness at the moment across the education sector locally, so I’ll probably report back on how that is going in a future blog as well.

6. Passing wasn’t overly discussed, but it was made clear that passing is totally non-essential to successful transition.  Of course it’s very easy to say that, and being someone that isn’t sure where their passing level is makes it harder.  Although this does reflect back to point 4 above about being aware that you may be prejudging other peoples treatment of you and ‘expecting the worst’ when sometimes it’s the other way round.  However passing is still a root concern for many trans people and recent high level trans people coming out alongside beautiful pictures on magazine covers doesn’t align public expectation with this either.

7. The diversity of the panel was discussed as several points, and as Paris Lees correctly pointed out it’s never going to reflect the sheer diversity of the transgender scene. There wasn’t any gender queer or gender fluid representation, the panel only had a trans woman of colour and no representation from trans men of colour and there was no intersex representation either.  Of course finding these people is one challenge, and then you end up with a large panel which can dilute the overall message.

8. Mental health services on the NHS were discussed at length, although the original question was more about access to Gender Identity Clinics.  This is an issue for our community as we are much more likely to need mental health services plus those of us seeking transition either have to pay for it privately or wait an awfully long time for the NHS route to work.  The NHS is cutting back on these, and the waiting lists for GIC’s are growing and disproportionate across the country.

9. There was an interesting debate around free speech and giving people the platform for it.  Whilst I fully support free speech and the right for any person to express their opinions I fully endorse the idea that we don’t need to listen to what people have to say, and sometimes giving them publicity or a platform for their voice isn’t necessarily in our best interests. That isn’t to say we should mute them in any form, just if they wish to get their message out to a wider audience that is frankly their problem and we shouldn’t be helping or promoting anything that is transphobic.  Debate and contrasting viewpoints are definitely welcome, especially when the balance of opinions is level.

10. Peter Tatchell’s summary at the end was quite moving for me as well – being able to see the level of change that can be made in the world is quite astounding given the right platform.  There is change happening, and debates like this bring that change to the fore and open it up for more discussion, but we still have a very long way to go.

On a personal note there were a few anecdotes passed around about children of people who transition, which again resonates with me as a parent of 3 children.  Hearing that someone has de-transitioned to support their children due to their lack of acceptance, or that injunctions are being taken out to prevent people coming near schools is nothing short of horrifying.

Coming out is never easy.

People make assumptions based on what they think is “normal”. Not everyone likes the same things, and that’s okay. People shouldn’t be pressured into doing or trying things that don’t feel right to them.

I have a confession to make. It may come as a shock to some, which I appreciate and I will explain. But I hope you will respect me in spite of my “lifestyle choice”. I am a vegetarian.

There, I said it.

In all seriousness, I am a vegetarian, and I have recently been comparing my experience of coming out as a vegetarian and coming out as gay. These are both things I have had to do again, and again, and then again because people weren’t paying attention the first time.

I’m a better gay than I am a vegetarian. I’ve been vegetarian on and off for five years now, and I guess that is where my troubles start. The issue is, I love meat. I really do. I love sausage, I love bacon, I love sausage wrapped in bacon. I like chicken! I like it deep fried, I like it grilled, and I like it covered in gravy. All meat can be improved with gravy.

I rarely have to explain to people why I am gay, because the conversation is usually too uncomfortable, and they know they’ll look stupid at the end of it. Also the reasons are pretty clear, and the list is pretty short.

What has surprised me over the years is the amount of arguments that arise out of my choice not to eat meat. I’ve had a pretty easy experience being gay, but I mention the V word once, and the interrogation starts.

The most common argument being. It’s good for you, it’s natural. For me it has nothing to do with what is natural. Just like putting your bits next to someone else’s bits, it’s all natural. Human endeavour is an extension of nature, so everything we do is “natural”. Sure, maybe we’re meant to eat meat, and if I were a walking zombie I might not have a choice in the matter. But luckily for me (I think) I’m not a walking zombie (I think). Luckily for us we have the capacity for higher thinking and rationalisation.

Interestingly enough I did some research and there are numerous articles dedicated to “How to argue with a vegetarian”. Evidently written by and for people so vehemently dedicated to the defence of their own ego they need a manual on how to do it.

I’m not about to make the argument as to why everyone should be vegetarian. Because that would be boring. In my mind we should already be done with traditional agriculture. Grow my meat in a lab! Grow my vegetables in hydroponic towers! That stuff sounds awesome, and far less detrimental to the planet.

My main reason for not eating meat is that I don’t want to be part of a food chain that kills millions of animals a day, and throws half of it into landfill. I know the arguments, but your opinion is really not relevant to my decision.

Here’s the long and the short of it.

I’m not trying to turn you vegetarian. If you want to try it out, be my guest. Everyone should experiment at some point in their life. But what I stick in my mouth is none of your business. If you feel inconvenienced by having to make a vegetarian option when I come to eat at your house. Here’s the solution.

Don’t invite me. Your cooking isn’t that good anyway.

If you’re struggling with, or don’t understand vegetarianism.

If you’re LGBT+ and think vegetables are delicious, but you’re worried about what people might think of you. We can help!