tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90176151312068202212024-03-05T09:21:37.593+00:00whittl(e)ingsTHOUGHTS OF AN EQUALITIES ACTIVISTStephen Whittlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379289307731132721noreply@blogger.comBlogger38125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9017615131206820221.post-20643725780627557932023-06-07T00:15:00.007+01:002023-06-07T16:47:56.145+01:00Please Commit to Not Amending the Equality Act's definition of sex<h3 style="text-align: left;">Ask your MP to <b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Commit to Not Amending the Equality Act's definition of sex</span></b></h3><h4 style="text-align: left;">On the 12 June 2023, Parliament’s Petitions Committee has
scheduled a debate to discuss whether or NOT to amend the Equality Act to define ‘Sex’ as
biological sex.</h4><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
If you support the right of trans women to live in their affirmed gender role, and to not experience discrimination & exclusion from accessing many facilities and essential services, then please ask your MP to attend and take part. <br />
<p class="MsoNormal">A guide on what to write and notes for your MP is <b>below.</b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The more people who ask their MP to take part in the debates
on the <b>12 June 2023</b> the better.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color: #990000;">To write to your MP go to</span></b> <a href="http://Writetothem.com" target="_blank"><b>Writetothem.com</b></a></p><p class="MsoNormal">Tell your MP how you will be affected by changing the
Act, <b>for example:</b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>You will not go shopping, to the theatre or cinema in case
you need the loo and fear your right to pee is challenged. But as a trans
woman, you cannot use the other loo as you fear being assaulted in the way
these individuals suggest you wish to assault women. Or as a trans man you have
no wish to cause havoc having a beard and entering the ladies loo. Point out
that there are insufficient disabled loos, and they are for disabled people.</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>You will stop going to the gym or pool because you have no
changing facilities.</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>When you are ill, you will be reluctant to see your doctor
for fear of a hospital referral. Finding yourself the only woman in a men’s
ward, or the only man on a women’s ward brings the fear of humiliation and becoming
the ‘freak show’.</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>If in your job of many years you provide personal and
intimate services, you are worried your role could be challenged and your right
to perform your job taken away.</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Any other situation you can think of. </li></ul><o:p></o:p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -18pt;">
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #990000; font-size: medium;"><b>The following information can be supplied your MP to enable
them to argue on your behalf.</b></span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="break-after: avoid; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 12.0pt; margin: 12pt 0cm; mso-outline-level: 1; mso-pagination: widow-orphan lines-together; page-break-after: avoid;"><b><span style="font-size: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 20.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Notes for Members of
Parliament</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><h3><span style="font-weight: normal;">Petition Wording</span><o:p></o:p></h3><p class="MsoNormal" style="break-after: avoid; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 12.0pt; margin: 12pt 0cm; mso-outline-level: 1; mso-pagination: widow-orphan lines-together; page-break-after: avoid;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Please Commit to <span style="color: #990000;">Not
Amending</span> the Equality Act's definition of sex<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal">It has been reported that the
Government may amend the Equality Act to "make it clear that sex means
biological sex rather than gender." The Government has previously
committed to not remove legal protections for trans people, an already
marginalised group, but this change would do so.<o:p></o:p></p><h3><span style="font-weight: normal;">More details</span><o:p></o:p></h3><p class="MsoNormal">Currently, the Act protects trans
people from discrimination on the basis of both sex and “gender reassignment”,
regardless of whether they have undergone medical transition or hold a Gender
Recognition Certificate. It can allow trans people to access single-sex spaces
such as DV shelters, bathrooms and hospital wards.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">The proposed change would remove a
legal protection for trans people and encourage discrimination. <b>We ask the
Government to refuse this change to the Equality Act 2010.</b><o:p></o:p></p><h3><span class="MsoBookTitle"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Acronyms used: <o:p></o:p></span></span></h3><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>BC</b>: Birth certificate <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>OSSS</b>: Organisations that
provide Single Sex Services <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>SSS&F</b>: Single sex
services and facilities <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Trans People</b>: Transgender
& Non-Binary people <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b>Trans woman</b>: In these notes,
a trans woman is a person recorded as male (or boy) at birth, who lives permanently
as a woman in their affirmed gender identity. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>Trans man</b>: In these notes, a trans man is a person recorded
as female (or girl) at birth, who lives permanently as a man in their affirmed gender
identity.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>1.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>More people signed a petition to support <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Not Changing the Equality Act</span>
than to change it.</b></p><h2><o:p></o:p></h2><p class="MsoNormal">It is worth noting the petition which requested that the Government <a href="https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/627984" target="_blank">commit to NOT amending the Equality Act's definition of sex</a>
received <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">at <b>138,886
</b>signatures</span>.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">The petition which requested an <a href="https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/623243" target="_blank">Update the Equality Act to make clear the characteristic“sex” is biological sex</a>, obtained almost 30,000 less at only <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">109,463 signatures</span>, <o:p></o:p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>2.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>This is not just about whether trans people are given
safe access to public toilets in their affirmed and lived gender, but also
about their access to important and essential services. </b></p><h2><o:p></o:p></h2><p class="MsoNormal">Amending the Act in the way proposed will mean trans people
who live permanently in their affirmed gender, a proportion of whom will have
obtained gender recognition in law for all purposes, will no longer have a
right to access without discrimination:<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Public or toilets of their affirmed gender, <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Changing rooms in shops, gyms, and swimming
pools, <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Domestic Violence Services<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Sexual Assault services<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Hospital wards for people of their affirmed
gender<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Other Single Sex Services<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Prison facilities of their affirmed gender.<b><span style="color: red;">*</span></b><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">On March 31 2022 there were 49 transgender prisoners in
female prisons, of these just six were trans women (i.e. recorded as male at
birth). There were 181 in the male estate, 13 were trans men (i.e. recorded as female
at birth).<a href="file:///D:/PRESS%20FOR%20CHANGE%20ORIGINAL/2023%20EHRC%20on%20the%20Equality%20Act%202010/Advice%20for%20MPs/2023-05-23%20Amending%20the%20Equality%20Act%20.docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
According to the Government response to an FOI request, from 2016 to 2017 there were 7 recorded sexual
assaults on a female prisoner by a trans woman whilst in the female estate. Five
were committed by one prisoner: Karen White. White was convicted of 2 sexual
assaults, 2 further sexual assaults and a rape were left on White’s file. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>[<span style="color: red;">* </span></b>In 2019 the relevant
prison regulations were further amended to give senior prison staff the
discretion to review every incarcerated trans person, in consultation with
medical and other experts, to protect the physical and emotional wellbeing and
safety of the trans prisoner and all other prisoners. Damien Hinds MP updated
MPs on the 21 February 2023, saying that since the 2019 reform of the prison regulations*
there have been no further recorded assaults by trans women in the female estate.<a href="file:///D:/PRESS%20FOR%20CHANGE%20ORIGINAL/2023%20EHRC%20on%20the%20Equality%20Act%202010/Advice%20for%20MPs/2023-05-23%20Amending%20the%20Equality%20Act%20.docx#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Despite Hind’s update, the Government
further amended the regulations in October 2022 so that trans women with male
genitalia, or who are convicted of sexual offenses will not serve their
sentence in the general women’s estate unless there are exceptional
circumstances.<b>]</b><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Amending the Equality Act to define sex to mean sex assigned
at birth will significantly impact the current rights of trans people to
employment with Organisations that provide Single Sex Services (OSSS), and
their rights to use Single Sex Services and Facilities (SSS&F). Some will
lose access to jobs they currently have in Domestic Violence Refuges and rape
services. Trans women have successfully worked for SSS&F providers for 25
years, and for 15 years they have been able to access SSS&F with no reports
of inappropriate behaviour by trans people towards women either employed by or
using Single Sex Services.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Trans women who have experienced domestic violence (DV) or
sexual assault and /or rape will be victimised, and to exclude a very small
group of trans women at the time when they desperately need such services is
immensely cruel. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Trans people who are unwell will avoid healthcare for fear
of being refused a hospital bed in a gender appropriate ward. Trans women would
risk abuse from male patients, and trans men will cause distress to female
patients. Trans people who remember the 1960s to early 2000s can give myriad
testimony to how discrimination within the NHS impacted their health.<o:p></o:p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>3.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>In practice, Organisations which provide Single Sex Services have not
needed to use the exceptions already afforded by the Equality Act. </b></p><h2><o:p></o:p></h2><p class="MsoNormal">The Equality Act already allows OSSS<b> </b>to exclude all
(any) trans people, <b>if</b> the OSSS can show they have a <b>proportionate and
legitimate</b> basis for that exclusion. Currently no OSSS has needed to apply
to the Courts to have that right enforced, and there have been less than a
handful of cases where trans people have applied to the Courts to have access
to SSS&F enforced. For example, when Domestic Violence Refuge organisations
have asked women residents who had experienced domestic violence, whether trans
woman who are victims of domestic violence should be allowed residence, they
were happy to provide refuge to trans women.<o:p></o:p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>4.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Altering the Equality Act to allow OSSS to not
recognise the affirmed gender of a trans person as their legal sex will only
impact a very small number of the small number of trans people who might need
to access SSS&F.</b></p><h2><o:p></o:p></h2><p class="MsoNormal">Almost all trans people who transition and obtain a GRC and
acquire a new sex for all purposes<a href="file:///D:/PRESS%20FOR%20CHANGE%20ORIGINAL/2023%20EHRC%20on%20the%20Equality%20Act%202010/Advice%20for%20MPs/2023-05-23%20Amending%20the%20Equality%20Act%20.docx#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
have no wish to cause distress to others and they recognise there are limited,
but necessary circumstances where women born female would not wish them to be present.
<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Amending the Equality Act to allow OSSS to exclude trans
people with a GRC and a new BC, will not alter the rights of other trans people
without a GRC. The law clearly says they have a right not to be discriminated
against if permanently living in their affirmed gender role. However, the Act
already allows trans people to be excluded from OSSSs or SSS&F if they have
a proportionate and legitimate basis for doing so.<a href="file:///D:/PRESS%20FOR%20CHANGE%20ORIGINAL/2023%20EHRC%20on%20the%20Equality%20Act%202010/Advice%20for%20MPs/2023-05-23%20Amending%20the%20Equality%20Act%20.docx#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>5.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Proving Sex at Birth is extremely complex and difficult.</b></p><h2><o:p></o:p></h2><p class="MsoNormal">Those arguing the Act needs amending want sex to mean ‘sex
at birth’. Proving this brings huge challenges: <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 36pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]-->(a)<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Many people have lost their birth certificate
(BC)<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 36pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]-->(b)<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Only those with a GRC are certain to have their
BC, but that will record their <b>affirmed</b> (new) sex at birth.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 36pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]-->(c)<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Trans people with a GRC are required to
surrender their original BC in order to receive a new BC. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 36pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]-->(d)<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->To determine whether a BC was one provided
following gender recognition would require the Government to disclose to OSSS
how to tell the difference between a 'recorded at birth' BC from a ‘GRC based BC’.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Disclosing how to determine the difference between a
‘recorded at birth’ BC from a ‘GRC based’ BC, would destroy the core right to
privacy contained in the Act following the decision of the European Court of
Human Rights in <u>Goodwin & I v UK (2002)<a href="file:///D:/PRESS%20FOR%20CHANGE%20ORIGINAL/2023%20EHRC%20on%20the%20Equality%20Act%202010/Advice%20for%20MPs/2023-05-23%20Amending%20the%20Equality%20Act%20.docx#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">[5]</span></u></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Doing so would mean the UK Government faciung international
condemnation particularly from the Council of Europe, and potential exclusion
from membership of the Council. The EU’s
Commission & Parliament would also condemn such a move, and potentially that
could impact further discussion or negotiations with the UK. There would also
be very public condemnation from the UN and many of its countries.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Having to prove one’s sex at birth would mean the BC becoming
some type of national ID card. However, anyone can buy a copy of any person’s BC
and so for 30 years BCs have stated they are not to be used as proof of
identity.<a href="file:///D:/PRESS%20FOR%20CHANGE%20ORIGINAL/2023%20EHRC%20on%20the%20Equality%20Act%202010/Advice%20for%20MPs/2023-05-23%20Amending%20the%20Equality%20Act%20.docx#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>6. Altering the Equality Act to clarify that ‘sex means biological sex’ has been confirmed by leading experts to be contrary to a large body of international Human Rights Law.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;">In April 2023 <b>Victor Madrigal-Borloz, UN Independent
Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual
orientation and gender identity</b>, condemned the government rhetoric and in
particular the advice given in February 2023 in a letter to the Rt Hon. Kemi
Badenoch by Baroness Kishwar Faulkner, the chair of the EHRC Commissioners. In
his official report the Independent Expert wrote that.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoQuote">The EHRC however specifically conceded that, in the context
of the letter, the intended meaning of the term “biological sex” is to define
women as “women who are not trans.” As one Commissioner elaborated: “under the
Equality Act, […] a trans woman who does have a GRC is a woman under the
current case law. […] if the government decides to make the amendment, they
don’t need to define biological sex, they can do it by way of exclusion of the
GRA.<a href="file:///D:/PRESS%20FOR%20CHANGE%20ORIGINAL/2023%20EHRC%20on%20the%20Equality%20Act%202010/Advice%20for%20MPs/2023-05-23%20Amending%20the%20Equality%20Act%20.docx#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Any change to the law to exclude those who have obtained recognition
of their affirmed change, would makes the process of gender recognition and a
new birth certificate meaningless in many contexts and would undermine the
functions and purpose of the Gender Recognition Act 2004 s.9 (1), which provides
that:<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 21.25pt;"><b>9 </b>(1)Where a full gender
recognition certificate is issued to a person, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">the person’s gender becomes for all purposes the acquired
gender</span> <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">(so that, if
the acquired gender is the male gender, the person’s sex becomes that of a man
and, if it is the female gender, the person’s sex becomes that of a woman).</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">The Independent Expert wrote that in his opinion:<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoQuote">this action of the EHRC is wholly unbecoming of an
institution created to “<b>stand up for those in need of protection and hold
governments to account for their human rights obligations</b>” (mission
statement, EHRC webpage; emphasis added).<a href="file:///D:/PRESS%20FOR%20CHANGE%20ORIGINAL/2023%20EHRC%20on%20the%20Equality%20Act%202010/Advice%20for%20MPs/2023-05-23%20Amending%20the%20Equality%20Act%20.docx#_ftn8" name="_ftnref8" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">[8]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>7.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Trans men have no desire to access Women Only
Services or Facilities</b></span></div><h2><o:p></o:p></h2><p class="MsoNormal">The EHRC had the temerity to suggest changing the Act would
allow trans men to ‘no longer experience discrimination’ in terms of SSS&F.
But trans men have absolutely no desire to use services that are exclusively
single sex services for women. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">A handful of trans men will conceive and give birth. All say
they are treated with respect and care when accessing maternity services. Creating
a rule where maternity services can only be accessed by natal women enshrines
the rights of trans men, but they can already access such services, and
ultimately any change to the law may make it easier for some staff and patients
to complain about the presence of a trans man in maternity services.<o:p></o:p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>8.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span> Our
scientific & legal understanding of what is meant by biological sex has
moved beyond ‘a binary of chromosomes’. </b></p><h2><o:p></o:p></h2><p class="MsoNormal">Since
the 1950s there has been a body of scientific literature that explores the link
between genetic influences, biochemical development, brain development, and
their impact on gender identity. Biological sex is not simply a case of one box
or the other. Around 98% of people grow up with the gender identity expected of
the sex assigned to them at birth. What counts as biological sex may appear to
be simple for them. For the 2% it is far more difficult and scientific
understanding is still limited.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">There
are the 0.05 to 1% of individuals<a href="file:///D:/PRESS%20FOR%20CHANGE%20ORIGINAL/2023%20EHRC%20on%20the%20Equality%20Act%202010/Advice%20for%20MPs/2023-05-23%20Amending%20the%20Equality%20Act%20.docx#_ftn9" name="_ftnref9" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">[9]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
who have a <b>Difference (or Disorder) in Sex Development </b>(DSDs).<a href="file:///D:/PRESS%20FOR%20CHANGE%20ORIGINAL/2023%20EHRC%20on%20the%20Equality%20Act%202010/Advice%20for%20MPs/2023-05-23%20Amending%20the%20Equality%20Act%20.docx#_ftn10" name="_ftnref10" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">[10]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><b>
</b> They range from mild to significant visible
DSDs from hypospadias<a href="file:///D:/PRESS%20FOR%20CHANGE%20ORIGINAL/2023%20EHRC%20on%20the%20Equality%20Act%202010/Advice%20for%20MPs/2023-05-23%20Amending%20the%20Equality%20Act%20.docx#_ftn11" name="_ftnref11" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">[11]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
to babies with ambiguous genitalia. Children born with Turners or Klinefelter
syndrome do not have conventional XX or XY chromosomes, while some non-visible
DSDs are not diagnosed until adults seek treatment for infertility.<a href="file:///D:/PRESS%20FOR%20CHANGE%20ORIGINAL/2023%20EHRC%20on%20the%20Equality%20Act%202010/Advice%20for%20MPs/2023-05-23%20Amending%20the%20Equality%20Act%20.docx#_ftn12" name="_ftnref12" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">[12]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Women with Partial or Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (PAIS or CAIS) are
registered at birth as female but are found to have XY male chromosomes when
they fail to menstruate.<a href="file:///D:/PRESS%20FOR%20CHANGE%20ORIGINAL/2023%20EHRC%20on%20the%20Equality%20Act%202010/Advice%20for%20MPs/2023-05-23%20Amending%20the%20Equality%20Act%20.docx#_ftn13" name="_ftnref13" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">[13]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Those such as Caster Semenya may develop hyperandrogenism (raised testosterone
levels) but that does not mean they feel like men. Many of the 1% of people
with DSDs will experience gender incongruence like trans people, but only a
small proportion will eventually transition to living permanently in the gender
opposite to the sex assigned at birth. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">For
the 1% of people who do not appear to have a DSD, but who grow up with a transgender
identity, the lack of specific evidence of a DSD is often used against their
claim to be a member of the opposite natal sex. However, studies of people with
DSDs have informed the understanding of trans people. Though the science is
limited, there is acknowledged evidence of differences between male and female
brain structure research which suggests a disparity in the brains of those who
identify differently to their sex as assigned at birth, highlighting a
multifactorial underpinning of gender identities, but understanding the
molecular mechanism is a developing science and requires further research.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">In 2018, the World Health Organisation (WHO) in the new International
Classification of Disease (ICD-11) removed trans presentations from the chapter
on ‘Disorders of adult personality and behaviour’ and placed them in the chapter
‘Conditions related to sexual health’.<a href="file:///D:/PRESS%20FOR%20CHANGE%20ORIGINAL/2023%20EHRC%20on%20the%20Equality%20Act%202010/Advice%20for%20MPs/2023-05-23%20Amending%20the%20Equality%20Act%20.docx#_ftn14" name="_ftnref14" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">[14]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Gender dysphoria has been replaced with gender incongruence and the condition
no longer requires an individual to experience mental distress before being
able to access gender reassignment healthcare. The WHO explained:<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoQuote">we have a better understanding of the issues surrounding this
condition, and they are not related to a mental health condition<a href="file:///D:/PRESS%20FOR%20CHANGE%20ORIGINAL/2023%20EHRC%20on%20the%20Equality%20Act%202010/Advice%20for%20MPs/2023-05-23%20Amending%20the%20Equality%20Act%20.docx#_ftn15" name="_ftnref15" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">[15]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Twenty years ago, in February 2003 the <span lang="EN">Lord Chancellor's Department</span><span lang="EN"> </span>issued
guidance titled <b>Government Policy concerning Transsexual People</b>, in
which they wrote:<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 21.25pt;">Transsexual people do not choose
their gender identity. Transsexualism is an overpowering sense of different
gender identity rather than any sexual orientation: transsexual people may be
heterosexual, gay/lesbian or celibate.<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;"> It is not a mental illness</span>. It is a condition
considered in itself to be free of other pathology (though transsexual people
can suffer depression or illnesses like anyone else).<a href="file:///D:/PRESS%20FOR%20CHANGE%20ORIGINAL/2023%20EHRC%20on%20the%20Equality%20Act%202010/Advice%20for%20MPs/2023-05-23%20Amending%20the%20Equality%20Act%20.docx#_ftn16" name="_ftnref16" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">[16]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 21.25pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p><div style="border-top: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 1pt 0cm 0cm;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;">© SW June 2023 <o:p></o:p></p>
</div><p class="MsoNormal">
</p><div><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><b>NOTES</b><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///D:/PRESS%20FOR%20CHANGE%20ORIGINAL/2023%20EHRC%20on%20the%20Equality%20Act%202010/Advice%20for%20MPs/2023-05-23%20Amending%20the%20Equality%20Act%20.docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 110%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Ministry of Justice (Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service Offender
Equalities Annual Report 2021/22, <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/902685/FOI_200513008_assaults_involving_transgender_prisoners.doc">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/902685/FOI_200513008_assaults_involving_transgender_prisoners.doc</a>
acc. 25 May 2023<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn2">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///D:/PRESS%20FOR%20CHANGE%20ORIGINAL/2023%20EHRC%20on%20the%20Equality%20Act%202010/Advice%20for%20MPs/2023-05-23%20Amending%20the%20Equality%20Act%20.docx#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 110%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Hansard Commons Chamber, Oral Answers to Questions Justice Transgender
Prisoners, Volume 728: debated on Tuesday 21 February 2023<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn3">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///D:/PRESS%20FOR%20CHANGE%20ORIGINAL/2023%20EHRC%20on%20the%20Equality%20Act%202010/Advice%20for%20MPs/2023-05-23%20Amending%20the%20Equality%20Act%20.docx#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 110%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
The Gender Recognition Act s.9(1)<span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn4">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///D:/PRESS%20FOR%20CHANGE%20ORIGINAL/2023%20EHRC%20on%20the%20Equality%20Act%202010/Advice%20for%20MPs/2023-05-23%20Amending%20the%20Equality%20Act%20.docx#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 110%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Equality and Human Rights Commission (2022) Separate and single-sex service
providers: a guide on the Equality Act sex and gender reassignment exceptions,
London: EHRC, April<span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn5">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///D:/PRESS%20FOR%20CHANGE%20ORIGINAL/2023%20EHRC%20on%20the%20Equality%20Act%202010/Advice%20for%20MPs/2023-05-23%20Amending%20the%20Equality%20Act%20.docx#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 110%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Goodwin v. United
Kingdom, Application no. 28957/95, Council of Europe: European Court
of Human Rights, 11 July 2002, available at: <a href="about:blank">https://www.refworld.org/cases,ECHR,4dad9f762.html</a> [accessed 20 December 2004]<span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn6">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///D:/PRESS%20FOR%20CHANGE%20ORIGINAL/2023%20EHRC%20on%20the%20Equality%20Act%202010/Advice%20for%20MPs/2023-05-23%20Amending%20the%20Equality%20Act%20.docx#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 110%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
The reason that BCs contain a statement that they are not to be used as proof
of a person's identity is because in the 1970s and 80s the IRA would purchase copies
of the BCs of dead children to create new identities for their members. <span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn7">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///D:/PRESS%20FOR%20CHANGE%20ORIGINAL/2023%20EHRC%20on%20the%20Equality%20Act%202010/Advice%20for%20MPs/2023-05-23%20Amending%20the%20Equality%20Act%20.docx#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 110%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Madrigal V (2023) United Nations Independent Expert on protection against
violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender
identity Country visit to the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (24 April – 5 May 2023) End of mission statement, Geneva: United Nations Human Rights Office of
the High Commissioner for Human Rights at <a href="about:blank">https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/sexualorientation/statements/eom-statement-UK-IE-SOGI-2023-05-10.pdf</a>
acc. 12 May 2023 Para 22.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn8">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///D:/PRESS%20FOR%20CHANGE%20ORIGINAL/2023%20EHRC%20on%20the%20Equality%20Act%202010/Advice%20for%20MPs/2023-05-23%20Amending%20the%20Equality%20Act%20.docx#_ftnref8" name="_ftn8" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 110%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">[8]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Madrigal V (2023) United Nations Independent Expert on protection against
violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender
identity Country visit to the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (24 April – 5 May 2023) End of mission statement, Geneva: United Nations Human Rights Office of
the High Commissioner for Human Rights at <a href="about:blank">https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/sexualorientation/statements/eom-statement-UK-IE-SOGI-2023-05-10.pdf</a>
acc. 12 May 2023 Para 22. <o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn9">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///D:/PRESS%20FOR%20CHANGE%20ORIGINAL/2023%20EHRC%20on%20the%20Equality%20Act%202010/Advice%20for%20MPs/2023-05-23%20Amending%20the%20Equality%20Act%20.docx#_ftnref9" name="_ftn9" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 110%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">[9]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Overall numbers of people with DSDs are difficult to count, they vary across
the world, with the highest incidence noted in Southern African populations.
Many DSDs are not visible, and their impact is only felt if a person is
struggling to conceive and has access to fertility clinical services. <o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn10">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///D:/PRESS%20FOR%20CHANGE%20ORIGINAL/2023%20EHRC%20on%20the%20Equality%20Act%202010/Advice%20for%20MPs/2023-05-23%20Amending%20the%20Equality%20Act%20.docx#_ftnref10" name="_ftn10" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 110%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">[10]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Previously referred to as intersex conditions.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn11">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3pt;"><a href="file:///D:/PRESS%20FOR%20CHANGE%20ORIGINAL/2023%20EHRC%20on%20the%20Equality%20Act%202010/Advice%20for%20MPs/2023-05-23%20Amending%20the%20Equality%20Act%20.docx#_ftnref11" name="_ftn11" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">[11]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
A Hypospadias is diagnosed when a boy has a urinary opening on the underside of
the penis instead of at the tip.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn12">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///D:/PRESS%20FOR%20CHANGE%20ORIGINAL/2023%20EHRC%20on%20the%20Equality%20Act%202010/Advice%20for%20MPs/2023-05-23%20Amending%20the%20Equality%20Act%20.docx#_ftnref12" name="_ftn12" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 110%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">[12]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Witchel SF. (2018) Disorders of sex development. Best Pract Res Clin Obstet
Gynaecol. 2018 Apr pp 48:90-102. At <a href="about:blank">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5866176/</a>,
acc. 12 Nov 2021<span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn13">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///D:/PRESS%20FOR%20CHANGE%20ORIGINAL/2023%20EHRC%20on%20the%20Equality%20Act%202010/Advice%20for%20MPs/2023-05-23%20Amending%20the%20Equality%20Act%20.docx#_ftnref13" name="_ftn13" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 110%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">[13]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
The South African athlete Caster Semenya was identified, assigned and
registered at birth as female and raised as a girl. Only as an adult was it
discovered that she had Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome. This would
not have been controversial if she had not been an Internationally successful
athlete.<span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn14">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///D:/PRESS%20FOR%20CHANGE%20ORIGINAL/2023%20EHRC%20on%20the%20Equality%20Act%202010/Advice%20for%20MPs/2023-05-23%20Amending%20the%20Equality%20Act%20.docx#_ftnref14" name="_ftn14" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 110%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">[14]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
British Medical Association (2023) Gender
incongruence in primary care. British Medical Association, <a href="about:blank">https://www.bma.org.uk/advice-and-support/gp-practices/gp-service-provision/managing-patients-with-gender-dysphoria#:~:text=gender%20incongruence%20is%20defined%20in,gender%20and%20the%20assigned%20sex</a>
acc. 18 May 2023<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn15">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///D:/PRESS%20FOR%20CHANGE%20ORIGINAL/2023%20EHRC%20on%20the%20Equality%20Act%202010/Advice%20for%20MPs/2023-05-23%20Amending%20the%20Equality%20Act%20.docx#_ftnref15" name="_ftn15" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 110%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">[15]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
World Health Organisation (2022) Gender incongruence and transgender health in
the ICD, WHO, <a href="about:blank">https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/frequently-asked-questions/gender-incongruence-and-transgender-health-in-the-icd</a>
acc. 15 May 2023<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 110%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn16">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///D:/PRESS%20FOR%20CHANGE%20ORIGINAL/2023%20EHRC%20on%20the%20Equality%20Act%202010/Advice%20for%20MPs/2023-05-23%20Amending%20the%20Equality%20Act%20.docx#_ftnref16" name="_ftn16" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 110%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">[16]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
The Lord Chancellor's Department (2003)
Secretariat to the Interdepartmental Working Group on Transsexual
People, Constitutional Policy Division. Lord Chancellor's Department <o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div><h1 style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8pt; text-align: left;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="break-after: avoid; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 12.0pt; margin: 12pt 0cm; mso-outline-level: 1; mso-pagination: widow-orphan lines-together; page-break-after: avoid;"><br /></p></h1><h1 style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8pt;"><div><div id="ftn16">
</div>
</div></h1><div><div id="ftn16">
</div>
</div><a href=""></a>
<blockquote>
</blockquote>Whittlingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03031721361092497811noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9017615131206820221.post-9368068233022698622023-05-27T13:56:00.005+01:002023-06-01T19:03:07.596+01:00C4's Genderwars is "A Vile and Horrible Little Film"<h1 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">"A Vile and Horrible Little Film"</span></h1><a href=""></a><blockquote>
</blockquote><div><p class="MsoNormal">On Tuesday 30 May 2023, C4 is screening a
documentary with the title ‘Gender
Wars’.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I took part in filming for a film called 'Sex/Gender
Matters' <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I did NOT agree to take part in a film called Genderwars,
which is all; about the apparent victimisation of Kathleen Stock<o:p></o:p></p>
<h2><span style="font-size: medium;">What was initially discussed, and believed I had agreed to Take Part In.</span><o:p></o:p></h2>
<p class="MsoNormal">Initially, when contacted about this film titled at that
time ‘Sex/Gender Matters’, I explained <b><span style="color: #215868; mso-themecolor: accent5; mso-themeshade: 128;">I would not take part in any project
which ‘questioned’ or ‘debated’ our rights</span></b>. <b><span style="color: #215868; mso-themecolor: accent5; mso-themeshade: 128;">Any debate is specious,
trans people’s lives are not up for debate and trans women generally pose no
threat to women</span></b>. As in any group of people, a few do not abide by
the law. But we don’t consequently
question the existence of entire minority groups and their rights any
longer, because a few are not law abiding. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The battle for all to have their core human and civil rights
recognised has been won several times in recent years. Trans people like black
people, disabled people, LGB people and women fought hard through the courts
and parliament to have their rights recognised. <b>The rights we have came
through the European Courts – nothing was given for free, every single right we
have from non-discrimination to gender recognition is only there because the Senior
European Courts told the UK government that they had to provide them. <o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I agreed to take part in this film, having chatted with
Julie Bindel about it, <a name="_Hlk135831237">only in order to move away from
the debate about our lives, our rights, and our existence, <b>to a more
positive debate</b> about <b>how trans people and women could work together</b>
to address one of society’s core problems, <b>namely m</b><b>en’s misogyny</b> <b>and their
violence towards women and trans people</b><span style="color: #215868; mso-themecolor: accent5; mso-themeshade: 128;">, </span>who have similar levels of
sexual and physical victimisation at the hands of men, across their lifetimes</a>.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a name="_Hlk135830240">On 06 October 2022 <b>Pamela</b>
wrote: <o:p></o:p></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: 110%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 4.75pt; margin-top: 10.0pt; margin: 10pt 4.75pt 6pt 1cm; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt;">I have been asked to make a film for Channel 4 on the
gender "debate". This will involve both the perspective of
transgender people as well as those people who are gender critical. To be
clear, I am interested in making a film which <b><span style="color: #c00000;">fully includes people's views,
experiences and thoughts on both sides of this polarised issue</span></b>. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">On 12 October 2022 <b>Pamela</b>
wrote: <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: 110%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 4.75pt; margin-top: 10.0pt; margin: 10pt 4.75pt 0cm 1cm; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt;"><b><span style="color: #c00000;">I'm extremely
interested in the ongoing work of Press for Change</span></b><span style="color: #c00000;"> </span>and would like to ask
Stephen about a few ideas I have for the documentary. I am genuinely very
grateful for the offer to talk as it is crucial for us to be able to be able to
make this film.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: 110%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 4.75pt; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 4.75pt 6pt 1cm; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt;">I really do want to get things right and would be grateful
for a conversation which I am sure would inform my approach to filming with him
and his wider story and also explain my film in full context.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In February 2023, as asked for on 01 February 2023, I provided
Pamela Gordon with references to some of the historical persecutions of those
people, who if they lived today would probably be trans identified. I later
obtained details of the photographer who gave her permission for the company to
use a photograph of trans people taking part in Pride with the Press For Change
(PFC) Banner. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>I asked who else was taking part in the film </b>and <b><span style="color: #c00000;">Pamela told me that so far it was myself, Julie Bindel</span></b><span style="color: #c00000;"> <b>and she needed suggestions as to others</b></span>,
particularly trans academics, who might be willing to be filmed. <o:p></o:p></p>
<h2><span style="font-size: large;">Filming</span><o:p></o:p></h2>
<p class="MsoNormal">During filming, an all-day affair, we discussed many things
including:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Noto Sans Symbols"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Noto Sans Symbols"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Noto Sans Symbols";">●<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->the history of the persecution of trans people, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Noto Sans Symbols"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Noto Sans Symbols"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Noto Sans Symbols";">●<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->my transition history,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Noto Sans Symbols"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Noto Sans Symbols"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Noto Sans Symbols";">●<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->my 30 years of academic research, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Noto Sans Symbols"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Noto Sans Symbols"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Noto Sans Symbols";">●<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->PFC and my role in the legal cases,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Noto Sans Symbols"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Noto Sans Symbols"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Noto Sans Symbols";">●<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->PFC and its history<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Noto Sans Symbols"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Noto Sans Symbols"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Noto Sans Symbols";">●<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->the lobbying of MP’s and PFC’s roles as stakeholder
advisers in the drafting of the Gender Recognition Act and later the Equality
Act.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Noto Sans Symbols"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Noto Sans Symbols"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Noto Sans Symbols";">●<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->the battles my family had to fight, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Noto Sans Symbols"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Noto Sans Symbols"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Noto Sans Symbols";">●<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->what Sarah had had to go through to become a mother. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Noto Sans Symbols"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Noto Sans Symbols"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Noto Sans Symbols";">●<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->what it meant to be refused a parental role in law to our
children<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Noto Sans Symbols"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Noto Sans Symbols"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Noto Sans Symbols";">●<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->what it was like as an academic facing student protest<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; margin-left: 18pt; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Noto Sans Symbols"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Noto Sans Symbols"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Noto Sans Symbols";">●<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->how I chose to negotiate and talk with the students who
disrupted my lecture, who thumped me, or who said they wouldn’t be taught by
me, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>We discussed how I, as a trans person, didn’t and would
never have the choices that Kathleen Stock had</b>. In 30 years of what was an
astonishing career, nobody would short-list me (never mind offer me a job within
a week as happened to Stock). <o:p></o:p></p>
<h2>The Film that my wife, Sarah, & I previewed <o:p></o:p></h2>
<p class="MsoNormal">I am included in the film two or three times for a few
seconds each time. But that is irrelevant. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But what we saw: <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->It was not explained who I am and why I am included. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><!--[if !supportLists]-->2.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]-->They
do not reference my 50 years of experience, or that I am an expert, who has
worked on these issues with Governments and courts all over the world,
including the UK Government. <b><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><!--[if !supportLists]-->3.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->How much they use me is not the point, <b>how they
represent me</b> is the point i.e., <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 54pt; mso-list: l3 level2 lfo3;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">o<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->what I know, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 54pt; mso-list: l3 level2 lfo3;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">o<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->what I have done, and <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 54pt; mso-list: l3 level2 lfo3;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">o<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->what I say. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><!--[if !supportLists]-->4.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->The film is about <b>all about Kathleen Stock</b>. My
partner Sarah put it perfectly when she said, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: 110%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 10.35pt; margin-right: 4.75pt; margin-top: 10.0pt; margin: 10pt 4.75pt 6pt 10.35pt; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt;"><a name="_Hlk135835245"><span style="color: #990000;">“<b>This is the Kathleen Stock Rehabilitation
Movie”</b></span> <span style="color: #7030a0;"><o:p></o:p></span></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: 110%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 10.35pt; margin-right: 4.75pt; margin-top: 10.0pt; margin: 10pt 4.75pt 6pt 10.35pt; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt;">and as she left the room, she summed it up: <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: 110%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 10.35pt; margin-right: 4.75pt; margin-top: 10.0pt; margin: 10pt 4.75pt 6pt 10.35pt; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt;"><b><span style="color: #990000;">“It is a vile
and horrible little film”. </span><span style="color: #7030a0;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><!--[if !supportLists]-->5.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Stock is portrayed as an unfairly attacked woman who is
being targeted & terrorised by trans activists using unlawful techniques. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><!--[if !supportLists]-->6.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Even the Cambridge debate only shows one side, Kass
tearing a strip off Stock. But there was so much more to that debate than those
couple of sentences. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I assumed, naively, that everyone would be shown in a
similar way to each other in order to obtain that balance they said they were
seeking, In fact, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><!--[if !supportLists]-->7.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Throughout the film Stock is allowed to narrate the
story, her involvement, her background, and what she sees as her persecution. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><!--[if !supportLists]-->8.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Nobody else gets to do that. I do not get to do that, to
tell about my life as an academic who has faced similar events and handled them
very differently could have been<b> </b>the direct contrast to hers. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><!--[if !supportLists]-->9.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Stock’s narrative is never questioned, it is taken as
read – as true. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><!--[if !supportLists]-->10.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]-->None
of Stock’s public claims have been challenged in this film – for example,
she says and writes that ‘trans people
should not experience discrimination’, but then promotes a change in the
Equality Act 2010 which would result in trans people experiencing direct
discrimination<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><!--[if !supportLists]-->11.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]-->The
film repeatedly<b> </b>contrasts Stock’s ‘distress/bravery’
with various trans people and allies protesting her at different locations, but
the film never explains the reasons for the protests. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><!--[if !supportLists]-->12.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]-->The
film show ‘all in black’ activists setting off coloured smoke flares. But as the
film director and producer knew they were not smoke bombs, but coloured short
lived blue and pink flares (the colours of the trans flag). The flares were lit
outside Sussex University’s administrative block, a long way from her lecture.
But they show them in such a way, that Stock’s public claims of people setting
off smoke bombs whilst she is lecturing appear to have validity. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><!--[if !supportLists]-->13.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]-->They
imply Stock faced protesters at her lectures. She did not. There was no
demonstration inside her lecture. However, I did face protesters inside my
lecture and I was filmed explaining how he successfully handled it. There is
also accessible film on Parliament TV of Stephen explaining it to the
Parliamentary Public Bills Cttee when it took evidence on the Higher Education
(Freedom of Speech) bill <a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2021-09-07/debates/8afc9afb-4a55-4aef-a364-5686c34ccf29/HigherEducation(FreedomOfSpeech)Bill(SecondSitting)">https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2021-09-07/debates/8afc9afb-4a55-4aef-a364-5686c34ccf29/HigherEducation(FreedomOfSpeech)Bill(SecondSitting)</a>
and <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><!--[if !supportLists]-->14.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]-->They
allow Stock to frame the protests as being because she thinks trans women are
not women. This simplistic framing makes Stock look like the victim of
irrational trans protestors. However, they were protesting the implications of
her campaigning to have trans people lose their current rights, and her attacks
on a fellow academic Alison Phipps (that’s another story of how victimised she
can claim to be). <o:p></o:p></p>
<h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Contrasting Representation of Trans Participants and Stock</span></h2><h1><o:p></o:p></h1>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><!--[if !supportLists]-->15.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]-->The
film follows Kathleen throughout, in a way it does not do with other
participants, not even the trans woman Katy. Katy is shown as if she is the
‘only reasonable trans person’ – something the film crew knew to be not true.
In fact, all the trans people they filmed bent over backwards to be reasonable.
(FFS I received an OBE for being ‘the most reasonable lobbyist the Dept of
Constitutional Affairs had ever worked with’.)
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">All of us, Lily, Kass, Finn, Gina, Charlie and Andrew were
aware that we were sticking our necks above the parapet, but we did not think
the film director and producer were shooting at us.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I feel responsible because I know Charlie and Andrew only
took part because I had agreed to take part. I feel responsibile for persuading
Gina that this was OK, for telling Finn it was worth thinking about working
with Pamela Gordon.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Whilst all of us are presented well (i.e. sane) in the film,
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><!--[if !supportLists]-->16.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]-->All
of us are presented <b>outside of any context</b> other than Stock’s victimisation,
i.e., Stock’s version of the world. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><!--[if !supportLists]-->17.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]-->We
agreed to take part in a film which would help improve communications and move
the debates forward to focus on the real issues of male violence and misogyny. That
is not mentioned at all in this film. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><!--[if !supportLists]-->18.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]-->I
did not agree to take part in a film about Kathleen Stock, and as the director
and producer knew I would have refused to be involved in such a film. I would
be surprised if I heard any of the others agreed to be filmed for a film about
Kathleen Stock. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><!--[if !supportLists]-->19.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]-->This
documentary continues to expand Stock’s distorted and disingenuous claims,
portraying her as ‘ever so reasonable’. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><!--[if !supportLists]-->20.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Even
Stock’s dressing in a more non-feminine way is <b>not</b> placed in the recent
context of her falling in love with a woman. Having spent most of her life as a
feminine married woman, she even claims she now understands a little of how it
feels to be trans having occasionally been misgendered herself. I will assure anyone
that almost 6’ tall Kathleen Stock cannot understand a fingertip of the life this
5’2” trans man has lived over the last 50 years. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><!--[if !supportLists]-->21.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]-->No
context is included – The battles I had just to get testosterone therapy and
later surgery. She has no idea of the fears that I and my family have had to
face - the times I have been hit, been sacked, been threatened with eviction,
had people throw glass bottles at my kids. This film could have shown the
prejudice and discrimination that me and others like me faced, and fought, to
get to have our rights, but it doesn’t because that would take away from Stock’s
apparent persecution.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><!--[if !supportLists]-->22.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]-->The
film sums up trans people’s worries as being a little scared about going to the
loo in a pub. It is an utterly disgraceful piece of editing<o:p></o:p></p>
<h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Errors in the Film</span></h2><h1><o:p></o:p></h1>
<p class="MsoNormal">There are also significant <b>errors</b> (I assume not
deliberate) In the film. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><!--[if !supportLists]-->23.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]-->The
film seems appears to say that trans identities are a new thing; post-2004, but
obviously they aren't - I was born in 1955 and knew aged 10 that I was what was
referred to as a 'transsexual' or 'sex change'. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The word transgender was coined in 1979 by Virginia Prince,
and we coined trans at a meeting with Lynne Jones MP in 1996.
The European Court of Justice gave us a right to non-discrimination
in 1996, and the European Court of Human Rights recognised a right to
gender recognition, marriage, and privacy in 2002. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><!--[if !supportLists]-->24.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]-->The
commentary implies Isla Bryson was held with women in a women's prison. She was
– but she was held in segregation (solitary) and the system we had developed
under Prison Rules (PSI’s) was undertaken. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">There was a prompt (and I mean prompt) multi-disciplinary
team meeting, Isla underwent a thorough risk assessment and was transferred as
appropriate to the men's estate. She never met a female prisoner. I
worked on those prison rules for 8 years to get them put in place. After the
Karen White fiasco when the rules were snot followed, we worked a further 3 yrs
with government to ensure that would never happen again. And that process of
getting a sensible regime in place to protect women, wasn't quick or easy,
but it works as it did in the Isla Bryson case. <b>That must be clarified</b>,
otherwise the implications made in the film, become lies. <o:p></o:p></p>
<h2><span style="font-size: medium;">CONCLUSION</span><o:p></o:p></h2>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->The film does not show my knowledge and
expertise (I suspect because it would show how specious the arguments of people
like Stock are. Just a few instances of my life would show how specious her
claim to persecution is). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->On Pamela Gordon’s website she describes herself
and her films as relying <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: 110%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: 4.75pt; margin-top: 10.0pt; margin: 10pt 4.75pt 6pt 1cm; mso-border-shadow: yes; mso-padding-alt: 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt 31.0pt;">“on striking imagery, powerful
emotional testimony and <b>a sharp eye for
injustice</b>”. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt;">I am ashamed of my own stupidity
and naivety in believing she would keep her eye on the ball of injustice. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Here are some of this year’s injustices the film fails
to see: <u><o:p></o:p></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->The film does not mention how trans rights are
being stripped across the global north – no mention of the hundreds of
anti-trans bills being pushed through American legislatures. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 54pt; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">o<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b>Relevance</b>: it is US ‘anti-woke‘ right
wing billionaires who are pushing those
bills who now provide wages to Stock at the (not even a) University of Austin,
and those right wing billionaires rely on her ‘victimisation’ and her arguments
to push through those bills.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->The film does not mention the proposals to
remove rights from UK trans people which are now being made by (of all bodies)
the EHRC. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 54pt; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">o<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b>Relevance</b>: it is Stock and the
organisations she has been involved in, like Women’s Place, who have lobbied to
strip Trans people of our privacy rights (to pee in safety & peace whilst
at work, for Christ’s sake). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->The film does not mention how the HE (Freedom of
Speech) Bill will force Universities to strip students of their right to free
speech.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 54pt; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">o<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b>Relevance: </b> it was Stock’s ‘plight’ and lobbying that led
to ministers insisting we need a bill to protect the Freedom of Speech of the
neo-right like Stock. They could have
used me talking to the Commons Committee on what it was like to face a student
demonstration, and how I handled it in contrast.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Finally, the film does not even give a ‘news
headline’ to the death of a transphobically persecuted and victimised young
girl Brianna Ghay. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 54pt; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">o<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b>Relevance:</b> Alongside the protests they so
frequently show, they could have interspersed images of the 50,000 trans people
and allies who stood silently in freezing temperatures for hours in February,
at over 100 vigils up and down the UK, after Brianna’s death. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I took part in this film <u>solely so as to give both sides a
chance of moving forward</u>. I told Pamela Gordon what Julie Bindel and I had
been discussing. I wanted (and Julie also said it was what she wanted) to
prevent the death of a trans person or a woman. I wanted not only to stop that
happening, but also to prevent the personal losses & repercussions that
would be experienced by the families of the victim and the perpetrator(s). <b>It turns out we were too late for that. <o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">From my perspective, this film builds on the (already out
there) <b>false tropes of wicked trans people being women haters. Nothing could
be further from the truth</b>. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The film may show us as reasonable people, but it does not
show how hard we have had to fight <u>in order to become seen as reasonable </u>and
not the sexual perverts we were names as in the 1970s/80s and 90s.
Consequently, this film won’t contribute to preventing the next death in this
horrible petty & unnecessary war. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As it is I am barely in the film, and who I am and why I am
there is not at all clear. It’s a head that pops up twice and says something
for 10 seconds then 20 seconds. I cannot even remember if it even says who I am
or that I am a professor, or trans, or anything else. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">My concern now is to protect my reputation within my own
community. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">If C4 insist on showing ‘the Kathleen Stock rehabilitation story’
then I will speak out about the deception the film makers took part in<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It is quite simple: we agreed to take part in a film called
‘Sex/Gender Matters’, none of is would ever have agreed to take part in a film
called ‘Gender Wars’ about Kathleen Stock<o:p></o:p></p>
<span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The film makers have the materials and the
ability to recut this film and make the film they said they were intending to
make in the first place. Sadly in light of their behaviour throughout I hold little hope of them doing that. </span></div><div><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>Whittlingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03031721361092497811noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9017615131206820221.post-29300827715675403512022-07-04T19:25:00.004+01:002022-07-27T10:10:07.267+01:002022 & Stonewall denies an entire generation of Trans Activists<a href=""></a>
<blockquote style="text-align: left;">
</blockquote><h1 style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: red; font-family: trebuchet;">Sto</span><span style="color: #ffa400; font-family: trebuchet;">new</span><span style="color: #f1c232; font-family: trebuchet;">all:</span><span style="color: red; font-family: trebuchet;"> </span><span style="color: #6aa84f; font-family: trebuchet;">50</span><span style="color: #6aa84f; font-family: trebuchet;"> </span><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="color: #6aa84f;">Y</span><span style="color: #38761d;">e</span></span><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">ar</span><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">s</span></span><span style="color: #6aa84f; font-family: trebuchet;"> </span><span style="color: #674ea7;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">o</span><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">f P</span><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">r</span></span><span style="color: #c987ff;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">i</span><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">de</span></span></span></h1><div><span style="font-size: x-large;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXIxAYteYrE_P3UyJNP3GGyRyeSFq8aHBJJR67zcalx2V1x5fzaYbSIF9d7f3N5Je77-O1LevTdO1D_ljlfRceu5G2DCG84XqDvyre__3wcWW_hUpx2jXoRaIE_zQ34u9HdrVUGor7TLReRJRd6oDY1UewUaPko9Dkz5O_5WnQCRtEbTp1-KB2t-XM/s1280/2022%20Pride%20Flag.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXIxAYteYrE_P3UyJNP3GGyRyeSFq8aHBJJR67zcalx2V1x5fzaYbSIF9d7f3N5Je77-O1LevTdO1D_ljlfRceu5G2DCG84XqDvyre__3wcWW_hUpx2jXoRaIE_zQ34u9HdrVUGor7TLReRJRd6oDY1UewUaPko9Dkz5O_5WnQCRtEbTp1-KB2t-XM/s320/2022%20Pride%20Flag.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div></span></div><h2 style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #444444;">without </span><strike><span style="color: #999999;">Trans</span></strike><span style="color: #444444;"> people</span></span></h2><h4><span style="font-weight: normal;">by </span>Stephen Whittle<span style="font-weight: normal;">, </span></h4><h3 style="text-align: left;">Stonewall's Take on 50 Years of Pride</h3><div>There is a new, very watchable, pretty good, short film made by <b><a href="https://www.stonewall.org.uk/" target="_blank">Stonewall</a></b> (the film is available <b><span style="color: #666666;">at the bottom of this blog</span></b>) which celebrates the first Pride march in London and the 50 years of Lesbian and Gay. Some of those who were their or who are historians of the LGB community take part.</div><div>But ... and it is a <b>very <span style="color: #990000; font-size: large;">BIG BUT</span></b>, Stonewall has made a film which completely fails to acknowledge or portray the fight for trans rights during those 50 years. It is as if it did not exist before they (Stonewall) came along and (finally) became trans inclusive in 2015.</div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>Stonewall's film <b><i>d</i></b></span><b><i><span style="color: #666666;">oes not include the voice of any trans person who was at the first Pride march</span></i></b><span style="color: #073763;">, </span><span>nor does it include the voice of a trans historian, and it includes none of the voices of the many trans activists who took part in the fight for everyone's rights - the rights of of trans people, and LGB people, and women, during the long dark nights and often darker days of the 1970s, 80s, and 90s.</span></div><div><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #0b5394; font-family: arial;"><b>The history of the trans activists in the UK between 1992 and </b><b>2012 is quite astonishing. </b></span></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #0b5394;"></span></b></p><blockquote><b style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #0b5394;">Learning lessons from the failures and the gains of the Women's movement and Gay Rights Movement in the 1970s and 80s, trans activists from Press For Change achieved in less than 20 years a body of rights that had long been thought out of the question, in fact almost certainly legally impossible. </span></b></blockquote><b style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: #cccccc; color: #0b5394;"><blockquote><p>By 2010, European and UK law acknowledged a whole raft of trans people's human rights - </p></blockquote><blockquote><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>the right to be legally recognised in their affirmed gender, </li><li>the right to be educated, or undertake vocational training without discrimination or harassment,</li><li>the right to access gender affirming healthcare </li><li>the right to access goods, services, housing or facilities without discrimination or harassment,</li><li>the right to obtain and retain work, and to be treated equally without discrimination or harassment</li><li>the right to to formalise their love with another, of any natal sex, before the law, and </li><li>the right to create and retain families recognised by the law,</li><li>the right to retain parenthood of children one had raised</li></ul><p></p></blockquote></span></b><p></p><span>On Stonewall's website it announces itself as supposedly having been <span style="color: #2b00fe;"><a href="https://www.stonewall.org.uk/our-impact" target="_blank">'</a></span></span><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><a href="https://www.stonewall.org.uk/our-impact" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Work Sans", sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.16px;"><i>part of every major fight for LGBTQ+ rights since 1989</i></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Work Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.16px;">'</span></a></span><span> <b>and to put it plainly, Stonewall is<span style="color: #990000;"> <span style="font-size: medium;">fibbing</span>. </span></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span><b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Let me repeat that</span>:</span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><b><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-size: medium;"> Stonewall is telling</span><span style="color: white; font-size: medium;"> </span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">a great big whopper</span></span></b><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">. </span></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>Stonewall did <span style="font-size: large;">not </span>engage in the fight for trans rights for 26 years. I know because I did engage in every single part of that fight. Stonewall did not support the parliamentary lobbying we did for legal change, it did not help finance any of the court cases - we lost more than we won, but in the </span></div><div><span>end we did win the important ones. Stonewall had no understanding of trans people and the issues they faced. At a Parliamentary Committee reviewing the Equality Bill (which would become the Equality Act 2010), . Ben Summerskill the former Chief Executive of Stonewall is on the record denying there was any need for the Equality Act to provide protection from harassment saying:</span></div><div><i class="I" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><b class="B" data-kx-storage="{"fontSize":18,"lineHeight":false}"><br /></b></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span class="I" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><b class="B" data-kx-storage="{"fontSize":18,"lineHeight":false}">Ben Summerskill:</b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> "I can certainly say on the issue of harassment we are not convinced that there is a need for protection in this area. Members of the Committee who have dealt with Stonewall in the past will know that we tend only to ask for things where we can provide hard evidence of need"</span></i></div><div><span> </span></div><div><span>Yet harassment was always one of the major concerns of trans people, with <a href="http://www.pfc.org.uk/pdf/EngenderedPenalties.pdf" target="_blank">73% of the community experiencing harassment, and 10% being victims of threatening behaviour, when out in public spaces</a>.</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>Until 2015 Stonewall did not have trans rights on their agenda or in their charitable aims. I suspect that having finally succeeded in obtaining same sex marriage for their supporters, Stonewall needed a new 'cause' in order to apply for grant funding. Only then did Stonewall become an LGBT charitable organisation, and think to employ a trans or non-binary person onto its staff. </span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Doing Trans History</h3>Sometimes I wonder whether young trans people assume trans activists did not exist before 2015, or that if trans activists did, they are now all long dead and buried. They might be surprised to discover that most trans activists from the 1970s, 80s and 90s are still very much breathing, and quite a few of us are still kicking ... butts. </div><div><br /></div><div>There are. reasons why .our voices are not heard much these days; a few of that generation of trans activists needed to reclaim their privacy, sadly a few have died often without the fanfare they deserved, some were just very tired, and for some getting older has brought a new set of bodily challenges. As for the rest we <span>have, quite rightly, given ground to the voices of a younger generation of trans activists. </span></div><div><span style="color: #666666;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #666666;">Stonewall’s film on 50 years of Pride does include 2</span> young trans and non-binary activists – but the two who feature either don’t appear to know, or have not been given the space to talk, about that older generation of trans activists</div><div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #674ea7; font-size: large;">Being Trans in the 1970s</span></h3><div>There may have been very few 'out' trans people at the first Gay Pride in London in1972. But up north trans people were attending meetings of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality in Manchester, and a few of us were attending Gay Lib meetings – in my case at the Turk's Head Pub on Shude Hill in Manchester. </div><div><br /></div><div>It wasn't easy being trans in the 1970s. It did not matter if a person merely crossdressed on a part time basis, or they had transitioned and undergone gender reassignment surgery, trans people had no rights.</div><div>Also the newspapers (notably the News of the World) did every legal (and some illegal) activity to try and get stories of the 'sexual perverts' who were having a 'sex change'. Those news stories destroyed lives and livelihoods. Any trans person could lose their job in an instant, be refused access to shops and pubs, be refused essential healthcare as well as 'sex change' related healthcare, and the courts <b>would</b> refuse them access to their children if their relationships broke down. In truth, no matter how well trans people managed their lives, loved their families, or contributed to their workplaces and communities, they (and that includes me) were not human beings like other human beings. </div><div><br /></div><div>In 1974 a group of us set up the UK's first truly inclusive trans support group, the Manchester Transvestite & Transsexual (TV/TS) group, aka the Wednesday group, here in Manchester. In 1975, a number of trans people from the Manchester TV/TS group became involved in a collective of Manchester's LGB & T support groups to start Manchester's Gay Switchboard. We had managed to rent an office but apart from 2 telephones it was just a bare room. It seemed we would be sitting on orange boxes as we took calls. </div><div><br /></div><div>Flash forward 47 years, and at LGBT History month event at Manchester's Central LIbrary a few months ago, I met an older gay man I had not seen for many years. He reminded me of how I had persuaded him to take part in an 'action'. As he described it, memories long filed away flooded back. </div><div><br /></div><div>In 1975, every other week, a couple of men ran an inclusive disco at the Manchester Polytechnic's Righton building. They just happened to both be Trade Union shop stewards for the Poly’s laboratory technicians. I just happened to be working at the Poly as a lab technician and they also happened to be my next-door neighbours. I had seen some the tables and chairs being readied for throwing out at the Poly, so I asked if we could have some of them for the switchboard, but bureaucracy said no (this was before there were Computers to say no). We had conspired to liberate the furniture, and so one warm summer evening whilst we had unsupervised access to the building as the disco was being set up, a small group of trans and gay men made numerous hilarious trips down Oxford Road, Manchester’s main student thoroughfare so that the tables and chairs could take up their new duties in the switchboard office.</div><div><br /></div><div><div>In 2001, despite the involvement of many members of Manchester’s TV/TS group being involved in setting up and wo/man'ing the switchboard phones (some did so for the next 30 years or more) at a reception put on by the city to celebrate switchboard, not one trans person who was involved in its creation was invited. The city did invite my lovely friend Julia Grant to be the nominal trans person at that event - but <b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Julia was never a trans activist</span></b> or involved in switchboard. Similarly at many London events, until her death I would see the delightful April Ashley wheeled out to represent the community but, as <span><b style="color: #0b5394;">April </b>would say, she was <b style="color: #0b5394;">never ‘one for groups’,</b> and<b style="color: #0b5394;"> she was never a trans activist.</b></span></div><div><span><b style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></b></span></div><div><span><b style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: black; font-weight: 400;">LGB history also forgets that as a community we lost many people along the way. Whilst here in the UK, only a few died as a direct consequence of transphobic violence, there were far more lost to the deliberate institutional cruelty of those organisations we were often forced to approach when we needed help; the police, the NHS, the courts, our families, our employers, our landlords and also some LGB service providers. Throughout the 80s and 90s we also lost many friends to the AIDS epidemic, but you would never have thought so from the complete failure to include us other than nominally, as drag queens and cute mascots, in any lesbian and gay version of LGBT+ history.</span></b></span></div><div><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b><br /></b></span><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #990000; font-size: large;">One Group of People were fighting for Trans Rights</span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="background-color: white;"><blockquote><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Some did more in the campaign, some did less, but every single one of them was jeopardising their employment, their home and their place in their families. Every single one of them knew they were risking public opprobrium, and that they faced (and some did) becoming a victim of violence.</b></span></blockquote></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></div><div>With roots in the Manchester group in 1992, six trans people (and one cis partner) founded the trans rights campaign group <b><a href="http:\\www.pfc.org.uk" target="_blank">Press For Change</a> (PFC).</b> </div><div><br /></div><div>At first there was a trickle, but by the turn of the century hundreds of trans people and their families had become grass roots PFC activists. Some devoted 25 years of their lives to the fight for those rights, some are still fighting. </div><div><br /></div><div>Some folk did more in the campaign, some folk did less, but</div></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="color: #073763;"><span></span>every single PFC trans activist knew they were jeopardising their employment, their home and their place in their families, and</span></li><li><span style="color: #073763;">every single PFC activist, trans or cis, knew they were risking public opprobrium, and</span></li><li><span style="color: #073763;">every single PFC activist, trans or cis, knew they were risking becoming (and some would become) a victim of violence.</span></li></ul></div><div><div>In the USA, the 80s and 90s saw trans people excluded from many events by many parts of the women's movement. That wasn't our experience here in the UK. Women, particularly 3rd wave feminists, supported us in our fight for trans rights. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>The opposition came in the form of right wing/ traditionalist evangelical Christian individuals and organisations and lesbian women, gay men and their organisations, particularly Stonewall, that excluded us. I remember meetings as late as 2012 when as Trans folk walked in, there were LGB people who walked out. Until <b>2005</b> trans people really were <i>personae non gratae</i> in the UK's Lesbian & Gay organisations. <b>Stonewall</b> went further than most, barring trans people, including those whose sexual orientation was lesbian or gay, until 2015. It was a response directly mirroring the response of gay men to trans women in the early days of Gay lib. Trans people, especially trans women, threatened their battle for middle class assimilation into some 'special, safe, gay space' within the citadels of heteronormativity. </div><div><br /></div><div>In retrospect, it seems many gay men and some lesbian women have achieved their assimilation. These are the lesbians and gay men AND their spouses attending Royal and Tory garden parties. Their setting up of the <b style="font-style: italic;"><a href="https://lgballiance.org.uk/about/" rel="nofollow">LGB Alliance</a> </b>is partly to protect those spaces from people like us.<br /><br />When Manchester's Lesbian and Gay groups were prepare<span style="font-family: inherit;">d to welcome trans people and work alongside them in the setting up of Manchester’s </span>gay switchboard in the 1970s, it is important to acknowledge that rare moment of collaboration <b><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000;">was the exception</span></b>, not the rule. </div><div><br /></div><div>But Trans rights were never about assimilation or inclusion, they were about Liberation for all from the binary control of modernist sex and gender roles. As trans people, we understood and experienced the violence that comes from those who insist we live only in a hetero/homo binary sexed/gendered normative version of ourselves. </div><div><br /></div><div>Trans activist and writer Kate Bornstein, author of <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/52108.Gender_Outlaw" style="background-color: white; font-family: trebuchet; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #0f1111; font-family: trebuchet; font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0f1111; font-family: trebuchet;">(1994</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0f1111; font-family: trebuchet;">)</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0f1111; font-family: trebuchet; font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0f1111; font-family: inherit;">put it </span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1111; line-height: 36px; margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span class="a-size-extra-large" data-kx-storage="{"fontSize":28,"lineHeight":36}" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 37.44px !important; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span><blockquote><span class="a-size-extra-large" data-kx-storage="{"fontSize":28,"lineHeight":36}" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 37.44px !important; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent;">gender ambiguity and gender outlaws are made invisible in this
culture, and because gender transgressors are by and large silent (and
thus invisible), for reasons stated earlier, the defenders of gender rigidity lash out at the nearest familiar label: homosexuality and lesbianism,
the points at which gender outsiders intersect with sexual outsiders. </span><span style="background-color: transparent;">Not surprisingly, there are no words for the terror and hatred of
gender transgressors, and because no one has named it yet, it seems
that there is no hatred. When they do name it, they'll probably call it
"genderism" or something equally boring. ...</span>The acts of a gender defender are acts of violence against gender outsiders."</blockquote></div><div> </div><div>There are now a name given to this lashing out, this hatred of anyone transgressing the gender norm; it is transphobia. Those gender defenders do not admit to being transphobic; they are simply being 'gender critical'. At the same time, in order to justify their attacks on a whole, massively diverse community of people often with little in common except our personal need to transgress their gender norms in order to live as our best selves, they have decided we have a 'plan' which they have framed our 'gender ideology'. </div><div>When I ask trans people to explain our gender ideology they initially look confused. When I explain that gender critical feminists say we have a 'plan', funded by the rich American philanthropists George Soros, Jennifer Pritzer and Jon Arcus, to impose our 'gender ideology' on the rest of the world by </div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>promoting stereotypical sex roles (men as aggressors, women as passive), </li><li>demanding non-binary toilets, </li><li>insisting on legal right for male bodied people to access to women only spaces, </li><li>and the provision of pubertal postponement treatment to gender confused kids,</li></ul></div><div>trans people roar with laughter. </div><div><br /></div><div>After they calm down, the anger flows </div><div></div><blockquote><div>"do these people/women ever stop and think about how disempowered trans people are?", </div></blockquote><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;">"they have never stopped and thought what it is like to have your parents tell you, day in day out, that you are a pathetic human being", </div></blockquote><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;">"since when did we insist on sex stereotyping, just look at us. Maybe in the past there was a focus on passing - but that was imposed by us on the medics. The London clinic under (Psychiatrist) John Randell wouldn't give you hormones unless you looked like an acceptable woman or man to him. Some of us may still prefer more conventional wear, but most of us are pushing through sex stereotypical boundaries by being the people we are, and being out about who we are. We are not trying to deceive anyone."</div></blockquote><blockquote><p>"I spent my childhood experiencing almost daily enforcement of heteronormative sex stereotypes, with endless punishment, from excluding me from peer activities at school - the nice parts - to bloody good thrashings from my dad", </p>" I bet almost every single one of us has been sexually assaulted, usually some guy telling us that his willy will provide the cure. I wish these supposed feminists would stop and think about that. We are their biggest allies in opposing misogyny but they just don't want to hear that.",<br /></blockquote><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;">"Funding, what funding, has anyone here or any trans organisation ever seen funding, other than Mermaids receiving one lottery grant". </div></blockquote><div></div><div style="text-align: left;">The Gender Ideology that gender critical feminists are insisting we supposedly have and we supposedly promote, is a figment of their imagination. It is a way of justifying their scapegoating of the trans community. It is a reflection of the way the Nazi's insisted the 'Protocols of Zion' was a real plan by Jewish people to take over the world. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Gender ideology is nothing other than a way for the gender critical people to place the blame on a minority, to make us look like the bad guys here. In reality there is no such thing as 'our trans gender ideology". But for what are trans people being blamed? That is another question.</div><div></div><div><br /></div><div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><b>Pride and the Trans Community</b></span></h3>It took until <b>1996</b> for London Pride to become a Trans inclusive march. Prior to 1996 a few of us did attend, but always on the periphery. Even as late as 1996 we were having to negotiate long and hard with Pride management, who initially told us we could attend but only if we did not bring a banner and we went to the back of the march. We told them where to go with those suggestions, we were not going to be second class citizens at the back of the queue, and we were not going to pretend we were not part of the wider queer community. </div><div><br /></div><div>But as we took our place in the march, even then it was quite clear that some LGB people were not happy with our presence on that march, although to be fair the majority were more than welcoming.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidlLP_LyOb71m1TnNfa4ABhvYkuiTj3vs3PzJShUaNAgLmMTm02H7VChauTX4jAiv9O0nCp0BB_lw1qermaNr9RkbwhyFPqmt-eCKjF6w46N_E8kg3PcYB9XW2JtKI0GLxzE9Vo9uo3VePuyEpnA3xyqFDy_cKezthuwTPfs_3a-U9pR9qIJN0doGa/s1168/2010_AnenomeProjectors_04.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="876" data-original-width="1168" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidlLP_LyOb71m1TnNfa4ABhvYkuiTj3vs3PzJShUaNAgLmMTm02H7VChauTX4jAiv9O0nCp0BB_lw1qermaNr9RkbwhyFPqmt-eCKjF6w46N_E8kg3PcYB9XW2JtKI0GLxzE9Vo9uo3VePuyEpnA3xyqFDy_cKezthuwTPfs_3a-U9pR9qIJN0doGa/w400-h300/2010_AnenomeProjectors_04.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div>I still have the PFC banner which my cis-sister and her cis-husband made for us to take to the 1996 Pride march, and a t-shirt I designed for the PFC marchers. I went to the march with our two oldest (very young) children. Taking a new banner and poles, a large cardboard box of t-shirts, and two small children – one in a buggy – on the train from Manchester to take part in a march in London was a pretty mad idea at the time, but we had a glorious day.</div><div><span><h4 style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #741b47;">“</span><i><span style="color: #073763;">we’re here, we’re queer and we are going shopping</span></i><span style="color: #741b47;">”</span></h4></span></div><div>Gabriel, our 3 year old son, spent the day having a long line of trans people jostling to be next in turn for pushing his buggy, and Fay Presto, the Royal’s preferred magician, walked alongside, performing magic to entertain the children. The entire route passed in a happy blur that day. I will never forget the sound rising as we marched down London’s Oxford Street chanting “<i><span style="color: #666666;">we’re here, we’re queer and we ARE going shopping</span></i>”. It sounded like poetic justice. <br /><br />Eleanor, our 5-year-old, was shocked by the dreadful standard of marching, saying <br /></div></div><div><div><p style="text-align: left;"></p><blockquote><span style="color: #0b5394;"><i>“they would all learn to march better if they went to Miss Bates’ ballet classes.” </i></span></blockquote><p></p></div></div><div>She was right, but trying to explain why we were not marching in a march was difficult. She also wanted to know why the men with bunny tails on the back of their jeans, also had a big hole where their ‘bum’ was. I’m not certain I gave an adequate answer to that either. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>That was 1996. <span style="color: #666666;"><b>It took another 20 years</b></span> for Stonewall to welcome the trans community into its fold, and I do sometimes wonder what was the real reason behind that inclusion.</div><div><br /></div><div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">Pressing For Change</span></h3><div>The recent history of the UK’s trans activism is quite astonishing. In less than 20 years, PFC activists achieved so much more acknowledgement of our human rights to be and to love, and the legal changes to support those rights than either the Women's movement or the LGB community had managed to achieve. </div><div><br /></div>It was all done on a budget of less than £2k each year, not the £hundreds of thousands (now £millions) Stonewall generates annually. </div><div><br /></div><div>PFC didn't have a fancy London headquarters, PFC had the corners of people's bedrooms in dark northern towns and cities. PFC Activists couldn't go for a cosy tea in the Lords' Bar at the Palace of Westminster, nor could they plan to have lunch with London based BBC Executives. PFC did not have money to spend on advertising budgets, or computers, or anything much. Any money raised went direct to train companies for our journeys back and forth to London to negotiate with Government departments, or speak to our pro-bono lawyers, or to insure against the massive costs the Government increasingly threatened to seek if we lost the court cases our activists took to gain our rights</div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">PFC and the Civil Partnership Act </span></h3><div>I will give just one example of what that (now more mature) generation of Trans activists achieved not just for the trans community, but for the UK’s LGBTQ+ community as a whole; the <b>Civil Partnership Act 2005 </b>(CP Act).</div><div><br />The CP Act came about as a direct result of PFC activists lobbying the Government for it. But, back in 2005, why would trans people be lobbying for same sex relationship recognition?</div><div><br /></div><div>As activists we faced a huge and real challenge as we worked with various Government departments to negotiate an acceptable format for the <b><span style="color: #666666;">Gender Recognition Act 2004</span> </b>(GR Act). We were determined to meet a commitment we had made many years earlier. PFC's campaign motto was ‘<b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Respect and Equality for <span style="background-color: #fcff01;"><span style="font-size: medium;">ALL</span></span> trans people</span></b>’. and, as far as we were concerned <b><span style="color: #444444;">nobody was going to be left behind</span></b><b style="color: #741b47;">. </b></div><div><br /></div><div>The problem we had was that some older trans woman, many of them PFC activists, had remained married to their wives, and they were now living as married same sex couples. <br /><br />In their youth, many of those trans women had taken what George Brown MD had termed <span style="color: #666666;"><b>‘<i>t</i></b><i><span><b>he flight into hypermasculinity</b></span></i>’</span>. At school in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, so as not to be beaten up as sissy boys they had successfully pretended to be much tougher than they really were. Many were to find themselves becoming captain the school Rugger or Soccer teams. On leaving school, they had joined the armed or emergency services going on to become captain of a battalion, a ship or an air squadron, or perhaps a chief superintendent in a Police service. On retiring from the services, they had often ended their working life as a captain of industry - if they made it that far. Many had breakdowns in their 50s or 60s, finally confessing to their wives that they had always thought they should be a woman. </div><div><br />The women they had married, had not been able to to build a career & pension for themselves. Their spouse’s career had required the family to frequently move home. The wife would often be the sole parent to their children for months on end, year in year out. For this work, their reward would eventually be a survivor pension benefit if their spouse predeceased them. Many of these women had selflessly volunteered in their local communities and on the service bases they were sent to, and despite their husband transitioning, they had supported them, remaining loyal, loving <b><span style="color: #666666;">and married</span></b>.</div><div><br /></div><div>In 2004, a spouse's survivor pension benefits disappeared if the couple divorced. We couldn’t seem to find a way within the GR Act to avoid these couple’s having to divorce, as Tony Blair had refused to allow any space for same sex marriage to become a consequence (via some loophole or backdoor) of the GR Act. </div><div><br /></div><div>Without some special mechanism, either the non-trans spouse would have to forgo the survivor pension benefits if their trans wife died, or the trans spouse had to forgo being legally recognised as the woman they are.These were selfless people who had spent a lifetime in public service, and so both were willing to volunteer to give up their side of this hard-won bargain. </div><div><br /></div><div>But we refused to let either of them give up what they had both worked so hard for. Those of us in negotiation with the Government were lobbying hard for a solution. Claire McNab and myself took several trips to Stonewall's office just along from Victoria Station, outlined our plans and asked them to support us, or at least not interfere. </div><div><br /></div><div>We were working with a very sympathetic team inside the Department for Constitutional Affairs, and the minister for the Gender Recognition Bill, Lord Geoffrey Filkin was all for finding a solution, so when we suggested something like France's Pax Civil which gave equivalence (to marriage) to non-married couples, they were willing to look at it. Eventually it was agreed that a Civil Partnership Act (CP Act) allowing unmarried same sex couples to have their unions recognised by the state, would follow the GRA by 6 months. We then had to work with the Tribunals and Courts service to create a mechanism for the GR Act and the CP Act to create the desired effect. </div><div><br /></div><div>The mechanism created would allow couples, where one partner was trans, to go with some advance preparation to the High Court. There they would divorce but the Court would then conclude the gender recognition application of the trans partner, at the same time handing them their completed gender recognition certificate. The couple would then walk to the Registrars office and contract their civil partnership. Because this all took place on the same day, the Government pension schemes were willing to accept their marriage/civil partnership as a continuing relationship and the survivor pension benefits were protected. </div><div><br /></div><div>Maybe 50 couples with a trans partner were able to benefit from the CP Act, before the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 came into force, but as we know, many thousands of LGB couples were also able to legally formalise their relationship. </div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;">Trans Folk Belong in the History of LGBT+ Britain</span></h3><div>Trans folk have a huge place in the LGBT+ history of the UK, but again and again we are not included. </div><p style="text-align: left;"></p><blockquote><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: times; font-size: medium;">A historically accurate version of 50 years of Pride which is truly trans inclusive is bound to be rather uncomfortable and unsettling for Stonewall, who treated trans folk like lesser humans for too long. It isn’t the story of the heroic Lesbian women and Gay men that Stonewall wants to tell about itself.</span></blockquote><p></p><div>In their film celebrating 50 years since the first Pride March, Stonewall has two young trans activists speaking <span style="color: #666666; font-weight: bold;">who were not there </span>and who have no idea of that history. Stonewall's film also has<span style="color: #38761d; font-weight: bold;"> </span>two (more mature) lesbian women: <b><span style="color: #666666;">Sue Sanders</span></b> of <a href="http://www.schools-out.org.uk/" target="_blank"><b>School's Out</b></a> and <span style="color: #666666;"><b>Lisa Power</b></span> of <a href="https://switchboard.lgbt/" target="_blank"><b>London Switchboard</b></a> and the <a href="https://www.tht.org.uk/" target="_blank"><b>Terence Higgins Trust</b></a> . </div><div><br /></div><div>In themselves<span style="color: #990000; font-weight: bold;"> I greatly admire Sue </span><span style="color: #666666;">and </span><span style="color: #990000; font-weight: bold;">Lisa </span>and the work they have done over many years. But I do wonder if they knew they were going to be talking <b style="background-color: #fcff01;">ABOUT us WITHOUT us</b> and <b style="background-color: #fcff01;">instead of us</b>. I suspect not.<span style="color: #990000; font-weight: bold;"> </span></div><div><br /></div><div>What will it take for Stonewall and other LGB (and supposedly T+) organisations to pick up the phone, or to write an email, and involve those of us who were there? The Trans activists who over 25 or 50 years did the work, haven’t gone anywhere. We know we are in their phone books, and their email address lists because they constantly send messages asking us for money. </div><div><br /></div><div>In reality, the true story of trans activism in the UK has become something of an embarrassment to many LGB organisations like Stonewall. The years of rejection of the trans community by these LGB organisations meant Trans folk didn’t need them to do anything for us – we did it for ourselves, by ourselves. <span style="color: #666666;"><b>And along the way we also did a lot for them</b></span>. </div><div><br /></div><div>A historically accurate version of 50 years of Pride which is truly trans inclusive is bound to be rather uncomfortable and unsettling for Stonewall, who treated us like lesser humans for too many years, and it isn’t the story of the heroic Lesbian women and Gay men that Stonewall wants to tell about itself.</div><div><br /></div><div>The lack of truth in Stonewall's film is even more disturbing so since trans people have become the scapegoats in this Government’s filthy dirty culture war. But the truth is the truth, and no amount of Lesbian and Gay people claiming to be our saviours, will make them that. </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><span style="font-size: large;">We are still doing it for ourselves.</span></b></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwoKJWQx6oRmERIt1NzbW6i73wmVgbk-9BoL6R4Nvk4lHTi7nlFntLCt8V6yFUq2X7aEobBpK13xWUcXLz8gl_ORjNRDq-b_6BuN_7bN7rZkk3eRjrPK6wazLp0lOqL4Jvi9QEvOsKdjFlY_nyivvaTtoFCR36FUSSmW6h8bMGAbsKJ0kRme0Ae-CM/s1117/Pride%20PFC%20banner%202.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="736" data-original-width="1117" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwoKJWQx6oRmERIt1NzbW6i73wmVgbk-9BoL6R4Nvk4lHTi7nlFntLCt8V6yFUq2X7aEobBpK13xWUcXLz8gl_ORjNRDq-b_6BuN_7bN7rZkk3eRjrPK6wazLp0lOqL4Jvi9QEvOsKdjFlY_nyivvaTtoFCR36FUSSmW6h8bMGAbsKJ0kRme0Ae-CM/w400-h264/Pride%20PFC%20banner%202.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div><blockquote style="text-align: left;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9;">To see Stonewall's film, <b>Pride 50</b> follow the link or watch below</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9;"><a href="https://youtu.be/GzFKiK6CJQ8"><b>Pride 50 | Stonewa</b></a><b><a href="https://youtu.be/GzFKiK6CJQ8">ll</a><br /><br /></b></span></span></p></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GzFKiK6CJQ8" width="320" youtube-src-id="GzFKiK6CJQ8"></iframe></div><br /> <p></p></div></div>Whittlingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03031721361092497811noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9017615131206820221.post-61375088146405046632020-06-13T23:22:00.001+01:002020-06-13T23:22:24.881+01:00The Real & Ever-Present Danger<a href=""></a>
<blockquote style="text-align: left;">
</blockquote><p style="line-height: 1; text-align: left;"></p><h3 style="line-height: 1; text-align: center;"><font face="verdana" size="2" style="line-height: 1;">Changes have happened, but more are needed.</font></h3><p style="line-height: 1;"></p><h1 style="line-height: 1; text-align: center;"><font color="#ffffff" face="verdana" size="4" style="background-color: black; line-height: 1;"> Policing the Black Trans Community </font></h1><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="verdana" style="line-height: 1.5;">WPATH members know from their direct interactions with our colleagues, patients or clients, and in some cases their own experiences, that more BAME than 'white' trans people continue to be victims of multiple discrimination, prejudice, homelessness, poverty, abuse, and hate crimes.</font></font><p></p><p style="line-height: 1;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="verdana" style="line-height: 1.5;">In 2019, according to the Trans Murder Project, 3314 trans and gender diverse people from across the world, were murdered. 148 of these people were in Europe. Not all were black, but most died alone, killed by unknown assailants.</font></font></p><p style="line-height: 1;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;"></font></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfWIZ83ucQvOEk7jDNEowHIqiqgcHSO7u-3f2dcJP4AAVJuAknaeqtYTJrd0YJExvalnq1BWbP04lixxr6f_t6lpBO5I9OUWqsmZQzEwi34GoichsDhWR-QRHtEMeVVwsHICyG9_pXWSc/s1000/tony-mcdade.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="1000" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfWIZ83ucQvOEk7jDNEowHIqiqgcHSO7u-3f2dcJP4AAVJuAknaeqtYTJrd0YJExvalnq1BWbP04lixxr6f_t6lpBO5I9OUWqsmZQzEwi34GoichsDhWR-QRHtEMeVVwsHICyG9_pXWSc/w640-h384/tony-mcdade.jpg" width="640" /></a></font></div><p></p><p style="line-height: 1; text-align: left;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;"><font color="#3367d6" face="verdana" style="line-height: 1.5;">Tony McDade, a Black trans man, was shot dead by a white police officer in north Florida on May 27, becoming the third person killed by Florida police in the last two months.</font></font></p><p style="line-height: 1;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="verdana" style="line-height: 1.5;">In my adult lifetime, I can remember when Argentine law enforcers used to throw trans women into the Harbour to drown. That has ended, but it seems Bolsanaro's Brazil might have reclaimed the practice.</font></font></p><p style="line-height: 1;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="verdana" style="line-height: 1.5;">Put simply, many Law enforcers cannot accept our authenticity and frequently refuse to affirm our identities. Failing to acknowledge our cultures, they refuse to learn how to communicate with trans people. It is much worse for BAME trans people.</font></font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="verdana" style="line-height: 1.5;">As a lawyer & a trans man, all too often I see many Law enforcers who ignore the needs of trans people. I have known police to arrest a trans person who has been beaten up. Apparently, we are the cause of our victimisation by simply being. I </font></font><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: small; line-height: 1.5;">have been threatened with arrest myself simply for trying to say another arrestee has a severe medical condition.</span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: small; line-height: 1.5;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: small; line-height: 1.5;">And from personal experience, I know Law enforcers will rarely pursue those others who have victimised us.</span></p><h2 style="line-height: 1.5; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: verdana; line-height: 1.5;"><font color="#ffffff" size="4"> Being Watched </font></span></h2><p style="line-height: 1;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="verdana" style="line-height: 1.5;"><b>BAME trans people experience a daily suspicion</b> which sees them watched, stopped and searched so frequently that they can barely go grocery shopping without seeing handcuffs. BAME trans people experience the<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersectionality" target="_blank"><b> intersectional failure of justice </b></a>because they are black, poor, and trans.</font></font></p><p style="line-height: 1;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="verdana" style="line-height: 1.5;">Our lives are not all roses and new underwear. Far too many trans people, and BAME trans people in particular,</font></font></p><p style="line-height: 1;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;"><font color="#b51200" face="verdana" style="line-height: 1.5;">experience prejudice and discrimination, harassment and victimisation in their workplace, their family, their faith groups or in any public space,</font></font></li><li><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;"><font color="#b51200" face="verdana" style="line-height: 1.5;">are victims of domestic violence within their birth families, and then excluded from their families, for ever,</font></font></li><li><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;"><font color="#b51200" face="verdana" style="line-height: 1.5;">are refused employment, or lose employment on transition,</font></font></li><li><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;"><font color="#b51200" face="verdana" style="line-height: 1.5;">are unable to obtain or afford life or medical insurance,</font></font></li><li><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;"><font color="#b51200" face="verdana" style="line-height: 1.5;">will acquire life changing and life shortening disease from the men who rape them; including HIV, aids and other sexually transmitted diseases.</font></font></li><li><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;"><font color="#b51200" face="verdana" style="line-height: 1.5;">are refused asylum and are returned to be brutally persecuted on account of their gender identity.</font></font></li><li><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;"><font color="#b51200" face="verdana" style="line-height: 1.5;">are brutally trafficked into sex work and suffer appalling injuries at the hands of men,</font></font></li><li><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;"><font color="#b51200" face="verdana" style="line-height: 1.5;">are induced into drug habits which may numb whatever they have to do, but they are then forever owned by their pimp, and the huge international and European trafficking gangs,</font></font></li><li><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;"><font color="#b51200" face="verdana" style="line-height: 1.5;">will experience life changing injuries from, brutal beatings by strangers,</font></font></li><li><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;"><font color="#b51200" face="verdana" style="line-height: 1.5;">develop mental illness because of their despair and lack of power.</font></font></li></ul><p></p><p style="line-height: 1; text-align: left;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="verdana" style="line-height: 1.5;">These trans women and men come from all over the world, but they are disproportionately BAME. </font></font></p><p style="line-height: 1; text-align: left;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="verdana" style="line-height: 1.5;">Trans people,are over-represented in prison - <font color="#3367d6"><b>in the USA, 30% of black people incarcerated in the men’s estate are trans or non-binary women</b></font>. Europe's figures are much lower, but still too high.</font></font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5; text-align: left;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="verdana" style="line-height: 1.5;">In most of the world including the continental European states, trans people, often asylum seekers, are unable to access free or low cost gender services, and they are not allowed to take up paid employment. A significant number of trans women and some trans men only survive by taking up sex work. They are frequently victimised or brutalised; d</font></font><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: small; line-height: 1.5;">isproportionately killed when they become a nuisance to the world and economic structures of their pimps or punters, who (surprisingly) are never caught or punished. </span></p><p style="line-height: 1;"></p><h2 style="text-align: center;"><font style="line-height: 1.5;"><font color="#ffffff" face="verdana" size="4" style="background-color: black; line-height: 1.5;"> The Real & Ever-Present Danger </font></font></h2><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="verdana" style="line-height: 1.5;">Throughout the world, for many trans teenagers their first sexual experience will be rape by a man who believes he is doing them a favour by inserting his magic penis into their bodies. Men insist they can make trans men into happy straight women, and they also insist they can make trans women into happy gay men. Like so many others of the trans community, age 14, one men's logic completely escaped me. It was not a good day.</font></font><p></p><p style="line-height: 1;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="verdana" style="line-height: 1.5;">The undermining of our very beings, our gender identity, never seems to stop. I just want to shout <i><b>"Butt out, what did I do to you?".</b></i><br /></font><font face="verdana" style="line-height: 1.5;">For some trans people the violence and abuse only ends when their life does.</font></font></p><h2 style="line-height: 1; text-align: center;"><font style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="verdana" size="4" style="background-color: #eeeeee; line-height: 1.5;"> The Division of the Victims </font></font></h2><h2 style="line-height: 1; text-align: center;"></h2><h1 style="text-align: center;"><font color="#ffffff" style="background-color: black;"> Crying In Despair </font></h1><p></p><p style="line-height: 1; text-align: left;"></p><p style="line-height: 1; text-align: left;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;"><font style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="verdana" style="line-height: 1.5;">As for our Gender Critical friends, our divisions are a crying shame. </font></font><span style="font-family: verdana; line-height: 1.5;">We should be natural allies with our critics, and them with us. </span></font></p><p style="line-height: 1; text-align: left;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="font-family: verdana; line-height: 1.5;">We have common cause in fighting the good fight to end men's violence on women, children, and trans people. It is not our job any longer to change any men except our sons and their futures. But it is all of our job to tell men to pull their socks up and get with the programme which demands they all stand up, are counted, and make men into better people.</span></font></p><p style="line-height: 1; text-align: left;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="font-family: verdana; line-height: 1.5;">Having become pariahs, we will cast them out from our reclaimed city streets, onto a Ship of Fools to forever roam our waterways. If generous, we might leave out a box of jaffa cakes or similar. </span></font></p><p style="line-height: 1; text-align: left;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1N0241eXmpLuamnhZ7KPIbB68SlZ-2Ns41_DOrIVTbDLzbuGlKqdkUrM2YeCSM2yAxdVmZvLx6xoNfolOZ1jjdfhmHu7HTr_x__C0hfkxofrwMsUNEmJbzIUY5VeI1GaF0mSURWKqFqg/s1337/00+ship++of+fools+buhlernarrenschiff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Thomas Bühler (1957-), Das Narrenschiff (Ship of Fools)" border="0" data-original-height="1084" data-original-width="1337" height="518" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1N0241eXmpLuamnhZ7KPIbB68SlZ-2Ns41_DOrIVTbDLzbuGlKqdkUrM2YeCSM2yAxdVmZvLx6xoNfolOZ1jjdfhmHu7HTr_x__C0hfkxofrwMsUNEmJbzIUY5VeI1GaF0mSURWKqFqg/w640-h518/00+ship++of+fools+buhlernarrenschiff.jpg" title="Thomas Bühler (1957-), Das Narrenschiff (Ship of Fools)" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><i>Thomas Bühler (1957-), Das Narrenschiff (Ship of Fools)</i></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana; line-height: 1.5;"><br /></span></font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: small; line-height: 1.5;">If they don't do it soon, they will find the boat has left as the rest of the world changes. </span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: small; line-height: 1.5;">They will be left is a pair of blow up swimming wings, as m</span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: small; line-height: 1.5;">y personal vengeance will be to take away their power to swim. That way they might finally learn what it is like trying to doggy paddle when you fall into very deep, frigid water.</span></p><p style="line-height: 1;"></p><h3 style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"> You saw me on telly, but you don't know me </span></h3><font style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="verdana" style="line-height: 1.5;"><font size="2"><p style="line-height: 1.5; text-align: left;">Our nationalist right wing government has an aversion to experts. So it seems do many others. A few hours (not the 10 thousand normally required) of reading unattributed 'witness' makes a person into an expert on trans lives,. So much an expert, they are now qualified to tell trans people what it is like to be us, who we are and how we should live - a somewhat presumptive position. </p></font></font></font><p style="text-align: left;"><font style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="verdana" style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="verdana" size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;">As a trans person who has studied for 45 years, try remembering that when I say I know, I know and will show the evidence. If I don't know, then I will tell you that no data has been collected and analysed on that question. I won't lie, fantasise, or politicise my answer. And if wrong I will apologise and do some more work. </font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="verdana" style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="verdana" size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;">As a person raised as a girl and who almost stepped into womanhood - I certainly tried hard - and who did 20 years with that status, when I say I understand, I am not being facetious. I know what it is like to be ignored, flashed at, harassed, thumped, sexually assaulted and more. </font></font></font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="verdana" style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="verdana" size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;">When you say I cannot understand your worries about the safety of your daughters, having raised three young women I can truthfully tell you those worries were, and are still mine, and they are now in the twenties. I wish you could respect that maybe I know <b>some</b> things. </font></font></font></p><p></p><p style="line-height: 1.5;"><font style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="verdana" style="line-height: 1.5;"><font size="2">I as a white British, able, articulate, middle aged, middle income, now middle class,</font><font color="#b51200" size="4"><b>**</b></font><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;"> legally qualified (with 5 degrees) Professor, who has</font></font></font><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: small; line-height: 1.5;"> received thanks from our Head of State for my service to my country, and the handshake and thanks of the prime minister of the day. </span></p><p style="line-height: 1;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="verdana" style="line-height: 1.5;">If I cannot justify, or even have to justify, my existence and knowledge as real - as real as the existence of those gender critical, or evangelical, pseudo 'experts', what chance does a black, disabled, or elderly trans person have?</font></font></p><p style="line-height: 1;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="verdana" style="line-height: 1.5;">Yet the authority of these amateur experts is apparently far greater than my 250,000 hours of study will ever be - but isn't that just exactly how Power works</font></font></p><p style="line-height: 1;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="verdana" style="line-height: 1.5;">When we threaten the certainty of a world view, they - the people with that view - throw us back down the stairs to the bottom of the pyramid. They say we are being unreasonable by not understanding that we are only fit for walking on by those on the next layer up. And then we are meant to kiss ass and quietly have our heads up their arses for the remainder of our lives.</font></font></p><p style="line-height: 1;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.5;"><font face="verdana" style="line-height: 1.5;">It isn't fair and it isn't right.<span></span></font></font></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p style="line-height: 1;"><font color="#b51200" size="4" style="font-family: verdana;"><b>**</b></font><font size="2" style="font-family: verdana;"> </font><font size="1" style="font-family: verdana;">I also have a large middle-aged spread.</font></p><p></p> Stephen Whittlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379289307731132721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9017615131206820221.post-37093191671371531912020-06-12T13:53:00.253+01:002020-06-13T21:28:25.814+01:00Standing in Solidarity <h1 style="line-height: 1.15; text-align: center;"><font size="4" style="line-height: 1.15;"> Trans Health & Support Providers<br /></font><font size="4" style="line-height: 1.15;">It is now our time to </font></h1><h1 style="line-height: 1.15; text-align: center;"><font color="#b51200" face="verdana" style="line-height: 1.15;">Stand in Solidarity</font></h1><font face="trebuchet" style="line-height: 1.15;"><a href=""></a>
</font><blockquote style="line-height: 1.15;">
</blockquote><font face="trebuchet" style="line-height: 1.15;"><div style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.15; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #f4a900; font-size: x-small; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.15;"> </span></div><div style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.15;"><font face="trebuchet" style="line-height: 1.15;"><b style="line-height: 1.15;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.15;"><br /></font></b></font></div><p style="line-height: 1.15; text-align: left;"><span style="clear: left; float: left; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="674" data-original-width="433" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieVggl6hZ3q_kn8aMU2xBCi3Tzc9opymYZJnkkLtPJ7MlRvkYYM-aXcPq9dkDGhRYXlqU1u8DxRcAdo65JbAj7aLj3APNfH_TDr3aWs3YN9BQ7SfyFYQE7ojuZzaDgPGCflYq1hxm0X-Q/w258-h400/2020+Paths.jpg" width="258" /></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.15; text-align: left;"><b style="line-height: 1.15;"><font size="4" style="line-height: 1.15;">I was very pleased to see the USPATH and WPATH statement standing in solidarity with those protesting the violent deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Nina Pop, Tony McDade, and many other Black and minority ethnic people.</font> </b></p><p></p><p style="line-height: 1.15; text-align: left;">Below, I use the term BAME People to refer to Black and Minority Ethnic people.</p></font><div style="line-height: 1.15;"><p style="line-height: 1.15; text-align: left;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.15;"><font face="trebuchet" style="line-height: 1.15;">I believe simil</font></font><font face="trebuchet" style="font-size: small; line-height: 1.15;">ar statements to that of UPATH & WPATH are needed from many of WPATH's affiliated groups including CPATH (Canada), (Auspath) Australia, South America and <b style="line-height: 1.15;"><font color="#b51200" style="line-height: 1.15;">of course</font></b> the EU. I have asked EPATH (of which I am a member as a lawyer and researcher) to try and take the time to embrace </font><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15;"> </span><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15;">this historical moment. </span></p><div style="line-height: 1.15;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.15;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; line-height: 1.15;">IE</span></font><font face="trebuchet" style="font-size: small; line-height: 1.15;">PATH's non-BAME members will have seen and heard the historical and continuing <b style="line-height: 1.15;"><font color="#3367d6" style="line-height: 1.15;">RACISM</font></b> that our Black and ethnic minority (BAME) members who are healthcare or social support providers </font><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15;">experience. </span></div><p style="line-height: 1.15; text-align: left;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.15;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; line-height: 1.15;">EPATH's Non-BAME members will have seen and heard the historical and continuing multi-faceted <font color="#b51200" style="line-height: 1.15;"><b style="line-height: 1.15;">RACISM</b> </font>that BAME trans and non-binary service users</span><font face="trebuchet" style="line-height: 1.15;"> of gender clinics, primary care, and other secondary and tertiary healthcare providers have experienced within those settings. </font></font></p><p style="line-height: 1.15; text-align: left;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.15;"><font face="trebuchet" style="line-height: 1.15;">As EPATH members, I believe we need to use this moment in time, to stop, reflect and state that we are committed to </font><span style="font-family: trebuchet; line-height: 1.15;">promoting and demonstrating the very best transgender care & support <b style="line-height: 1.15;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.15;"><font color="#3367d6" style="line-height: 1.15;">without discriminatio</font></span><font color="#3367d6" style="line-height: 1.15;">n</font></b> for all who need it regardless of wealth, race, skin colour, genetics, dis/ability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and place of birth or place of habitation. </span><span style="font-family: trebuchet; line-height: 1.15;"> I have faith that all EPATH, CPATH, AUSPATH members support those principles. </span></font></p><h2 style="line-height: 1.15; text-align: left;"><font size="4" style="line-height: 1.15;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; line-height: 1.15;"><font color="#0b8043" style="line-height: 1.15;">E</font></span><span style="font-family: trebuchet; line-height: 1.15;"><font color="#0b8043" style="line-height: 1.15;">urope: </font><font color="#3367d6" style="line-height: 1.15;">a geographical body of nations built on slavery. </font></span></font></h2><p style="line-height: 1.15; text-align: left;"><font face="trebuchet" size="2" style="line-height: 1.15;"><b style="line-height: 1.15;">Whilst I acknowledge the complex history of slavery throughout the ancient and modern world, as people of European heritage, in truth we cannot deny that Europe was central to the promotion of imperialism, colonialism, and slavery during the 17th and 18th century trade in human lives. </b></font></p><p style="line-height: 1.15; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15;">European slave traders shipped over 12 million once proud people in appalling conditions to the Caribbean and the Americas. Many died of disease and starvation on the way. Almost 2 million - mostly alive, as well as dead - were thrown into the freezing mid-Atlantic so the traders could profit from the insurance taken out on them - not on their lives, if they died a natural death onboard the crew was deemed responsible - but on their value as saleable goods. </span></p><p style="line-height: 1.15; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; line-height: 1.15;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.15;">When they arrived at their destination these African people were sold into slavery; a form of existence filled with abjection, and brutalisation by the whip, malnutrition, rape. the rope and the tree. </font></span><b style="font-family: trebuchet; line-height: 1.15;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.15;">Huge numbers acquired dreadful diseases, or appalling injuries, but were denied access to medical expertise or medicines. </font></b></p><p style="line-height: 1.15;"><font face="trebuchet" size="2" style="line-height: 1.15;">Europe including the United Kingdom was the cultural heritage of, or home to the majority of profiteers </font><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15;">of those engaged in the Atlantic slave trade</span><font face="trebuchet" size="2" style="line-height: 1.15;">s. They owned the ships, or captained them, held the title to the lands which became</font><font face="trebuchet" size="2" style="line-height: 1.15;"> plantations - hell holes to </font><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15;">the people they deemed slaves. </span></p><p style="line-height: 1.15;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15;">Our cities are littered with statues of them, raised in their time to acknowledge and praise their local social or charitable contribution to the wealth of the city. </span><b style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15;"><font color="#b51200" style="line-height: 1.15;">Regardless of their philanthropy, these men were only able to afford to give charity, by stealing the tears of millions of Africa’s people including children.</font></b><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15;"> </span></p><p style="line-height: 1.15;"><font face="trebuchet" size="2" style="line-height: 1.15;">Personally, I think many of these statues can go to the scrap yard, we don't even notice them, they have become street wallpaper as we walk through our cities. I would like </font><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15;">a representative few being placed in museums, featured in school curriculums, and properly contextualised. But I believe that is pretty much the only purpose that they might have left. </span></p><p style="line-height: 1.15; text-align: left;"><font size="2" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.15;"><font face="trebuchet" style="line-height: 1.15;">I would far prefer we used their plinths to acknowledge today's heroes and philanthropists, in particular those people, including BAME people, who are rarely celebrated. The 2018 statue </font><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.15;">in Parliament Square</span><font face="trebuchet" style="line-height: 1.15;"> of the suffragist leader </font><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.15;">and social campaigner, </span><font face="trebuchet" style="line-height: 1.15;">Millicent Fawcett, and the 2016 statue of </font></font><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: helmet, freesans, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15;">Jamaican-born nurse </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: helmet, freesans, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15;">Mary Seacole</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: helmet, freesans, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15;"> who cared for wounded British soldiers during the Crimean War in the 19th century are </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: trebuchet; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15;">good examples.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; line-height: 1.15; text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEvkfR_yiYcX67dJjdyRYkzZXwzl2yLfrDdoX0yXMliXTN0omRwO-fOuqv_pjnmM8Rg7bCzlibA0cmNeDKLLYusNzaaUuJiVG0Cui9Cxs9OQDOtw32FtHroBXIHSAoQn3Eu2yvgs7VzAM/s640/00+Millicent-Fawcett-4.jpg" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="470" data-original-width="640" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEvkfR_yiYcX67dJjdyRYkzZXwzl2yLfrDdoX0yXMliXTN0omRwO-fOuqv_pjnmM8Rg7bCzlibA0cmNeDKLLYusNzaaUuJiVG0Cui9Cxs9OQDOtw32FtHroBXIHSAoQn3Eu2yvgs7VzAM/w320-h235/00+Millicent-Fawcett-4.jpg" title="Millicent Fawcett" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="color: #3367d6; line-height: 1.15; text-align: left;">Millicent Fawcett<br /><br /></b></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin4Wy9sQ4brlns0txFt9OZBpUz0o2lP9AXQQ7CLbL3do1hHA-x9yvZKU_xJUURsJjhPTciW2ATxuOxzucAC_8YAI6Wl70FfC4nuVVeHJhfD33mVC_wMAS785bjz9jJfl2eX1lN75N5rlI/s600/00+Mary_Seacole_statue-BN_4302.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="600" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin4Wy9sQ4brlns0txFt9OZBpUz0o2lP9AXQQ7CLbL3do1hHA-x9yvZKU_xJUURsJjhPTciW2ATxuOxzucAC_8YAI6Wl70FfC4nuVVeHJhfD33mVC_wMAS785bjz9jJfl2eX1lN75N5rlI/w320-h192/00+Mary_Seacole_statue-BN_4302.jpg" width="320" /></a><b><font color="#3367d6">Mary Seacole</font></b></div><b style="line-height: 1.15;"><font color="#3367d6" style="line-height: 1.15;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></font></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; line-height: 1.15; text-align: center;"><b style="line-height: 1.15;"><font color="#3367d6" style="line-height: 1.15;"> </font></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; line-height: 1.15; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; line-height: 1.15; text-align: left;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; line-height: 1.15; text-align: left;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.15;"><font face="trebuchet" style="line-height: 1.15;">Of </font><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.15;"><font face="Helmet, Freesans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="line-height: 1.15;">968 public statues or sculptures in London, 610 are of named people. </font></span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.15;"><font face="Helmet, Freesans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="line-height: 1.15;"><b>Almost 40 celebrate historic individuals involved in promoting racism or the slave trade</b>. </font></span></font><span style="background-color: white; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15;"><font face="Helmet, Freesans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="line-height: 1.15;"> </font></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; line-height: 1.15; text-align: left;"><font face="trebuchet" style="font-size: small; line-height: 1.15;">Only 30 are of BAME people, and only 5 are named BAME people.</font><span style="background-color: white; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15;"><font face="Helmet, Freesans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="line-height: 1.15;"> There is a statue at West Bromwich Football Cub to </font></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: helmet, freesans, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15;">Laurie Cunningham, Brendon Batson and Cyrille Regis who played for the club i</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: helmet, freesans, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15;">n the 1970s</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: helmet, freesans, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15;">. Laurie Cunningham also has a statue outside of Leyton Orient's ground. A statue to Nelson Mandela is in Parliament Square, and </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: helmet, freesans, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15;">Jamaican-born nurse </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: helmet, freesans, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15;">Mary Seacole</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: helmet, freesans, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15;"> is just over the road in the grounds of St Thomas's hospital. A</span><span style="font-family: helmet, freesans, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15;"> work often thought to be </span><span style="font-family: lato, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15;">Guyanese poet Cécile Nobrega is not her though, but figures a character from one of her better known </span><span style="font-family: lato, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15;">poems; Bronze Woman. </span></div><p style="line-height: 1.15; text-align: left;"><font face="trebuchet" size="2" style="line-height: 1.15;">There is long history of BAME key workers; whether sailors from ships of our 15th and 16th seafaring days, or Black Caribbean people who arrived on the Windrush in 1949 in order to staff our new National Health Service in 2011, or (wo)man the new Transport for London Bus services. </font></p><p style="line-height: 1.15; text-align: left;"></p><p style="line-height: 1.15; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15;">This is a city where 112 languages are spoken and where</span><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15;"> 44% of the population have a Black or minority ethnic heritage. </span><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15;"><b style="line-height: 1.15;"><font color="#3367d6">Clearly our public monuments are not reflective of London's historical or contemporary society. </font></b></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.15; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; line-height: 1.15;"><b style="line-height: 1.15;"><b style="line-height: 1.15;"><font color="#b51200" size="4">Statues are a Red Herring</font></b></b></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.15; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15;"><b style="line-height: 1.15;"><span style="color: black; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5;">Pulling statues down does not pull down the edifices of structural, institutional or personal racism and victimisation that continues to roar like a hurricane through the lives of the BAME people we know, or should know. </span></b></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.5; text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: small; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="trebuchet" style="line-height: 1.5;">This historical moment gives EPATH members the opportunity to re-commit and insist that our practice will reflect our public position, for all trans people but especially those BAME trans people</font></span><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: small; line-height: 1.5;"> who have been exceptionally disadvantaged and the invisible victims of our community for far too long.</span></b></p><p style="line-height: 1.5; text-align: left;"><span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p></div><div style="line-height: 1;"><h2 style="font-family: trebuchet; line-height: 1.15; text-align: center;"><font color="#3367d6" size="4" style="line-height: 1.15;">LONDON'S POPUlATION: ETHNIC HERITAGE OUTSIDE THE UK</font><br /><font size="2" style="line-height: 1.15;">(2011 CENSUS - FIGURES are higher now, and may be approaching 50%)</font></h2><p style="line-height: 1; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: small;"></span></p><table border="1" bordercolor="#888" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; border-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-width: 1px; line-height: 1; text-align: center;"><tbody style="line-height: 1;"><tr style="line-height: 1;"><td style="line-height: 1;"><p><br /></p><h3></h3></td><td style="line-height: 1;"><b style="line-height: 1;"><font face="arial" style="line-height: 1;"> <font color="#0b8043" style="line-height: 1;">% of <br style="font-size: small;" /><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 1;">LONDON'S </span><br style="font-size: small;" /></font></font></b><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 1;"><b style="line-height: 1;"><font color="#0b8043" face="arial" style="line-height: 1;">POPULATION</font></b> </span></td></tr><tr style="line-height: 1;"><td style="line-height: 1; min-width: 60px;"><p style="line-height: 1; text-align: left;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1;"> Black African<span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 1;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 1;"> </span></font></p></td><td style="line-height: 1; min-width: 60px;"><p style="line-height: 1; text-align: right;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1;"> 7 </font></p></td></tr><tr style="line-height: 1;"><td style="line-height: 1;"><p style="line-height: 1; text-align: left;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1;"> Black Caribbean</font></p></td><td style="line-height: 1;"><p style="line-height: 1; text-align: right;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1;"> 4.2 </font></p></td></tr><tr style="line-height: 1;"><td style="line-height: 1;"><p style="line-height: 1; text-align: left;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1;"> Other Black British</font></p></td><td style="line-height: 1; text-align: right;"><p style="line-height: 1;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1;"> 2.1 </font></p></td></tr><tr style="line-height: 1;"><td style="line-height: 1;"><p style="line-height: 1; text-align: left;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1;"> Middle Eastern Arab </font></p></td><td style="line-height: 1;"><p style="line-height: 1; text-align: right;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1;"> 1.3 </font></p></td></tr><tr style="line-height: 1;"><td style="line-height: 1;"><p style="line-height: 1; text-align: left;"><font size="2"><font style="line-height: 1;"> </font><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 1; text-align: center;">Indian</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1;"> subcontinent</span></font></p></td><td style="line-height: 1;"><p style="line-height: 1; text-align: right;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1;"> 12 </font></p></td></tr><tr style="line-height: 1;"><td style="line-height: 1;"><p style="line-height: 1; text-align: left;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1;"> Chinese or other Asian </font></p></td><td style="line-height: 1;"><p style="line-height: 1; text-align: right;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1;"> 6.4 </font></p></td></tr><tr style="line-height: 1;"><td style="line-height: 1;"><p style="line-height: 1; text-align: left;"><font size="2"><font style="line-height: 1;"> </font><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 1; text-align: center;">Other Ethnic Minority Group</span></font></p></td><td style="line-height: 1; text-align: right;"><p style="line-height: 1;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1;">2.1 </font></p></td></tr><tr style="line-height: 1;"><td style="line-height: 1;"><p style="line-height: 1; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: #f8f9fa; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1;"><font size="2"> Mixed/multiple ethnic group</font></span></p></td><td style="line-height: 1; text-align: right;"><p style="line-height: 1;"><font size="2" style="line-height: 1;"> 5 </font></p></td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: left;"><p><font size="2"> Other Minority Group </font></p></td><td style="text-align: right;"><p><font size="2"> 2.1</font></p></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="line-height: 1.5; text-align: left;"><span></span></p><!--more--><p></p><div style="line-height: 1.5; text-align: left;"><b style="color: #0b8043; font-family: trebuchet; font-size: x-small;">09 June 2020 çopyright Stephen Whittle</b></div><div></div></div><div class="CaretBrowsing_Caret" style="color: #b51200; height: 23.3333px; left: 8px; opacity: 0; text-align: left; top: 110.125px; width: 588.76px;"><br /></div><div class="CaretBrowsing_Caret" style="background-color: black; color: black; height: 20.6667px; left: 383.333px; opacity: 1; text-align: left; top: 136.125px; visibility: visible; width: 1px;"><br /><br /></div><div class="CaretBrowsing_Caret" style="color: #b51200; height: 93.3333px; left: 8px; opacity: 0; text-align: left; top: 204.052px; width: 661.719px;"></div><div class="CaretBrowsing_Caret" style="color: black; height: 20.7407px; left: 23.7153px; opacity: 0; top: 3193.79px; width: 574.097px;"></div><div class="CaretBrowsing_Caret" style="background-color: black; color: #3367d6; height: 20.7408px; left: 7.99769px; opacity: 1; top: 2477.43px; visibility: visible; width: 1px;"></div><div class="CaretBrowsing_Caret" style="background-color: #3367d6; color: black; height: 22.963px; left: 135.856px; opacity: 1; top: 1984.55px; visibility: visible; width: 1px;"></div><div class="CaretBrowsing_Caret" style="color: black; height: 22.963px; left: 14.919px; opacity: 0; top: 3409.16px; width: 367.639px;"></div><div class="CaretBrowsing_Caret" style="color: black; height: 22.963px; left: 211.435px; opacity: 0; top: 2162.34px; width: 122.072px;"></div>Stephen Whittlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379289307731132721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9017615131206820221.post-68776485563263258562018-08-06T09:54:00.000+01:002018-08-06T12:34:01.719+01:00Replacement NOW Available for Testogel Sachets<body><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Trans men in Europe who use Testogel for their cross-sex hormone therapy are facing a problem when they ask for their repeat prescription. </span><br />
<span style="color: #002060; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #002060;"> Testogel in sachets is no longer being made. Instead there is a new product. Almost identical, it is now called </span><b><span style="color: #990000;">Testogel 16.2mg/g</span></b><span style="color: #002060;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #002060;"><br />
</span></span></div><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #002060;">The manufacturers</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #002060;"> </span><b>Besins Healthcare (UK) Ltd</b></span><span style="color: #002060;"> say they informed the NHS of this change in March 2018, but my GP and pharmacist had no awareness of this. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #002060;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #002060;">They told me that Testogel it was no longer available.</span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #002060;">I was instead given Testim gel, or Androgel. Both gels are perfectly good, but like all medicines it doesn't suit some. According to my wife Testim and Androgel have an unattractive smell. </span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #002060;">Testogel 16.2mg/g comes in this bottle </span><span style="color: #002060;">containing 88g of gel</span><span style="color: #002060;">, in a box. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4czLnF_EFrnBXKxw7g7e_YhaDtozD5roUGvAPRoeeoRn3Cvf3xHrdM8yf0wTot0wnQ0cuzVlZeDIWtoxWFCcD_6e5oRl8aB1ftbL9bfdBpM6aIpreKAV5I58a5cA66YtHYqwl25G3ewY/s1600/testogel_gel_pump_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="425" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4czLnF_EFrnBXKxw7g7e_YhaDtozD5roUGvAPRoeeoRn3Cvf3xHrdM8yf0wTot0wnQ0cuzVlZeDIWtoxWFCcD_6e5oRl8aB1ftbL9bfdBpM6aIpreKAV5I58a5cA66YtHYqwl25G3ewY/s320/testogel_gel_pump_1.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #002060; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #002060;">If you prefer Testogel, just ask your GP to prescribe the new product. Your GP will need to use its full name </span><b style="color: #990000;">Testogel 16.2mg/g</b><span style="color: #20124d;"><b> </b>to find it on the Medicines UK site. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><ul><li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #073763;">Details and a leaflet or your GP </span></span><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">can be found </span><span style="color: blue;"><b style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/product/8919/smpc" target="_blank">here</a></b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The </span><b style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Patient Leaflet</b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> is </span><span style="color: blue;"><b style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.mhra.gov.uk/home/groups/spcpil/documents/spcpil/con1533269888375.pdf" target="_blank">here</a> </b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span></span></li>
</ul><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">To put the gel om, you press down a pump at the top of the bottle and it deposits a small but definite amount of gel (1.25g per pump) in your hand., which you rub on your shoulders as usual. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #002060; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #002060;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The dose is presented slightly differently, so the table below should help you work out how many pumps per day will give you the same dose as you used to have with testogel sachets. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #002060;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="color: #002060;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; mso-table-layout-alt: fixed; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184; width: 670px;"><tbody>
<tr> <td colspan="2" style="background: white; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 42.2%;" valign="bottom" width="42%"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 17.25pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 4; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 18.0pt;">(Old) Testogel </span></b><b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">(30 x 5g sachets in box)</span></b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 14.78%;" valign="bottom" width="14%"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: red; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Replace<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: red; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">with</span></b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td colspan="2" style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 43.02%;" valign="bottom" width="43%"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 17.25pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 4; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: blue; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 18.0pt;">Testogel 16.2mg/g</span></b><b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">(88g bottle contains 70 pumps)</span></b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
<tr> <td style="background: #E7F0F9; border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 23.86%;" valign="bottom" width="23%"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">1 sachet = 5g gel</span></b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: #E7F0F9; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 18.32%;" valign="bottom" width="18%"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">50mg Testosterone (T)</span></b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 14.78%;" valign="bottom" width="14%"></td> <td style="background: #EFF6EA; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 26.1%;" valign="bottom" width="26%"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">1 pump of top = <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">1.25g gel</span></b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: #EFF6EA; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 16.92%;" valign="bottom" width="16%"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">20 mg testosterone (T)</span></b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
<tr> <td colspan="5" style="background: #FFF2CC; border-bottom: solid #1F3864 4.5pt; border-left: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 100.0%;" valign="bottom" width="100%"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-line-height-alt: 17.25pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 18.0pt;">Comparing former dose with NEW dose</span></b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
<tr> <td style="background: white; border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 23.86%;" valign="bottom" width="23%"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Monthly prescription</span></b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 18.32%;" valign="bottom" width="18%"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Provides</span></b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 14.78%;" valign="bottom" width="14%"></td> <td style="background: white; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 26.1%;" valign="bottom" width="26%"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Monthly prescription</span></b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 16.92%;" valign="bottom" width="16%"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Provides</span></b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
<tr> <td style="background: #E7F0F9; border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 23.86%;" valign="bottom" width="23%"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">30 sach. x 5g gel</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: #E7F0F9; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 18.32%;" valign="bottom" width="18%"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">1500mg of T</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 14.78%;" valign="bottom" width="14%"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 17.25pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 18.0pt;">=</span></b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: #EFF6EA; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 26.1%;" valign="bottom" width="26%"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">1 bottle= 88g gel</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: #EFF6EA; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 16.92%;" valign="bottom" width="16%"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">1425mg of T</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
<tr style="height: 28.3pt; mso-yfti-irow: 5;"> <td style="background: #E7F0F9; border-bottom: solid #1F3864 4.5pt; border-left: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 28.3pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 23.86%;" valign="bottom" width="23%"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">60 sach. x 5g gel</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: #E7F0F9; border-bottom: solid #1F3864 4.5pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 28.3pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 18.32%;" valign="bottom" width="18%"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">3000mg of T</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid #1F3864 4.5pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 28.3pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 14.78%;" valign="bottom" width="14%"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 17.25pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 18.0pt;">=</span></b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: #EFF6EA; border-bottom: solid #1F3864 4.5pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 28.3pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 26.1%;" valign="bottom" width="26%"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">2 bottles= 176g gel</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: #EFF6EA; border-bottom: solid #1F3864 4.5pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 28.3pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 16.92%;" valign="bottom" width="16%"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">2850mg of T</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
<tr> <td style="background: white; border-top: none; border: solid #1F3864 1.5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 23.86%;" valign="bottom" width="23%"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Daily Dose</span></b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; border-bottom: solid #1F3864 1.5pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid #1F3864 1.5pt; border-top: none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 18.32%;" valign="bottom" width="18%"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Provides</span></b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; border-bottom: solid #1F3864 1.5pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid #1F3864 1.5pt; border-top: none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 14.78%;" valign="bottom" width="14%"></td> <td style="background: white; border-bottom: solid #1F3864 1.5pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid #1F3864 1.5pt; border-top: none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 26.1%;" valign="bottom" width="26%"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Daily Dose</span></b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: white; border-bottom: solid #1F3864 1.5pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid #1F3864 1.5pt; border-top: none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 16.92%;" valign="bottom" width="16%"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Provides</span></b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
<tr> <td style="background: #E7F0F9; border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 23.86%;" valign="bottom" width="23%"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">1 sachet = 5g gel</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: #E7F0F9; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 18.32%;" valign="bottom" width="18%"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">50mg</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> of T</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 14.78%;" valign="bottom" width="14%"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 17.25pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 18.0pt;">=</span></b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: #EFF6EA; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 26.1%;" valign="bottom" width="26%"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">2 pumps= 2.5g gel</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: #EFF6EA; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 16.92%;" valign="bottom" width="16%"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">40mg of T</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
<tr> <td style="background: #E7F0F9; border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 23.86%;" valign="bottom" width="23%"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">2 sachets=10g gel</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: #E7F0F9; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 18.32%;" valign="bottom" width="18%"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">100mg</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> of T</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 14.78%;" valign="bottom" width="14%"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 17.25pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 18.0pt;">=</span></b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: #EFF6EA; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 26.1%;" valign="bottom" width="26%"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">5 pumps= 12.5g gel</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="background: #EFF6EA; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 16.92%;" valign="bottom" width="16%"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.25pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">100mg of T</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr>
</tbody></table></div><span style="color: #002060;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">Further advice for Patients is available <b style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.mhra.gov.uk/home/groups/spcpil/documents/spcpil/con1533269888375.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">here</span></a><span style="color: #002060;"> </span></b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span></div></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;"></div><b>_______________________________________________________</b><br />
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Stephen Whittlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379289307731132721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9017615131206820221.post-14661203748844209132018-06-21T21:41:00.000+01:002018-06-21T21:41:49.944+01:00The WHO removes Trans identities from the ICD 11 Mental Health Disorders section<div class="MsoNormal"><body><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCM1HaSPVkkgnR0Z2QLYJE8JN1_LshCNpRqtB2Q0ERPHriyh008BNod52MwmdXIL0FSPFieQiQ_Zj4l5voxGow3QM9U-hdlokMVe1Lp8O8dGTxtfJCqRDPfQKBPtNCxkL8GsSxK71waNY/s1600/who-world-health-organization-logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="312" data-original-width="383" height="325" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCM1HaSPVkkgnR0Z2QLYJE8JN1_LshCNpRqtB2Q0ERPHriyh008BNod52MwmdXIL0FSPFieQiQ_Zj4l5voxGow3QM9U-hdlokMVe1Lp8O8dGTxtfJCqRDPfQKBPtNCxkL8GsSxK71waNY/s400/who-world-health-organization-logo.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>July 18, 2018:</b> In what is a historic announcement for activists, the World Health Organization (WHO) has acknowledged the rights of trans people<a href="file:///E:/WORK%20FILES/MANCHESTER%20LAW%20SCHOOL/2017-18%20MLS%20Administration/Research%20Funding%20Bids/2017%20NIHR%20Gender%20Reassignment%20Services/2018%20Trans%20identities%20Removed%20from%20the%20ICD%2011%20Mental%20Health%20Disorders%20chapter.docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="line-height: 150%;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> to have their gender identities without prejudice, persecution or stigma. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">A new online version of the <b>International Classification of Diseases version 11</b> (ICD11) has removed gender identity related diagnoses from the chapter on mental health disorders. Instead, the WHO has created a new set of trans-related diagnostic categories for adults, young people and children. These have been placed alongside physical illnesses, disorders and syndromes in the chapter “Conditions related to sexual health”.<a href="file:///E:/WORK%20FILES/MANCHESTER%20LAW%20SCHOOL/2017-18%20MLS%20Administration/Research%20Funding%20Bids/2017%20NIHR%20Gender%20Reassignment%20Services/2018%20Trans%20identities%20Removed%20from%20the%20ICD%2011%20Mental%20Health%20Disorders%20chapter.docx#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="line-height: 150%;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Patients will now receive the diagnosis of ‘Gender Incongruence’, which has three subsections:<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->HA60 Gender incongruence of adolescence or adulthood<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->HA61 Gender incongruence of childhood <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->HA6Z Gender incongruence, unspecified <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Effectively ICD11 acknowledges the reality of the experiences of people with trans- gender identities and gender incongruence, and that these are normal human variations. With ICD11, the WHO is signposting a requirement for trans health care to be provided without the added stigma of a mental health diagnosis. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Activists from the global trans community have been demanding these changes for well over twenty years. The medical psychopathologizing of gender incongruence, often based on nothing more than moral and religious indignation, allowed the systematic, institutional and personal abuse of trans people. Research has demonstrated a global, universal experience by trans people of transphobic prejudice, discrimination, harassment, violence, and criminalisation of trans people’s core identities. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">The announcement and publication of ICD11 should signal the end for any vestiges of historical, abusive transgender ‘mental health’ practices such as aversion therapy, compulsory sterilisation and enforced hospitalisation. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Julia Ehrt, Executive Director of Transgender Europe, on hearing the announcement said<o:p></o:p></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: windowtext;"> “This is the result of tremendous effort by trans and gender diverse activists from around the world to insist on our humanity, and I am elated that the WHO agrees that gender identity is not a mental illness.”</span><a href="file:///E:/WORK%20FILES/MANCHESTER%20LAW%20SCHOOL/2017-18%20MLS%20Administration/Research%20Funding%20Bids/2017%20NIHR%20Gender%20Reassignment%20Services/2018%20Trans%20identities%20Removed%20from%20the%20ICD%2011%20Mental%20Health%20Disorders%20chapter.docx#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="line-height: 150%;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal">Trans people in North America<a href="file:///E:/WORK%20FILES/MANCHESTER%20LAW%20SCHOOL/2017-18%20MLS%20Administration/Research%20Funding%20Bids/2017%20NIHR%20Gender%20Reassignment%20Services/2018%20Trans%20identities%20Removed%20from%20the%20ICD%2011%20Mental%20Health%20Disorders%20chapter.docx#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="line-height: 150%;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> will continue to experience the stigma associated with a mental health diagnosis. In the rest of the world, though, these new diagnostic codes should mean significant, positive changes for all trans people pursuing any health care, including gender-affirming and reassignment treatments. <o:p></o:p></div><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Details of the WHO ICD11 categorisation of Gender Incongruence can be found <a href="https://icd.who.int/browse11/l-m/en#/http%3a%2f%2fid.who.int%2ficd%2fentity%2f411470068" target="_blank">here</a> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><br />
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<div><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--> <!--[endif]--> <div id="ftn1"><div class="MsoFootnoteText"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="file:///E:/WORK%20FILES/MANCHESTER%20LAW%20SCHOOL/2017-18%20MLS%20Administration/Research%20Funding%20Bids/2017%20NIHR%20Gender%20Reassignment%20Services/2018%20Trans%20identities%20Removed%20from%20the%20ICD%2011%20Mental%20Health%20Disorders%20chapter.docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="line-height: 150%;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Trans refers to those people who experience their gender identity as different from that assigned at birth. <o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div id="ftn2"><div class="MsoFootnoteText"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="file:///E:/WORK%20FILES/MANCHESTER%20LAW%20SCHOOL/2017-18%20MLS%20Administration/Research%20Funding%20Bids/2017%20NIHR%20Gender%20Reassignment%20Services/2018%20Trans%20identities%20Removed%20from%20the%20ICD%2011%20Mental%20Health%20Disorders%20chapter.docx#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="line-height: 150%;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> World Health Organisation (2018) 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) for Mortality and Morbidity Statistics, Chapter 17 Conditions related to sexual health: Gender Incongruence (<i>Foundation Id : <a href="http://id.who.int/icd/entity/411470068">http://id.who.int/icd/entity/411470068</a></i>) at <a href="https://icd.who.int/browse11/l-m/en#/http%3a%2f%2fid.who.int%2ficd%2fentity%2f411470068">https://icd.who.int/browse11/l-m/en#/http%3a%2f%2fid.who.int%2ficd%2fentity%2f411470068</a> , acc. 19/06/2018<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div id="ftn3"><div class="MsoFootnoteText"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="file:///E:/WORK%20FILES/MANCHESTER%20LAW%20SCHOOL/2017-18%20MLS%20Administration/Research%20Funding%20Bids/2017%20NIHR%20Gender%20Reassignment%20Services/2018%20Trans%20identities%20Removed%20from%20the%20ICD%2011%20Mental%20Health%20Disorders%20chapter.docx#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="line-height: 150%;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Transgender Europe (2018) World Health Organisation moves to end classifying trans identities as mental illness, 18 June, at <a href="https://tgeu.org/world-health-organisation-moves-to-end-classifying-trans-identities-as-mental-illness/">https://tgeu.org/world-health-organisation-moves-to-end-classifying-trans-identities-as-mental-illness/</a> acc. 19 June 2018</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///E:/WORK%20FILES/MANCHESTER%20LAW%20SCHOOL/2017-18%20MLS%20Administration/Research%20Funding%20Bids/2017%20NIHR%20Gender%20Reassignment%20Services/2018%20Trans%20identities%20Removed%20from%20the%20ICD%2011%20Mental%20Health%20Disorders%20chapter.docx#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" style="font-size: small;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="line-height: 26.7px;">[4]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"> American Psychiatric Association (2013) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.) (DSM-5). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing is used, primarily, to code mental health conditions in North America. DSM-5 replaced the previous categories contained under Gender Identity Disorder, to an overarching diagnosis of gender status of a mental health condition</span></div></div><div id="ftn4"><div class="MsoFootnoteText"><o:p></o:p></div></div></div><!-- Go to www.addthis.com/dashboard to customize your tools --><br />
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<a href="https://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=9017615131206820221"></a> <blockquote></blockquote>Stephen Whittlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379289307731132721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9017615131206820221.post-90311448798435963022018-05-14T09:07:00.002+01:002018-05-14T10:00:31.366+01:00GenderQuake: The Diversity Debate Briefing<h1 style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;"><span style="background-color: #d0e0e3; color: #0c343d;">Channel 4 Gender Quake </span><span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0);"><o:p></o:p></span></span></h1>
<h1 style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<b><span style="font-size: 36pt;"><span style="color: #660000;">Diversity Debate Briefing </span></span></b><b><span style="font-size: 24pt;"><span style="color: #660000;"> </span></span><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> <o:p></o:p></span></b></h1>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">© Stephen Whittle for Press for Change 7<sup>th</sup> May 2018</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Prior to the <a href="https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2018/05/10/genderquake-debate-heckling-transphobia-munroe-bergdorf-caitlyn-jenner/" target="_blank">Channel 4 Gender quake debate</a>, my friend Kate
Bornstein, asked if I would brief Caitlyn Jenner on some of the key issues here
in the UK. <o:p></o:p></div>
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As such I prepared this briefing for Caitlyn. <o:p></o:p></div>
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After speaking to Caitlyn, Channel 4 contacted me and asked
me to go to London and take part, as they wanted me to answer a question on the
history of the Gender Recognition Act 2004 and how attitudes had changed in the
UK. I find travel increasingly painful and tiring, and now problems with muscle
tone in my oesophageal flap are such that I need to sleep in a sitting position,
or choke as the flap falls over my trachea. London hotel’s rarely have a decent armchair
in the bedroom, nowadays never mind an adjustable bed. However the armchair was
promised, and though I really did not want to take up Channel 4’s offer, our
kids were not going to let the opportunity for at least one of them to meet
Caitlyn Jenner pass by, and my daughter who lives in London really wanted to go with
me. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I offered this briefing to the other panellists I was able
to find contact details for. This was all very last minute, so the only other panellist
able to take up the offer was the journalist Ash Sarkar, who on the night did a
sterling job along with Munroe Bergdorf and Caitlyn Jenner of maintaining
personal dignity, whilst doing an excellent job of arguing the case for trans inclusivity.
<o:p></o:p></div>
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It was obvious from the minute they seated us that they had
no intention of asking me a question, but we got to meet some heroes; trans man
and male model Kenny Jones and his girl friend who we chatted with over drinks,
and of course Ash Sarkar the journalist I have admired for some time, who has now
jumped to the top of my list. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The trip down to London was OK, but the hotel was not great –
it was roasting hot, the armchair was a saggy mini sofa without a back, so
useless. Consequently I barely slept, which has affected the remainder of the
week, with my MS related fatigue levels knocking me out for Friday and Saturday,
which has meant working all Sunday. I tell you, Channel 4 already owes me a lot,
but now they are arguing that it never agreed they would pay for me to have an
evening meal before the show!<o:p></o:p></div>
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Was it worth it? No, not really. We know the debate was
pretty grim – too little time, and consequently shallow. As we know it descended
into heckling with a group of women shouting ‘penis’ every time Munroe Bergdorf
spoke. We also realised Germaine Greer at 80 is developing memory problems. I
love the way she complains about having been the tallest girl in school, she
should have tried being one of the shortest – not a great starting point for a
trans guy. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Monroe was fantastic,
and she stood her ground. Ash and Caitlyn provided her with as much back up as
they could get in, including Caitlyn also asking, along with Munroe, for the
hecklers to be removed. I suspect Channel 4 did not remove them because that
was the show they wanted all along. <o:p></o:p></div>
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But, what was good was<o:p></o:p></div>
<ul>
<li>managing to touch base with Caitlyn Jenner, who one cannot<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtro2LYuo-LH6mj9B9Dsi_Am-8-rUqMiXCg7eoVEdZYuaSBpyyqqXatRf2Zq7D5Ow-dnkYrEE-EcttdElPkFUMgtIyE57xAt3ISspd97m2BIBqsja2E59RfiDkumHQdnuBER9AIKDUoqk/s1600/22018-05-09+with+Caitlyn+Jenner+and+Pippa.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1328" data-original-width="747" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtro2LYuo-LH6mj9B9Dsi_Am-8-rUqMiXCg7eoVEdZYuaSBpyyqqXatRf2Zq7D5Ow-dnkYrEE-EcttdElPkFUMgtIyE57xAt3ISspd97m2BIBqsja2E59RfiDkumHQdnuBER9AIKDUoqk/s400/22018-05-09+with+Caitlyn+Jenner+and+Pippa.jpeg" width="225" /></a></div>
deny was a poor choice to represent anything about the lives of ordinary working and middle class trans people here in the UK. However, she was very keen to show that she understood our concerns about her role, and she was very willing to learn. We couldn’t have asked for more from her.</li>
<li>getting the picture that my daughter really wanted (there was a time when trans women and trans men never travelled anywhere together, one can see why we were fearful of being 'clocked'). </li>
</ul>
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<o:p></o:p><br />
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Below is the briefing I prepared. <b><span d="" quot="">Part A</span> </b><span purple="" quot="">gives guidance on how to answer 4 key questions</span>:</div>
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<span _toc513722247="" quot="" style="color: #b45f06;"><b normal="" quot="">1. Are you a woman (or a man)?<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span _toc513722247="" quot="" style="color: #b45f06;"><b normal="" quot="">2. Can the law make someone into a woman or a man?<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span _toc513722247="" quot="" style="color: #b45f06;"><b normal="" quot="">3.<span 1="" quot=""> </span>Should the Gender Recognition Act be updated? 1<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span _toc513722247="" quot=""><b normal="" quot=""><span style="color: #b45f06;">4.Would updating the Gender Recognition Act allow men into women-only spaces?</span><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<b><span d="" quot="" style="color: purple;">Part B (1) </span></b><span purple="" quot="" style="color: red;">addresses the proposals for updating of Gender Recognition and Equality Legislation</span>, and <b><span style="color: purple;"><span d="" quot="">Part B (2)</span> </span></b><span purple="" quot="" style="color: red;">some current concerns regularly raised to PFC's free legal advice service</span><span e13="" quot=""> by members of the UK's trans community</span>, in particular these cover<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span _toc513722247="" quot="" style="color: purple;"><b normal="" quot="">1.<span 1="" quot=""> </span>Trans Prisoners<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span _toc513722247="" quot="" style="color: purple;"><b normal="" quot="">2. Trans Children and Adolescents<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span _toc513722247="" quot=""><b normal="" quot=""><span style="color: purple;">3.<span 1="" quot=""> </span>Trans Asylum Seekers</span><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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Finally <b><span d="" quot=""><span style="color: purple;">Part C</span> </span></b><span e13="" quot="">gives </span><span purple="" quot="">a <span style="color: red;">short history of PFC and some background </span></span><span e13="" quot="">to our community’s activism. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span _toc513722247="" quot="">I hope that at least one decent thing came from this ghastly pseudo debate; a decent briefing which you find useful. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span _toc513722247="" quot=""><span quot="" xx-small="">© Stephen Whittle 14 May 2018</span><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span fff2cc="" quot=""><span large="" quot=""><span blue="" font-weight:="" normal="" quot="" style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: blue; font-weight: normal;">Part A: Key Questions and Answers</span><span quot=""><span normal="" quot=""><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: blue;"> </span> </span> </span></span></span></h2>
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<span font-size:="" large="" quot="" style="color: #990000; font-size: large;">1.<span font-stretch:="" font-style:="" font-variant:="" font-weight:="" line-height:="" new="" normal="" quot="" roman="" times=""> </span><!--[endif]-->Are you a woman (or a man)?</span></div>
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<b><span d0d0d="" quot="">Primary Answer: </span></b><span d0d0d="" quot="">We don’t know the answer to that, but neither does science or anyone else. A man is a social construction. However, male and female are biological categories which were defined when science was not properly aware of the complexities of the ‘natural’ body. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span b5394="" quot=""><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>Secondary Answer:</b> The Gender Recognition Act provides a legal not a scientific status. The Act is not about secrecy, it is about privacy; a right to have a reasonable level of privacy about one’s medical history, which is only the concern of a person’s doctors, and their life partners. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span e13="" quot="" style="color: #274e13;"><b>Stephen’s Additional Answer</b><b normal="" quot="">: </b>I was born female, I grew into manhood. I was a deeply unhappy child, then a suicidal teenager. At 19, I became ‘a Stephen’, and being ‘a Stephen’ has turned out to be the best decision I ever made. But what ‘a Stephen’ is, requires a very complex and considered answer. However, my wife, who says she knows exactly who I am; and it is definitely a man. </span><span quot=""><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span font-size:="" large="" quot="" style="color: #990000; font-size: large;"><span ms="" mso-fareast-font-family:="" quot="" rebuchet=""><span ignore="" quot="">2.<span font-stretch:="" font-style:="" font-variant:="" font-weight:="" line-height:="" new="" normal="" quot="" roman="" times=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Can the law make someone into a woman or a man?</span></div>
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<b><span d0d0d="" quot="">Primary answer: </span></b>The Gender Recognition Act provides a legal, not a scientific status. The Act recognises how someone is living, not what they were labelled at birth. <span d0d0d="" quot="">It was about improving personal safety for trans people and providing some protection from the hard knocks of prejudice and discrimination we so often experience.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span b5394="" quot="" style="color: #0b5394;"><b>Secondary Answer:</b> Should a quick glance by the midwife determine a person’s life chances and opportunities? Biology is very reductive and limiting; gender is a complex social construction. The Act acknowledges the complexities of gender, within a framework of improving Civil rights and Personal Safety. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span b5394="" quot="" style="color: #0b5394;">PFC’s campaigning for the Gender Recognition Act 2004 was clear that; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div -18.0pt="" 18.0pt="" class=""MsoNormal"" l4="" level1="" lfo5="" mso-list:="" quot="" text-indent:="">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span b5394="" quot="" style="color: #0b5394;"><span quot="" symbol=""><span ignore="" quot="">·<span 7.0pt="" imes="" new="" quot="" roman=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->no one was to be left behind. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span b5394="" quot="">The major beneficiaries of the Act have not been trans people (the prejudice still exists), rather it has been for the people who love trans people, who have been able to have their status also recognised in law; as wives and husbands, parents and children. </span><span f5496="" quot=""><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span e13="" quot="" style="color: #274e13;"><b>Stephen’s Additional Answer</b><b normal="" quot="">: </b> Thank god I am a lawyer, and don’t have to concern myself with anyone’s aetiology. My concerns are with the human rights of each and every one, and trans people fought a very long and hard battle for their human rights. What the Act meant for me and my family was that 13 years ago my wife was able to have a wedding ceremony in which friends and family celebrated the already 26 years of commitment she had made to me (and me to her). Our children were able to have a father, not just over the breakfast table, but also on their birth certificates.</span><span 128="" accent6="" bold="" en-gb="" mso-bidi-font-weight:="" mso-fareast-language:="" mso-themecolor:="" mso-themeshade:="" quot=""><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span font-size:="" large="" quot="" style="color: #990000; font-size: large;"><span ms="" mso-fareast-font-family:="" quot="" rebuchet=""><span ignore="" quot="">3.<span font-stretch:="" font-style:="" font-variant:="" font-weight:="" line-height:="" new="" normal="" quot="" roman="" times=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Should the Gender Recognition Act be updated?</span></div>
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<b><span d0d0d="" quot="">Primary Answer: </span></b><span d0d0d="" quot="">Yes. The Act was state of the art at the time of its making, but new science and new knowledge now means we should amend the Act to acknowledge the reality of trans lives. Obtaining a diagnosis of Gender dysphoria on the NHS can take 3 to 6 years – that is 3 to 6 years in which the life you lead is effectively not recognised. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span d0d0d="" quot="">‘Self-identification’ doesn’t mean anyone can get legal gender recognition, but it would mean trans people no longer have to be diagnosed as having a mental illness. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span b5394="" quot="" style="color: #0b5394;"><b>Secondary Answer:</b> A change to ‘self identification’ in the law, will simply unify the current system we use to be recognised as ourselves by others. Before the Gender Recognition Act 2004, self-identification was all that trans people could do; we changed our names, applied for a new driving licence and started living as ourselves. That system was all we had for over 50 years – and it was without reports of men getting new passports, so they could enter the ladies loos and commit crimes. </span><span f5496="" quot=""><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span e13="" quot="" style="color: #274e13;"><b>Stephen’s Additional Answer</b><b normal="" quot="">: </b><span quot="" yes=""> </span>Does anyone really imagine a criminal man pretending to be a woman going through the motions of obtaining a Gender Recognition certificate? <span quot="" yes=""> </span>This would mean altering his legal status throughout his life; getting a new passport as a woman, changing his gender on his driving licence, his employment record, his pay slips, his bank card, his medical records, and having his educational and professional certificates altered so he can commit a crime in the ladies’ loos. Of course not; the system will be no different from how it is today, except that trans people will not have to wait as long to have their status – the daily life they are living and working in – recognised by the law.</span></div>
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<b><span d0d0d="" quot="">Primary Answer: </span></b><span d0d0d="" quot="">Currently, any man can dress up as to enter a women’s loos (for example) to commit a criminal offence. That has always been possible. If that man had obtained gender recognition so as to commit those crimes, that would have been a fraudulent application, and <u>have no legal validity</u>. He would find himself in double trouble. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span b5394="" quot=""><b>Secondary Answer:</b> A man who did that would get called out, be arrested and go to jail for some time. Amending the law would not change that. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span b5394="" quot="">The alternative proposed, is to ban all people from changing their legal gender, unless they have full genital reconstruction surgery, and then enforcing that rigorously by having physical examinations of applicants. This would Lead to many untimely deaths of bright, funny and clever people who have something to teach us all about what it means to be human. </span><span 191="" accent1="" f5496="" mso-themecolor:="" mso-themeshade:="" quot=""> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span e13="" quot=""><b>Stephen’s Additional Answer</b><b normal="" quot="">: </b>It would mean I would be obliged to use the ladies loos (and I am not shaving the beard off). </span><span quot=""><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<h2>
<span blue="" color:="" fff2cc="" quot=""><span normal="" quot="" style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: blue; font-weight: normal;"><span large="" quot="">Part B: Current concerns of the UK trans community.</span> </span><span quot="" small=""><span normal="" quot="" style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: blue; font-weight: normal;"> </span> </span> </span><span d9ead3="" quot=""><span fff2cc="" quot=""> </span></span></h2>
<h2>
<o:p></o:p></h2>
<span color:="" e13="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" large="" normal="" quot="" style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;" white="">(1)<span font-stretch:="" font-style:="" font-variant:="" line-height:="" new="" normal="" quot="" roman="" times=""> </span>Updating of Gender Recognition and Equality Legislation</span><br />
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<o:p></o:p></h3>
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In <b>2017</b>, the <b>European Court of Human Rights</b> confirmed the position that the UK Government took in 2004, when it held that <b>requirements for sterilisation and genital reconstruction surgery</b> before legal gender recognition, were a<b> clear contravention of the Art 8 human rights</b> of France’s trans community.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b normal="" quot="">In 2017</b> The UK Government <b normal="" quot="">announced a proposal to review the Gender Recognition Act 2004</b>, and <span quot="" yes=""> </span>to update it, allow self-identification rather than medical diagnosis to be the basis for legal gender recognition. <b normal="" quot="">Ireland, Argentina, California, Columbia, Portugal, Denmark, Norway and Malta</b> <b normal="" quot="">all </b>currently <b normal="" quot="">allow self-identification</b> <b normal="" quot="">for legal gender recognition.</b><span quot="" yes=""> </span><span quot="" yes=""> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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After a campaign by some Feminists earlier this year the proposed consultation was put on hold. The Feminists suggest that men will use the legislation to demand access to women’s only spaces such as changing rooms, and toilets in order to commit sexual assaults. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b normal="" quot="">A recent review by PFC</b> of those states, <b normal="" quot="">found that there had been no recorded complaints raised by women’s organisations </b>(or any other groups or individuals) <b normal="" quot="">that men were using the legislation to gain access to women only spaces</b>. <o:p></o:p></div>
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If a man did use the Act to pretend he was really a woman in order to commit a crime, the criminal law exists to deal with them. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b normal="" quot="">In 2016, the</b> <b normal="" quot="">House of Commons Women’s and Equalities Committee inquiry into Transgender Equality</b> found the <b normal="" quot="">Gender Recognition Act </b>and<b normal="" quot=""> the Equality</b> Act are not sufficiently cognisant of the many different lives trans people live. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b normal="" quot="">People with a non-binary gender identity</b> don’t fall into the remit of either, as currently written. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b normal="" quot="">The Inquiry </b>recommended updating the Gender Recognition Act.The Inquiry also recommended following the advice of PFC and many other organisations, and instead of basing qualification for protection on the process of gender reassignment, (which on the face of the Act is non-medical, merely a social process of transitioning) <b normal="" quot="">it should be clearly stated that protection is based upon the essential characteristic of gender identity</b>. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The government of the day said it would consider the issues but has failed to do anything so far. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<span color:="" e13="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" large="" normal="" quot="" style="color: #38761d; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;" white="">(2)<span font-stretch:="" font-style:="" font-variant:="" line-height:="" new="" normal="" quot="" roman="" times=""> </span>Current Concerns raised to PFC’s legal advice service</span></h4>
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PFC volunteers continue to provide a free legal advice service to trans people, their family, friends and those who work with them. The people we currently mostly advise are:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span quot=""><b><span ms="" mso-fareast-font-family:="" quot="" rebuchet=""><span ignore="" quot="">1.<span 7pt="" font-size:="" font-stretch:="" font-style:="" font-variant:="" line-height:="" new="" normal="" quot="" roman="" times=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Prisoners, <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span quot=""><b><span ms="" mso-fareast-font-family:="" quot="" rebuchet=""><span ignore="" quot="">2.<span 7pt="" font-size:="" font-stretch:="" font-style:="" font-variant:="" line-height:="" new="" normal="" quot="" roman="" times=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Adolescents, and children’s parents and schools, and <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span quot=""><b><span ms="" mso-fareast-font-family:="" quot="" rebuchet=""><span ignore="" quot="">3.<span 7pt="" font-size:="" font-stretch:="" font-style:="" font-variant:="" line-height:="" new="" normal="" quot="" roman="" times=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Asylum seekers</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;"><span normal="" quot=""><span large="" quot=""><span b5394="" quot="" style="font-weight: normal;">1.<span new="" quot="" roman="" times=""> </span>Trans Prisoners </span></span></span></span></h4>
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In 2016, the Government held an inquiry after several suicides of trans prisoners. As a consequence, <b normal="" quot="">new, improved, Prison Rules were agreed</b>. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b normal="" quot="">The UK doesn’t have many transitioned, trans prisoners</b><span c00000="" quot=""> </span>at any one time; <b normal="" quot=""><span c00000="" quot="">current numbers are between 40 and 50. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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Unfortunately, the Rules don’t allow trans prisoners to be placed in a prison of their preferred gender role until they have obtained legal gender recognition. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b normal="" quot=""><span c00000="" quot="">Very few trans prisoners will have obtained legal gender recognition</span></b>; they rarely know it is available, and if they do they often believe (erroneously) that gender recognition will be too difficult or too expensive. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The <b normal="" quot="">new Prison Rules</b> require <b normal="" quot=""><span c00000="" quot="">a prompt cases conference</span></b><span c00000="" quot=""> </span>on the incarceration of a trans person. The conference must include and listen to the concerns of the trans prisoner. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Unfortunately, <b normal="" quot="">the rather macho-prison service isn’t noted for its trans friendly attitudes</b>. Few prison staff have the time or interest to make sure a case conference happens, never mind help a prisoner to change their legal name and gender. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We regularly are in touch with <b normal="" quot="">prisoners who are struggling to have their hormone treatment promptly prescribed</b>, frequently leaving them distressed, and angry – a guaranteed way of ensuring they lose the plot and break the core prison rules, getting further into trouble and being further isolated. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Consequently trans prisoners:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />
<ul>
<li>end up in the ‘wrong prison’,</li>
<li>spend weeks without their correct hormone therapies,</li>
<li>are terrified of assault (and it is a real threat, with compensation often paid for the physical injuries received),</li>
<li>are isolated, without friends, and frequently placed into effective solitary (for their own protection),</li>
</ul>
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b normal="" quot="">Many</b> become <b normal="" quot=""><span style="color: #990000;">mentally unwell</span></b>, and become obsessed with suicidal ideation.<o:p></o:p></div>
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PFC volunteers write to many prisoners and arrange to send in copies of the Prison rules, to send in clothing and shoes purchased from charity shops, and to provide a pen-pal friendship.<span quot="" yes=""> </span>Mostly though <b normal="" quot=""><span style="color: #990000;">PFC Volunteers </span></b><b normal="" quot=""><span style="color: #990000;"><span c00000="" quot="">spend their time writing to prison governors </span>requesting (begging) that the PSI rules are abided by. </span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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The problem is not the Prison Rules, it is <b normal="" quot=""><span c00000="" quot="" style="color: #990000;">the failure of Prisons and Prison staff to use the rules</span></b> to help the trans prisoners in their establishments. <o:p></o:p></div>
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A lack of training in the Rules hasn’t helped, and even <b normal="" quot=""><span style="color: #990000;">offers of free training</span></b> for Prison staff <b normal="" quot=""><span style="color: #990000;">are turned down</span></b>, because of staff shortages, they cannot consider releasing staff to attend for the hour it would take to train them.<b normal="" quot=""><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<span quot="" white=""><span b5394="" quot="" style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><span font-weight:="" large="" normal="" quot="">2.<span new="" quot="" roman="" times=""> </span>Children and Adolescents </span> </span><span quot=""><span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"> </span> </span></span></h4>
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<b normal="" quot="">The UK has an excellent child and adolescent Gender Identity Clinic</b> as part of a larger mental health trust – but <b normal="" quot="">it is only one for the entire nation of 66 million people</b>. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Whilst the Clinic provides an excellent service, <o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span 242="" d0d0d="" font-family:="" mso-bidi-font-family:="" mso-fareast-font-family:="" mso-themecolor:="" mso-themetint:="" quot="" symbol="" text1=""><span ignore="" quot="">·<span 7.0pt="" imes="" new="" quot="" roman=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b normal="" quot="">it cannot cope with the numbers seeking help</b>, and <o:p></o:p></div>
<div -18.0pt="" 18.0pt="" class=""List1"" l5="" level1="" lfo9="" mso-list:="" quot="" text-indent:="">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span 242="" d0d0d="" font-family:="" mso-bidi-font-family:="" mso-fareast-font-family:="" mso-themecolor:="" mso-themetint:="" quot="" symbol="" text1=""><span ignore="" quot="">·<span 7.0pt="" imes="" new="" quot="" roman=""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->there is no doubt that it has <b normal="" quot="">increasingly drawn flak</b> from <b normal="" quot="">some</b> feminist women<span quot="" yes=""> </span>who object to the idea of affording children any support in their preferred gender identity. <o:p></o:p></div>
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PFC <b normal="" quot="">REPEATEDLY </b>states that <o:p></o:p></div>
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<ul>
<li><span style="color: #990000;"><b normal="" quot="">children do not receive cross-gender hormones </b>and</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #990000;">n<b normal="" quot="">o child has ever been given gender reassignment surgery</b></span>,</li>
</ul>
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but the Feminist attacks have been sufficiently vocal to make clinicians <b normal="" quot="">very nervous</b> about the provision of the service. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b normal="" quot="">Most adolescents gain their information off their phones.</b> Many are not aware that treatment is free under the NHS.<span quot="" yes=""> </span><b normal="" quot="">The most vulnerable</b>; those who are living in the care of the state, <b normal="" quot="">end up buying expensive and ineffective hormone therapies from pharmacies in the Far east</b>, with no awareness of the dangers they can bring. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b normal="" quot="">PFC would like Public Health England</b> (which is part of the National Health Service) <b normal="" quot="">to promote the services that are available</b>, and to ensure that <b normal="" quot="">schools and colleges have ‘easy to access’ simple information for adolescents and young adults</b>.. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<h3>
<span color:="" d="" font-weight:="" normal="" quot="" style="color: #990000;" white="">FACTS and FIGURES on the NHS England Gender Identity Clinical Services </span></h3>
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<span style="color: #38761d;"><b normal="" quot="">The 2000s have seen a huge growth in the numbers of children and adults seeking Gender Identity Clinical services, </b><b normal="" quot=""><span c00000="" quot="">but there hasn’t been a proportional increase in clinical services</span></b></span></div>
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<ul>
<li><span style="color: #38761d;">The <b normal="" quot="">London Adult Gender Identity Clinic</b>, the biggest and oldest in the UK,<span quot="" yes=""> </span>has seen</span> <span style="color: #990000;"><b normal="" quot="">a </b><b normal="" quot=""><span c00000="" quot="">5 fold increase</span></b></span><span c00000="" quot=""> </span><span style="color: #38761d;">in numbers attending for assessment between 2007 and 2017.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #38761d;"><b normal="" quot="">Nottingham</b>, a regional Gender Identity Clinic has seen a</span> <b normal="" quot=""><span style="color: #990000;"><span c00000="" quot="">28 fold </span>increase</span></b> <span style="color: #38761d;">in number over the same period.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #38761d;"><span quot="" white="">The <b normal="" quot="">Laurels, </b>Devon’s regional Gender Identity Clinic<b normal="" quot="">, </b>has seen a rise from </span><b normal="" quot=""><span c00000="" color:="" quot="" white="">31</span><span quot="" white=""> new patients</span></b></span><span quot="" white=""><span style="color: #38761d;"> in 2005-06 to</span> </span><span quot="" style="color: #990000;"><b normal="" quot=""><span quot="" white="">636</span></b><span quot="" white=""> in 2015-2016.</span><strong><span 115="" 16.5pt="" font-family:="" font-size:="" georgia="" line-height:="" quot="" serif="" white=""> </span></strong></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #38761d;"><span quot="" white="">Sheffield’s clinic went up from </span><span c00000="" color:="" quot="" white=""><b>8</b> new patients in 1998</span><span c00000="" color:="" quot="" white=""> </span><span quot="" white="">to </span></span><span style="color: #990000;"><span c00000="" color:="" quot="" white=""><b>301 </b>in 2015</span><span quot="" white="">.</span></span></li>
</ul>
<o:p></o:p></div>
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For those who as adults want gender reassignment surgery, it is technically available free from the NHS. However, <b normal="" quot="">a failure to invest</b> means we have a real shortage of trained surgeons; just <b normal="" quot="">2 surgeons for trans women</b>, and <b normal="" quot="">2 surgeons for trans men</b>.<span quot="" yes=""> </span></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span quot="" white=""><span large="" quot="" style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><span normal="" quot=""><span b5394="" quot="">3.<span font-stretch:="" font-style:="" font-variant:="" line-height:="" new="" normal="" quot="" roman="" times=""> </span>Asylum Seekers </span></span><span quot=""> </span></span><span quot=""> </span></span></h4>
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The government claims the UK is facing a refugee crisis. We do have refugees, though not as many as people think. </div>
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Some of these refugees are trans people seeking asylum from the persecution and violence they will face in their home country<b normal="" quot="">. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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In the past, PFC had a very good relationship with the UK Immigration service, and we regularly were asked for, and provided country reports which facilitated the provision of asylum status to the most vulnerable trans people. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Since 2010, that relationship has fallen by the wayside. We now see trans trans men and women who are seeking asylum being detained, and then made destitute whilst they fight to prevent their deportation to a certain, early, death. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<span e13="" quot=""><b normal="" quot="">PFC now provides the country reports, mostly for free, through solicitors who are supporting trans people through the Immigration Tribunal system</b>.<span quot="" yes=""> </span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Whenever these people win asylum – and they mostly do at the first tribunal - the Government appeals . They appeal using grounds such as they cannot see the judges’ reason for the decision, which is invariably rubbish and my students can always find the judges’ reasoning. This means <b normal="" quot=""><span e13="" quot="">the process can take up to 6 years of a person’s life</span></b> during which they can receive no benefits, are not allowed to work, and their only means of survival are food vouchers worth £30 (US$40) a week. <o:p></o:p></div>
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It is <span quot=""><b normal="" quot=""><span style="color: #990000;">inhumane, and unreasonable</span></b> </span>to be relying upon a team of unpaid volunteers to provide the only support these people can have. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<h2>
<span fff2cc="" font-weight:="" normal="" quot=""><span blue="" font-size:="" large="" quot=""><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-size: large;">Part C: A Short History of Press for Change </span></span></span></span></span></h2>
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<b><span en-gb="" quot="">1992</span></b><span en-gb="" quot=""> <b>Press for Change (PFC)</b>, the UK trans lobby group is founded to create change, and win <b>Respect and Equality for All trans people</b>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span en-gb="" quot="">In <b normal="" quot="">1997</b>, A PFC activist wins a case at the Court of Justice of the European Union, which provides <b normal="" quot="">employment protection</b> for trans people <b normal="" quot="">throughout Europe</b>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span en-gb="" quot="">In <b normal="" quot="">2002</b>, two PFC Activists, win a case at the European Court of Human Rights which provides <b normal="" quot="">a right to legal recognition in the preferred gender role </b>for all trans people who transition. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span en-gb="" quot=""><b normal="" quot=""><span 191="" accent1="" f5496="" mso-themecolor:="" mso-themeshade:="" quot="" style="color: #0b5394;">What people often forget </span></b><span 191="" accent1="" f5496="" mso-themecolor:="" mso-themeshade:="" quot=""><span style="color: #0b5394;">is that PFC lost far more cases than we won, but what is important is that <b normal="" quot="">we won the key cases</b>. </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></blockquote>
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<b><span en-gb="" quot="">2002-04: PFC workswith the UK government on the Gender Recognition Act 2004</span></b><span en-gb="" quot="">. <span quot="" yes=""> </span>At the time, this was state of the art legislation; the first gender recognition system which did not require trans people to be sterilised or undergo genital reconstruction surgery. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div 0cm="" class=""Responses"" quot="">
<b normal="" quot="">During the drafting of the Act</b>, it was argued that trans people should be permanently sterilised (being unfit to raise children) and they should then risk lives and livelihood by undergoing major invasive, genital reconstruction surgery, the results of which are rarely satisfactory. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<span 191="" accent1="" f5496="" mso-themecolor:="" mso-themeshade:="" quot="">Fifteen years ago, the UK Government recognised this as not only grossly intrusive, but also cruel. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span 191="" accent1="" f5496="" mso-themecolor:="" mso-themeshade:="" quot="">It would mean many disabled or older trans people risking their lives on the operating table, and most trans men having to forgo a career and family, whilst undergoing six to twelve surgeries over as many years, simply to qualify for their human rights. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b normal="" quot=""><span en-gb="" quot="">2006-2010</span></b><span en-gb="" quot=""> <b normal="" quot="">PFC works with the UK government in the inclusion of trans people in the <span bold="" quot="">Equality Act 2010; </span></b><span bold="" quot="">again state of the art, model, legislation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class=""ResponsesChar"">Since 2010, <b normal="" quot="">the Equality</b></span><b normal="" quot=""> Act has been a huge success</b>, and has greatly improved job security and access to housing, goods and services for trans people.<span quot="" yes=""> </span>We have seen the number of claims of employment discrimination, or discrimination when accessing goods, services, housing and facilities drop to almost zero. However<b normal="" quot="">, numbers of claims don’t necessarily reflect what is happening on the ground</b>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span quot="" xx-small="">The End © Stephen Whittle for Press For Change, May 2018</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />Stephen Whittlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379289307731132721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9017615131206820221.post-38500221669211475442018-05-07T07:19:00.003+01:002019-01-10T04:25:18.530+00:00The Guardian fails to Stand up in the Battle over Transgender Rights<a href="https://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=9017615131206820221"></a> <br />
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</div><div><h4><span arial="" helvetica="" neue="" sans-serif="" style="color: #660000;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">On Friday 4th May 2018, the Guardian newspaper published this The title above the letter says:</span> </span></h4><h3><span arial="" font-size:="" helvetica="" large="" neue="" sans-serif=""><b><span style="color: #274e13;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/may/04/standing-up-for-transsexual-rights" target="_blank">letter</a>."Standing up for transsexual rights"</span></b></span></h3><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span arial="" helvetica="" neue="" sans-serif="">And yet, the letter does anything but that. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHtZkEi0WQWTFtS70dS58iJ0OmAmzceD5Hze-MweI_7lxSFBpiuTmHttpf03ADPG8zCX9iwPevZnaclT7_nfFUM9KS7xz3M6kP23na5-nmz-HtENwdfBEK2YwzWxXMnJ_zq0XJUUc9EXs/s1600/2018+Guardian+standing+up+trans+rights.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span arial="" helvetica="" neue="" sans-serif="" style="color: black;"><img alt="The Guardian letter 'Standing up for Trans Rights'" border="0" data-original-height="747" data-original-width="944" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHtZkEi0WQWTFtS70dS58iJ0OmAmzceD5Hze-MweI_7lxSFBpiuTmHttpf03ADPG8zCX9iwPevZnaclT7_nfFUM9KS7xz3M6kP23na5-nmz-HtENwdfBEK2YwzWxXMnJ_zq0XJUUc9EXs/s400/2018+Guardian+standing+up+trans+rights.JPG" title="" width="400" /></span></a><span arial="" helvetica="" neue="" sans-serif="">Ever since I left home, aged 18 in 1973 I have read the Guardian. I have come to expect the Guardian newspaper to show a modicum of intelligence, some historical awareness and to do basic fact checking. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span arial="" helvetica="" neue="" sans-serif="">Why on earth then would the Guardian choose to publish a reactionary and inflammatory letter, under this heading, when in fact the letter's authors want to take away core human rights that the trans community won in 2002 at the European Court of Human Rights. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span arial="" helvetica="" neue="" sans-serif="">The proposal suggested in the letter, which was written by a a tiny group of 'transsexual' women (their word, not mine) who support an even tinier minority of feminist women, would roll back key elements of the Gender Recognition Act 2004. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span arial="" helvetica="" neue="" sans-serif="">Whatever these 'transsexual' women think - and we all accept the Act, being a product of its time, is by no means perfect - it was, and still is, the champion of our existence as a community of people seeking our place and right to participate in the civil and political world. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span arial="" helvetica="" neue="" sans-serif="">As a campaigner, I worked with the UK Government's Department for Constitutional Affairs on the Gender Recognition Act 2004. As a consequence of that Act, in 2005 I was able to marry my partner of 26 years (now 40 years) and I became the legal father to our four children. Both had previously been impossible.<o:p></o:p></span></div><h3 style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span style="color: #274e13;"><span arial="" helvetica="" neue="" sans-serif="">A </span><span arial="" helvetica="" neue="" sans-serif="">‘Drop your Knickers’ Test. </span></span></h3><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span arial="" helvetica="" neue="" sans-serif="">If the legislation was to recognise the prurient and voyeuristic division of the trans community that these women propose; a difference between “<b style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue;">US</span></b> and [those]<span style="color: #990000;"><b>transgender people who remain physically intact</b></span>” it would, effectively, mean creating a ‘drop your knickers’ test. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span arial="" helvetica="" neue="" sans-serif="">During the drafting of the Act, it was argued that for trans people to have legal recognition of the gender role in which they permanently live, they should be permanently sterilised - being unfit to raise children - and then have to undergo major invasive, genital reconstruction surgery, the results of which are rarely satisfactory. Sadly, many countries do still subject trans people to legally prescribed, state-enforced sterilisation and surgery. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span arial="" helvetica="" neue="" sans-serif="">Fifteen years ago, the UK Government recognised such a requirement as not only grossly intrusive, but also cruel, as it would mean many disabled or older trans people risking their lives on the operating table, and most trans men having to forgo a career and family, whilst undergoing six to twelve surgeries over as many years, simply to qualify for their human rights. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span arial="" helvetica="" neue="" sans-serif="">In 2017, the <a href="https://www.echr.coe.int/Pages/home.aspx?p=home" target="_blank">European Court of Human Rights</a> confirmed the position that the UK Government took in 2004, when it <a href="http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=001-172556" target="_blank">held that a requirement for these procedures</a> (compulsory sterilisation surgery for legal gender recognition violates Article 8 of the Convention) was a clear contravention of the human rights of France’s trans community.</span></div><h3 style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span style="color: #274e13;">Gender is to Sex, as Race is to Skin Colour</span></h3><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span arial="" helvetica="" neue="" sans-serif="">Most people now understand that gender is to sex, as race is to skin colour; merely a social construction primarily used to oppress others. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span arial="" helvetica="" neue="" sans-serif="">Along with the UN, numerous governments including Ireland, Denmark, Portugal, Malta, Columbia, Pakistan and Argentina have also acknowledged that as social constructions, gender diversities can take many myriad forms, none of which are of lesser value than any other.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal">Thankfully, the days when trans people were divided into primary/secondary; post-op/pre-op, passing/non-passing are history.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #660000;"><b>It is a history these ‘transsexual’ women would do well to read up on. </b></span></div><div><br />
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Stephen Whittlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379289307731132721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9017615131206820221.post-91196014687338390342017-05-02T14:14:00.000+01:002017-05-10T21:10:45.254+01:00The Labour's Manifesto of my Dreams.<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">I haven't
written for the last 18 months - illness, then post referendum blues and a real
loss of vision about what it means to be a modern Briton. I have even asked 'do
I want to be English'. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">However,
our Supreme Leader May has now called a snap election, despite promising that
there would not be one. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">And, as a
Labour party member I have had an email asking me to say what I would like to
see in Labour's Manifesto. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">My first
question is: Do I want a change of Government? <b>YES, I DO</b>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<h1>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Heading1Char"><br /></span></span></h1>
<h1>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Heading1Char">We have now had 7 years of austerity</span>.<o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<h2>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></h2>
<h2>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">What has it really been like?<o:p></o:p></span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Millions of us who work in the public sector have had annual
pay rises of 1%, 1.5% below inflation rates, ensuring the value of our wages
have fallen by over 10% in real purchasing terms. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">All our
costs are rising. I could talk about the cost of having three children at
University - but I'll just say this; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Thank God
we both have jobs, as £1000 a month leaves our wages and goes directly to
ensuring our young adults at University can survive. The loans they get pay
tuition fees, but they don't even cover the cost of the most basic student housing,
never mind food, travel, books etc. Survival is the name of the game -
any drinking and partying money they have to earn themselves, usually in
a zero hours minimum wage job.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">And then our
young adults will leave University with a £55,000 debt, as their older sister
has already.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">I find
myself wondering if I did my children a real disservice by saying that if they
worked hard, they could go to Uni and have real choices in their lives. I
should have said: real debts in their lives. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<h2>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></h2>
<h2>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Do you remember David Cameron
promising to control energy costs. <o:p></o:p></span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Our energy bills continue to rise, despite gas and oil at their
lowest market cost for 10 years. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Now food bills are rising by 7% each year, because of the
post-Brexit foreseeable fall in the value of the pound. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Those of us who have a proper job are Mrs. May's 'just about
managing' group, but sometimes it is only 'just'. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<h2>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></h2>
<h2>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">What about Wages and YOUR JOB!!! <o:p></o:p></span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Millions of workers now have 'improper' jobs in the 'Gig
economy' in which they are classed as self-employed. They are without any right
to sickness benefits, holiday pay, or controlled hours of work. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>For those without a job at all</b>, life is a <b>nightmare</b>.
Welfare benefits have not risen at all - in real terms they have fallen by 20%
in purchasing value. House prices are beyond most people. If you don't already
own a house, you have to wait for your parents to die! All tenancies are now
short term and insecure. You work, and pay your rent, but can still be made
homeless. The benefits are capped so if your rent goes up, you may find
yourself being moved hundreds of miles away. The only housing you are
offered is in a town with no jobs at all, (Stoke on Trent) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The WELFARE CRISIS<o:p></o:p></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">There are those parts of the country, London primarily,
where a minimum wage job cannot be made to work for you. The rent on the tiny
room in the shared multi-occupancy house is £600 a month, so after bills are
paid, what have you got left to purchase food with - zilch, unless you take on
a second job. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Do you remember Cameron's pledges for his big society, and
his 'happiness; assessments. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">By 2014, evidence showed
that almost 10,000 disabled or ill people have died after being declared
'fit for work' in a workplace assessment; 2,500 have been refused ESA because they were
'fit for work', and 7,500 after being placed in the ‘other work’ related
category in the work assessment programme. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">By 2015, we had seen 1000
extra suicides and an additional 30-40,000 suicide attempts. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">By 2017, the Trussell
trust [which provides around half of the nation's food banks] gave out 1.2
million emergency 3 day food parcels, with half a million of those going
to feed children. </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">That is 50 times more food parcels than the 25,000 given out
in 2008-09, an increase of 5,000% (per cent). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">But let's stop for a moment and think about poor Mr Cameron
who lost his job when he walked away from no.10 last year. Well he can't
be that broke, as he has just spent £25,000 on a garden shed. That is 5
times the annual income a job seeker receives. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">But , like his friend '5 jobs Osborne' who earned £700,000
in 2016, Cameron is also raking it in. Cameron earned £1million in his
first 6 years in office - nice money if you can get it and I assume he actually
saved some of that. Cameron will both now receive a £40,000 annual
parliamentary pension despite being only 50, but sadly, unlike his mate George,
David only makes £120,000 plus each time he gives a speech - nice money if you
can get it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>And then came Brexit, and it WILL only get worse. </b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Our Supreme Leader May now insists that we vote for her proposed one party
state as it is essential for our democratic future. She says she is going
to be a strong, and steady hand controlling our departure from the EU -
despite the fact that she has known all along that Brexit will be a real
economic disaster for the future of ordinary people in Britain.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">So, yes I do want a REALLY NEW Government - and this is what
would I really like in the Labour Manifesto: <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<h2>
<span style="color: purple; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Labour will Be Bold and offer a Real
Alternative for Britain, with an new, dynamic, socialist economic programme for
the people.</span></h2>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">PUBLIC STANDARDS<o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">1.
Political parties will be prosecuted under the rules for electoral fraud if
during any election or referendum campaign if they promote, or otherwise
condone, what they know to be, or should have known to be, lies, falsehoods,
fraudulent statements, and untruths.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">2.
Individual Politicians who promote, or otherwise condone what they know to
be, or should have known to be, lies, falsehoods, fraudulent statements,
and untruths, when campaigning (for anything) will be prosecuted for
fraud with a maximum Level 5 fine and barred from serving in government, and
from taking a Public appointment for a minimum of 5 years.</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">EUROPE and BREXIT<o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">In order
to safeguard the wellbeing of the British people, their jobs, the economy, the
Union, and UK business:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">1. On
winning the election, Labour commits the UK to remaining in the EU, or<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">2. Labour
will <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">fight Brexit, and commit to returning to
Europe as soon as possible,<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">vote to stay in Europe if the Brexit deal
isn't good enough,<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">provide immediate protection to those EU
citizens who live/ work or wish to come to the UK to live and work,<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">protect the health, pension and welfare
rights of British people living in Europe,<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">vote to ensure an open border between
Eire and Northern Ireland.</span></li>
</ul>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">THE REFUGEE <span class="Heading3Char"><span style="font-weight: normal; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">C</span></span>RISIS<o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Labour
will have <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">a refugee settlement programme,
enforceable in the UK courts, for refugees from war, famine and
persecution,<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">commit the UK, as a country, to taking up
to 12,000 refugees in the first year (1 for every 5,000 members of the
population), and thereafter, 6,000 per year.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">commit 5% of International Aid to the
resettlement of refugees in their home or other country,<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">have a separate programme whereby all
child refugees under the age of 18 who have family in the UK, will have a
right to come here - and quickly,</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
</ul>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">CLIMATE CHANGE<o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Labour
will <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; mso-list: l10 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">raise £1billion by increasing landfill
taxation by 5p in the £, so enabling Labour to<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; mso-list: l10 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">support business to ensure the UK meets
its commitments and obligations under the Paris Climate Agreement, and<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; mso-list: l10 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">commit to a 20 year programme of bringing
renewable energy to all homes using subsidies and grants to support the
introduction of ground heat pumps, home wind turbines, wave and solar
power.</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
</ul>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">HEALTH and SOCIAL CARE<o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Labour
will ring fence £20 billion of NI Payments for Health and Social Care
Provision, so enabling Labour to commit to immediately<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; mso-list: l14 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">fully funding the NHS with an additional
£8billion by 2020,<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; mso-list: l14 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">enforcing minimum waiting times in A
& E, for cancer treatments, and for surgery<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; mso-list: l14 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">extending health beds for emergency
admissions by 10%, with an additional 10% of intensive care beds;<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; mso-list: l14 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">enforcing EU working times for all
Junior doctors;<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; mso-list: l14 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">training an additional 1,000 junior
doctors each year for 5 years<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; mso-list: l14 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">placing nurse and supporting health
professionals training back into a combined fully funded ward and
university setting, with grant aided studentships.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; mso-list: l14 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">bringing social care provision under a
new NHS ‘wing’, with ring fenced funded of 1% of National Insurance,
5% of council taxes, and 1% of VAT,<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Labour
will also<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; mso-list: l12 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">require at least 4 years commitment to
NHS employment from all who have benefitted from UK medical training, or
former students will repay any bursary received..<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; mso-list: l12 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">create a new two year apprenticeship
programme for all new social care workers;</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
</ul>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">THE ECONOMY and BUSINESS<o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Labour
will ensure the full taxation of the transactions of ‘offshore companies’
selling or otherwise trading in the UK, regardless of where a business says it
is based, and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Labour
will raise the Business Tax levy by 1% every two years, to a maximum of 30% for
businesses with profits (before dividends) of £1 million per year, and 35% for
businesses with profits of over £3 million per year, so enabling Labour to
commit to:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; mso-list: l13 level1 lfo6; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">prioritising business growth, but only
where it increases the employment of UK residents and citizens, or
benefits ordinary people in Britain, or another economy with similar
employment welfare standards. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; mso-list: l13 level1 lfo6; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Increasing research funding, and bringing
business to, the renewable power industry by committing to bringing
renewables to all homes in Britain, so allowing the industry to become
world leading<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Labour
will improve employment opportunities by<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; mso-list: l11 level1 lfo7; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">creating an additional 100,000
apprenticeships in British businesses;<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; mso-list: l11 level1 lfo7; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">allowing low cost visa controlled
immigration, which includes, after 4 years, automatic settlement for
employees from all industries where appropriately qualified UK based
workers cannot be recruited.</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
</ul>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">HOUSING<o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; font-weight: normal;">Labour will raise £600 million each year by raising taxation
on Share and Insurance Premiums by £10p in the £, so enabling Labour to
commit to<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; font-weight: normal;">funding
an annual building programme of 50,000 affordable homes and 50,000 social
rental homes, to be built on grey and brownfield sites, with
a maximum of 10% will be 1 bedroomed homes, 20% two bedroom homes,
with the remaining 70% being 3 bedroom homes, <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; font-weight: normal;">with
affordability of such homes to be based on a maximum purchase price for a
3 bedroom home of four times the regional average wage, and<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; font-weight: normal;">with
all new builds, whether homes, commercial or industrial being
environmentally sustainable buildings, with solar panels and heat
exchangers or ground heat pumps.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; font-weight: normal;">National Building standards will require all new homes to be
environmentally and family friendly homes with controlled minimum room
and external garden sizes, and parking provision. 10% will be accessible homes
for people with disabilities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; font-weight: normal;">Labour will release 2000 acres of grey and brownfield
land at no cost, for 10,000 self builders of eco-homes, each year of our
government<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; font-weight: normal;">Labour will introduce a National Standards Building force,
of current and prospective house builders, committed to meet the above
standards, to be controlled through local Building standards committees.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; font-weight: normal;">Labour will facilitate the introduction of minimum housing
standards for ALL rental property, enforced by fines, and ultimately,
prosecution of a criminal offence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; font-weight: normal;">Labour will ‘tax to end’ the scandal of ‘buying to let’
former social housing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; font-weight: normal;">Labour commits to:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; font-weight: normal;">a 5
years programme of repurchasing former social housing from buy to
let landlords at current market value minus the cost of renovating the
property to meet the new national building standards.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; font-weight: normal;">Immediately
ending the Bedroom Tax.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; font-weight: normal;">Introducing
a local Rent Tribunal & Rent control system for the Private sector
based on the living wage and the property condition.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; font-weight: normal;">Landlords
of properties will be able to request an assessment to fix the rental rate
for 3 years.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; font-weight: normal;">Tenants
will be able to request a Rent assessment and be protected from eviction
during the period of any such tribunal and assessment, and at least 12
months after the completion of an assessment, provided the assessment was
not requested solely with the intention of protecting the tenancy.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; font-weight: normal;">Labour will introduce Assured Guaranteed Tenancies (AGT’s)
of at least 5 years, with 6 months’ notice before eviction can be sought.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; font-weight: normal;">Current
Assured Shorthold tenancies (AST’s) to be withdrawn immediately, and
automatically converted to an AGT, unless the landlord was living in the
property prior to and at the date of the withdrawal of AST’s.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; font-weight: normal;">Labour
will introduce legislation to make all buildings to which employees or the
public have access, fully accessible including a commitment to accessible
bathrooms by 2025. This requirement to be enforced through building standards.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small; font-weight: normal;">Property
owners of exceptional ancient or historic buildings will be able to seek
exemption. If successful, notification of lack of access is to be
advertised outside of the building.</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
</ul>
</h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">EMPLOYMENT<o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; font-weight: normal;">Labour is committed to fair work, at a fair pay, for all,
and Labour will:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; font-weight: normal;">ban
zero hour contracts,<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; font-weight: normal;">raise
the minimum wage to the Living wage rate, and will include a living wage
for all young workers from the age of 18<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; font-weight: normal;">enforce
employment rights within the ‘gig’ economy, including maximum hours,
minimum wage, holidays, compulsory employers and employees national
insurance, and pensions.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; font-weight: normal;">ban
businesses from burdening the social security budget by offering only part
time work, when full time work could be made available e.g. retailers
offering employment only of less than 16 hours at minimum wage rate,
employers offering posts of less than full time, employers only offering
falsely described ‘self employment’.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; font-weight: normal;">enforce
a minimum and maximum working hours agreement for all employees.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small; font-weight: normal;">ensure
full employment by removing from businesses their ability to supplement
minimum wages through overtime or tax credits, by banning the use of
‘normal’ overtime and enforcing the living wage for all.</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
</ul>
</h3>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
</ul>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">EDUCATION<o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Labour will raise £1 billion per annum, by raising VAT by 1p
in the £, so enabling Labour to<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">bring
all funded schools back under the control of the Local Education
Authority,<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">introduce
a schools renovation programme, to ensure all schools meet new buildings
standards, and education provision standards,<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">revisit
the national curriculum, bringing in compulsory education in
European Language, Civil Society, Personal sex education (from the age of
10), and critical and transferable skills based learning into the
education of all children from junior school age<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">end
the scandal of the national baccalaureate, reintroducing variety into GCSE
ad A’Level courses<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">revisit
primary education, creating a new ‘kindergarten education’ for children
from the age of three, allowing for entry into primary education between
the ages of 4 and 8 depending upon the child’s physical and mental
development;<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; mso-list: l8 level1 lfo12; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">build upon the expertise and experience
from countries such as Finland and Germany, and recognising variable age
literacy and numeracy education, the kindergarten system will ensure that
all children will leave primary education, being able to read and having
basic numeracy.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; mso-list: l8 level1 lfo12; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">require grammar and other secondary
schools based upon selection to either join the funded comprehensive
education system, or become privately funded schools;<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; mso-list: l8 level1 lfo12; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">ensure real social mobility in business,
and public appointments, by requiring the privately funded secondary
schools to provide 50% of all places through a newly created subsidised
direct grant system available to local children who meet the public
school’s entry requirements. Fees to be met by Government at normal
schools rates and subsidised to full fee cost by the private schools’
charitable endowments,<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Labour will raise £10 billion by scrapping Trident, and all
other nuclear armaments, and £1 billion by encouraging overseas students for UK
Universities by ending the high cost student visa fee, so enabling it to:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">reintroduce
national University funding and individual living grants, and end
university fees, including all fees owing. There will be repayment of fees
paid through beneficial taxation.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">ensure
research council funding of £1.5billion per annum, whether through
re-entry into the EU, or otherwise,</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
</ul>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">TRANSPORT<o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Labour will increase vehicle tax by 1p in the £, so raising
£300 million, enabling Labour to:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">remove
annual car mileage from the roads, by supporting Local, Regional and City
authorities to bring back subsidised local transport via environmentally
friendly schemes, for all<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">support,
and subsidise the construction, and purchase, of UK electric cars and
other vehicles<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">plant
a publicly accessible forest of carbon reducing trees, at the rate of one
for each vehicle on the roads.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Labour
will make road safety a priority and will<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">increase
maximum penalties for causing death by dangerous driving an offence up to
imprisonment for life.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">increase
penalties for driving without insurance, a licence, or a properly
registered and taxed vehicle</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
</ul>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">TAXATION<o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Labour will raise £3billion for the NHS by increasing higher
rate taxes:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">for the
super-rich (over £150,000 per annum) to 50%,<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">for
the rich (over £70,000 per annum) to 44%,<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">for
the better off (currently over £45,000) to 42%<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">for
those on their regional living wage, basic rate tax will rise by 1p in the
£ to 21%<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">During its
government, Labour will not raise the current personal allowance, so
facilitating the move of more workers into direct and personal investment in
the country, and thus encouraging public participation in civil and political
society</span></span></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">DEFENCE<o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Labour will end our participation in the nuclear arms race,
this will enable the UK to<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">meet
the costs of ending student fees and loans for Higher education<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">meet
the 2% of GDP investment in ground, sea and air forces committed to NATO<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">create
a new peace centre, in Bradford, providing national and international
expertise, and a permanent home for international conferences and debates
relating to peace requirements anywhere in the world,<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">create
a research and practice based legal unit, to directly engage in talks with
the parties threatening the stability of ordinary lives in any
region of the world</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
</ul>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">EQUALITY<o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Labour will bringing into effect clause 2 of the Equality
Act 2010, and provide a further £20 million for the Equality and Human Rights
Commission, whose duties will then include enforcing new equality targets
including<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">All
public transport being made full accessible, including toilet facilities
for train journeys of over 60 minutes, and bus journeys of over 3 hours.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Introducing
Caste as a protected category in the Act<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Minimum
targets of 12% for employment rates of people with disabilities in all
businesses and other types of employment, where there are more than 20
employees,<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">All
workers and employees investing in a pension scheme so as to ensure a
better old age for all<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Introducing
into the national curriculum of primary, junior and high school,
compulsory education which includes an understanding of equality,
anti-discrimination law, to support all children of difference<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Removing
court fees for the unemployed in the Employment Tribunals and for those on
welfare benefits in the Divorce Courts.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Introducing
standard national quotas for disabled, BME, LGBT and female court judges
at all levels of the UK courts</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
</ul>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">SOCIAL WELFARE<o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Labour will enhance the non-pension related social welfare
budget by £400 million by adding 2p in the £ to alcoholic drink taxation. This
will allow Labour to immediately:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">reintroduce
ESA for the disabled<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">retain
the triple cap on pensions,<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">ensure
that no family on social welfare benefits ever has to seek support via a
foodbank – one of this country’s national scandals <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; mso-list: l9 level1 lfo19; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">remove the Benefits cap of £23,000 for
households in London, and just £20,000 for those<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; mso-list: l9 level1 lfo19; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">reintroduce housing benefit payments to
those aged under 21</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
</ul>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">SOCIAL JUSTICE<o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Labour will add £40 million to the annual Legal Aid budget,
£20 million by raising £100 million over the life time of the Government
through extending the system for obtaining control of assets gained through
criminal activity, and £20 million by raising Capital Gains Tax by 5p in the £.
This will allow Labour to<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; mso-list: l16 level1 lfo20; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">maximise social justice funding by
increasing access to Legal Aid<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; mso-list: l16 level1 lfo20; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Reintroduce the publicly funded lawyer
for all defendants in criminal cases.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; mso-list: l16 level1 lfo20; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Labour will further extend social justice
by introduce a system whereby non-practicing Barristers, solicitors, or
academic lawyers, can be employed at all levels of the Court system.</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">I doubt I will see much of this in Labour's manifesto, but I
truly believe we need to see something really different this time, something
that could truly enhance the wellbeing of all in the country. Only then
could we actually contribute to solving the problems of the rest of the world.
If we do not act, then one day those problems <b>WILL </b>become our
problems. </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span>
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l16 level1 lfo11; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<a href="https://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=9017615131206820221"></a> <br />
<blockquote>
</blockquote>
Stephen Whittlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379289307731132721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9017615131206820221.post-50475623078165994702015-12-07T22:48:00.001+00:002018-05-07T12:05:27.380+01:00Trans People are Still Frightening some Parts of the Nation.<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; color: #141823;">Under the Headline</span></span><span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> <span style="color: blue;">"</span></span><span style="color: blue;"><b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1e1e1e;"><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/12035655/Fast-track-transgender-teachers-for-a-30000-grant-school-heads-told.html"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 19.26px;">Fast-track transgender teachers for a £30,000 grant, school heads told</span></a></span></b><span style="color: #1e1e1e; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"</span></span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> (Monday 7<sup>th</sup> December 2015)</span><span style="background: white; color: #141823; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> in today's Telegraph, we are told that </span><span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Schools are being offered £30,000 extra funding to hire and promote gay and transgender teachers.</span></span><br />
<span style="background: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1e1e1e;">It is clarified later in the article that "S</span>chools can get a grant of up to £30,000 per project to provide training to existing teachers or recruit new staff to plug gaps in diversity, such as low number of gay or older teachers or staff with children. The fund encourages applications on the basis of so-called protected characteristics, defined by the Equality Act in 2010."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So in other words Schools don't have to promote Trans people to get the £30k; they have to become more diverse in their staffing to get £30k.</span><br />
<br />
<h3><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Why Headline Trans Teachers when it is really about Diversity?</span></h3><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Telegraph (and I am sure the Mail tomorrow) singled out trans people, primarily because for their constituent reader group we are are still terrifying.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #141823;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="color: #141823;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It is only 16 years ago that in the 1998 Consultation on the Sex Discrimination (Gender Reassignment) Regulations 1999, the (then Labour) government sought the public's</span></span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #141823;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">“views on whether there should be a specific exception <i>(to the employment of Trans people)</i> for jobs which involve working with children. If so should all children be regarded as vulnerable up until 18 … or is this unnecessarily restrictive? Information would be helpful about the merits of (i) a comprehensive approach permitting discrimination against transsexuals for all jobs in schools, and for any work involving substantial contact with children under age 18, during the gender re-assignment process plus one year, ... or (ii) a narrower approach which allowed employers to exclude transsexuals from work bringing them in contact with children regarding changing facilities (e.g. swimming trips) and sleeping accommodation (e.g. boarding schools) during the gender re- assignment process…)."</span></span></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #141823;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In those pre-social media days, PFC was given less than 3 weeks to respond to the consultation. The kitchen table was turned into a mail room, with our kids and their friends paid a fiver each to pack envelopes as we endeavoured to quickly inform the trans community of the proposals so that they could respond to the Consultation. Ultimately, over 800 trans people and friends did respond pointing out, amongst other things,that the proposals would ultimately lead to the dismissal of many teachers, nurses, and doctors who were trans and already satisfactorily doing this work with children and vulnerable people. </span></span><br />
<span style="background: white; color: #141823;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="background: white; color: #141823;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Thankfully the proposals were watered down, but less than a year later we had to support a trans woman at an employment tribunal. A social carer fought to keep a her job attending to a disabled young person - a job which she had been already doing satisfactorily for more than a year (DA-v-Suffolk County Council (Employment Tribunal, Nov 1999). The young person, and their parents knew about her transition. Thankfully they were more than happy to attend court and state that they were extremely happy with the service she provided and wished it to continue. Fortunately, her local authority employer did not succeed - but their assumption all along had been that the family would prefer not to have a trans woman as a carer.</span></span><br />
<span style="background: white; color: #141823;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="background: white; color: #141823;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It is a frequent assumption - usually by middle-managers who are primarily concerned with what the customer, client, patient, student, etc. will think. They never actually ask the customer, client, patient, student., etc what they think. Instead they assume that 'of course' they will not wish to receive a service from a trans person. Sadly in many quarters, the 19650s-1970s attitude that trans people are mentally unstable, sexual perverts, whose very presence will harm children and the vulnerable still persists. </span></span><br />
<span style="background: white; color: #141823;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="background: white; color: #141823;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The truth is that we are still the people that Telegraph Readers think will harm the kids.</span></span><br />
<span style="background: white; color: #141823;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><h3><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: red; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">What is it like to have other people being frightened of you? </span></span></h3><blockquote class="tr_bq"><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="background: white; color: #141823;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>It is grim.</b></span></span></blockquote></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #141823;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I had always wanted to teach, but had left teacher training college in 1973 because I knew I needed to transition if I hoped to live. Eight years later, with several years of experience as a TEFL teacher, I applied again. The doctor who undertook the medicals for prospective teachers took one look at my history and said <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="background: white; color: #141823;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"absolutely no way - YOU People (<i>I used to hate the way they said that</i>) cannot possibly imagine you could be let near other people's children". </span></span></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #141823;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Ten years later, in 1991, when my partner and I wanted to try for a family, we knew that no adoption agency would even look at any application of ours, so instead we hoped to obtain donor insemination through a licensed fertility clinic. I won’t bore you with the whole story (and it went on and on and on ….) but eventually we reached a clinic with a visionary clinician. He was all for it, but he did have to have the matter put before the clinic’s Ethics committee. The committee decided (and I am paraphrasing here) that my partner (now wife) Sarah could never be a good enough woman to be allowed to become a mother whilst she was in love with someone like me.</span></span><br />
<span style="background: white; color: #141823;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #141823;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">My anger knew no bounds. It was then that I realised why I had spent 5 years taking a part-time law degree; to fight that sort of injustice.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="background: white; color: #141823;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #141823;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We challenged the clinic, and of course they backed down rather than have a precedent set in court, and we were then lucky enough to have the opportunities and adventures that come with raising four amazing, well balanced, carefree, children – whom we are often told are a credit to us. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="background: white; color: #141823;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I had been a scout leader and group scout leader for 10 years, but in 1992, just after our daughter was born and just before I came out (in the full ‘public glare’ sense) I resigned, knowing that the Scout Association would have felt it had no choice but to dismiss me. However, one former scout very kindly wrote to say that it didn't matter one jot and he thanked me for being the very best scout leader he and his mates could have ever had. He was right of course; I was the best scout leader they could have had – not least because I knew all that campfire training in the Girl Guides had to be put to some good use, one day. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #141823;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">At the time I also gave up a post I had held every summer for 8 years, as head of a language school – again knowing that the Company of which our centre was a part, would have felt they would have no choice but to dismiss me. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="background: white; color: #141823;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #141823;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">And so it went on. In 2001, the parents of our daughter’s best friend rang up. The mother said she was extremely concerned to have discovered my background – and as her daughter regularly came to stay with us and they were 'naturally' concerned. I listened carefully to what she had to say and then replied; <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="background: white; color: #141823;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">“Yes, I really do understand how very difficult it must be for you and that you do have concerns. I must say I had very much the same reaction and level of concern when I discovered that you and your husband are ‘born again’ Christians.” </span></span></blockquote></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #141823;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It was one of my wittier moments, and I will give Debbie her due - she roared with laughter and replied “touché”. We have been very good friends ever since, much as our daughters have remained friends despite moving to different parts of the country and moving into very different lives. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<h3><span style="color: purple; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Is this Fear Real?</span></h3></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="background: white; color: #141823;"><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Yes it is. But it isn't a real fear.</b></span></span></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; color: #141823;">In 2005, when the Gender Recognition Act 2004 was in the process of being developed, the government held a private and limited consultation with both the Anglican Church and Press for Change. PFC stuck by the rules and we responded without seeking further consultation with the trans community. We had however been naïve. The Anglican Church had forwarded the consultation to all of its ministers, and consequently over 800 of them responded to the Government. That consultation resulted in the religious exemptions in the </span><a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2005/916/contents/made">The Gender Recognition (Disclosure of Information) (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) (No. 2) Order 2005</a> which allow church ministers to grass on transsexual people, so as to ensure nobody accidentally conducts a marriage in an Anglican church of two people, one of whom is trans. I have copies of the responses made by Church Ministers to that consultation, and have gone through them all. 21% of them mentioned their concerns for the safety of the children in their churches if they were not allowed to discriminate against trans people. That was just ten years ago. <span style="background: white; color: #141823;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">For some people, Trans people are still very frightening – mostly I suspect because they don’t know any of us, or rather they don’t know whether or not they know any of us. Partly that is our own fault; if we all came out, on mass, then they would certainly know that they knew at least one of us, possibly many more. </span></span><br />
<span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Having now taught at a University for over twenty years, I know that by always being out as a trans man, I have personally ensured that thousands of my former students; young lawyers, HR managers, senior civil servants, judges etc. know that we really, really, are not at all frightening. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Having said that, however, I still think we have a right to our privacy.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Some years ago, on her retirement, our friend Carol, who had been a primary school teacher for our each one of our four children came to visit. She said, she had something very important to say to Sarah and me. This is what she told us; Apparently, when she had been told that the children of a woman living with a transsexual were joining the school, she was sure she would meet 4 very damaged children. But, she wanted to tell us that having known our children and us, she now wished every child in that school could have had parents as thoughtful as Sarah and myself, in fact she wished every child in the school could have actually had Sarah and me as their parents. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background: white;">It was the best thing that anyone I think has probably ever said to us. A vindication of the commitment we made to be truthful, fair, and considerate of our children as beings independent from ourselves. Carol had exonerated us of the guilt we had from daring to be so selfish as to want to have children and raise them.</span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background: white;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">And what has become of those children about whom everyone felt great concern because of me? <span style="color: #141823;">In February, we as their parents will be bereft as all four of them will be in different continents, not one of them even in Europe. </span>Our eldest daughter is going to teach and continue her own music in China, whilst our son is in Canada at University for a year, playing his cello with a local symphony orchestra and his trombone in a jazz ensemble. One of our twin daughters is in Australia picking oranges amongst other jobs on a gap year before going to University, and her sister is heading out to South and Central America to improve her Spanish and work on conservation projects before she also goes to University. </span></span><br />
<span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">As for us, we will be desperately waiting for next July when these wonderful young people will come home for a short while before the next series of adventures start. I am, of course, and rightly so, very proud of our kids – they are true contemporary world citizens, each with a strong conscience, an actioned environmental awareness, a tolerance which also means they do not judge others, a cleverness which they don’t flaunt, and a depth of understanding of what it is like to be comfortable in their own skin, which somebody like me could only dream of at their age. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background: white;">These are the children people least needed to be worried about, because they were always truly wanted and will always be loved. </span>As their <span style="background: white;">parents we knew how privileged we were to be given the responsibility and role of helping them grow into themselves. But all we had to do, when we could stay awake, was tell them we loved them, often, and be true to them. Subsequently, we have been rewarded with children whom we now know as our friends. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background: white;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background: white;">They are people of whom it will never be said that they are a waste of the world’s oxygen. </span></span><o:p></o:p><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background: white;"><br />
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Stephen Whittlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379289307731132721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9017615131206820221.post-9061540274587489852015-06-13T14:17:00.004+01:002015-06-13T14:24:15.603+01:00URGENT - Respond to the Fracking Consultation<h2>
<span style="background-color: white; color: red;">URGENT ACT NOW </span></h2>
<h2>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #274e13;">STOP this Government Fast Tracking a ‘free
for all Fracking boom’.</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Conservative government is trying to fast-track fracking. </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The changes, which have been VERY QUIETLY put out to public consultation, mean the advice of local residents would no longer be sought in the early stages of most new oil and gas developments. </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is the eleventh consultation on such Draft Rules - just ask yourself,<b> did you hear about the other consultations?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The proposal would allow </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"<i>An operator who wishes to carry out a particular activity can look at the standard rules and, if they can comply with them, they may decide to apply for a standard permit. We are able to issue the permit more quickly and more cheaply because we have no decisions to make on site-specific permit conditions and</i> <b>therefore do not consult on them</b>." </blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Basically, the Government is attempting to fast-track fracking by doing away with the
need for the public to be consulted before test drilling goes ahead. <o:p></o:p>They want fossil fuel energy companies to be able to do test drilling *without* consulting local people first. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Governments can ‘get
away' with doing things we won’t like, by keeping consultations quiet and then rushing
through regulatory changes <b>which are never discussed in Parliament.</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Go to the <a href="https://consult.environment-agency.gov.uk/portal/ho/ep/src/newrules/oilandgas?pointId=1419248829504#section-1419248829504" target="_blank">Consultation and Draft rules</a>.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: red;">You have ONLY got until Monday 15th June 2015 to respond to the government consultation. </span></b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Below is the letter I have sent – you can send something much
shorter – and there is a suggested text on the 38 Degrees automated email page.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But, PLEASE TRY AND PERSONALISE your comments a little, or like
a ‘postcard’ campaign, they will ignore your response. Personalise it and they cannot ignore you. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The consultation is only open for two more days. <b>Let’s <a href="https://speakout.38degrees.org.uk/campaigns/email-fracking-law-change-consultation" target="_blank">flood it with objections</a>.</b> <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #073763;">“Dear Sirs</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #073763;">As a responsible government, I trust that you will reconsider the proposal to change the way that permits to carry out test fracking are granted.</span></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI1_xar018js82KdBpWJWZsXXWNQKReR_ENNU7tkB5lZIKx5M7-FLhsrqrTVQV73ranTrcIwfHGeNJrLqGfrqYNvAJ4r-d6BfFsNw4kdM0YSFRcgNwzTeHAuhQdpxLs9HvhnvxJ-kuda4/s1600/fracking-damage21-300x192.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI1_xar018js82KdBpWJWZsXXWNQKReR_ENNU7tkB5lZIKx5M7-FLhsrqrTVQV73ranTrcIwfHGeNJrLqGfrqYNvAJ4r-d6BfFsNw4kdM0YSFRcgNwzTeHAuhQdpxLs9HvhnvxJ-kuda4/s400/fracking-damage21-300x192.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Texas: Before and After Fracking</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #073763;">Prior to becoming a legal academic, my first degree was in Geography. In 1977, at University, we were discussing the desperate need to stop burning fossil fuels. The more we continue to burn, the closer the Doomsday clock will become to midnight. As a father, and hopefully one day a grandfather, I want my children and grandchildren to have a life of quality, not one approaching the apocalyptic images Hollywood delights in scaring us with. </span></span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVQLHqCA91aiRwxlwcVAalG2UXC4Ty3f5CyOplnk1UT6IAyNqIyA38Gv80wfkVgVJFjOtij8wSKAlxv2yd0ErunvUhGtTsZFbYhu6L1K0rvTzuIyFJd9X9Ba9LFVFxt3XwbDubY2H85Eg/s1600/Wasson-Oil-Field-Detroit-City-Texas-900.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVQLHqCA91aiRwxlwcVAalG2UXC4Ty3f5CyOplnk1UT6IAyNqIyA38Gv80wfkVgVJFjOtij8wSKAlxv2yd0ErunvUhGtTsZFbYhu6L1K0rvTzuIyFJd9X9Ba9LFVFxt3XwbDubY2H85Eg/s400/Wasson-Oil-Field-Detroit-City-Texas-900.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fracking Wells in the Texas Landscape</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #073763;">I have seen the devastation that fracking has brought to the land in parts of Texas which now look like those post-apocalyptic visions. But other consequences are also quite astonishing. For example, since 2008 when fracking commenced, motor fatalities I Texas have bucked the national trend, and increased to now being the highest in the US. 51% of the accidents with fatalities involved commercial vehicles. Around some fracking sites, fatalities have more than quadrupled since 2004 — a period when most American roads have become much safer even as the population has grown. Analyses as to the reason for this show it requires 2,300 to 4,000 lorry trips per well to deliver the mixtures of water, sand, gravel and the over 700 different chemicals used in the fracking process. Older drilling techniques needed one-third to one-half as many trips. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #073763;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHpsjRR7z1GE6_mh1_rJH3rpw_-LvhDGwkoaloND45q0tOzvxegc20hy_5MNQrWXw7Y8I95eB-RpfbLldH1ML7hyoSpCshnYWwGmSHCL6Pq0xWWjB55DjjSFGTsrKG1sF8s6Q2dHQ4dqM/s1600/Kern-River-Oil-Field-Kern-County-California-detail-900.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHpsjRR7z1GE6_mh1_rJH3rpw_-LvhDGwkoaloND45q0tOzvxegc20hy_5MNQrWXw7Y8I95eB-RpfbLldH1ML7hyoSpCshnYWwGmSHCL6Pq0xWWjB55DjjSFGTsrKG1sF8s6Q2dHQ4dqM/s640/Kern-River-Oil-Field-Kern-County-California-detail-900.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Close up of a Fracking site in California</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #073763;">In the US, by mid 2014, researchers found there have been over 1,000 different cases of water contamination near fracking sites. In 2013, researchers from the University of Texas last year found levels of arsenic in groundwater near fracking sites, were on average, 18 times higher than in areas without fracking.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #073763;">In New York state, scientists from the Department of Environmental Conservation analysed 13 samples of waste water and found "levels of radium-226, a derivative of uranium, as high as 267 times the limit safe for discharge into the environment and thousands of times the limit safe for people to drink". SAs I am sure you know, current sewage treatment plants are incapable of removing radioactive materials from waste water which is then discharged into rivers, which often then become part of the drinking water cycle.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #073763;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWSpaMz1_fg4pB6JNSvSiERxJqSzFyEfj93iOl0_lkKYQZRGjdH45peYxQeXJNCpzeW83jfPLxx1zsOisOyEESTVZSu9QLcxj1CWjQ2mCvM9xwqgUxzZCiWHHbbxLL3pe2hXHUs5e5Gzc/s1600/Texas-fracking-u-s--horizontal-large-gallery.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWSpaMz1_fg4pB6JNSvSiERxJqSzFyEfj93iOl0_lkKYQZRGjdH45peYxQeXJNCpzeW83jfPLxx1zsOisOyEESTVZSu9QLcxj1CWjQ2mCvM9xwqgUxzZCiWHHbbxLL3pe2hXHUs5e5Gzc/s400/Texas-fracking-u-s--horizontal-large-gallery.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The View out of the Window of a Texas Home</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #073763;">Fracking also pollutes air quality: in 2013 the American Environmental Protection Agency released a report which stated that the fracking industry emits “emits "large amounts of harmful pollutants that impact air quality on local, regional, and global levels”. Many of the chemicals used in fracking are potentially carcinogenic, and Air- borne toxic chemicals are considered extremely dangerous as they can cause cancer, harm the heart, and damage the lungs and eyes.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #073763;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #073763;">Furthermore, in Wyoming, for example, over 1,200 wells have been abandoned by companies which, having made huge profits during the lifetime of the wells, are now seeking bankruptcy so as to avoid the costs of cleaning up the well sites. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #073763;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #073763;">Economist Max Keiser refers to fracking as ‘suicide economics’. Until we are 100% certain that fracking in the UK is going to be able to be regulated so that it is done in a way which does not pose a danger to the safety of local residents or their drinking water, or the air they breathe, or the land that will one day be returned to farming, every ‘automated’ approval is another twist in the hangman’s knot we appear to be tying for our children. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #073763;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #073763;">As a responsible government, I trust that you will reconsider the proposal, in particular the changes that take away the limited safeguards local populations currently have. Recognising the austerity framework, we cannot however afford the sort of suicide economics that have seen the fracking industry devastate large areas within the USA. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #073763;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #073763;">Please consider committing funding to ensure more independent ‘before the event’ scientific evaluation into:</span></span><br />
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #073763;">safer ways of fracking, </span></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #073763;">alternatives to fracking, </span></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #073763;">the impact fracking will have on the government’s commitments to rein in fossil fuel burning, and what it will mean for our climate change targets</span></span></li>
</ol>
<br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #073763;">Finally, applications by energy companies to carry out fracking tests must be assessed on a case-by-case basis. The concerns of local people must be listened to as part of this process and the views of scientists and experts in climate change, must be weighted heavily in any debate with those who support fracking. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #073763;">Fracking is a short term industry, creating huge profits for its investors. Climate change will see the long term devastation which our grandchildren will have to live with, no – which they will have to try and survive in. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #073763;">Yours etc. </span></span><br />
<div>
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<a href="https://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=9017615131206820221"></a>
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<blockquote>
</blockquote>
Stephen Whittlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379289307731132721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9017615131206820221.post-69380578644772428262015-05-29T10:45:00.004+01:002015-05-29T15:44:41.291+01:00Today is one of those days - special, yet just the same as ever.<div class="MsoNormal">
<h2>
<span style="color: purple; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Is 60 the New 40?</span></h2>
Sarah says I must not write essays for Facebook. I am
apparently meant to be short and pithy. Well in the rest of my life, I am
pretty short, and can be occasionally pithy, and even more rarely, witty. However,
I have been trained to write 1000 words and no less, on any subject.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdgvJMV_BiXJu_FOoRxnirKtHpa1edIAakVj-nUz9laH8RNXHyrTWepJ0puGzlb2ygDJOIxEQpAVJO4yfCOnC9-OfA4nprcMJ_Xhdb3UJcktmumTL5lpGg2MEnPLblhHnXbTM2EuD6i8g/s1600/Stephen-May+1956.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="464" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdgvJMV_BiXJu_FOoRxnirKtHpa1edIAakVj-nUz9laH8RNXHyrTWepJ0puGzlb2ygDJOIxEQpAVJO4yfCOnC9-OfA4nprcMJ_Xhdb3UJcktmumTL5lpGg2MEnPLblhHnXbTM2EuD6i8g/s640/Stephen-May+1956.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
When I was a brand new wee baby, my mum received a note from a hospital consultant: it said "Your daughter is like a wrinkled old man, and highly unlikely to last 6 months". An inability to absorb Vitamin D meant Rickets with a vengeance. I survived but only to have to go to the school gym every morning for most of the next 16 years to undertake really tedious exercises.<br />
<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And, today, those exercises having worked, I am finally becoming that forecast wrinkled old man. I have reached 60, but am of a new generation; not even a bus pass or a free tv licence
for my trouble!!! Damn.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What does this morning feel like? Well; I can tell I am
still living in Manchester – it is pissing down as usual, but at least Sarah’s
allotment is getting a good watering (more of that later). The rain is a minus, but on the other hand, I’ve
been to a few of the world’s deserts and Manchester is pretty fantastic
compared to them.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I regularly reflect at how very lucky I am to have reached this great age. A few,
dear, friends and colleagues have, sadly, already exited stage left and shuffled off this mortal coil. So, though their loss is a dreadful minus,
the fact that the child once forecast to have departed this earth about 59 1/2 years ago, is still thinking and that therefore I am, is a real plus.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In my past, there was a time when my somewhat modest dreams of a family, and
suburbia, were only ever destined to be dreams. Yet, today, I have had all that was in
those dreams, and so much more. I really do recognise what an amazingly privileged and
exciting life I have had – and seem destined to continue to have for some time
to come (I hope).<br />
<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyOyEc8-tNDPfTZKjkLOWPsPhlUotal8XY_R-5C1JN4Dq0TEIrCxLUUiKmiIwipkQPjwK1Rz9hggTLBWqX7_5UV_25mvEZGHe0d588l5hq0bNjHt6N2FObrHlcMjWs8ynblK5f35Rom1k/s1600/Stephen-Whittle-and-famil-010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="379" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyOyEc8-tNDPfTZKjkLOWPsPhlUotal8XY_R-5C1JN4Dq0TEIrCxLUUiKmiIwipkQPjwK1Rz9hggTLBWqX7_5UV_25mvEZGHe0d588l5hq0bNjHt6N2FObrHlcMjWs8ynblK5f35Rom1k/s640/Stephen-Whittle-and-famil-010.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am so glad that my kids are not boring. They may not have realised
quite how much joy and fun they have given to me, as to be frank at times I was
(am) such a miserable bastard – Sorry kids – but you are all such a multi-plus.
The jokes (are they supposed to be funny?), the messing around, the banter, the laughter, the
NOISE!!!, the music, the sound of the door as you arrive in at 4 am --- what an
incredible amount of meaning you have given to my life. I used to say that the joy
of having children is that they give you a real reason to go to work, and it
was not just for peace and quiet. Rather the duties you brought to me as your
parent, gave the structure and impetus to work, to gain promotion, and bring home the money. But those same
duties also provided a reason for coming home to the place where real life was happening.
So kids, I know you all think I am very weird, but I have to say, I think much
the same about all of you, and that is just brilliant. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
As for friendships: I am astonished at how many amazing friends I still have, as I must be the worst person in the world for ‘keeping in touch’. I love the fact that now Facebook gives me a small window onto your lives. And when you are happy, I am really happy. Knowing you all has been such a massive multi-plus plus plus.<br />
<br />
I also reckon that, much as though another 6 years seems like a form of torture akin to the rack, I have been fortunate enough to have one of the best jobs in the world over the last 20 years. Being an academic means so much more freedom compared to any other job that is out there. Other jobs often seemed equivalent to being in an Iron Maiden – not only was there pain, but there was so little air or breathing space.<br />
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<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And, so to return to the allotment – the food has been
beyond belief. As an ex-smoker, one of the very best reasons I can give anyone for not smoking is
the taste of the food. Sarah, my very, very best friend with whom I have been fortunate
enough to share most of my adult life not only grows most of our food, she then
cooks it in the most amazing ways. That is not the best thing about Sarah – I could
fill pages and pages and pages of what I love about Sarah, and what is best
about Sarah – but for this essay, I will stick with one of the biggest
pluses which must be the food. And now you all know why my middle age spread is here to stay.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJifw8GWYcg10lp49bFxgGdKt2WX2Q5YDzun-3bINbXky1A7Yf2CgjwpoDCdQkUh32OLBQrYFzKbMncBrOjvYnTW6zo8LgYmU8p00hz_YTktn6k0ya6joCrCrMXnUUIWTOFcW3-RejRow/s1600/with+sarah.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="508" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJifw8GWYcg10lp49bFxgGdKt2WX2Q5YDzun-3bINbXky1A7Yf2CgjwpoDCdQkUh32OLBQrYFzKbMncBrOjvYnTW6zo8LgYmU8p00hz_YTktn6k0ya6joCrCrMXnUUIWTOFcW3-RejRow/s640/with+sarah.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Does being 60 now mean I am old, or is this the new middle age? Is 60 the new 40?<br />
<br />
A quick evaluation of the primarily qualitative, rather than quantitative data,
above presents this as mostly a very positive point in life. I feel more ‘well
in myself’ than I have done in years and for the first time in life I am almost
depression free.<br />
On the other hand, some interesting, objective, and more negative structural body developments in recent
months include:<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ul>
<li>large parts of my beard have changed from mucky orangey/grey
to soft, long straight, fluffy white hairs,</li>
<li>dieting now removes my bum rather than my tum; the middle-age
spread (the only thing my father left me) seems destined to remain until the
end now (whenever that is),</li>
<li>a first wrinkle is clearly visible on my forehead,</li>
<li>arthritic nodes have invaded my fingers,</li>
<li>bruising around the ankles indicates the veins no longer
pump the blood as well as they used to,</li>
<li>after a lifetime of low blood pressure it has shot up in
recent months, blinding most of my left eye - an arrow would have been a more romantic
way than 40 years of enjoying deserts (note deserts, not deserts as per the places I have visited -see above), but the deserts have been a great joy I my
life - so I am not complaining,</li>
<li>the brown hair of my chest and eyebrows is becoming weirdly grey,
and</li>
<li>every now and then, I discover an eight inch long, grey
hair, that had not been there the day before, growing out of my knee, or elbow,
or shoulder - I mean, what the hell is
that all about.</li>
</ul>
I intend to do a lot in the next 20 to 30 years - it cannot
be much less than that, or I won’t get most of the list finished, and furthermore,
Sarah will be really cross with me if I depart before the study is fully
tidied and heaven knows how long that will take.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
As the Americans would say: I loves you all. Be good and keep on with the adventures.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGYdbTn_63x18bZWHHsq8ZqpCc-EVfHSBIDOSFud0nA7IvXj8k3UzEpOp0iAFRQtrx8icBl3MGRdp0_r3XXo3qZIx_mcSvY6HF71p8lWWo4k3QrhFZwDzt6vabGd2jT97mupXj4D46zZU/s1600/2014+Sussex+University.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGYdbTn_63x18bZWHHsq8ZqpCc-EVfHSBIDOSFud0nA7IvXj8k3UzEpOp0iAFRQtrx8icBl3MGRdp0_r3XXo3qZIx_mcSvY6HF71p8lWWo4k3QrhFZwDzt6vabGd2jT97mupXj4D46zZU/s640/2014+Sussex+University.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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</div>
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</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
<a href="https://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=9017615131206820221"></a>
<br />
<blockquote>
</blockquote>
Stephen Whittlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379289307731132721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9017615131206820221.post-47856874832974964412015-02-18T08:00:00.001+00:002015-12-16T01:00:34.072+00:00The Death of the Inclusive,Tolerant, Trans Community?<div class="MsoNormal">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJBMVCyIalhK-60TWfS8BtBxPQP7ghihZnfpJlDN41MrtBh4ToH7slZSl4c9qbOdCWdKGjUD28cc2Se7x6xHFajeEme6L632LmwqQpWJ-E2OaP2VcIlTMe1-sJYn97Un9BVOoSxvFReck/s1600/Sirens-classical.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJBMVCyIalhK-60TWfS8BtBxPQP7ghihZnfpJlDN41MrtBh4ToH7slZSl4c9qbOdCWdKGjUD28cc2Se7x6xHFajeEme6L632LmwqQpWJ-E2OaP2VcIlTMe1-sJYn97Un9BVOoSxvFReck/s1600/Sirens-classical.jpg" width="257" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #f1f1f1; color: #888888; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.5454540252686px; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">Odysseu</span><span style="background-color: #f1f1f1; color: #888888; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.5454540252686px; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">s & the Sirens</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I was astonished to discover that those social
justice campaigners, Peter Tatchell and Mary Beard, amongst others, had become the latest
attack of the twittering trans-sirens. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
What have they done? Peter and Mary had signed a letter outlining the problems with the latest 'No-Platforming' campaigns to exclude some speakers from University Campuses. <o:p></o:p>(see <a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/peter-tatchell-twitter-mob-who-vowed-kill-me-over-mary-beard-transgender-letter-have-it-all-wrong-1488351" target="_blank">Twitter mob who vowed to kill me over transgenderletter have it all wrong</a>)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
Like most academics, I am pretty absolute when it comes to
free speech – and I am quite clear that the 'no platforming' campaigns demean us as humans, and reduces the nature of academic debate to mere politicking.<br />
<br />
There is a world of difference from speech to pointing guns. Just listening is the start of many a conversation. Without
conversation, then effectively, we allow those who killed the staff at Charlie Hebdo to have won.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR8cvKcOYbr1L1zkOWhXTqMrTM2wRm6WRfiF0LPl-FnGtvDtScmOlGeggssa5s-Wn8wzpZgvEqGVIcUH4bC8CSI6c-gPCLoEGSyRP01VO1rpTPFiT_mwQeotbSy22xv1d2keGAC977Lxc/s1600/peter-tatchell.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR8cvKcOYbr1L1zkOWhXTqMrTM2wRm6WRfiF0LPl-FnGtvDtScmOlGeggssa5s-Wn8wzpZgvEqGVIcUH4bC8CSI6c-gPCLoEGSyRP01VO1rpTPFiT_mwQeotbSy22xv1d2keGAC977Lxc/s1600/peter-tatchell.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Peter Tatchell Campaigning on the streets.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I also believe good manners, like free speech, cost us
nothing - but the loss of either is an attack on civilization itself.<br />
<br />
Peter and Mary and all the other signatories - I am really very sad and sorry that you have also become victims to trans people who have failed to properly read the letter you signed, and if that is an unwarranted assertion, certainly have forgotten their manners.<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<h3>
The Latest Irritations</h3>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Over the years, as a feminist (and trans) academic, at times
I have felt pretty cross with the likes of academics such Sheila Jeffreys,
Germaine Greer, and even Julie Bindel (whom I count as an academic colleague
and friend). Julie has changed her views over the years, and no longer writes
pieces attacking our community. However, if she wrote now of the development
of a vicious streak amongst some in the in the trans community, I might for once, find myself agreeing with her. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have also find myself amazed, and feeling very
cantankerous about the vicious streak of nastiness coming from those
'neo-feminists' who term themselves TERFS or trans exclusionary radical feminists, and who attack the very existence of trans people, especially trans women. But they
are a world away the proto-2nd wave feminism of Germaine and Julie.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And, now, I find
myself despairing about the unkindness and in some cases, brutality, coming out
of those people terming themselves as the new 'trans activists'. In the early
days of the internet we built a trans community and movement based upon the
principles of tolerance - but it seems that some, without any sense of history,
or irony, are flushing that down the toilet. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Since shortly after it's founding in 1992, <a href="http://www.pfc.org.uk/" target="_blank">Press For Change</a> has had a rule that we work by ‘making friends and not by making enemies’ – and if trans people want true inclusion, not mere tolerance, then I am still of the view that making friends is the way forward for our community.<br />
<br />
If we don't recognise our true or potential friends, then we might never notice our enemies.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<h3>
The Twittersphere</h3>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Unfortunately, a tweet (or a Facebook note) takes little
energy output - and if people are socially isolated then the computer easily
becomes the venting point for their anger and disappointments. I have a certain
sympathy for those who find themselves using it in that way. But for those on
the receiving end, it can seem very vicious and even frightening. I try to
remember that the trans people who do that are just typing their frustrations,
and not pointing a gun.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have been less visible in the trans community in recent
months, primarily because of such unkindness. Twitter's 'stings and arrows' can
be horribly painful, as I personally know from having been twitter trolled by a
trans person last year and, despite every effort to communicate, I ended up
having to ask the police to intervene. Another trans person attacked everything
I wrote or said. No matter how willing I was to compromise, or to seek a
conversation, I realised I was socially and physically unprepared for the sheer
brutality of what she was willing to do to undermine me.<br />
<br />
Ageing now means I struggle with the related
pain and fatigue of a chronic illness. It was all becoming too tiring and preventing
me from doing what I do best - teaching law, and giving legal advice to the trans
community. As such, I decided to concentrate on those, rather than kill myself
engaging with people who wouldn't listen, never mind hear me.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Heroes like Peter Tatchell are regularly putting their lives on the
line as they steadfastly seek inclusion, provide education, campaign to reduce poverty,
struggle for world peace, and seek justice – in other words, working to create what
was once referred to as the 'Kingdom of Heaven
on earth'. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I pray that despite the twittering he will remain strong and
stay true to himself. He is one of my heroes.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<a href="https://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=9017615131206820221"></a>
<br />
<blockquote>
</blockquote>
Stephen Whittlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379289307731132721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9017615131206820221.post-62307927144479155802015-01-02T18:01:00.005+00:002021-05-28T16:52:21.560+01:00Discovering a Baby's Gender<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipXHMq6Gvw5pAKoR37u1XYYNj3w4u2q4G2XG6fP3RYUI08tIZaIHPRBcPCF_7Bf2nTEPKJtOktqcO8dw1CmciJqa29YeSzJd79LuTpoCPX-SvONLaEV31tuv-I3qGX_Uiikiw8HaXEKgc/s1600/questioning-240x300.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipXHMq6Gvw5pAKoR37u1XYYNj3w4u2q4G2XG6fP3RYUI08tIZaIHPRBcPCF_7Bf2nTEPKJtOktqcO8dw1CmciJqa29YeSzJd79LuTpoCPX-SvONLaEV31tuv-I3qGX_Uiikiw8HaXEKgc/s1600/questioning-240x300.jpg" width="160" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLR3rzS5GQEL6d0jYUdnM2_n-aCtxHnl_YWNUBH_d3zqi7gAWY3n9v91hiVRaMaPXng18XMAaXvb9Kwi0YJ8MI8IZ-OKhgLn3O1UzSKmlJG7_obwlT-i43d9ByLD6QVknbWB06JSGKZwo/s1600/Questioning-1.jpg" style="clear: left; display: inline; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLR3rzS5GQEL6d0jYUdnM2_n-aCtxHnl_YWNUBH_d3zqi7gAWY3n9v91hiVRaMaPXng18XMAaXvb9Kwi0YJ8MI8IZ-OKhgLn3O1UzSKmlJG7_obwlT-i43d9ByLD6QVknbWB06JSGKZwo/s1600/Questioning-1.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;">How do we Know a Baby's Gender? </span><br />
<h3>
The Wisdom of Hindsight</h3>
<div>
I am a trans man, and my wife is a trans man's wife - that gives both of us a distinct advantage when thinking about the complexities of sex and gender. My wife is also a Registered General nurse and a Registered Mental Health nurse, so she has seen many baby's being born when training in maternity care, and has nursed people with very different abilities and body shapes. </div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;"><br /><span style="color: #0b5394;">What Happens When a Baby is Born?</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">When a baby is born, most parents rely on the midwife’s cursory glance to tell the baby's sex and gender – but having seen 4 babies born, I can tell you that it is a very cursory glance, and we should be careful before we trust it.</span><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;">The midwife certainly does not check whether a baby has testes, or a vagina, or uterus or ovaries. They check whether there is a penis of a certain length or not, and then they say “Congratulations, you have a boy (or a girl)”. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: inherit;">The Difficulty of Sex and Gender</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">When our children were very young, we had twin babies. My son (aged 3) asked us: </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Mum, Dad, how do you know the babies are girls?". </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I looked at Sarah, thinking I have just been asked the most important question of my life and I don't know the answer ... but like a knight in shining armour, Sarah rode to the rescue, and replied </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Well ... you see we don't know whether they are girls. What we do is make a guess. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"We know that most babies born with vaginas will grow up to be girls, and most babies born with penises will grow up to be boys .... but as you know from Dad, and his friends - Christine, Jonathan etc. that isn't always the case.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"As the baby’s parents we make a guess - but it is only a guess. When the babies get older, if it turns out to be the wrong guess, and either or both of them have grown up to be a boy, they will tell us. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"And then we can make the changes they would like us to make."</blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Son’s response: </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">“OK”.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It really is that simple – we don’t know a baby’s gender. </span><b><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: inherit;">We make a guess</span><span style="color: red; font-family: inherit;"> </span></b><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"> - and it may be the right guess or the wrong guess. We cannot decide who our children are going to be, and we are not going to discover what that is until they have grown up. </span></b><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">As it happens, our female babies have grown up to have a woman's gender identity, and our son has grown up to have a man's gender identity. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div><span style="font-family: inherit;">We were not so blind as to believe that either their gender or their sexual orientation was sorted out at the time of their birth.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">As children we watched them begin to grow into their gender identities somewhere between the ages of 3 and 5. As teenagers we watched them begin to grow into their sexual orientations - a process that may well take some time, and be dependant upon who they ultimately fall in love with.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Throughout the developmental periods of our children's lives, I insisted upon saying "<i>When you have a boy friend or girl friend .... </i>" </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">One daughter - she was 14 at the time - asked why I insisted upon doing that when she knew she was straight </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">My reply:</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> "As a teenager I knew I was bisexual, and was not at all sure whether I would fall in love with a man or a woman. I was lucky enough to meet a person, your mum, whom I fell in love with at first sight, and whom I am still in love with 30 years later. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"I would like all of you to find the person you will fall madly in love with at first sight - but that is only likely to happen if you keep the whole world in your sights.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Shut out 50% of the population and you might, sadly, miss them altogether - which would be a terrible shame?"</span></blockquote>
<h3><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #38761d; font-size: small;">The Promise of Being a Parent</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Being a parent is a huge responsibility - and most of us try hard to get it right. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">But what happens if a child grows up and is not the person a parent had either dreamed of, or thought they might become. In fact, they seem the antipathy of that.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sarah </span>has<span style="font-family: inherit;"> spoken to many parents who have been distressed because their child has turned out to have different gender identity to the one ascribed to them at birth - and this is what she says:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">"Do you remember the day that tiny baby was born, and you held them in your arms and you made a promise. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"A</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> promise that you would give your life, not for them to be rich, or famous, but simply for them to be happy.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Well - today is the day you have to make that promise come true. You are not being asked to give your life, but simply a smile of approval. That's all you have to do. </span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"Like most parents of trans kids, three years from now, you will be telling me how you felt you had lost your daughter /son, but now you realise that whilst your child has changed on the outside, they are still the same person just so much happier than they had ever been before. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"So - pull yourself together, and smile. It will be one of the best days work you have ever done in raising a happy child."</span></blockquote>Let's be thoughtful parents and give our kids a better set of choices in life than the one we had. Like all parents, I can get irritated with each of the children. I hope to always remember the promise I made, then smile, and ask them what's up.<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">________________________</span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<a href="https://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=9017615131206820221"></a>
<br />
<blockquote>
</blockquote>
</div>Stephen Whittlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379289307731132721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9017615131206820221.post-30872659245153596882014-12-31T20:47:00.002+00:002016-10-07T10:00:00.414+01:00<h2>
</h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoVuv_Vzk0rGe4dMouTM3rhZnFwTIg84jcMd5uClEAU6PJ2JkecU8BXsDOPB6WqP_RIbZFm19QSGYCjjaxIHzaCw3jwwYJP-FIMNNko6fX-mTN86Bwmvhswdiw8pmSNpBN-8WAF8wJ1vU/s1600/leslie-Feinberg-headshot-437x640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoVuv_Vzk0rGe4dMouTM3rhZnFwTIg84jcMd5uClEAU6PJ2JkecU8BXsDOPB6WqP_RIbZFm19QSGYCjjaxIHzaCw3jwwYJP-FIMNNko6fX-mTN86Bwmvhswdiw8pmSNpBN-8WAF8wJ1vU/s1600/leslie-Feinberg-headshot-437x640.jpg" width="136" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq3V7ZnxZuhc3OI0LBk0FAczs_br-Aw8iuxx59nXciNN4mGRgD8VmFY5LqDc8waJok1NAYNTw5duexSXFTTXwpD_-yQwhbdFgsr8AYs9ykbLT888ZB5_1LxFNIE2YmvSlYJECq3QaHtc4/s1600/hayley.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq3V7ZnxZuhc3OI0LBk0FAczs_br-Aw8iuxx59nXciNN4mGRgD8VmFY5LqDc8waJok1NAYNTw5duexSXFTTXwpD_-yQwhbdFgsr8AYs9ykbLT888ZB5_1LxFNIE2YmvSlYJECq3QaHtc4/s1600/hayley.jpg" width="186" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDpP7D04UneNQ3psd5O7_lXJFO75BWTUM3-gv9TSXqtZXverujT3nE2oASKAs95aX723n-NuBmHZ-GU-Hz99qmvccMvVZXrBveqUUV-K0RKxN1WFLQVCxBLMASAWQu0eakYNAiZZtdlIQ/s1600/laverne-cox-time-cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDpP7D04UneNQ3psd5O7_lXJFO75BWTUM3-gv9TSXqtZXverujT3nE2oASKAs95aX723n-NuBmHZ-GU-Hz99qmvccMvVZXrBveqUUV-K0RKxN1WFLQVCxBLMASAWQu0eakYNAiZZtdlIQ/s1600/laverne-cox-time-cover.jpg" width="150" /></span></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_OQS2unCWZRVQSWBFEzcZqu1BedYTuSr-qq8I27WJvyNZ61FpcORERRXN_Wf2AW-r0ld1RruYGUKm8_MDjaCtQ8eBMM8Are2pTmmD0SqfW4kHIlt6iEaIFI1bY12Dt0H9-w5gomZp7JU/s1600/jay_Stewartjpg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_OQS2unCWZRVQSWBFEzcZqu1BedYTuSr-qq8I27WJvyNZ61FpcORERRXN_Wf2AW-r0ld1RruYGUKm8_MDjaCtQ8eBMM8Are2pTmmD0SqfW4kHIlt6iEaIFI1bY12Dt0H9-w5gomZp7JU/s1600/jay_Stewartjpg.jpg" width="150" /></span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span>
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span><b><span style="color: #6aa84f;">Hayley Cropper (nee Patterson)</span></b></span></div>
<span style="color: #6aa84f; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Laverne Cox </b></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #6aa84f; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Leslie Feinberg</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6aa84f; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Dr Jay Stewart MBE</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
Last night my daughter
sat quietly reading twitter and then burst into tears. She had just read the
suicide note of a young trans person from Ohio, Leelah Alcorn, whose
parent’s refused to accept that she could be a girl, not a boy, even to the
extent of forcing her into ‘Christian’ 'Gay Conversion' / 'Transgender reparative’ Therapy' – which clearly
failed. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
For those who don’t know the story go <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deserae-l-stage/how-do-we-find-justice-fo_b_6398204.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: blue;">here</span></b></a> and<b style="background-color: white;"> <a href="https://twitter.com/LeelahAlcorn_" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">here</span></a></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As we comforted my
daughter, she kept saying she was sorry for being silly. But, of course it is
anything but silly to feel great sadness at the loss of any life, but even more
so when it is a young person, and the loss is entirely avoidable. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Forty years ago when I
transitioned in 1975, I frequently felt like I was the dirt that people wiped
off their shoes – and I think from reading Leelah’s suicide note that she
envisioned that future for herself. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am so proud that my
daughter, the daughter of a Trans man, does not shy away from that fact. Her
university friends are all told the story, and when we went to see her sing in last year’s opera society’s performance, her friends lined up to shake my hand. I wish
I could have told Leelah that one day she would discover how cool we now are.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSuDpPIUvZtdCnJSs8Pt2N9UuFN3WkyzdqyOqvtrwzhBKCMSW2hSLtZotONXieQl5rboZF-R2mk0mLUuu9dX01hT9TFl6DEzKjS6gIrBIExP2gRFAuTmjxUtG2DQoZ_1DLP7su1tqWmJU/s1600/Leelah_Alcorn.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSuDpPIUvZtdCnJSs8Pt2N9UuFN3WkyzdqyOqvtrwzhBKCMSW2hSLtZotONXieQl5rboZF-R2mk0mLUuu9dX01hT9TFl6DEzKjS6gIrBIExP2gRFAuTmjxUtG2DQoZ_1DLP7su1tqWmJU/s1600/Leelah_Alcorn.jpeg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Leelah Alcorn 1997-2014</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Seventeen year old Leelah killed herself
because her parents could not /would not accept she was trans. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But this is 2014, well -- 2015 tomorrow. We have spent the last 25 years (or in my case 40 years) doing
the social education, winning the court cases, getting the legislation passed,
and working with clinicians, the Press, and politicians to create change: to
make a world where it is OK to be whatever gender you really are.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And, despite Leelah's death, the evidence of that work is everywhere.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<h3>
</h3>
<div>
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: #274e13;">Hayley Cropper (1998 – 2014)</span></b></span></div>
<h1>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In January 2014, 9.7
million people stopped for a moment and wept over the death of a trans woman,
albeit a fictional character; Hayley Cropper (nee Patterson), the red-anorak’ed café owner in
Coronation Street, the nation’s longest running soap.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFZc4f_Ft4Km7YZmUAUz2i5vYHL0MPloK3-pQeTql0QGU5stxfDVD4jt9vd7HQ-q13JuTygpcSvXPBj9gxUqUB3gLVsEH31rXusfb8-b1EjZuAIJZ1ZucqpkZ-dj7qpnPB6yrvTpaV8Bs/s1600/Hayley_Cropper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFZc4f_Ft4Km7YZmUAUz2i5vYHL0MPloK3-pQeTql0QGU5stxfDVD4jt9vd7HQ-q13JuTygpcSvXPBj9gxUqUB3gLVsEH31rXusfb8-b1EjZuAIJZ1ZucqpkZ-dj7qpnPB6yrvTpaV8Bs/s1600/Hayley_Cropper.jpg" width="276" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Hayley first appeared on British televisions in
January 1998, and was the globe’s first transgender character in a British
soap, and the first permanent trans character in any serialised TV show.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
Julie
Hesmondhalgh who played the character had worked with the Trans community,
notably Annie Wallace from<span style="color: blue;"> <a href="http://www.pfc.org.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: blue;">Press For Change</span></b></a></span> to ensure the character and her on-screen
life was realistic and plausible. </span><span style="color: #38761d;">Annie Wallace now plays the part of Transgender school </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #38761d;">Headmistress; Sally St. Claire in Channel 4's </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #38761d;">Hollyoaks. She has just been nominated for a BAFTA for her work in that role (October 2016). </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hayley became a stalwart of the show, despite earlier
opposition from some parts of the public. Julie also provided huge amounts of moral support for the work of the trans activist group; </span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.pfc.org.uk/" target="_blank">Press For Change</a></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And it was the public who wrote hundreds
of protest letters about Hayley’s marriage, or rather her inability to be able to legally marry
Roy Cropper, another of the show’s character’s. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The protest combined with the campaigning work of <b>Press For Change </b>led, on April 14<sup>th</sup> 1999, to Jack Straw, the Home Secretary to announce the government's Interdepartmental Working
Group on Transsexual People. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcNUnMpjPXV1TIFC_W7JtKz-3RSEbizwtFsYceDmlISaRjP1G-GDB8Que77v8qYVRczWPYxHm4cumnVTJhI9JLgyIZ3DnYLAGmqNXuErB2pJUG92y6cpYsOq3Er6SEGmmYdOd-wldcMnI/s1600/Hayley-wedding1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcNUnMpjPXV1TIFC_W7JtKz-3RSEbizwtFsYceDmlISaRjP1G-GDB8Que77v8qYVRczWPYxHm4cumnVTJhI9JLgyIZ3DnYLAGmqNXuErB2pJUG92y6cpYsOq3Er6SEGmmYdOd-wldcMnI/s1600/Hayley-wedding1.jpg" width="267" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 16.3636360168457px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The 1999 Non-Wedding</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjzsnvF3NBwB0eAgJeyY4iiI85uBCtpHoW1ANOLsXAXgZ7d5ssDcNQSYozJNPWMH9yzv-uxd1ml6IOCFetS9l68s0nPiGt22B4dNGQt03MgSQrUR6Nrg5TpOnB_0NkCpO-dijqQ4bH7-c/s1600/Hayley-wedding2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjzsnvF3NBwB0eAgJeyY4iiI85uBCtpHoW1ANOLsXAXgZ7d5ssDcNQSYozJNPWMH9yzv-uxd1ml6IOCFetS9l68s0nPiGt22B4dNGQt03MgSQrUR6Nrg5TpOnB_0NkCpO-dijqQ4bH7-c/s1600/Hayley-wedding2.jpg" width="286" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The 2010 Wedding</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Ultimately the working group recommended action needed to be taken by the British Government, as the alternative was no longer acceptable. In 2005 the Gender Recognition Act 2004
came into force, and Hayley, now recognised as a woman for all legal purposes finally married Roy in 2010.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The character Hayley, took
her own life in January 2014, not because she was trans; but because she had terminal
pancreatic cancer. Having seen my Mum die from the disease, I understand why
the show’s writers chose to highlight the inadequacy of current research and treatment
into this disease. Research into it receives only 1% of cancer research
funding in the UK despite being the country’s fifth deadliest cancer, and by
2030 is predicted to overtake breast cancer to become the 4th largest cancer
killer. Five year survival rates have not increased in the last 40 years, and remain at 4% - compared to the current breast cancer survival rate at 5 years of 87%.<a href="https://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=9017615131206820221#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue; line-height: 120%;">[1]</span></span></span></a><span style="color: red;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">During the week in
which Hayley’s suicide was screened a petition to persuade the government to
increase funding for research into pancreatic cancer gained a massive amount of
support. With Julie's support it ultimately reached the 100,000 needed for a parliamentary debate just
before the Parliamentary imposed deadline of 1 year for such petitions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNIGVXL_0ZxRcW47KqwyuJzanlEXqHEfp-NGhIzycC7XFmAZzveX7JCgsxNqdY3lhwrCfiqw0o-1cO4KIdWixgv4ZpcrdvtDBl_bwNCvhDEfujYvEl95dJ07kuqnKX_S_9QuwAhIZ7QEE/s1600/Julie-Hesmondhalgh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNIGVXL_0ZxRcW47KqwyuJzanlEXqHEfp-NGhIzycC7XFmAZzveX7JCgsxNqdY3lhwrCfiqw0o-1cO4KIdWixgv4ZpcrdvtDBl_bwNCvhDEfujYvEl95dJ07kuqnKX_S_9QuwAhIZ7QEE/s1600/Julie-Hesmondhalgh.jpg" /></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Not many actors will
have had the opportunity to massively increase parliamentary and social
awareness of major social problems. Julie Hesmondhalgh, playing a trans woman, has made the most of the opportunity twice in her character’s career, and she
was recognised for not just her acting but also her commitment to justice for
Trans people and cancer sufferers in the 2014 National Television Awards earlier
this year.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
If only Leelah had had the opportunity to watch Coronation Street, 3 nights a week.</span></div>
<h3>
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Laverne Cox: 2014 - The Tipping Point</span></h3>
<h1>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In May 2014, the
actress and trans woman, Laverne Cox who is one of the stars of the Netflix hit
‘Orange is the New Black” (OITNB) set in a women’s prison, was featured on the
front of Time magazine with the headline “The Transgender Tipping Point:
America’s Next Civil Rights Frontier”. </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFx7QX9aDN4vSbrxiKSi4WZXMxpfHq925rZlTxKgWncWYv-U95CxT4nT4JhBtrLAOTDm8XFdYSYFPdnZaGQZpNuX5CSve4Ntn10zuwec62fYL_uY2B3XDXVpJc1AKWMPpbvgBGIJADhzc/s1600/laverne-cox-time-cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFx7QX9aDN4vSbrxiKSi4WZXMxpfHq925rZlTxKgWncWYv-U95CxT4nT4JhBtrLAOTDm8XFdYSYFPdnZaGQZpNuX5CSve4Ntn10zuwec62fYL_uY2B3XDXVpJc1AKWMPpbvgBGIJADhzc/s1600/laverne-cox-time-cover.jpg" width="240" /></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On Facebook, Laverne wrote that the Time cover published on her birthday, was a wonderful present , and</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"I realize this is
way bigger than me and about a tipping point in our nation's history where it
is no longer acceptable for trans lives to be stigmatized, ridiculed,
criminalized and disregarded."</span></i></blockquote>
<div class="MsoQuote">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In the series OITNB, Laverne
plays a trans character in the show – finally an out trans woman playing an out
trans woman. One more small victory for the many trans people who have spent,
either in the past, or more recently, years of their life being an activist, campaigning
for core human rights and fairness for trans people.</span></div>
<h4>
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">A Small Aside</span></h4>
<h2>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I came to activism in
1974, when the then Manchester and Bradford Gay Liberation groups stormed a
British Medical Association conference at Bradford University. We were
objecting to the participation of Dr John Randell, a psychiatrist at London’s
Charing Cross Hospital who specialised in ‘treating’ transsexual people. His
treatment consisted primarily of insisting you take off all your clothes so he
could photograph you, and then telling you that you would do what he told you
to do, or you could forget having any gender reassignment treatments (he is the
unseen psychiatrist <a href="http://theheroines4.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/a-change-of-sex-with-julia-grant.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: blue;">here</span></b></a>). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Our invasion was successful – John Randell MD stormed off the stage never to be
heard again at an academic conference, Dr Rosemary King, a cross-dressing, trans-identified GP took his place, and Bradford University gave the Gay Lib
groups a free hall and disco a month later to compensate for the distress they
had caused. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I was fortunate not to
be Dr Randell’s patient whilst starting my gender reassignment treatments. I
had seen a psychiatrist in Manchester who had thrown me out, refusing to treat
me, telling me that I would never live as a man. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My GP came to my rescue and in
1975 took the extremely daring step of deciding to have a living trans patient
instead of a dead one, and prescribed me testosterone. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Unfortunately, though, in 1978
I did become Dr Randell’s patient for a short time. I was taken to the Emergency
Room at the hospital after collapsing during a trip to the theatre in London.
Because I am trans, instead of being treated for being ill, I was admitted to
John Randell’s secure, locked, psychiatric ward. This meant plastic knives and
forks, and a male nurse observing me whilst showering (I was pre-op so this was
incredibly humiliating).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It was during this stay, and whilst in his office,
that John Randell asked me to remove all of my clothes so that he could
photograph me. I refused to do so, telling him to get lost - he wasn’t my
psychiatrist and there was nothing wrong with my mind anyway. He then told me
that I would stay in his ward until I was willing to be photographed. It took
my Mum, Barbara Valente, a senior medical secretary, with the help of her boss, a Professor of
Oncology at Christie Hospital in Manchester, ten days to get me released from
the hospital. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The experience on that ward is another story entirely, but I
realised then what a megalomaniac Randell was, and how very strange was his
behaviour – for a start, he used to walk around the ward muttering under his
breath ‘tick tock, tick tock, tick tock’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Several psychiatrists
who trained as junior doctors under John Randell tell the same story – of how
he would invite the juniors to dinner at his flat. On his arrival, he would
open the door wearing a long blue evening gown and white ‘above the elbow’ long
gloves which he wore throughout dinner. One told of going into a rather sleazy
East End pub where women of ill repute were known to congregate to discover sat
in a corner, dressed like a ‘tart’, the eminent psychiatrist who would a year later
in the infamous 1971 <u>Cossey v Cossey</u> Court case declare that the transsexual
woman April Ashley could only ever be ‘a pastiche of a woman’. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Talk about the pot calling the kettle, though in this case it was a mucky frying pan condemning a gleaming copper bottomed kettle.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<h3>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Gender is the new Black</span></h3>
<h1>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That aside was about
reflecting on how Laverne Cox said we
have reached the ‘Transgender tipping point’ – in other words, what happened in the late 1970s is now ancient history.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
But is
it? The National Review's Kevin Williamson wrote his column with the title
"Laverne Cox Is Not a Woman" and said:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"The mass delusion
that we are inculcating on the question of transgendered people ... would
impose on society at large an obligation — possibly a legal obligation under
civil-rights law, one that already is emerging — to treat delusion as fact, or
at the very least to agree to make subjective impressions superordinate to
biological fact in matters both public and private."</span></blockquote>
<div class="MsoQuote">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I remember saying (c
1990) </span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“I don’t care what they say behind my back, but I do care what they
say and do in front of my face”. </span></blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I may be/have been suffering a delusion for the last 56 years - that I was much more of a boy than a girl, much more of a man than I could have ever been a woman. But the rest of my life (as a teacher, a researcher, a father, a tax payer etc.) is fine - so does my gender matter at all to anyone other than myself and those who love me. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Of course not. What matters is that as parents we help our kids, like my daughter, and like Leelah's parents should have, grow up into being responsible, tolerant, happy, confidant world citizens acting throughout their lives as eco-warriors, gender warriors, and peace warriors . </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So do I care what Williamson wrote? Not a jot
– except it is ignoramuses like him who persuade people like Leelah Alcorn’s parents
to announce that their 'son' <span style="color: #0b5394;">'<i>Joshua Alcorn died in the roadway on I-71 in Warren
County, Ohio, after being struck by a tractor trailer</i>'.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">However, ultimately it is the
Williamson’s of this world who have lost the war. The clock will not be turned back. Sadly Leelah Alcorn's parents have lost so much more, the baby who when born they promised to give their life for if only s/he could be happy. It is such a tragedy that they forgot that promise when the time came and it really mattered that they forgot their own difficulties, and instead smiled and gave approval. We are still fighting many skirmishes in this war, and Leelah’s death is, very sadly, a skirmish we lost. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But, the truth is
Trans is everywhere, and especially on British television. The highlight of
this Christmas’s telly was an adaptation of David Walliam’s novel for children and young teens; “The Boy in the Dress” (still available to watch on BBC iPlayer <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04w7pgj/the-boy-in-the-dress" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><b>here</b></a>). Enough said. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
I wonder whether the people who used to wipe me off their shoes, ever thought it would come to this in 2014.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
<br />
</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgItw5w_GPb7PYg2P5riOMs0WZXXrynaM6LiE9XmBoa9k_gCx6EHG28kMmDCl9omDZd7iLrbu5hXdOstyWoXS9wW1qGCOlBuaXPo7Z8DPRRIfo5FlBOkCHol6ZiVlKYE14F2EtGWJrZLAk/s1600/Boy-in-a-dress-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgItw5w_GPb7PYg2P5riOMs0WZXXrynaM6LiE9XmBoa9k_gCx6EHG28kMmDCl9omDZd7iLrbu5hXdOstyWoXS9wW1qGCOlBuaXPo7Z8DPRRIfo5FlBOkCHol6ZiVlKYE14F2EtGWJrZLAk/s1600/Boy-in-a-dress-2.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Boy in The Dress</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And, I do wish Leelah had sat in her bedroom watching Lavern Cox in 'Orange is the New Black', and this christmas, that she had sat down with her Mum and Dad to watch 'The Boy in the Dress'.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<h1>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<h3>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Leslie Feinberg (1949-2014)</span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXySlmgdtEFerTEt42gDbUCvGPne-6jJpCTqGsD71gfFAfBaCRvim73KQBVU31VSaGcz0ZhDrpLYxboE8wOhPxKySc5rt_VXCaOL6kj-JxzdBtucPUP9nCrh0SE1icdAqapuYJiug-KqU/s1600/lesliefeinbergprotest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXySlmgdtEFerTEt42gDbUCvGPne-6jJpCTqGsD71gfFAfBaCRvim73KQBVU31VSaGcz0ZhDrpLYxboE8wOhPxKySc5rt_VXCaOL6kj-JxzdBtucPUP9nCrh0SE1icdAqapuYJiug-KqU/s1600/lesliefeinbergprotest.jpg" width="200" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Leslie Feinberg being hirself</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">November again, saw many memorial events take place for the International Transgender Day of
Remembrance (TdoR 20th November each year). The TDoR came about as a result of the “<a href="http://tdor.info/memorializing-2014-2/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;"><b>Remembering our Dead</b></span></a>” website built by Gwendolyn Ann Smith, to remember those
Trans people who were killed by actions conceived in transphobia, transgender
hatred or prejudice. Read 2014's horrendous roll of <b><span style="color: red;">226</span> </b>victims <b><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.transrespect-transphobia.org/en_US/tvt-project/tmm-results/tdor-2014.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a></span></b>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Having MS and finding
the cold unbearable, I have rarely attended the outdoor event that takes place
here in Manchester on a late afternoon on the Sunday nearest the TDOR, in Sackville
Gardens (Manchester M1 3HB). But just as we stop to remember soldiers who have died, each Armistice Day on the 11th
November, a week or so earlier, on TDOR, I stop for a minute or two and remember our trans community's warriors and heroes who have been killed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As the years pass, I find
myself now, not just remembering those who have died at the hands of others, but
also those trans people, trans heroes and trans friends who we as a community, are now losing to illness and old age. Death will claim us all, but
when much of a person’s early life was lost to prejudice, discrimination and
the hatred of others, it makes the lives of some amazing people seem to have
been very short. </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHS6df6kwUgD05aOJpenXhR0-HmqNaW7E3wE7UGLmCDknQP0j4NirzCNrka_TRUXreJDuEAcBjZ_XxsYjKe1cQu33WDezHDhbNtNy4ze5WRCJ_j8-uAUxcbWK8kANuH9yDOWAqnuYdqok/s1600/leslie-Feinberg-headshot-437x640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHS6df6kwUgD05aOJpenXhR0-HmqNaW7E3wE7UGLmCDknQP0j4NirzCNrka_TRUXreJDuEAcBjZ_XxsYjKe1cQu33WDezHDhbNtNy4ze5WRCJ_j8-uAUxcbWK8kANuH9yDOWAqnuYdqok/s1600/leslie-Feinberg-headshot-437x640.jpg" width="218" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In November 2014, we lost one such trans hero – the Transgender Warrior, hirself, Leslie Feinberg (partner of the poet Minnie Bruce Pratt) – who died, aged 65, from the complications of Lyme disease.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
Lyme disease is a tick borne illness which if treated early with antibiotic can now be resolved quickly. It is endemic in the USA.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Unfortunately, the cause of Lyme disease was not discovered until 1982, meaning those US residents infected prior to then, at a time when accessing health care was incredibly difficult for those were poor, frequently developed consequent lifelong health problems, ranging from arthritis to heart damage.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Leslie was one of the poor - working in dead end jobs, despite being an amazing Trade Union organizer, and a several times published author. Leslie could have gone much further than ze did, despite having moved mountains in hir life, but being trans and refusing to live in only one gender, or to live in stealth, ze had little opportunity to advance hirself, either academically or financially. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The consequences of prejudice can be very long standing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<h4>
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Your History Homework</span></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If you know little of the Trans community's history, and need to learn more, I can recommend as a must that you read two of Leslie’s books:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trans-Liberation-Beyond-Pink-Blue/dp/0807079510/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420044159&sr=8-1&keywords=leslie+feinberg" imageanchor="1" rel="nofollow" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAAQ9c_ELE1zNQW13yneE8cXoUpPBTDCE0tCM2pzHWZ3ZlOZw6DVc2FXHxDt72O80mFLYNHx-Y9Y8AXtsCBSDzDjWyvv978j1nqJ2TRuzxHL5e9GZt6ossEBuCkSlLYknMGyfUKeqXrUk/s1600/Feinberg-Trans_Liberation.jpg" width="124" /></span></a></div>
<ul><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span>
<li><b><span style="background: white; color: #102a41; line-height: 120%;"><span style="color: #102a41; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #102A41; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 191;">Trans Liberation: BeyondPink or Blue</span></span></b></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trans-Liberation-Beyond-Pink-Blue/dp/0807079510/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420044159&sr=8-1&keywords=leslie+feinberg" imageanchor="1" rel="nofollow" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzKV9yCGoVi9F1ihh97M2e9vg1zeC1HDr5jH21hBDJyvGgstCKMEOpT7G0q1opLUWt6zHFZDEv99IJyvFibD8927732Ithq-9CAqZE0nxoCdF1gSsWmF70Gm4EVg4b-UFDMUtyiYBbJnY/s1600/Feinberg-Trans-Gender-Warriors.jpg" width="120" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ul>
<li><b><span style="background: white; color: #102a41; line-height: 120%;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">TransgenderWarriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman</span></span></b></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And for those who need to know what it actually felt like in the 1970s and 80s, or</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If you are a trans man and you want to know how it was like in those early years of trying to access treatments, or</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If you are an activist and you want to know what activism was like when all we could do was struggle to survive merely as a community of consciousness raising friends, or</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If you are anyone who wants to create change and end the ridiculous idea that you can ascribe gender to a baby,</span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://draft.blogger.com/Stone%20Butch%20Blues" imageanchor="1" rel="nofollow" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><span style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></span></a></div>
</li>
</ul>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc4b9JBS07mrnBoF4Pvgixv0pPv7NbH5BeWAUWEamMEwsLX73ha4cpdLw9Auesl3rSBvpVsSbCSnn-NFILdLV2yyvtAz4JcFo62VpZQJtfkD6cXm5lliMtwDxaAyvHTTctccOIy2Kaz34/s1600/Feinberg-Stone-Butch-Blues.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc4b9JBS07mrnBoF4Pvgixv0pPv7NbH5BeWAUWEamMEwsLX73ha4cpdLw9Auesl3rSBvpVsSbCSnn-NFILdLV2yyvtAz4JcFo62VpZQJtfkD6cXm5lliMtwDxaAyvHTTctccOIy2Kaz34/s1600/Feinberg-Stone-Butch-Blues.jpg" width="126" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">then read Leslie’s amazing novel “<b><span style="color: #102a41; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #102A41; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 191;">Stonebutch Blues</span></b>”.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
<br />
<br /><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What a great shame that Leelah Alcorn
never managed to read Leslie Feinberg’s
books.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #38761d;">Dr. Jay Stewart, MBE</span></span></h3>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And so to the end of 2014. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If there is one person I really wish Leelah Alcorn could have met, it is trans man and (like myself) a dad of twins; Dr Jay Stewart. Co-founder and director of Gendered Intelligence, the UK’s trans youth support organization.</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3BkB6wMJjY733Z8Iyj76K3seWi1y03s8SsNPEaLzjN9030uwp_ske6Ztu9hWILgeeUsF2Brt4aLegAvpRm-bw1Zps6HHkD46O9D5p7J9g0eFxzWF1B1INTuacOHdr7_zd5WwYPmPNMMI/s1600/Jay+Stewart+Catherine+Macnamara.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3BkB6wMJjY733Z8Iyj76K3seWi1y03s8SsNPEaLzjN9030uwp_ske6Ztu9hWILgeeUsF2Brt4aLegAvpRm-bw1Zps6HHkD46O9D5p7J9g0eFxzWF1B1INTuacOHdr7_zd5WwYPmPNMMI/s1600/Jay+Stewart+Catherine+Macnamara.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jay Stewart speaking, with his partner and co-directer of Gendered Intelligence; Catherine MvNamara</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This morning's news was that Jay Stewart has rightly had an honourable mention in the Queen’s 2015 New Year’s Honour’s list and he has received an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) For Services to the Transgender community. I expect he is sharing it with Catherine, as undoubtedly their life has been a real partnership of strength and love.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Isn't it amazing how things change. In 2005 I received my OBE for 'Services to Gender’, presumably as nobody dared to let the Queen know such people as us really existed. This year's New Year's Honours list, finally says it as it really is.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Here in the UK there are so many trans folk, family and friends doing all we can to prevent young people from having the same experience as Leelah. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
<span style="color: windowtext;">This year over
20 primary schools have ordered and read</span><span style="color: windowtext;"> PFC’s Guide <b>The
Gender Variant Child’s Right To Attend School</b></span><a href="https://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=9017615131206820221#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="color: blue;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="line-height: 120%;">[2]</span></span></span></a><b>. </b>T<span style="color: windowtext;">hat means 20
primary school age children are able to go to school in their own gender identity
– the one they know they have themselves, not the one their mum and dad tried to
give them several years ago, at a time, when after all, nobody knew what they might grow up to be.</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: windowtext;">Leelah Acorn’s death is a terrible
tragedy. If she lived in the UK, I would like to think that she would be alive today, reading
this blog. Next week, </span>Leelah would be returning to college as she prepared to take her A’Levels, before going on the University. She would meet up, on the way, with her large gang of friends – as Leelah.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
Leelah's Mum and Dad would have been in touch with <a href="http://www.mermaidsuk.org.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;"><b>Mermaids</b></span></a> when she was much younger, and having learnt how to support their gender variant child in her developmental choices, they now
would be leading members of their local <a href="http://www.pflag.co.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;"><b>PFALG UK</b></span></a> group. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
And Leelah might well have regularly seen Hayley Cropper on Coronation Street, sat with her Mum and Dad, after dinner. She would have certainly sat in her bedroom, with her girl friends, watching Laverne Cox in OITNB. She would have known of Leslie Feinberg, and maybe even read the one of his books by now. And she would have probably met Jay Stewart and the amazing <a href="http://genderedintelligence.co.uk/"><span style="color: blue;"><b>Gendered Intelligence</b></span></a> team, having
spent some time last summer working on one of Gendered Intelligence’s Art
projects for young trans people.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">2015's New Year Resolution</span></h3>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: windowtext;">In 2000, after the publication of my personal commentary in '<a href="http://garysmailes.typepad.com/onebook/2008/07/perfidious-man.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><b>Perfidious man</b></a>' my mother told me that I was embarrassing
the whole family (by going on television, the radio and speaking out in
magazines and the newspapers) and would I please stop 'doing this' ... now. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: windowtext;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I told her that I had resolved many
years earlier that I would carry on 'doing this' until no child or teenager had to go
through the fear and terrors that I had gone through. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
Thankfully my Mum came round to that idea., especially when, in 2005, she got to come, </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">with my wife Sarah,</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> to the 'Palace' to watch me receive my OBE. Jay will now have that pleasure with his own family.</span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: windowtext;">Sadly though, Leelah Alcorn’s death means that <i>to carry on<b> 'doing this'</b></i>, is </span>once again my New Year’s resolution, as 2015 knocks at the door.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<div>
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br clear="all" />
</span><br />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<br />
<div id="ftn1">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=9017615131206820221#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-US"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-US"> </span>- See more <a href="http://www.pancreaticcancer.org.uk/latest-news/2014/october/appg-on-pancreatic-cancer-launches-research-report/#sthash.2izElEp5.dpuf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><b>here</b></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=9017615131206820221#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-US"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-US"> </span>Available by
contacting Press For Change at office[ – at – ]pfc.org.uk (remove[ – at –] and
replace with @. PDF copy free to Schools and the parents and guardians of young gender variant
children. All others; £12.50 plus £2 postage and packing for a hard copy,
£3.50 for a pdf copy by email. All money raised goes to Press For Change. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
</div>
<a href="https://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=9017615131206820221"></a>
<br />
<blockquote>
</blockquote>
Stephen Whittlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379289307731132721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9017615131206820221.post-20384286412366322652014-12-31T20:47:00.001+00:002016-10-07T09:41:10.379+01:002014: The Transgender Warriors and Heroes I wish Leelah Alcorn had known this year.<h2>
</h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoVuv_Vzk0rGe4dMouTM3rhZnFwTIg84jcMd5uClEAU6PJ2JkecU8BXsDOPB6WqP_RIbZFm19QSGYCjjaxIHzaCw3jwwYJP-FIMNNko6fX-mTN86Bwmvhswdiw8pmSNpBN-8WAF8wJ1vU/s1600/leslie-Feinberg-headshot-437x640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoVuv_Vzk0rGe4dMouTM3rhZnFwTIg84jcMd5uClEAU6PJ2JkecU8BXsDOPB6WqP_RIbZFm19QSGYCjjaxIHzaCw3jwwYJP-FIMNNko6fX-mTN86Bwmvhswdiw8pmSNpBN-8WAF8wJ1vU/s1600/leslie-Feinberg-headshot-437x640.jpg" width="136" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq3V7ZnxZuhc3OI0LBk0FAczs_br-Aw8iuxx59nXciNN4mGRgD8VmFY5LqDc8waJok1NAYNTw5duexSXFTTXwpD_-yQwhbdFgsr8AYs9ykbLT888ZB5_1LxFNIE2YmvSlYJECq3QaHtc4/s1600/hayley.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq3V7ZnxZuhc3OI0LBk0FAczs_br-Aw8iuxx59nXciNN4mGRgD8VmFY5LqDc8waJok1NAYNTw5duexSXFTTXwpD_-yQwhbdFgsr8AYs9ykbLT888ZB5_1LxFNIE2YmvSlYJECq3QaHtc4/s1600/hayley.jpg" width="186" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDpP7D04UneNQ3psd5O7_lXJFO75BWTUM3-gv9TSXqtZXverujT3nE2oASKAs95aX723n-NuBmHZ-GU-Hz99qmvccMvVZXrBveqUUV-K0RKxN1WFLQVCxBLMASAWQu0eakYNAiZZtdlIQ/s1600/laverne-cox-time-cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDpP7D04UneNQ3psd5O7_lXJFO75BWTUM3-gv9TSXqtZXverujT3nE2oASKAs95aX723n-NuBmHZ-GU-Hz99qmvccMvVZXrBveqUUV-K0RKxN1WFLQVCxBLMASAWQu0eakYNAiZZtdlIQ/s1600/laverne-cox-time-cover.jpg" width="150" /></span></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_OQS2unCWZRVQSWBFEzcZqu1BedYTuSr-qq8I27WJvyNZ61FpcORERRXN_Wf2AW-r0ld1RruYGUKm8_MDjaCtQ8eBMM8Are2pTmmD0SqfW4kHIlt6iEaIFI1bY12Dt0H9-w5gomZp7JU/s1600/jay_Stewartjpg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_OQS2unCWZRVQSWBFEzcZqu1BedYTuSr-qq8I27WJvyNZ61FpcORERRXN_Wf2AW-r0ld1RruYGUKm8_MDjaCtQ8eBMM8Are2pTmmD0SqfW4kHIlt6iEaIFI1bY12Dt0H9-w5gomZp7JU/s1600/jay_Stewartjpg.jpg" width="150" /></span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span>
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span><b><span style="color: #6aa84f;">Hayley Cropper (nee Patterson)</span></b></span></div>
<span style="color: #6aa84f; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Laverne Cox </b></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #6aa84f; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Leslie Feinberg</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6aa84f; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Dr Jay Stewart MBE</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
Last night my daughter
sat quietly reading twitter and then burst into tears. She had just read the
suicide note of a young trans person from Ohio, Leelah Alcorn, whose
parent’s refused to accept that she could be a girl, not a boy, even to the
extent of forcing her into ‘Christian’ 'Gay Conversion' / 'Transgender reparative’ Therapy' – which clearly
failed. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
For those who don’t know the story go <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deserae-l-stage/how-do-we-find-justice-fo_b_6398204.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: blue;">here</span></b></a> and<b style="background-color: white;"> <a href="https://twitter.com/LeelahAlcorn_" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">here</span></a></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As we comforted my
daughter, she kept saying she was sorry for being silly. But, of course it is
anything but silly to feel great sadness at the loss of any life, but even more
so when it is a young person, and the loss is entirely avoidable. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Forty years ago when I
transitioned in 1975, I frequently felt like I was the dirt that people wiped
off their shoes – and I think from reading Leelah’s suicide note that she
envisioned that future for herself. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am so proud that my
daughter, the daughter of a Trans man, does not shy away from that fact. Her
university friends are all told the story, and when we went to see her sing in last year’s opera society’s performance, her friends lined up to shake my hand. I wish
I could have told Leelah that one day she would discover how cool we now are.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSuDpPIUvZtdCnJSs8Pt2N9UuFN3WkyzdqyOqvtrwzhBKCMSW2hSLtZotONXieQl5rboZF-R2mk0mLUuu9dX01hT9TFl6DEzKjS6gIrBIExP2gRFAuTmjxUtG2DQoZ_1DLP7su1tqWmJU/s1600/Leelah_Alcorn.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSuDpPIUvZtdCnJSs8Pt2N9UuFN3WkyzdqyOqvtrwzhBKCMSW2hSLtZotONXieQl5rboZF-R2mk0mLUuu9dX01hT9TFl6DEzKjS6gIrBIExP2gRFAuTmjxUtG2DQoZ_1DLP7su1tqWmJU/s1600/Leelah_Alcorn.jpeg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Leelah Alcorn 1997-2014</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Seventeen year old Leelah killed herself
because her parents could not /would not accept she was trans. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But this is 2014, well -- 2015 tomorrow. We have spent the last 25 years (or in my case 40 years) doing
the social education, winning the court cases, getting the legislation passed,
and working with clinicians, the Press, and politicians to create change: to
make a world where it is OK to be whatever gender you really are.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And, despite Leelah's death, the evidence of that work is everywhere.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<h3>
</h3>
<div>
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Hayley Cropper (1998 – 2014)</b></span></div>
<h1>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In January 2014, 9.7
million people stopped for a moment and wept over the death of a trans woman,
albeit a fictional character; Hayley Cropper (nee Patterson), the red-anorak’ed café owner in
Coronation Street, the nation’s longest running soap.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFZc4f_Ft4Km7YZmUAUz2i5vYHL0MPloK3-pQeTql0QGU5stxfDVD4jt9vd7HQ-q13JuTygpcSvXPBj9gxUqUB3gLVsEH31rXusfb8-b1EjZuAIJZ1ZucqpkZ-dj7qpnPB6yrvTpaV8Bs/s1600/Hayley_Cropper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFZc4f_Ft4Km7YZmUAUz2i5vYHL0MPloK3-pQeTql0QGU5stxfDVD4jt9vd7HQ-q13JuTygpcSvXPBj9gxUqUB3gLVsEH31rXusfb8-b1EjZuAIJZ1ZucqpkZ-dj7qpnPB6yrvTpaV8Bs/s1600/Hayley_Cropper.jpg" width="276" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Hayley first appeared on British televisions in
January 1998, and was the globe’s first transgender character in a British
soap, and the first permanent trans character in any serialised TV show.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
Julie
Hesmondhalgh who played the character had worked with the Trans community,
notably Annie Wallace from<span style="color: blue;"> <a href="http://www.pfc.org.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: blue;">Press For Change</span></b></a></span> to ensure the character and her on-screen
life was realistic and plausible. </span><span style="color: #38761d;">Annie Wallace now plays the part of Transgender school </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #38761d;">Headmistress; Sally St. Claire in Channel 4's </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #38761d;">Hollyoaks. She has just been nominated for a BAFTA for her work in that role (October 2016). </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hayley became a stalwart of the show, despite earlier
opposition from some parts of the public. Julie also provided huge amounts of moral support for the work of the trans activist group; </span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.pfc.org.uk/" target="_blank">Press For Change</a></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And it was the public who wrote hundreds
of protest letters about Hayley’s marriage, or rather her inability to be able to legally marry
Roy Cropper, another of the show’s character’s. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The protest combined with the campaigning work of <b>Press For Change </b>led, on April 14<sup>th</sup> 1999, to Jack Straw, the Home Secretary to announce the government's Interdepartmental Working
Group on Transsexual People. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcNUnMpjPXV1TIFC_W7JtKz-3RSEbizwtFsYceDmlISaRjP1G-GDB8Que77v8qYVRczWPYxHm4cumnVTJhI9JLgyIZ3DnYLAGmqNXuErB2pJUG92y6cpYsOq3Er6SEGmmYdOd-wldcMnI/s1600/Hayley-wedding1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcNUnMpjPXV1TIFC_W7JtKz-3RSEbizwtFsYceDmlISaRjP1G-GDB8Que77v8qYVRczWPYxHm4cumnVTJhI9JLgyIZ3DnYLAGmqNXuErB2pJUG92y6cpYsOq3Er6SEGmmYdOd-wldcMnI/s1600/Hayley-wedding1.jpg" width="267" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 16.3636360168457px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The 1999 Non-Wedding</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjzsnvF3NBwB0eAgJeyY4iiI85uBCtpHoW1ANOLsXAXgZ7d5ssDcNQSYozJNPWMH9yzv-uxd1ml6IOCFetS9l68s0nPiGt22B4dNGQt03MgSQrUR6Nrg5TpOnB_0NkCpO-dijqQ4bH7-c/s1600/Hayley-wedding2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjzsnvF3NBwB0eAgJeyY4iiI85uBCtpHoW1ANOLsXAXgZ7d5ssDcNQSYozJNPWMH9yzv-uxd1ml6IOCFetS9l68s0nPiGt22B4dNGQt03MgSQrUR6Nrg5TpOnB_0NkCpO-dijqQ4bH7-c/s1600/Hayley-wedding2.jpg" width="286" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The 2010 Wedding</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Ultimately the working group recommended action needed to be taken by the British Government, as the alternative was no longer acceptable. In 2005 the Gender Recognition Act 2004
came into force. Hayley, recognised as a woman for all legal purposes,
finally married Roy in 2010.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The character Hayley, took
her own life in January 2014, not because she was trans; but because she had terminal
pancreatic cancer. Having seen my Mum die from the disease, I understand why
the show’s writers chose to highlight the inadequacy of current research and treatment
into this disease. Research into it receives only 1% of cancer research
funding in the UK despite being the country’s fifth deadliest cancer, and by
2030 is predicted to overtake breast cancer to become the 4th largest cancer
killer. Five year survival rates have not increased in the last 40 years, and remain at 4% - compared to the current breast cancer survival rate at 5 years of 87%.<a href="https://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=9017615131206820221#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: blue; line-height: 120%;">[1]</span></span></span></a><span style="color: red;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">During the week in
which Hayley’s suicide was screened a petition to persuade the government to
increase funding for research into pancreatic cancer gained a massive amount of
support. With Julie's support it ultimately reached the 100,000 needed for a parliamentary debate just
before the Parliamentary imposed deadline of 1 year for such petitions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNIGVXL_0ZxRcW47KqwyuJzanlEXqHEfp-NGhIzycC7XFmAZzveX7JCgsxNqdY3lhwrCfiqw0o-1cO4KIdWixgv4ZpcrdvtDBl_bwNCvhDEfujYvEl95dJ07kuqnKX_S_9QuwAhIZ7QEE/s1600/Julie-Hesmondhalgh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNIGVXL_0ZxRcW47KqwyuJzanlEXqHEfp-NGhIzycC7XFmAZzveX7JCgsxNqdY3lhwrCfiqw0o-1cO4KIdWixgv4ZpcrdvtDBl_bwNCvhDEfujYvEl95dJ07kuqnKX_S_9QuwAhIZ7QEE/s1600/Julie-Hesmondhalgh.jpg" /></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Not many actors will
have had the opportunity to massively increase parliamentary and social
awareness of major social problems. Julie Hesmondhalgh, playing a trans woman, has made the most of the opportunity twice in her character’s career, and she
was recognised for not just her acting but also her commitment to justice for
Trans people and cancer sufferers in the 2014 National Television Awards earlier
this year.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
If only Leelah had had the opportunity to watch Coronation Street, 3 nights a week.</span></div>
<h3>
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></h3>
<div>
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<h3>
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Laverne Cox: 2014 - The Tipping Point
</span></h3>
<h1>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In May 2014, the
actress and trans woman, Laverne Cox who is one of the stars of the Netflix hit
‘Orange is the New Black” (OITNB) set in a women’s prison, was featured on the
front of Time magazine with the headline “The Transgender Tipping Point:
America’s Next Civil Rights Frontier”. </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFx7QX9aDN4vSbrxiKSi4WZXMxpfHq925rZlTxKgWncWYv-U95CxT4nT4JhBtrLAOTDm8XFdYSYFPdnZaGQZpNuX5CSve4Ntn10zuwec62fYL_uY2B3XDXVpJc1AKWMPpbvgBGIJADhzc/s1600/laverne-cox-time-cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFx7QX9aDN4vSbrxiKSi4WZXMxpfHq925rZlTxKgWncWYv-U95CxT4nT4JhBtrLAOTDm8XFdYSYFPdnZaGQZpNuX5CSve4Ntn10zuwec62fYL_uY2B3XDXVpJc1AKWMPpbvgBGIJADhzc/s1600/laverne-cox-time-cover.jpg" width="240" /></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On Facebook, Laverne wrote that the Time cover published on her birthday, was a wonderful present , and</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"I realize this is
way bigger than me and about a tipping point in our nation's history where it
is no longer acceptable for trans lives to be stigmatized, ridiculed,
criminalized and disregarded."</span></i></blockquote>
<div class="MsoQuote">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In the series OITNB, Laverne
plays a trans character in the show – finally an out trans woman playing an out
trans woman. One more small victory for the many trans people who have spent,
either in the past, or more recently, years of their life being an activist, campaigning
for core human rights and fairness for trans people. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<h4>
<span style="color: #073763; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></h4>
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">A Small Aside</span><br />
<h2>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I came to activism in
1974, when the then Manchester and Bradford Gay Liberation groups stormed a
British Medical Association conference at Bradford University. We were
objecting to the participation of Dr John Randell, a psychiatrist at London’s
Charing Cross Hospital who specialised in ‘treating’ transsexual people. His
treatment consisted primarily of insisting you take off all your clothes so he
could photograph you, and then telling you that you would do what he told you
to do, or you could forget having any gender reassignment treatments (he is the
unseen psychiatrist <a href="http://theheroines4.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/a-change-of-sex-with-julia-grant.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: blue;">here</span></b></a>). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Our invasion was successful – John Randell MD stormed off the stage never to be
heard again at an academic conference, Dr Rosemary King, a cross-dressing, trans-identified GP took his place, and Bradford University gave the Gay Lib
groups a free hall and disco a month later to compensate for the distress they
had caused. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I was fortunate not to
be Dr Randell’s patient whilst starting my gender reassignment treatments. I
had seen a psychiatrist in Manchester who had thrown me out, refusing to treat
me, telling me that I would never live as a man. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My GP came to my rescue and in
1975 took the extremely daring step of deciding to have a living trans patient
instead of a dead one, and prescribed me testosterone. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Unfortunately, though, in 1978
I did become Dr Randell’s patient for a short time. I was taken to the Emergency
Room at the hospital after collapsing during a trip to the theatre in London.
Because I am trans, instead of being treated for being ill, I was admitted to
John Randell’s secure, locked, psychiatric ward. This meant plastic knives and
forks, and a male nurse observing me whilst showering (I was pre-op so this was
incredibly humiliating).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It was during this stay, and whilst in his office,
that John Randell asked me to remove all of my clothes so that he could
photograph me. I refused to do so, telling him to get lost - he wasn’t my
psychiatrist and there was nothing wrong with my mind, anyway. He then told me
that I would stay in his ward until I was willing to be photographed. It took
my Mum, Barbara Valente, a senior medical secretary, with the help of her boss, a Professor of
Oncology at Christie Hospital in Manchester, ten days to get me released from
the hospital. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The experience on that ward is another story entirely, but I
realised then what a megalomaniac Randell was, and how very strange was his
behaviour – for a start, he used to walk around the ward muttering under his
breath ‘tick tock, tick tock, tick tock’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Several psychiatrists
who trained as junior doctors under John Randell tell the same story – of how
he would invite the juniors to dinner at his flat. On his arrival, he would
open the door wearing a long blue evening gown and white ‘above the elbow’ long
gloves which he wore throughout dinner. One told of going into a rather sleazy
East End pub where women of ill repute were known to congregate to discover sat
in a corner, dressed like a ‘tart’, the eminent psychiatrist who would a year later
in the infamous 1971 <u>Cossey v Cossey</u> Court case declare that the transsexual
woman April Ashley could only ever be ‘a pastiche of a woman’. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Talk about the pot calling the kettle, though in this case it was a mucky frying pan condemning a gleaming copper bottomed kettle.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
</span><br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Gender is the new Black</span></h3>
<h1>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That aside was about
reflecting on how Laverne Cox said we
have reached the ‘Transgender tipping point’ – in other words, what happened in the late 1970s is now ancient history.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
But is
it? The National Review's Kevin Williamson wrote his column with the title
"Laverne Cox Is Not a Woman" and said:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"The mass delusion
that we are inculcating on the question of transgendered people ... would
impose on society at large an obligation — possibly a legal obligation under
civil-rights law, one that already is emerging — to treat delusion as fact, or
at the very least to agree to make subjective impressions superordinate to
biological fact in matters both public and private."</span></blockquote>
<div class="MsoQuote">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I remember saying (c
1990) </span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“I don’t care what they say behind my back, but I do care what they
say and do in front of my face”. </span></blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I may be/have been suffering a delusion for the last 56 years - that I was much more of a boy than a girl, much more of a man than I could have ever been a woman. But the rest of my life (as a teacher, a researcher, a father, a tax payer etc.) is fine - so does my gender matter at all to anyone other than myself and those who love me. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Of course not. What matters is that as parents we help our kids, like my daughter, and like Leelah's parents should have, grow up into being responsible, tolerant, happy, confidant world citizens acting throughout their lives as eco-warriors, gender warriors, and peace warriors . </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So do I care what Williamson wrote? Not a jot
– except it is ignoramuses like him who persuade people like Leelah Alcorn’s parents
to announce that their 'son' '<b><i>Joshua Alcorn died in the roadway on I-71 in Warren
County, Ohio, after being struck by a tractor trailer</i></b>'.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">However, ultimately it is the
Williamson’s of this world who have lost the war. The clock will not be turned back. We may still be fighting
skirmishes, and Leelah’s death is, very sadly, one of those skirmishes. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But, the truth is
Trans is everywhere, and especially on British television. The highlight of
this Christmas’s telly was an adaptation of David Walliam’s novel for children and young teens; “The Boy in the Dress” (still available to watch on BBC iPlayer <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04w7pgj/the-boy-in-the-dress" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><b>here</b></a>). Enough said. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
I wonder whether the people who used to wipe me off their shoes, ever thought it would come to this in 2014.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
<br />
</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgItw5w_GPb7PYg2P5riOMs0WZXXrynaM6LiE9XmBoa9k_gCx6EHG28kMmDCl9omDZd7iLrbu5hXdOstyWoXS9wW1qGCOlBuaXPo7Z8DPRRIfo5FlBOkCHol6ZiVlKYE14F2EtGWJrZLAk/s1600/Boy-in-a-dress-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgItw5w_GPb7PYg2P5riOMs0WZXXrynaM6LiE9XmBoa9k_gCx6EHG28kMmDCl9omDZd7iLrbu5hXdOstyWoXS9wW1qGCOlBuaXPo7Z8DPRRIfo5FlBOkCHol6ZiVlKYE14F2EtGWJrZLAk/s1600/Boy-in-a-dress-2.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Boy in The Dress</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And, I do wish Leelah had sat in her bedroom watching Lavern Cox in 'Orange is the New Black', and this christmas, that she had sat down with her Mum and Dad to watch 'The Boy in the Dress'.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<h1>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<h3>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Leslie Feinberg (1949-2014)</span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXySlmgdtEFerTEt42gDbUCvGPne-6jJpCTqGsD71gfFAfBaCRvim73KQBVU31VSaGcz0ZhDrpLYxboE8wOhPxKySc5rt_VXCaOL6kj-JxzdBtucPUP9nCrh0SE1icdAqapuYJiug-KqU/s1600/lesliefeinbergprotest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXySlmgdtEFerTEt42gDbUCvGPne-6jJpCTqGsD71gfFAfBaCRvim73KQBVU31VSaGcz0ZhDrpLYxboE8wOhPxKySc5rt_VXCaOL6kj-JxzdBtucPUP9nCrh0SE1icdAqapuYJiug-KqU/s1600/lesliefeinbergprotest.jpg" width="200" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Leslie Feinberg being hirself</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">November again, saw many memorial events take place for the International Transgender Day of
Remembrance (TdoR 20th November each year). The TDoR came about as a result of the “<a href="http://tdor.info/memorializing-2014-2/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;"><b>Remembering our Dead</b></span></a>” website built by Gwendolyn Ann Smith, to remember those
Trans people who were killed by actions conceived in transphobia, transgender
hatred or prejudice. Read 2014's horrendous roll of <b><span style="color: red;">226</span> </b>victims <b><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.transrespect-transphobia.org/en_US/tvt-project/tmm-results/tdor-2014.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a></span></b>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Having MS and finding
the cold unbearable, I have rarely attended the outdoor event that takes place
here in Manchester on a late afternoon on the Sunday nearest the TDOR, in Sackville
Gardens (Manchester M1 3HB). But just as we stop to remember soldiers who have died, each Armistice Day on the 11th
November, a week or so earlier, on TDOR, I stop for a minute or two and remember our trans community's warriors and heroes who have been killed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As the years pass, I find
myself now, not just remembering those who have died at the hands of others, but
also those trans people, trans heroes and trans friends who we as a community, are now losing to illness and old age. Death will claim us all, but
when much of a person’s early life was lost to prejudice, discrimination and
the hatred of others, it makes the lives of some amazing people seem to have
been very short. </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHS6df6kwUgD05aOJpenXhR0-HmqNaW7E3wE7UGLmCDknQP0j4NirzCNrka_TRUXreJDuEAcBjZ_XxsYjKe1cQu33WDezHDhbNtNy4ze5WRCJ_j8-uAUxcbWK8kANuH9yDOWAqnuYdqok/s1600/leslie-Feinberg-headshot-437x640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHS6df6kwUgD05aOJpenXhR0-HmqNaW7E3wE7UGLmCDknQP0j4NirzCNrka_TRUXreJDuEAcBjZ_XxsYjKe1cQu33WDezHDhbNtNy4ze5WRCJ_j8-uAUxcbWK8kANuH9yDOWAqnuYdqok/s1600/leslie-Feinberg-headshot-437x640.jpg" width="218" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In November 2014, we lost one such trans hero – the Transgender Warrior, hirself, Leslie Feinberg (partner of the poet Minnie Bruce Pratt) – who died, aged 65, from the complications of Lyme disease.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
Lyme disease is a tick borne illness which if treated early with antibiotic can now be resolved quickly. It is endemic in the USA.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Unfortunately, the cause of Lyme disease was not discovered until 1982, meaning those US residents infected prior to then, at a time when accessing health care was incredibly difficult for those were poor, frequently developed consequent lifelong health problems, ranging from arthritis to heart damage.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Leslie was one of the poor - working in dead end jobs, despite being an amazing Trade Union organizer, and a several times published author. Leslie could have gone much further than ze did, despite having moved mountains in hir life, but being trans and refusing to live in only one gender, or to live in stealth, ze had little opportunity to advance hirself, either academically or financially. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The consequences of prejudice can be very long standing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<span style="color: blue; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Your History Homework</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If you know little of the Trans community's history, and need to learn more, I can recommend as a must that you read two of Leslie’s books:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trans-Liberation-Beyond-Pink-Blue/dp/0807079510/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420044159&sr=8-1&keywords=leslie+feinberg" imageanchor="1" rel="nofollow" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAAQ9c_ELE1zNQW13yneE8cXoUpPBTDCE0tCM2pzHWZ3ZlOZw6DVc2FXHxDt72O80mFLYNHx-Y9Y8AXtsCBSDzDjWyvv978j1nqJ2TRuzxHL5e9GZt6ossEBuCkSlLYknMGyfUKeqXrUk/s1600/Feinberg-Trans_Liberation.jpg" width="124" /></span></a></div>
<ul><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span>
<li><b><span style="background: white; color: #102a41; line-height: 120%;"><span style="color: #102a41; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #102A41; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 191;">Trans Liberation: BeyondPink or Blue</span></span></b></li>
</ul>
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<br />
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</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trans-Liberation-Beyond-Pink-Blue/dp/0807079510/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420044159&sr=8-1&keywords=leslie+feinberg" imageanchor="1" rel="nofollow" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzKV9yCGoVi9F1ihh97M2e9vg1zeC1HDr5jH21hBDJyvGgstCKMEOpT7G0q1opLUWt6zHFZDEv99IJyvFibD8927732Ithq-9CAqZE0nxoCdF1gSsWmF70Gm4EVg4b-UFDMUtyiYBbJnY/s1600/Feinberg-Trans-Gender-Warriors.jpg" width="120" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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</div>
<ul>
<li><b><span style="background: white; color: #102a41; line-height: 120%;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">TransgenderWarriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman</span></span></b></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And for those who need to know what it actually felt like in the 1970s and 80s, or</span><br />
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</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If you are a trans man and you want to know how it was like in those early years of trying to access treatments, or</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If you are an activist and you want to know what activism was like when all we could do was struggle to survive merely as a community of consciousness raising friends, or</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If you are anyone who wants to create change and end the ridiculous idea that you can ascribe gender to a baby,</span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://draft.blogger.com/Stone%20Butch%20Blues" imageanchor="1" rel="nofollow" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><span style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></span></a></div>
</li>
</ul>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc4b9JBS07mrnBoF4Pvgixv0pPv7NbH5BeWAUWEamMEwsLX73ha4cpdLw9Auesl3rSBvpVsSbCSnn-NFILdLV2yyvtAz4JcFo62VpZQJtfkD6cXm5lliMtwDxaAyvHTTctccOIy2Kaz34/s1600/Feinberg-Stone-Butch-Blues.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc4b9JBS07mrnBoF4Pvgixv0pPv7NbH5BeWAUWEamMEwsLX73ha4cpdLw9Auesl3rSBvpVsSbCSnn-NFILdLV2yyvtAz4JcFo62VpZQJtfkD6cXm5lliMtwDxaAyvHTTctccOIy2Kaz34/s1600/Feinberg-Stone-Butch-Blues.jpg" width="126" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">then read Leslie’s amazing novel “<b><span style="color: #102a41; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #102A41; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: lumm=75000; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: accent1; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 191;">Stonebutch Blues</span></b>”.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
<br />
<br /><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What a great shame that Leelah Alcorn
never managed to read Leslie Feinberg’s
books.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
<br />
<br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<h2>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Dr. Jay Stewart, MBE</span></h2>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And so to the end of 2014. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If there is one person I really wish Leelah Alcorn could have met, it is trans man and (like myself) a dad of twins; Dr Jay Stewart. Co-founder and director of Gendered Intelligence, the UK’s trans youth support organization.</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3BkB6wMJjY733Z8Iyj76K3seWi1y03s8SsNPEaLzjN9030uwp_ske6Ztu9hWILgeeUsF2Brt4aLegAvpRm-bw1Zps6HHkD46O9D5p7J9g0eFxzWF1B1INTuacOHdr7_zd5WwYPmPNMMI/s1600/Jay+Stewart+Catherine+Macnamara.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3BkB6wMJjY733Z8Iyj76K3seWi1y03s8SsNPEaLzjN9030uwp_ske6Ztu9hWILgeeUsF2Brt4aLegAvpRm-bw1Zps6HHkD46O9D5p7J9g0eFxzWF1B1INTuacOHdr7_zd5WwYPmPNMMI/s1600/Jay+Stewart+Catherine+Macnamara.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jay Stewart speaking, with his partner and co-directer of Gendered Intelligence; Catherine MvNamara</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This morning's news was that Jay Stewart has rightly had an honourable mention in the Queen’s 2015 New Year’s Honour’s list and he has received an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) For Services to the Transgender community. I expect he is sharing it with Catherine, as undoubtedly their life has been a real partnership of strength and love.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Isn't it amazing how things change. In 2005 I received my OBE for services to ‘Gender’, presumably as nobody dared to let the Queen know such people as us really existed. This year's New Year's Honours list, finally says it as it really is.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Here in the UK there are so many trans folk, family and friends doing all we can to prevent young people from having the same experience as Leelah. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
<span style="color: windowtext;">This year over
20 primary schools have ordered and read</span><span style="color: windowtext;"> PFC’s Guide <b>The
Gender Variant Child’s Right To Attend School</b></span><a href="https://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=9017615131206820221#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="color: blue;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="line-height: 120%;">[2]</span></span></span></a><b>. </b>T<span style="color: windowtext;">hat means 20
primary school age children are able to go to school in their own gender identity
– the one they know they have themselves, not the one their mum and dad tried to
give them several years ago, at a time, when after all, nobody knew what they might grow up to be.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: windowtext;">Leelah Acorn’s death is a terrible
tragedy. If she lived in the UK, I would like to think that she would be alive today, reading
this blog. Next week, </span>Leelah would be returning to college as she prepared to take her A’Levels, before going on the University. She would meet up, on the way, with her large gang of friends – as Leelah.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
Leelah's Mum and Dad would have been in touch with <a href="http://www.mermaidsuk.org.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;"><b>Mermaids</b></span></a> when she was much younger, and having learnt how to support their gender variant child in her developmental choices, they now
would be leading members of their local <a href="http://www.pflag.co.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;"><b>PFALG UK</b></span></a> group. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
And Leelah might well have regularly seen Hayley Cropper on Coronation Street, sat with her Mum and Dad, after dinner. She would have certainly sat in her bedroom, with her girl friends, watching Laverne Cox in OITNB. She would have known of Leslie Feinberg, and maybe even read the one of his books by now. And she would have probably met Jay Stewart and the amazing <a href="http://genderedintelligence.co.uk/"><span style="color: blue;"><b>Gendered Intelligence</b></span></a> team, having
spent some time last summer working on one of Gendered Intelligence’s Art
projects for young trans people.</span></div>
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<br />
<h2>
<span style="color: #6aa84f; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">2015's New Year Resolution</span></h2>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: windowtext;">In 2000, after the publication of my personal commentary in '<a href="http://garysmailes.typepad.com/onebook/2008/07/perfidious-man.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><b>Perfidious man</b></a>' my mother told me that I was embarrassing
the whole family (by going on television, the radio and speaking out in
magazines and the newspapers) and would I please stop 'doing this' ... now. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I told her that I had resolved many
years earlier that I would carry on 'doing this' until no child or teenager had to go
through the fear and terrors that I had gone through. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
Thankfully my Mum came round to that idea., especially when, in 2005, she got to come, </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">with my wife Sarah,</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> to the 'Palace' to watch me receive my OBE. Jay will now have that pleasure with his own family.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: windowtext;">Sadly though, Leelah Alcorn’s death means that <b>to</b> <b>carry on 'doing this'</b>, is </span>once again my New Year’s resolution, as 2015 knocks at the door.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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</span><br />
<div>
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</span><br />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<br />
<div id="ftn1">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=9017615131206820221#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-US"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-US"> </span>- See more <a href="http://www.pancreaticcancer.org.uk/latest-news/2014/october/appg-on-pancreatic-cancer-launches-research-report/#sthash.2izElEp5.dpuf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><b>here</b></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=9017615131206820221#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-US"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: blue; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 120%;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-US"> </span>Available by
contacting Press For Change at office[ – at – ]pfc.org.uk (remove[ – at –] and
replace with @. PDF copy free to Schools and the parents and guardians of young gender variant
children. All others; £12.50 plus £2 postage and packing for a hard copy,
£3.50 for a pdf copy by email. All money raised goes to Press For Change. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
</div>
<a href="https://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=9017615131206820221"></a>
<br />
<blockquote>
</blockquote>
Stephen Whittlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379289307731132721noreply@blogger.comStockport, UK53.410631599999988 -2.157533199999988953.334924599999987 -2.3188946999999889 53.486338599999989 -1.996171699999989tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9017615131206820221.post-39936498681360068532014-04-02T20:53:00.001+01:002014-04-02T20:53:16.357+01:00EVERY PERSON HAS RIGHTS.<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">EVERY PERSON HAS RIGHTS.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am often seen as being 'Press for Change' - but in fact I
am only a grassroots activist like anyone else who volunteers for PFC. However
I am also a trained and experience legal academic whose job it is to read case
law and legislation and work out exactly what it requires from people.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
PFC ‘s position on any spousal veto would be that it was an
appalling intrusion on the civil liberties and hard won Human Rights of trans
people.[Note 1]<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
PFC also takes the position that whilst fighting for the
rights of ALL trans people, PFC will do nothing to remove the rights of any
socially and legally disadvantaged group.[Note 2]<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
PFC is a diverse set of individuals with a grassroots
approach to campaigning – as far as I am personally concerned the issue is not
that people disagree with my interpretation of the law, rather I am totally
open to being shown a different understanding of the law. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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However, I have read the relevant parts of the Marriage
(Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 in full and my view (as a lawyer) is that many
people have acquired a significant misunderstanding of what the amendments to
the Gender Recognition Act 2004 by the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013
actually do, and what they mean. It is well worth reading what the legislation
says in full in Schedule 5 of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 at <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2013/30/schedule/5/enacted">http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2013/30/schedule/5/enacted</a>
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h3>
WHAT DOES SPOUSAL CONSENT IN THE MARRIAGE (SAME SEX COUPLES)
ACT 2013 ACTUALLY DO?</h3>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013, Schedule 5 and the
Marriage and Civil Partnership Act 2014 (Scotland) Schedule 2 asks a trans
person is in a pre-existing marriage to provide evidence with their application
for a Gender Recognition certificate that their:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“spouse consents to the marriage continuing after the issue
of a full gender recognition certificate”[Note 3]</blockquote>
<div class="MsoQuote">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoQuote">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This should be in the form of a Statutory Declaration of
Spousal consent. To avoid the possibility of fraud, on receiving this the Gender
Recognition Panel, , must give the spouse notice that it has been submitted to
them.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If the gender recognition application is successful, the Gender
Recognition Panel, must again notify the spouse of the issue of the full Gender
Recognition certificate.[Note 4] <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What is clear, on reading the Acts is that the spouse is
simply being asked to consent to their marriage continuing.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h3>
CAN A SPOUSE VETO A GENDER RECOGNITION APPLICATION?</h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<h4>
No, they cannot.</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If the non-trans spouse doesn’t consent to the marriage
continuing if it is to become a same sex marriage, the current form of marriage
will continue. It is still the marriage of a husband and wife, not a wife and
wife. Their marriage would continue to be a marriage that was made under the
old version of our marriage law, with vows which demanded that the person promise
that they were not getting married to someone of the same legal sex.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is also quite clear that a spouse cannot veto an application
for a Gender Recognition certificate.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A trans person who is married can still apply for a Gender
Recognition certificate. If their spouse will not provide the required consent
for the marriage to change, then the trans person can still choose to obtain
their legal recognition by choosing to end the marriage either by seeking a
divorce and after the divorce applying for a Gender Recognition certificate, or
by applying for an interim Gender Recognition certificate and then having the
marriage annulled. Immediately the annulment decision is given, the court will give
them their full Gender Recognition certificate. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h3>
WHY DO THESE PROVISIONS EXIST?</h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
These provisions are not an attack on the civil liberties or
Human Rights of Trans people. They are there to protect the rights of the spouses
of trans people. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They do not give spouses any right of veto over a person’s
application for a Gender Recognition certificate, rather they are designed to
ensure that spouses are protected from unscrupulous actions by a spouse who is applying
for a Gender Recognition certificate.
The provisions ensure the spouse knows what is happening, and ensure they
are happy with the marriage continuing even though it is to be transformed into
a same sex marriage. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Both of my grandmothers were deserted by their husbands
during WWII. My maternal grandmother was to find out that her husband had
remarried, twice, without divorcing her. When he was prosecuted, she was so
ashamed that she developed a lifelong mental health problem that ultimately
resulted in her refusing food and starving to death. Three families, all
involving children were wrecked because he refused to live in the real world
rather than the fantasy one of his own making.
Imagine if my maternal grandmother had found that not only had he
created two other families, but that her husband was now a 'she', and as far as the law was concerned
she was a lesbian now living in a same sex marriage. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I will repeat what I have said before: In PFC we see what
might be referred to as the 'blunt' end of the trans community. I meet trans
women (mostly) who have left their original spouse without divorcing them, and
got married as a member of their new gender role. And they have no intention of
telling their wife that they are now a woman, and they have no intention of
telling their 'husband' that they are not legally female, nor that their marriage is neither legal (because
they are still married as a legal male), nor that they are legally male. They
contact PFC when they realise the facade of lies is about to collapse. Whilst
we do our best to support them through what is going to be a very difficult
time, we wish we could have stopped them creating this fantasy mess in the
first place.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have no doubt whatsoever that without the requirement for
spousal consent some trans people (probably only a very few) will apply for an
obtain a Gender Recognition certificate without telling their spouse that their
marriage is going to be changed to a same sex marriage. By not providing for
spousal consent the state would be creating the risk of a dreadful intrusion on
the civil liberties and Human rights of the spouse.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I go back to my original points - any spousal veto would be an
appalling intrusion on the civil liberties and hard won Human Rights of trans
people and we would do everything we could to prevent that occurring. However,
women have long been a socially and legally disadvantaged group, especially
within marriage. The very least we can do is support their right to know when
they are married and what sort of marriage they are in. If they find that change
to be unacceptable to them, then the very least the law should do is give them
the facility to insist the marriage is ended whether by divorce or by annulment.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am sorry if people feel they cannot support this position, but I
could not support a legal framework which allowed women potentially to have
their marriage status changed without their consent. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 really does NOT
provide a spousal veto. Rather it ensures spouses talk to each about whether
they are (ultimately) content for the marriage to change into a same sex marriage.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If they are not happy for that change, then they really do have
to look at the writing on the wall – the marriage is over, and they need to
think about formalising that position by recognising each other’s rights.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I would suggest anyone who is unsure what the legislation
actually says that they go to <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2013/30/schedule/5/enacted">http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2013/30/schedule/5/enacted</a>
and read Schedule 5 in full. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h3>
NOTES</h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
[<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span><!--[endif]-->]
PFC’s Mission statement, s4.04 states the PFC Campaign “<b>work towards
achieving the following rights and liberties for all trans people in the U.K”:</b> The right to marry in the individual’s
preferred gender role.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
[2] Rule 3 of Press for Change’s Code of Conduct (2001)
states: ‘We are always very careful to
act so that in improving the rights of one group, we don't damage those of
another’. Rule 8 states: ‘Press for Change RESPECTS all other people and we
never attack other minority groups’.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
[3] The Gender
Recognition Act 2004 s.3, ss.(6b)(a) as amended by The Marriage (Same Sex
Couples) Act 2013, schedule 5, s.3, ss (6b)(a)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
[4] The Gender Recognition Act 2004 s.3(a) as amended by the
Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013, sch.5<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<a href="https://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=9017615131206820221"></a>
<blockquote>
</blockquote>
Stephen Whittlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379289307731132721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9017615131206820221.post-82150985682603872532013-11-03T19:46:00.002+00:002014-03-30T03:03:20.882+01:00Sex, Love & Consent; Gender Recognition in the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013<br />
<h2>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: purple;">Sex, Love &; Consent; Gender Recognition in the Marriage (Same Sex
Couples) Act 2013</span></span></h2>
<h1>
<o:p></o:p></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
© Stephen Whittle <a href="mailto:stephen@pfc.org.uk">stephen@pfc.org.uk</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Prof, Stephen Whittle, OBE, BA, LLB, MA, PhD, LLD(hc)<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
Schedule 5 of the the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 requires trans people who wish to obtain legal recognition in their new gender whilst retaining a marriage, to consult with their spouse and obtain their signature on their gender recognition application.<br />
<br />
Some have interpreted this as a spousal right of veto over their human right to live as a member of their preferred gender.<br />
<br />
They are wrong. This is not a veto,. Rather it is a mechanism to protect non-trans spouses from those who do not wish to face reality.<br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #38761d;">
Promises, Promises: Marriage </span></h3>
<h2>
<o:p></o:p></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Prior to the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act coming into
force, whatever promises you might have chosen to make upon marrying; only two were
compulsory. Forget all the “honour and obey”, forget “until death do is part’,
we were only ever called upon to make two firm promises.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The first promise comes as the nervous couple stand before
the celebrant. They are told that “Marriage according to the law of this
country is the union of one man with one woman, voluntarily entered into for
life, to the exclusions of all others“. They and the audience are then asked
whether they know of any legal reason why these two people should not be joined
in marriage. The possibilities are that the marriage is not voluntary, it is
not exclusive, or that it is not going to be between a man and a woman. The
only time most of us have seen the audience respond is in Charlotte Bronte’s
novel ‘Jane Eyre’, where at the church someone leaps up at this point in the
service and we learn that Jane’s husband to be; Edward Rochester, is already
married to the mad Bertha Mason.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But in almost every other marriage we witness, by their
silence, the congregation and, importantly, the couple promising that none of
the above are impediments to the marriage.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The second promise, once that heart stopping moment has
passed is that the couple promise, in what are now the most anodyne of words,
“to be loving, faithful and loyal to” each other “in good times and in bad”
”for the rest of our lives together.”<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<h3>
<span style="color: #38761d;">
What did the Gender Recognition Act 2004 require?</span></h3>
<h2>
<o:p></o:p></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bearing in mind the requirement for marriage to be between a
man and a woman; before the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 (MSSC Act),
the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (GRA) requires that if one partner in a
Marriage or a Civil Partnership transitions (changes the gender role in which
they live), and wishes to obtain recognition of their preferred gender for all
legal purposes, the marriage or civil partnership must be ended.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: #990000; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="file:///F:/PUBLICATIONS%20-%20STW_FIN%20VERS/3.%20Blogs/Blogs%20Published/Gender%20Recognition%20in%20the%20Marriage%20(Same%20Sex%20Couples)%20Act%2019.11.13%20.docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><b>[1]</b></a></span></span><a href="file:///F:/PUBLICATIONS%20-%20STW_FIN%20VERS/3.%20Blogs/Blogs%20Published/Gender%20Recognition%20in%20the%20Marriage%20(Same%20Sex%20Couples)%20Act%2019.11.13%20.docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><!--[endif]--></a></span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
However, if they wish to remain ‘contracted partners’ –
which many do, whether for love or survivor pension benefits – the trans person
is required to obtain an Interim Gender Recognition certificate, which they or
their spouse can then use to have the marriage annulled. The couple can then
lawfully contract a civil partnership (or a marriage, if gay or lesbian
partners). This system was put in place in order to ensure that nobody was
party to any ‘accidental same sex marriage’, and at the same time, protects the
hard earned survivor pension benefits of each of the spouses.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Such a couple can have their marriage annulled within the
high court, and with a little pre-planning can cross the road to the
Registrar’s office and contract a civil partnership (or vice versa) the same
day.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It was always rather ridiculous. Couples, particularly if their
marriage includes a religious significance for them, are not going to get their
marriages (or civil partnerships)
annulled if they are still happy together, especially after their religion has
helped them stay together through probably one of the most difficult things
that could happen to partners; one of them changing their gender. A few couples
did use this route to civil partnership (or marriage), primarily to guarantee
the human rights regarding privacy that they are entitled to, but none that I have
known were happy about having to end the marriage, albeit they did then become
civil partners.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And it was not just trans women who were married to cis-women,
who were going through this very British farce, but also trans men who were
married to cis-men.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I refer to it as a farce because the process of annulment
and re-partnering was indeed<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
"a comic dramatic work ...an
event or situation that is absurd or disorganized ... typically including crude
characterization and ludicrously improbable situations".<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Disorganised, in that High Courts outside London frequently
had no idea of the rules of the court under which this process could happen;
the courts had to be told which particular rules they could perform their
functions. But clearly, entirely based upon crude characterisations of what it
means to be men or women.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In reality though, apparent same sex marriages, generally of
older grey haired ladies were already being witnessed by the public long before
the GRA or the MSSC Act came into force.
And the sky had not fallen in.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To their neighbours, these spouses, whether married or civil
partnered, were proof that not only was gender reassignment successful but that
same sex marriages already existed, that the children of those families were
all perfectly fine citizens, and surprisingly maybe to many on the conservative
right, they were evidence that successful same sex marriages could flourish in
small rural hamlets as well as large urban centres. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For all other areas of law, apart from marriage, European
Union jurisprudence already means that when it comes to employment and equality
law, and other related matters such as state pensions (conceded by government
in 2011, only after a 6 year battle) trans women and men were for all legal
purposes already members of their new gender. The GRA was simply a way of
providing the icing on the cake - finally recognition of the right to privacy
and the right to form legally valid families, whether married or via civil
partnership.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<h3>
<span style="color: #38761d;">
What about the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act?</span></h3>
<h2>
<o:p></o:p></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As the MSSCA made its way through parliament, an opportunity
came to change what was clearly legally abhorrent; the only time law had ever
been used in the western world (and probably also in the east) to insist that a
long and happy marriage must be ended before one party could gain their human
rights, rights that had been recognised by the European Court of Human Rights
as long ago as 2002. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Schedule 5 of the MSSC Act is intended to finally get rid of
that legal anathema, and to allow trans people to obtain their Gender
Recognition certificate – and importantly their human rights - whilst retaining
their marriage (or civil partnership) to the person they love. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Moreover, the MSSC Act provides a ‘fast track’ for those
trans people who had put their request for gender recognition on the back
burner because, whether for religious, personal, or emotional reasons, they did
not want to annul their marriage and contract a civil partnership. Finally, the
MSSC Act addresses the problem of those people who have had their marriage
annulled and who have consequently contracted a civil partnership. They can now
apply for their civil partnership to be converted into a traditional marriage.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yet, on the back of this good news, some Trans people who
could benefit, and their wives or husbands, have raised some concerns. Schedule 5 requires the spouse of the trans
person to “consent to the marriage continuing after the issue of a full gender
recognition certificate”. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They now ask whether it can possibly be fair for them to be
required to ask their spouse to give consent, effectively give permission,
before they can apply for a Gender Recognition certificate. Isn’t this a veto
given to their spouse, who could now prevent them from getting a Gender
Recognition certificate?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
However, I believe that they have misunderstood the purpose
of MSSC Act.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<h3>
<span style="color: #38761d;">
Agreeing the New Marriage Promises</span></h3>
<h2>
<o:p></o:p></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No one has to ask anyone’s <u><b>permission</b></u> before applying
for a Gender Recognition certificate. All people who meet the requirements for
the GRA can apply. In the past they had to get divorced or annul their
marriage. Now, from the time when Schedule 5 of the MSSCA comes into force, the
GRA will longer demand a married trans person end their marriage before
obtaining gender recognition. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Despite what the government has maintained throughout the
passage of the MSSCA, the nature of marriage has changed. With the Gender
Recognition Act 2004, marriage promises had already gone through a subtle
change in that individuals could now promise they were marrying a person of the
opposite gender and (if they wished) further promise they would be loving,
faithful and loyal regardless of the person’s biological sex, or their genitals
now or in the future.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The new marriage contract, after Schedule 5 of the MSSC Act,
comes into force, means individuals will be able to promise they are marrying a
person of either sex and (if they wish) and further promise they will be
loving, faithful and loyal regardless of the person’s gender identity or their
genital structure now or in the future. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Clearly this is a significant difference. Those couples who
married before the GRA came into force, made a promise to the state that they
were marrying someone of the opposite biological sex with different genitals
and that is all that they could promise to do. Once their partner transitions
and seeks to become - for all legal purposes - (as the GRA puts it) a member of
“the opposite gender(sex)”, the fundamental nature of the marriage promises
they made is challenged, at the very least logically, but also potentially
legally, as the promised opposite biological sex marriage becomes a same gender
marriage.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As a legal academic, I specialise in imagining the worst
(pre-disaster’ing). Let us imagine a pre-MSSCA married man and woman have
parted, but not ended their marriage. After Schedule 5 of the MSSCA comes into
force, one spouse then transitions. Without the new requirement for consent of
their spouse, the trans spouse could apply successfully for a Gender
Recognition certificate, without any reference to the person they are married
to - their spouse. The non-trans spouse
will then discover they have broken the promise they originally made and are
now married to a person of the same “gender (sex)”.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The requirement for consent in Sch.5 is not that the spouse
consents to their partner’s gender recognition, but is rather a requirement
that the spouse acknowledge the change in the nature of their marriage
promises. By their consent the spouse is updating those promises.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If they do not
consent, then presumably they are not happy with that change, and it would mean
then that the couple then have to seek divorce or annulment. Of course they
won’t then be married, but not because one spouse vetoes the other from
obtaining gender recognition, but because they will not agree to a new set of
marriage vows.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<h3>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #38761d;">
Surely this is Overkill?</span></span></h3>
<h2>
<o:p></o:p></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sch.5 of the MSSCA pushes couples towards facing the
realities of their relationship.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If a spouse (or civil partner) is not willing to sign the
form saying they recognise the change of status in their marriage (or
partnership) it does not prevent the other spouse obtaining legal gender
recognition - it simply lays the cards on the table, it is the writing on the
wall: "this marriage or partnership is now over". <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is the very least that the legislation can do to protect
spouses who have been not been consulted (or have even been deserted) about the
proposed change in legal status of their spouse (or civil partner). <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In PFC we see what might be referred to as the 'blunt' end
of the trans community. I meet trans women (mostly) who have left their
original spouse without divorcing them, and got married as a member of their
new gender role. And they have no intention of telling their wife that they are
now a woman, and they have no intention of telling their 'husband' that they
are not legally female, and the marriage is neither legal because they are
still married, and they are legally male. They contact PFC when they realise
the facade of lies is about to collapse. Whilst we do our best to support them
through what is going to be a very difficult time, we wish we could have
stopped them creating this fantasy mess in the first place. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Both of my grandmothers were deserted by their husbands
during WWII. My maternal grandmother was to find out that her husband had
remarried, twice, without divorcing her. When he was prosecuted, she was so
ashamed that she developed a lifelong mental health problem that ultimately
resulted in her refusing food and starving to death. Three families, all involving
children were wrecked because he refused to live in the real world rather than
the fantasy one of his own making.
Imagine if my maternal grandmother had found that not only had he
created two other families, but that her husband was now a 'she'.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The provisions in the Act are a contribution towards
ensuring both parties to a marriage (or civil partnership) are content to live
with the consequences of the not inconsiderable change that will befall their
relationship when one spouse transitions. They are not a 'right of veto'.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="border-top: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 1.0pt 0cm 0cm 0cm;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;">
STW 19/08/2013<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div>
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<br />
<div id="ftn1">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///F:/PUBLICATIONS%20-%20STW_FIN%20VERS/3.%20Blogs/Blogs%20Published/Gender%20Recognition%20in%20the%20Marriage%20(Same%20Sex%20Couples)%20Act%2019.11.13%20.docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: #990000; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>[1]</b></span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Henceforth whenever marriage is referred to it also refers to a civil
partnership, and when a civil partnership is referred to it also refers to a
marriage. This is because gender identity has no relationship to sexual
orientation, and trans people can have heterosexual , homosexual or bisexual
orientations.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
<a href="http://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=9017615131206820221"></a>
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Stephen Whittlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379289307731132721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9017615131206820221.post-38836004726387855462013-10-13T12:50:00.002+01:002013-11-04T03:58:41.871+00:00Independent on Sunday Pink List 2013<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">UPDATE: </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">My apologies to those I missed - and hopefully I have you all now (and thanks to Christine</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"> Burns for taking the time and pointing out my errors)</span></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Highest showing ever for Trans folk as 16 Trans folk have
made 2013 The Independent’s Pink List, 3 made the National Treasures List and and another /
One’s to Watch /<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<h3>
<span style="color: purple; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">National Treasures:</span></h3>
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">April Ashley, MBE – former cabin boy, dancer, model and ‘she
who lost the famous case which lost our rights’, but she never hid. Now can be
seen in April Ashley portrait of a Lady, Museum of Liverpool for the coming
year</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lauren Harries - media personality, former child 'antiques genius'</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 14.399999618530273px; outline: none;">Paul O’Grady MBE -</span><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"> Actor, presenter; became famous as 'Lily Savage</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">'</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Stephen Whittle, OBE, PhD, MA, LLB, BA Professor of Equalities Law, PFC
Vice-President, and the one who contributed to winning our rights</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Boy George - Transgender Musician</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Alice Purnell, OBE, BsC, RGN – founder of the Beaumont
Society, Beaumont Trust and now of GENDYS</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="background-color: magenta; color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Pink List</span></h3>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 14.2pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -14.2pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>1.</b> Paris Lees – Journalist and social trans
activist – and a great No.1 for the list<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>8.</b> Jackie Green –
Miss England entrant and trans activist<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>13 </b>(joint). Helen Belcher & Jennie Kermode of
Transmediawatch<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>23.</b> Luke Anderson –
chef and winner of Channel 5's Big Brother 13<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>27. </b>Sarah Brown – out trans Cambridge Councillor representing
the Liberal Democrats for the Petersfield Ward, and now on LibDems national
executive<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>40. </b>Jane Fae – journalist, fiction and faction author and
trans activist<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>41.</b> CN Lester - </span><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Co-founder of Queer Youth Network,</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>43.</b> Tara Hewitt –deaf advocate, Wirral Conservative Future
and deputy chair of Conservative Future North West<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>60.</b> <span style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px; outline: none;">Juliet Jacques - ex-footballer, journalist</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>61. </b>Roz Kaveney – poet, journalist (New Statesman), author, founding
member of Feminists Against Censorship, former deputy chair of Liberty, trans activist<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>69.</b> Natacha Kennedy -
former primary school teacher, Education Lecturer at Goldsmiths College, and
Trans and intersex activist<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>77.</b> <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.049999237060547px;">Lynette Nusbacher</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.049999237060547px;">- </span>military historian, <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 24.637500762939453px;">director of Nusbacher Associates, and</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 24.637500762939453px;"> Senior Lecturer in War Studies, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 24.625px;"><b>79. </b>(joint)</span><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 14.399999618530273px; outline: none;">Lewis Hancox & Raphael Fox - participants on 'My Transsexual Summer', now produce films as </span><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">My Genderation Films</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>96. </b>Jay Stewart – PhD student, film-maker, and co-leader of
Gendered Intelligence<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<h3>
<span style="color: magenta; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ones to watch </span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Nicole Gibson – trans model</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sophie Green - </span><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 14.399999618530273px; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Artist and illustrator</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jo Clifford - Edinburgh-based writer, playwright, father,
and trans woman</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<a href="http://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=9017615131206820221"></a>
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Stephen Whittlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379289307731132721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9017615131206820221.post-25754571250408523882013-10-05T17:12:00.000+01:002013-10-13T12:50:44.920+01:00Trans Heritage Exhibition at the National Museum of Liverpool<h3>
<span style="background-color: #073763; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">TRANSGENDER HERITAGE</span></span></h3>
<h2>
<span style="font-size: 20.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">April Ashley: Portrait of a Lady</span></span></h2>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Museum of Liverpool, 27 September 2013 to 21 September
2014</span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A new exhibition at the Museum of Liverpool demonstrates,
through the story of one life, how much our society has really changed in the
last 60 years. In 1950, when 15 year old George Jamieson ran away from the
poverty of a Liverpool Council House estate to sea, the city, like the rest of
the UK, was place in which boys grew up
to be real men, and girls grew up to be housewives. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYzCWX6Rz5X8Y7BJsNMqGnBJf-zrn4v2dv60-u-ee368CDoM9tV9rb8Lo5jnGzydys4EG34vv25CnzY4ctl7Hr0zc2PWKCR51ADMzNoN40nURMgtpzMMn5vs-xNL490l0ev2BAGad6LNM/s1600/George+Jamieson+who+later+became+April+Ashley-887735.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYzCWX6Rz5X8Y7BJsNMqGnBJf-zrn4v2dv60-u-ee368CDoM9tV9rb8Lo5jnGzydys4EG34vv25CnzY4ctl7Hr0zc2PWKCR51ADMzNoN40nURMgtpzMMn5vs-xNL490l0ev2BAGad6LNM/s400/George+Jamieson+who+later+became+April+Ashley-887735.jpg" width="301" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">George, was born into the most abject poverty in Pitt street
in Liverpool, with an absent Navy father whom he idolised. The local bobby<b><span style="color: red;">*</span></b> warned
his abusive mother that if he saw George with any more injuries - she had
punched a hole the size of her fist in his back - she would find herself going to
prison. As a young boy in the war, George,
shouted helplessly to two friends from where he had climbed on the cricket pavilion
roof, and watched as the incendiary bomb they were playing with, blew off their
arms. He helped the same local bobby pick up the pieces, literally, before being
told not to say anything to his mother when he got home. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Despite being was an endlessly bullied sissy boy at school, George’s
formative life, and a market job with a family who recognised his difference,
gave George the courage and guts to escape. Ultimately signing up for the
Merchant Navy, he spent 2 years seeking the cure to become a real man. Finding
it did not work, another suicide attempt led to incarceration in Liverpool’s secure
Walton hospital where a second attempt at a cure; ECT, failed. So George ran
away along a road which would lead to becoming a dancer at the famous Parisian
club; La Carousel, and then on to a surgeon in Casablanca, by whom he would
become she; April Ashley, bon-vivant, raconteur, and high-society model for
famous fashion photographers including David Bailey and Terence Donovan, and
for Vogue wearing the clothes from the fashion houses of Chanel, Givenchy, and
Cardin.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1ZvNllIVdqHdhMuqsVE_kPy0PTZj_to3anRrtwOcMORDd9b3VSQFC3y8NEGDGJ3woNlrLLAspcdiOAOtsrOhxTqTrthDefe1ispe4YlM_RIK0PifbQMi6VaZuwW4p_Kdp0Nfgwjzvcg0/s1600/april+ashley_heritage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1ZvNllIVdqHdhMuqsVE_kPy0PTZj_to3anRrtwOcMORDd9b3VSQFC3y8NEGDGJ3woNlrLLAspcdiOAOtsrOhxTqTrthDefe1ispe4YlM_RIK0PifbQMi6VaZuwW4p_Kdp0Nfgwjzvcg0/s640/april+ashley_heritage.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Successful in every way, April’s future in the swinging
London of the 1960s looked set to be as far away from the poverty of Liverpool's Pitt Street as it
could possibly be. Except, that in 1971, after being ‘outed’ in the </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Sunday People</i> – a friend who must have
been desperate took a fiver in exchange for her story – April’s marriage to the
minor English Aristocrat, Arthur Corbett, was ended in the English Appeal Court.
Lord Justice Ormrod, a man who was qualified as both a doctor and a lawyer, and
so was doubly certain that he knew what he was talking about, held that a
person’s sex could be determined entirely through their chromosomes, gonads and
genitals. He ignored the major clinical and scientific experts of the day,
instead favouring the narrow view of his friend, the psychiatrist Dr. John Randell,
who was to build up his then very small patient group at Charing Cross Hospital
into what has now become the largest Gender Identity clinic in the country. Faced with Ashley, Ormrod ran
out of words, and being unable to describe the gorgeous woman in front of him
as a man, he managed simply to say that she was “not a woman for the purposes
of marriage.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At the time, nobody quite realised the consequences of this
decision, but a series of cases in the English courts held that confidence in
the law could only be achieved through consistency. Gradually over the next 20
years, transsexual people lost one right after another. They found that whilst
the NHS was far more prepared to accept their need for Gender reassignment
treatment, becoming the people they really were became more and more difficult,
as increasingly they were required to disclose their past just to be able to
function in daily life. Whether obtaining car insurance, passing medicals for
jobs, or claiming benefits, it seemed everyone had the right to know their
former gender, and once they knew then to indiscriminately cause them to be disadvantaged.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Whilst Ashley herself tried to make the best of what had
happened, in 1992, other transsexual people decided the only way out of this
mess was to use the law to fight the law, and on the advice of Lord Alex
Carlile, set up the pressure group Press For Change. Since then, Press For
Change has been incredibly successful at obtaining those legal rights,
especially through their use of the European Court of Justice and the Court of
Human Rights. The group has obtained protection from discrimination in the
workplace and when accessing services, a right to privacy about their medical
history and, most importantly, a right to recognition of their new gender for
all legal purposes, allowing them to marry or become civil partners, adopt
children, or simply to get on in peace and quiet with their otherwise pretty
ordinary lives. The reach of Press For Change has been wide, with their work
influencing similar legislation in South Africa, Spain, Argentina Japan, Sweden
and many other countries.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVo0kZRoUgUxXvSL_fmxOGbXPKxMgqKvNHdT7fQ7YLLyn9Y39skoRDA4SCLkGxcbEAG_SyMCKrICZoMmko6vf8EuR9aQkecCG6Lxmi7QqhN_fa3FK_yqHG_y2KK7oku-dw_bY_Yj9rZaE/s1600/April+2012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVo0kZRoUgUxXvSL_fmxOGbXPKxMgqKvNHdT7fQ7YLLyn9Y39skoRDA4SCLkGxcbEAG_SyMCKrICZoMmko6vf8EuR9aQkecCG6Lxmi7QqhN_fa3FK_yqHG_y2KK7oku-dw_bY_Yj9rZaE/s320/April+2012.jpg" width="279" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The exhibition at the Museum of Liverpool focuses on how one
boy, born into the poverty of depression hit Liverpool in 1935, fought the
system. How she became an extraordinary woman; part of the back drop to that
battle for rights, and how she has survived to become one of England’s Grande Dames.
It is right that Liverpool has honoured this woman in this way, like so many of
her fellow city’zens, she is another of Liverpool’s children who have carried
the Liverpudlian fight for social justice out into the wider world. She has become part of a movement for change
that has created a better life for those who experience their gender
differently. April Ashley’s life, albeit unintentionally at the time, helped
create a social and political movement [led by legal and transsexual activists
from that other great city of the North West, Manchester]. It is a movement
which has led to real change to the lives of millions of real people throughout
the world. She is another point of pride in the history of the city of
Liverpool.</span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">original version first published at </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/april-ashley-trans-hero-who-changed-world260913">http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/april-ashley-trans-hero-who-changed-world260913</a></span></div>
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Stephen Whittlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379289307731132721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9017615131206820221.post-12128038164514549092013-06-30T15:13:00.000+01:002013-07-12T21:55:34.094+01:00Chicken Little Tory MP's, Anglican Bishops & Gay Marriages in Church? <h2>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQj6popQF0hTDlQCJ7pBfHxBlh6ir9Op7aSGmQ2DI6MWD1fWT4YZ7tMUN-GD2WSxC0NC2ItWXJTs4rwBm3XD5vlD8FtfVeTUe-jEn0-YN3JA6XCNjtqp8axJsP1nzaouKz6-aaoFZ3tyQ/s283/Chicken-Little_Sky-is-Falling.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /><img border="0" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQj6popQF0hTDlQCJ7pBfHxBlh6ir9Op7aSGmQ2DI6MWD1fWT4YZ7tMUN-GD2WSxC0NC2ItWXJTs4rwBm3XD5vlD8FtfVeTUe-jEn0-YN3JA6XCNjtqp8axJsP1nzaouKz6-aaoFZ3tyQ/s320/Chicken-Little_Sky-is-Falling.jpg" width="320" /></a></h2>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>This is a message to all Conservative Members of parliament, and all Anglican Bishops and others in the House of Lords, who are opposed to same sex marriage, and/or churches being able to perform the marriages of same sex couples.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); line-height: 15.199999809265137px;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 15.199999809265137px;">A simple answer already exists and has been in use in the UK for 8 years now. There is a 'conscience clause' that was included in the Gender Recognition Act 2004, which allowed religious organisations the choice as to whether they were willing to perform the marriage of a transsexual person (who had obtained legal recognition in their new gender role) and their partner. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 15.199999809265137px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 15.199999809265137px;">As it happens, in 2005 when the </span>Gender Recognition Act 2004 came into force, lots and lots of trans people married their partners that summer. A very large number of those couples married in churches, in the full knowledge of the minister who married them, and often in the full knowledge of the congregation - as did my partner, Sarah and I. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
We had originally intended to have a registry office wedding. We had attended a small methodist church by then for about 12 years. We went with our children, primarily to inoculate them against ever becoming born again, but also to give them a religious education whereby when they later sang church music or read poems, or listened to Bach's Requiem, they would have some understanding of the nature of sacrifice. The plot worked wonderfully, they are good cynics but with a strong sense of what is right or wrong, and a better understanding of the human tragedy than most. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
We also found that hour on Sunday morning in which we had both a quiet space to think about our obligations to the world and the people in it, and then a loud space in which to sing our hearts out as a community, a really robust and worthwhile contribution to our otherwise very busy lives.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
The church council, at our request and after a meeting with Sarah in which she had explained what the Gender Recognition Act would mean, and why they should give it their backing, had written a letter to the Government to support the intention to bring in the Gender Recognition Act. We were grateful that they had taken what was a very difficult issue for some of them, and had taken the time to read and learn about how our human rights were contravened. When the Act came into force, the church minister came to visit and say that if we were planning to get married, as a church they would be extremely happy to host our wedding. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
We couldn't say no to this offer, knowing how many of the church had put in an awful lot of thought and effort to support the Act.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); line-height: 15.199999809265137px;">In June 2005, over 180 friends, family and church members enjoyed </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); line-height: 15.199999809265137px;">the most wonderful day, celebrating not just our wedding but the strength of a relationship of 2 people who had gone through hell and high-water to be together, who had raised 4 wonderful children, and who were still together 26 years later. (as we now are 34 years later).</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 15.199999809265137px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 15.199999809265137px;">Eight years later, looking back I think of hundreds of couples, where one is known to be trans, who have married in churches, which have very happily accommodated them. Equally many have married in a registry office. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 15.199999809265137px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 15.199999809265137px;">In the context and discussion around same sex marriages, and extremely important in the discussion must be the recognition, that as the Gender Recognition Act does not require trans people to have undergone genital reconstruction surgery, many of those marriages, whilst of 2 people with different genders, will have included 2 people who either both have a vagina or both have a penis. In other words, same sex (but different gender) marriages have been going on for 8 years now.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 15.199999809265137px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); line-height: 15.199999809265137px;">And the sky has not fallen down!!!</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); line-height: 15.199999809265137px;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); line-height: 15.199999809265137px;"><b>Examples of how the Gender Recognition Act 2004 </b>has led to same gender or same genital marriages legally taking place for the last 8 years.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); color: red; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 15.199999809265137px;">(all images are copyright 2013 Stephen Whittle, if you want to use them please contact me directly and ask permission)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45098); line-height: 15.199999809265137px;">__________________________________________</span></span><br />
<span style="color: red; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(all images are copyright 2013 Stephen Whittle, if you want to use them please contact me directly and ask permission)</span></span><br />
<span style="color: red; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: red; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><iframe bordercolor="#000000" frameborder="0" height="200" hspace="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adi/N7433.148119.BLOGGEREN/B6985815.7154;sz=200x200;ord=[timestamp]?;lid=41000613802337486;pid=PUL0-16689;usg=AFHzDLtYYVqTRZs8qci8LqojQFv3vifmXQ;adurl=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.discount-supplements.co.uk%252Fpulsin-soya-protein-isolate-250g;pubid=631709;imgsrc=http%3A%2F%2Fstatic.dsstatic.co.uk%2Fimages%2Fweb%2FPULSIN-SOYA-PROTEIN-ISOLATE-250G.JPG;width=169;height=200" vspace="0" width="200"></iframe><iframe bordercolor="#000000" frameborder="0" height="200" hspace="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adi/N7433.148119.BLOGGEREN/B6985815.7125;sz=200x200;ord=[timestamp]?;lid=41000613802337486;pid=MAX0-03239;usg=AFHzDLuyuAG86_3hNNaVmnTr-YCY9KauXQ;adurl=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.discount-supplements.co.uk%252Fhealth-supplements-fat-loss-efa-omega-fish-oils-maximuscle-cla-1000-90-x-1000mg-softgels;pubid=631709;imgsrc=http%3A%2F%2Fstatic.dsstatic.co.uk%2Fimages%2Fweb%2Fmaximuscle-cla1000-90softgels.jpg;width=169;height=200" vspace="0" width="200"></iframe><br /></span></span>Stephen Whittlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379289307731132721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9017615131206820221.post-66579661130224994372013-06-14T08:20:00.004+01:002013-07-12T19:30:59.394+01:00Time Passes ... and do, sadly, do Friends.<h2>
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<h2>
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> Time Passes ... and
so, sadly, do Friends . .</span></span></h2>
<h3>
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Saturday 20th April 2013: Lucy Meadows - her impact on the
town of Accrington<br />Tuesday 11th June 2013: JoAnn Roberts, Cross-dressing and
trans pioneer has died</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">-------------------------------</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-size: large;">Lucy Meadows: How a Trans Woman's Death brought Accrington into the 21st Century
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuq8UrF_dGWcPVSzQsf3DwWmKSprl54SlHVOg6Ajjaxak5hrc3wSeB-ShuW5JeSn6swkIA61HFAEbd083DX2XCbPN7ceCI4GToJr-5u8B350PyvQWVQziz3Z9L0qF-LglWGtBsXs6BByU/s1600/LucyMeadows.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuq8UrF_dGWcPVSzQsf3DwWmKSprl54SlHVOg6Ajjaxak5hrc3wSeB-ShuW5JeSn6swkIA61HFAEbd083DX2XCbPN7ceCI4GToJr-5u8B350PyvQWVQziz3Z9L0qF-LglWGtBsXs6BByU/s400/LucyMeadows.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; font-weight: bold; text-align: start;">Nathan Upton, before he </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; font-weight: bold; text-align: start;">transitioned to become Lucy</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">20/06/2013: When the trans, primary school teacher </span><a href="http://www.accringtonobserver.co.uk/news/local-news/teacher-due-begin-new-term-1767749" target="_blank">Lucy Meadows committed suicide</a><span style="font-weight: normal;"> earlier this year, after </span><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20121226073921/http:/www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2251347/Nathan-Uptons-wrong-body--hes-wrong-job.html" target="_blank">press harassment</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, just over a month later the folk
of the small town she lived in; the parents and children from the school she
worked in; and many neighbours and teaching and trade union colleagues, marched
through the town centre of Accrington.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">If you have read '</span><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Oranges-Are-Not-Only-Fruit/dp/0099935708/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1371190962&sr=1-1&keywords=oranges+are+not+the+only+fruit" style="font-size: medium;" target="_blank">Oranges are not the Only Fruit</a><span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">' by
Jeanette Winterson (and if you haven't, you should, even better watch the </span><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Oranges-Are-Not-Only-Fruit/dp/B0010TG1U8/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1371191472&sr=1-1&keywords=oranges+are+not+the+only+fruit" style="font-size: medium;" target="_blank">films</a><span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">) you will realise that
Accrington is the town in which Winterson's evil, evangelical mother raised
her, and tortured her, throughout the 1960s, because Jeanette was 'unnatural;
i.e. she fell in love with other girls, she
was a lesbian.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyY26kZoAavk20v9Mu4pmbZRU2vT1A1pGPopSYNKyQ8h-ZCoseFFvsEfX5G5oidTllbeAFb56IMFessudEcrAL5Ge2-UsbubzHNmZDyyrxvJ6rbWFSV7RF8qfl8WttbAToypB9tIk3Gbg/s1600/LucyMeadows+protester2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyY26kZoAavk20v9Mu4pmbZRU2vT1A1pGPopSYNKyQ8h-ZCoseFFvsEfX5G5oidTllbeAFb56IMFessudEcrAL5Ge2-UsbubzHNmZDyyrxvJ6rbWFSV7RF8qfl8WttbAToypB9tIk3Gbg/s1600/LucyMeadows+protester2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><img border="0" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyY26kZoAavk20v9Mu4pmbZRU2vT1A1pGPopSYNKyQ8h-ZCoseFFvsEfX5G5oidTllbeAFb56IMFessudEcrAL5Ge2-UsbubzHNmZDyyrxvJ6rbWFSV7RF8qfl8WttbAToypB9tIk3Gbg/s200/LucyMeadows+protester2.png" width="200" /></span></a><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">Accrington is not far from Manchester, the big cosmopolitan
University city, where I live, but it is in reality, a world away. It is a
place where until Lucy Meadows' death, most
people were still living in the past. If Dr Who. had landed his Tardis in Accrington, he would have said he had landed in </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">1973.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Whilst Lucy Meadows has become a
martyr in the Trans community's fight against transphobia, her death has
reached far beyond the trans community,
out to every right thinking person in that small northern town which, until
now, time had forgotten. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgQB71ilrw8B_Rf0etVAxlOpzvJK7hfJRAhpdoUY_Vc-W-0_8c4k1UOE0FAN65lIRjMvkA-GRIG4GAr8-0wwVnXBmIxcJGNX4KKi8-Jv9MuxXWyTDBty9oi1L5CX0cFE2TOVACue7-3uo/s1600/Meadows_Accrington-march-2948638.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgQB71ilrw8B_Rf0etVAxlOpzvJK7hfJRAhpdoUY_Vc-W-0_8c4k1UOE0FAN65lIRjMvkA-GRIG4GAr8-0wwVnXBmIxcJGNX4KKi8-Jv9MuxXWyTDBty9oi1L5CX0cFE2TOVACue7-3uo/s640/Meadows_Accrington-march-2948638.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">April 2013, Teachers and Pupils, neighbours and friends march
against the transphobia that led to the
death of trans woman, and primary school teacher, Lucy Meadows. <span style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><o:p><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">If you had told me 40 years ago, in the real 1973, when I was coming
out for the first time, that one day the folk of Accrington and their children would
march through their streets in the battle against transphobia, I would have
responded "never in my lifetime". (see </span><a href="http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/teachers-pupils-march-through-accrington-2948682" target="_blank">here</a><span style="font-weight: normal;"> for Manchester Evening News story</span>)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">How things have changed. And it is down to folk like </span>JoAnn Roberts<span style="font-weight: normal;"> (see below), who have made that change happen.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Graham Jones, Member of Parliament for Accrington <span style="font-weight: normal;"> has said that Lucy Meadows death could be a "</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>watershed moment</i>" for Britain's transgender community. I sincerely hope he is correct. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">In the meantime Lucy Meadows has, in some ways, become the United Kingdom's own </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Teena" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;" target="_blank">Brandon Teena</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">. </span></div>
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<a href="http://transgriot.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/trans-pioneer-joann-roberts-dies.html" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-large;" target="_blank">JoAnn Roberts, Cross Dressing Woman Extraordinaire, dies aged 65</a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">11/06/13<span style="font-weight: normal;">: JoAnn Roberts, Cross-dressing and trans pioneer
who co-founded the Renaissance Transgender Association has died </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">from cancer </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">at the age of
65. Joanne unusually for the trans political community was not a
transsexual woman. She was a man who enjoyed model railways, and cross
dressing. And she never pretended to be anything different. </span></h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisjDYHzKf4J1QpjCbulYlcg35ZAqpwOd72WAOg_pAXxhuxCY6yoLf6nCoS9SFqUJ-lMD0751CzUvSAB0fYz-R4izq9f0pCj1H_RnDYgqnTFKf2AT_kwGtv9LW4W7R1qySvLMZpNy-HEq4/s1600/Joann-Roberts.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><img alt="JoAnn Roberts" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisjDYHzKf4J1QpjCbulYlcg35ZAqpwOd72WAOg_pAXxhuxCY6yoLf6nCoS9SFqUJ-lMD0751CzUvSAB0fYz-R4izq9f0pCj1H_RnDYgqnTFKf2AT_kwGtv9LW4W7R1qySvLMZpNy-HEq4/s1600/Joann-Roberts.jpg" title="" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Whenever I went to the 'States' in the 1990s, whatever the
event was, JoAnn was there with a huge smile, pushing the services of CDS
Publishing - her cross dressers book publishing imprint and what was
effectively, a cross dressers support organisation. She always remembered names, and
other aspects of one's life, and I enjoyed her company, her laughter, and her wonderful enthusiasm, not
just for life - and she really did have great enthusiasm for life - but also the
'cause'. She was an amazing, true to life, big hearted, beautiful, pioneer
for the cross-dressing community.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">JoAnn wrote her first
book, </span><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Illusion-Crossdressing-Deluxe-Edition/dp/1880715171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371193020&sr=8-1&keywords=Art+and+Illusion%3A+A+Guide+to+Crossdressing" target="_blank">Art and Illusion: A Guide to Crossdressing</a><span style="font-weight: normal;"> in 1985, which
eventually became a 3 volume guide, and
a dozen more books were to follow, including support for those who lived
with cross dressers in </span><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Coping-With-Crossdressing-Joann-Roberts/dp/1880715120/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371193060&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=Coping+with+Cross+Dressing" target="_blank">Coping with Cross Dressing</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, (1991). At least a dozen
video's were produced, all intended to
help the ordinary cross dresser to feel that they could succeed in either
passing successfully enough to be able to go to the shopping mall, or to dress
and do their hair and makeup in a way they that made them feel good with their
personal presentation as a cross dresser. JoAnn's work was about Liberation,
not dictation. She did not tell anyone how they should dress, or speak, or be -
rather she told them about the options they had and the 'tricks of trade', so
to speak. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">In 1986 she organised her first Cross dressers weekend
event, and these have continued to this day - now called "Beauty and the
Beach" held at Rehoboth Beach in Delaware, 2013's weekend in November would
/ will be the 27th such event. There is no news on the event website - I am
assuming it will still go ahead, because clearly JoAnn had a community of
people who loved her, and I am sure they will not wish to have her memory and
what became her life's work ,vanish overnight.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">In 1994, CDS went online. Along with Cindy Martin and Jamie
Faye Fenton she created the still continuing Transgender Forum, a weekly e-zine
and an online resource guide. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">JoAnn was so much more than just a crossdresser - or as she
put it 'a bit of a drag queen' , she was a political animal as well. She was
Chair of the board of the American Educational Gender Information Service
(AEGIS) from 1992 to 1996. She was elected to the International Foundation for
Gender Education board twice last serving in 1994, and she was a co-founder of
the Congress of Transgender Organizations (CTO), the Transgender Alliance for
Community (TAC),GenderPAC, and lastly the National Transgender Advocacy
Coalition (NTAC). Joann was also one of the authors of the original Bill of
Gender Rights in 1990, which was later expanded into the International Bill of
Gender Rights. I remember being honoured to read out one of the Bill clauses
alongside her, as attendees did, one by one, at the ICTLEP conference in Houston,
Texas. Furthermore, JoAnn is credited as one of three people who coined the
term 'transgender community', the other two being the trans women, Justice
Phyllis Frye and Kymberleigh Richards.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">There will be a large hole now where JoAnn once fitted. She
will, be very greatly missed by those
who loved her. I am sure there is a real need now, for someone with high enough
heels to fill her place.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">I will miss knowing that JoAnn is out there, she was very
much a sister in arms. She believed in being truthful. She didn't pretend to
have some sort of intersex condition, or to have the brain of a woman trapped
inside a man's body. Joanne, was exactly what it said on the packet. And I
admired her tremendously for that. And
there I go, - using she, and her all the time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">The thing is that to me JoAnn was a woman, I only ever saw
the man a couple of times, and even then I could never recognise him or get my
head around the fact that this was one and the same person. JoAnn effectively,
very effectively, demonstrated that gender was much more important than sex
(the biological duality, that is, not the action stuff, done mostly in
bed). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">JoAnn was not female, she was a man who was a woman -
most of the time and all of the times I saw her, even when pretending to be a
man. JoAnn was clear, she wasn't a male lesbian, she wasn't an effeminate man,
she was a man who was a strong woman with a good but fair business head, a
caring heart, and a political will for the liberation from tyranny of all those
who are not white, middle class, reactionary men. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">So how else could I describe her, except as a woman. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I believe that </span>at times <span style="color: red;">all activists</span> <u><span style="color: blue;">need</span></u> <span style="color: red;">their own political space</span><span style="font-weight: normal;"> in which to commune and raise consciousnesses. And sometimes that means trans women's space, or trans men's space, or born bio-women's space, or Marxist space, or kids space etc. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></h2>
<h2>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
Radical feminists who chant "'womyn born womyn' only" in order <u>only</u> to exclude trans women from their events, seem to forget what it is to be a woman. </span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Being a woman means embodying an actual
physical space in which the light of day is too often blocked out. It is a space in which the fear
of experiencing, and often the actual experiencing, of patriarchal, macho,
masculinist institutional and structural instruments of hate, oppression and
violence are the norm.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Yet it is also a space which embodies, despite that, values of care which can and do thrive. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">JoAnn embodied all of that, so in her space she was a woman. Many
non-female as well as female people are women; fearfully but also politically, socially,
financially, and emotionally, if not biologically. Yes, JoAnn was
a man who experienced much of life as a woman - and it wasn't fake. The train
set was the exception - but we are all
allowed a small peccadillo. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Now rad fems may need some space of their own sometimes - but they should say truthfully what it is they want. Their shout should be </span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #274e13; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><i>"rad fems only: that is women/womeyn/intersex women/intersex womyn born with vaginas/ or without vaginas or with vaginal stumps/chromosomes irrelevant, and raised as girls, but nobody born with a penis or micro penis/ and nobody born with a vagina who identifies as a man or not as a woman" only space</i>"</span><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Because 'womyn born womyn' sounds that ridiculous.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">If women who have not had the experience of being transgender wish to meet without transgender people, it really is easy: State the meeting is for women without </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">the experience of being transgender. In other words, instead of being insulting, and belittling the experience of trans women, be truthful and recognise that the only people whose lives have less experience of oppression are your own. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-weight: normal;">[Remembering some of the discussions at the 1973/4 Women's lib conference (yes, I did attend) in Edinburgh, perhaps Rad Fems could also try adding no skirts, no tights, no bras, no sons, no boyfriends, no husbands.]</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">"Womyn born womyn" just doesn't cut the mustard, Third Wave of Feminism has moved the rest of us on - sometimes, it seems by light years.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">The death of Joann once more reminds me, though, that age is
creeping up on so many of us. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Whilst in my head I may think I am exactly the
same as I was when I was 25 - dashing, charming, handsome, slim, a really good
win for anyone who manages to snap me up - in reality, like many of my friends,
I now carry around a very rusty, clunky, ill fitting, cage with me wherever I
go. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">And then I remember - we must not forget to write the record of the amazing
events we have witnessed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">___________________________________</span></span></div>
</h2>
<h2>
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://transgriot.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/trans-pioneer-joann-roberts-dies.html" target="_blank">Trans Pioneer JoAnn Roberts Dies</a></span></h2>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">posted by Monica Roberts at 1:00 PM , Tuesday 11th June 2013</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">This was originally posted on the TRansGriot website here</span></span></h3>
<span style="font-weight: normal; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was shocked and saddened to read the TG Forum and Chrysalis posts from Angela Gardner and Dallas Denny announcing the June 7 death of one of the pioneers in the trans community in JoAnn Roberts at age 65 due to lung cancer.</span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">JoAnn Roberts was one of the five founders of the
Pennsylvania based Renaissance Transgender Education Assn., the ill-fated
GenderPac, and served on the boards of IFGE and AEGIS in which she was the
board chair from 1992-1996.</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj478ZSyOPmPuot7E9sV1J1S1vWXZyImBUCJ6XKrXc893-TiO8uoHrlGKBwwQ6fi0mLXFrcAM-cRFXUl_m8p8bTG5JmogW3XBodB3phhBk1KpOU0y2jw3_X3aKHQxEV5LVOHZW80-uN6A/s1600/joann_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj478ZSyOPmPuot7E9sV1J1S1vWXZyImBUCJ6XKrXc893-TiO8uoHrlGKBwwQ6fi0mLXFrcAM-cRFXUl_m8p8bTG5JmogW3XBodB3phhBk1KpOU0y2jw3_X3aKHQxEV5LVOHZW80-uN6A/s200/joann_1.jpg" width="151" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">She also was one of the persons who helped give us a major
boost in the founding and formation of NTAC in 1999.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">She was an early trans political activist and major leader
during the renaissance of trans activism in the early 90's. She authored the Bill of Gender Rights in
December 1990 that was subsequently expanded into the International Bill of
Gender Rights at the 1993 and subsequent ICTLEP conferences.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">JoAnn appeared on many television shows to discuss our
issues including the Donahue talk show and served as the founding
owner/publisher of TGForum. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">'Cousin JoAnn' as I affectionately referred to her as in
addition to publishing 'Art and Illusion-A Guide To Crossdressing' also
published a 'Who’s Who of the TG Community' and was the driving force for The
Second International Congress on Crossdressing, Sex and Gender hosted by
Renaissance in suburban Philadelphia in 1997.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr3R_qLRSzzkpbTAK0_uPep_t3g1pdvXCUSFrDUKi8neflcW1qFw7eDByQNE4SG_bmJA_CH-MS8fTmwmuhDzlyqzADIGQagZg1BqUSNji2fEW9hW8-BJHrLisOEB4TY8Emt0yUbbL_HR4/s1600/Joann-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr3R_qLRSzzkpbTAK0_uPep_t3g1pdvXCUSFrDUKi8neflcW1qFw7eDByQNE4SG_bmJA_CH-MS8fTmwmuhDzlyqzADIGQagZg1BqUSNji2fEW9hW8-BJHrLisOEB4TY8Emt0yUbbL_HR4/s1600/Joann-2.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">I met JoAnn during the 1999
Southern Comfort Conference. I have fond
memories of sitting outside the Buckhead area hotel that used to host SCC with
her, Polar, Pam Geddes and Dawn Wilson drinking a 21 year old bottle of scotch while discussing a wide range of subjects. </span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr3R_qLRSzzkpbTAK0_uPep_t3g1pdvXCUSFrDUKi8neflcW1qFw7eDByQNE4SG_bmJA_CH-MS8fTmwmuhDzlyqzADIGQagZg1BqUSNji2fEW9hW8-BJHrLisOEB4TY8Emt0yUbbL_HR4/s1600/Joann-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">Our conversation was interrupted when the chartered bus
arrived from an SCC convention excursion to an Atlanta club called the
Chamber. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">The persons on the bus began stumbling off of it in various
stages of inebriation and hilariously and unsteadily attempted to negotiate in
their 5 inch heels the distance from the spot where the bus was parked to the
hotel's front door.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">She had wound down her interaction with the trans community
in recent years to spend more time with her family and work on her beloved
model train set when she was diagnosed with cancer in February. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">She'd undergone chemotherapy treatment that appeared to
successfully halt the cancer spread in her lungs and liver. Radiation treatments were begun to deal with
a tumor on her spine but were halted last week when it was determined that the
tumor there had spread and she opted for hospice care where she passed away on
June 7th 2013.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">There is a Facebook page that has been set up to commemorate
her life and in which people who knew JoAnn can pay their respects. But I'm sad to report that one of the early
leaders in the American trans community and a trans community pioneer has moved
on.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">Rest in peace JoAnn, you will be missed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">__________________________________________________</span><br />
<iframe bordercolor="#000000" frameborder="0" height="320" hspace="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adi/N7433.148119.BLOGGEREN/B6768011.177;sz=320x320;ord=[timestamp]?;lid=41000613802337333;pid=dc0825d579bd794249b54060c6d13544_One%2BSize;usg=AFHzDLtq37obX37KG7RnlrzP5ygCP8VkDQ;adurl=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.figleaves.com%252Fuk%252Fproduct%252FTB-XS3M-XS23-BICYCL%252FTed-Baker-Bicycle-Stripe-Sock%252F%253Fsize%253D%2526colour%253DBlues;pubid=631709;imgsrc=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.figleaves.com%2Fproduct%2F179x229%2Fr706529-p725033-front.jpg;width=250;height=320" vspace="0" width="320"></iframe><br />
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Stephen Whittlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379289307731132721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9017615131206820221.post-34199532282404309822013-04-09T15:15:00.001+01:002013-07-12T19:31:28.716+01:00The Milk Snatcher's Britain<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At this time of our loss, let us mourn;<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #20124d;">The lost ideals of British socialism,</span><span style="color: #20124d;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">expelled by the dark shades of unfettered capitalism,</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">now watch its ghastly wraiths shackled with bloody monitors,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">screening the endless news footage of a collapsing society,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and the rise of the consumptive individual.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Remember,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">those torn from real work to be condemned to work in retail<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and those in retail on the now Low streets, condemned to workfare.</span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh23LfBwHSmxyHowrqDe9OcFS_jrj2qWr3FfcgKw7cwo_3CJGGR49hPKp__LxIpKEx_dXVzIG995ljvmhcAl-Mvd3WdSTCov3tqwis9yqqn6VuJgG7Hc-sKR7US0FhlVLXJKIH4ejGS88/s1600/Thatcher-Day.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh23LfBwHSmxyHowrqDe9OcFS_jrj2qWr3FfcgKw7cwo_3CJGGR49hPKp__LxIpKEx_dXVzIG995ljvmhcAl-Mvd3WdSTCov3tqwis9yqqn6VuJgG7Hc-sKR7US0FhlVLXJKIH4ejGS88/s320/Thatcher-Day.png" width="320" /></a><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At this time of loss, let us mourn;</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The clinker grey faces of our miners slaughtered on the
run<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">by truncheons down the streets of England’s satanic coal towns.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The grey ghosts of demolished and lost steel communities,
and <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the emptiness of docks where no more fisher men set to
sea with their craft. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The once mighty trade unions, and the right to a fair
wage for a fair days work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Remember,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the bent backs of the men and women, now cast as steps on
which <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the voracious ascend to purchase fat filled shares in our
squandered national pride. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsXL6bVVFCv4ZbkQO29o8Nh1WUteFnuleWy18hMP4pBhs8_BsMP1qD1Y2cZ9qtbzL4i9ZJH1jzd7u0slE_9Jm6TmsnzjGfeunwm8oFGnL6KLXEhNEwJjUYtjI7dpX4t36xxB6jpiDrYQE/s1600/THATCHER-IRON-LADY.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsXL6bVVFCv4ZbkQO29o8Nh1WUteFnuleWy18hMP4pBhs8_BsMP1qD1Y2cZ9qtbzL4i9ZJH1jzd7u0slE_9Jm6TmsnzjGfeunwm8oFGnL6KLXEhNEwJjUYtjI7dpX4t36xxB6jpiDrYQE/s320/THATCHER-IRON-LADY.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Photo:Huffington Post</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At this time of loss, let us mourn;</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The destroyed palaces of manufacturing topped by crystallised
markets,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Computerised temples in which traders profits from the bullion
of our pensions, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once rich, now nothing more than broken nest eggs of
dreams;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A time when money was earned, not remunerated in gratuities
and bonuses,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and a pseudo-existence of equities, bonds and subprime
mythologies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Remember,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the once lauded system of social housing now sold off,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the homeless for whom we now have no homes. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhfHlsgKuqEO6xZcgVk6clhb7ekVXHLSrEii5MvFRolE718e25WwRD4PCX3wHRugKchCPIlpt94pwQRtAKRltK2FGEQUuwE56GSf_BKYi6qsjqo57mJ8XWJ5sRNLWpEwHbja91zeZQPBc/s1600/Thatcher+perm-007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhfHlsgKuqEO6xZcgVk6clhb7ekVXHLSrEii5MvFRolE718e25WwRD4PCX3wHRugKchCPIlpt94pwQRtAKRltK2FGEQUuwE56GSf_BKYi6qsjqo57mJ8XWJ5sRNLWpEwHbja91zeZQPBc/s320/Thatcher+perm-007.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Photo by:<br /><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 12.800000190734863px; text-align: start;">Graham Whitby-Boot/Allstar/Sportsphoto</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At this time of our loss, let us mourn;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The loss of our dreams; our social welfare and socialised
healthcare<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">denationalised to make profits for shareholders not stakeholders.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our taxes, which now fund profits rather than the public
good.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The principle in which work paid, instead of work keeping
workers <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">dependant on foodbanks, and welfare for a living wage.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Remember,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">those whose children died for a folk story, some entombed
deep <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">in the sea, for a land no one needs on a windswept rock
to nowhere</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNc_e8nsDelKh0uyvaEFX86U-C6WFrCjkIVmtGdpb_-fmSV6QgWeg9A4qbp0qGXCW9fmX7rkR-UQYyrvMf_sPFKBq3ImdLEb5Xe-KQz7IIfAdmUH_rdVGGdhROs5f0tG03tD5ItNYMqYo/s1600/Thatcher+Handbag-7_2080430a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNc_e8nsDelKh0uyvaEFX86U-C6WFrCjkIVmtGdpb_-fmSV6QgWeg9A4qbp0qGXCW9fmX7rkR-UQYyrvMf_sPFKBq3ImdLEb5Xe-KQz7IIfAdmUH_rdVGGdhROs5f0tG03tD5ItNYMqYo/s320/Thatcher+Handbag-7_2080430a.jpg" width="219" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Photo by: Srdja-Djukanovic</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At this time of our loss, let us mourn.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Weep loudly, shriek and beat your breast so the
thunder of those screams <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">pierce the heartlands which were once our home, once our aspirations,
once our England, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">instead it lies with festered wounds, mouldering and gored
on Orgreave’s field, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">stomped on in impiety by those wicked boys from Eton’s
fields.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yet, for the sake of history’s accuracy,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">remember,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">this, our ancestor’s toiled soil, was merely beaten to
death <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">with an exocet, an iron, a perm, and a handbag.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=9017615131206820221"></a>
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Stephen Whittlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379289307731132721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9017615131206820221.post-65551569270492019832013-04-07T21:50:00.000+01:002013-07-12T19:31:51.624+01:00A Good Night's Sleep<br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Sleeping consumes a third of our life, and as I insist on
living my life to the full, I also recognise and want to sleep my sleep to the
full. I decided to write this blog post as part of the Silentnight Spring
Bedroom Makeover Challenge’, as they promise up to £2k for a bedroom makeover –
and much as though I love my bedroom, I do realise it is beginning to look a
little bit worn. So, the prospect of some redecoration money has inspired me to
write about what it is like to </span><i style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">really</i><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">
know what a good night’s sleep is and how to have one.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Born in 1955, I was the runt of the litter. My body had
arrived in a rather deformed state. I was a victim of Rickets, a rather common
disease before the 1960s particularly when rationing had led to nutritional shortages
for many mothers, who had fed their children rather than themselves. My rickets
was not from malnutrition though, either of my mother or myself, but rather because
my body simply did not absorb Vitamin D. My bones were soft and misshapen from the
moment I appeared. A doctor’s report from the time said “your child is like a
wrinkled old man” and gave me less than 6 weeks of life. Clearly I paid no
attention, as I am now approaching my 60s and becoming that wrinkled old man in
reality.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The consequence of having rickets was that the first four
years of my life were spent mostly in hospital. I remember very little of that
experience; the pink of the hospital walls, the coarseness of a hospital cotton
blanket, the sweaty feel of a plastic mattress. However, not all memories of
this time are bad. I remember suddenly seeing the words and what they meant in
the Ladybird book ‘Down on the farm’ – much to the surprise of everyone as
apparently I was not even three. I also remember large spoons full of Cod liver
oil, and the red glow from a revolving UV light, like that in a lighthouse, at
the centre of a large room in which myself and lots of other toddlers sat in a
circle. We wore just our pants and thick red goggles on our eyes, as the
forerunner of what was to become a sunbed forced our metabolisms into
recognising Vitamin D.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Eventually I was to return home, and I moved into the bottom
bunk of the cramped council house bedroom in which the five children slept. I
started school, and did well despite my peculiar speech – lack of being spoken
to whilst in hospital meant I did not know that consonants existed, which along
with my bowed legs and humped back were to clearly label me as
different. The bullies did their best to make my life a misery, but I barely
noticed them, certainly not in comparison to the two things that really bugged
me. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The first involved having to get to school before everyone
else so as to do endless repetitive and painful exercises in the gym before
classes started. They were to continue until I was sixteen. The second was my
bed. My two sisters and two brothers each had a mattress and two pillows on their
beds, whereas I just had a thin piece of foam on a board. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I hated that board. I hated it because I knew that every
night I would wake up from the pains it imbued in my hips, ribs, knees, elbows,
and even my ears. Everyone else would be fast asleep, but when I woke in the
dark my mind would go into overtime. On still nights, I would hear the sound of
the trains, as if they were ghost trains going along invisible tracks down the
centre of the street. I would look out of the corner of the curtains, terrified
at what I might see, but they were never actually there. On other nights, the
screeches from the owls would become the dreadful howling of horrifying ghouls,
which I expected to appear before me at any moment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The final straw came one wet Sunday afternoon when we
watched the 1948 film, ‘Abbot and Costello meet Frankenstein’. </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQP1APBR7MS6W1wr_Q2-_j8hu8pAwmOKel2KsNlGuQK1rgMDqQadA_8lE9cQECRqk12qboT9MupKYJsTk4-cPYJHXf1Htzylwnm5YX8SgSnwje-2NN_7HLJFMUkPeqW0eAUzMWQ84745E/s1600/A&c+meet+frank.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQP1APBR7MS6W1wr_Q2-_j8hu8pAwmOKel2KsNlGuQK1rgMDqQadA_8lE9cQECRqk12qboT9MupKYJsTk4-cPYJHXf1Htzylwnm5YX8SgSnwje-2NN_7HLJFMUkPeqW0eAUzMWQ84745E/s320/A&c+meet+frank.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That was it. Every night I would wake in pain, and also in
petrified terror. I would make plans of how I would hide under the beds so that
the monster could not see me. Sometimes I would manage to break out of the
paralysing dread and sneak into the bed of one of my brothers or sisters. Of
course they would wake up, furious with me for daring to disturb them, and the
next morning I would get a good whipping from dad with the plastic badminton
bat which he used to thrash us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">These night terrors went for years. Then, on my fourteenth
birthday, I was blindfolded and taken upstairs to see my ‘big’ present. I was
to open my eyes, and there on my bed was a mattress and a pillow. I never used
the pillow. In fact, I wasn’t to use a pillow until 30 years later, when after
major surgery I was required to sit up in bed to sleep. Post-surgery, I spent
the first few nights very painfully pulling at and throwing the pillows onto
the floor. The night sister would then arrive to give me my injections, and
immediately she would lift me up and put the pillows behind my back once more.
Eventually I gave up and learnt to love a decent pillow or two. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The mattress though, was wonderful, I could not have had a
better birthday present. It was cloth covered foam, only four inches deep but
it was like going to heaven. I could sleep all night, and the ghouls and ghosts
gradually left me, and my nights of sleep became truly treasured. Even now,
though, when working away and in a hotel, or when my wife is away, I still
sleep with a light on, but I do at least sleep. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">My wife, Sarah, refers to me as the 'Prince(ss) and the
pea'. I was always fussy about our bed, but now she believes I have gone truly too
far. Ironically, the Vitamin D shortage I suffered as a baby has contributed to
the poor health and multiple sclerosis. Once more I suffer from bad pains in my
body, and so my determination to have a good night’s sleep is one of the key
aims of my waking life. It also means I am incredibly fussy about the quality
of sleep our children get. People have often taken the time to tell us how
wonderful and nice our kids are. I respond, and truly believe, that much of
their confidence, their kindness and tolerance of others, is down to the fact
that unlike most children they do not spend their days permanently tired. We
taught them to sleep well as soon as they were six months old, and I have
tracked down good beds and bedding for each of them from the day of their
birth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We now have a bedroom designed (by me) to make sleep an
absolute certainty. Key ingredients include it being small, so it has to be kept
neat and tidy. It is also kept cool, so there is every reason for cuddling
under the duvet. The wallpaper is black. Our decorator could hardly believe his
eyes when he saw it, and he made it quite clear that he thought I was mad. That
was until he had decorated half the room, and then announced that it was so
good, he was going to recommend it to other customers. There are blackout
curtains, and dark Blackwood wardrobes. After looking through hundreds of
colour cards of white paint, the ceiling is the brightest white paint we could
get. It reflects the daylight and sun which settles into the room in the early
afternoon. It also perfectly reflects the time from our projection clock,
meaning we don’t have to move to see the time if we wake up. When night comes,
it is like a cosy cave, safe and certainly away from monsters.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4llOaGNhA8QUXPUtxALV3Z6IYXAbs12FtzjjLDvZJTwCIDD0tKGz5lacHEBH3lIKVTMgYA2Q1uqmRgtNiQygKeoEzSrWE4sJh6B_qt1zXO8uHdkZgcyuVPyfULcAil2k_NNxH4rcx0RE/s1600/the+bedroom.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4llOaGNhA8QUXPUtxALV3Z6IYXAbs12FtzjjLDvZJTwCIDD0tKGz5lacHEBH3lIKVTMgYA2Q1uqmRgtNiQygKeoEzSrWE4sJh6B_qt1zXO8uHdkZgcyuVPyfULcAil2k_NNxH4rcx0RE/s200/the+bedroom.png" width="135" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> The Bedroom </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Following a hard day's work there is nothing to equal the sinking
of one’s body into the perfection that comes with the soft cloud of support created
by a four inch down topper upon a best quality 1000 pocket sprung medium firm mattress.
Accompanied by two Siberian goose down pillows, a pure down quilt, and 400
Thread Count Egyptian Cotton bedding, it is a haven of sleep akin to a heaven. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I do now have good nights, thankfully without the terrors
from my childhood and without much of the pain that otherwise my rotten body
suffers in the daytime hours. However, I suspect it is probably only those who
have not been able to sleep who can really appreciate what it means to have a
good night.</span><o:p></o:p><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<strong style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;">‘This blog post is part of the <a href="http://www.silentnight.co.uk/spring-bedroom-makeover/" style="color: #5db1e6; text-decoration: none;" title="Silentnight Spring Bedroom Makeover Challenge">Silentnight Spring Bedroom Makeover Challenge</a>’</strong><br />
<strong style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px;"><br /></strong></div>
<a href="http://www.silentnight.co.uk/spring-bedroom-makeover/">
<img alt="Silentnight Spring Bedroom Makeover Challenge" src="http://www.silentnight.co.uk/images/SpringMakeover-1.jpg" /></a>Stephen Whittlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10379289307731132721noreply@blogger.com