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Transgender Equality report published January 14th 2016

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  • Hi,

    The House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee published its report on Transgender Equality at the end of last week.

    You can find the report here:

    http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201516/cmselect/cmwomeq/390/390.pdf

    It's a lengthy read, at 98 pages, but overall I found it very encouraging, with its recognition that the current NHS processes and policies are failing transgender patients, its recommendation that the Equalities Act 2010 be amended to add gender variance to the protected characteristic of gender reassignment, and the call for the UK to follow Australia's example and offer a third 'X' gender option on passports.

    The report also recognises the need to de-pathologise gender variance and replace a great deal of medical and psychological assessment with self-identification, and calls for hate crimes against trans people to be dealt with in line with hate crimes against other protected groups.

    There's a curious reticence to address some issues relating to intersex people, and of course it's still to be seen how the Government responds to the report, but I found it a positive and promising summation of how things are, and how they need to change.

    Hugs,

    Judith
      January 18, 2016 5:44 PM GMT
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  • Hiya Judith thankyou for your post.

    There are allready rules of law requiring police authorities  to deal with transphobic hate crime and record it as such, hate crime is so hard to prove, unless assault is involved, graffiti is another example, generally verbal insults are dealt with under the                        harrassment act, where a person is hauled before the magistrates court and given a behaviour order, on a second such offence, they woult be arrested on a contempt of court first charge and then subsequent offences listed seperately as hate crimes..    There are other more pressing issues, that of a spouses veto to obtaining a GRC, and then having to plead as a guilty person to unreasonable behaviour or being deemed a guilty party  during a divorce.   Hate crime is outlined in the UK law forum.

    Trangenderism is a protected condition, both in the European human rights Charter and the Gender Recognition Act as ammended 2010.   See the law forum reference a change in the passports act, there realy is no need for a third gender on UK passports, even if one does not have a gender recognition certificate.

    Cristine Jennifer Shye.  B/L.  B/Acc
    This post was edited by Cristine Jennifer Shye. BL at January 19, 2016 6:11 PM GMT
      January 18, 2016 9:14 PM GMT
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  • Hi Cris,

    Thanks for your thoughtful reply :)

    With regard to hate crime, the report notes: "Trans hate crimes do not currently have parity in the law with other hate crimes. There is no provision for separate transphobic “aggravated offences”, equivalent to those that now exist under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 in respect of racist and faith-hate crimes. There are also no offences relating to “stirring up hatred” against trans people, as there are for race, religion or sexual orientation under the Public Order Act 1986". I think it's this differentiation in focus which is signifcant; there can be little doubt that the prosecution and conviction rates for transphobic offences are
    tiny by comparison to the amount of hostility taking place, and any changes which demonstrate that the trans community is entitled to the same protection as other groups with protected characteristics must, I feel be seen as positive.

    With regard to the Gender Recognition Act, the report acknowledges that it is 'dated', and that the Equality Act 2010 is the flagship legislation for groups with protected characteristics,including the 'gender reassignment' characteristic. The belief when the 2010 Act was passed into law was that non-binary members of the trans community would derive protection from the clauses relating to 'perception' - the Act prohibits discrimination because someone is perceived to be a person who has, is or plans to undertake a permanent reassignment of their gender. Unfortunately, as the report notes, "Our evidence also called into question the extent to which the Act protects people with broader kinds of trans identities, who may not be seeking, or may not have sought, gender reassignment, medical or otherwise. We obtained a legal opinion on this point from expert barrister Claire McCann, who told us that people falling within such a broader definition of trans identity could have “no certainty” of being protected from discrimination". The proposal to amend the protected characteristic to 'gender identity' seems to me to widen the scope of the Act to provide that protection. In the UK Trans Info survey report published earlier this month: http://uktrans.info/wherenext.pdf despite the small sample size, it's significant that 64% of respondents identified a need for greater recognition of non-binary genders.

    With regard to passports, it's once again trans people who identify as non-binary or agender who are likely to benefit from an 'X' option. More importantly though, I would see this as a first step in recognising that information on gender very rarely needs to be collected for official documents - the passport doesn't record whether you're right- or left-handed, and a case can be made that the 'gender' box is equally irrelevant.

    I confess that the section on the 'spousal veto' was too complex for me to absorb at one sitting (it's been many years since I looked over the law of contract) but I hope to unravel it over the weekend, and will come back on that point then :)

    Hugs,

    Judith


      January 19, 2016 5:48 PM GMT
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  • The provision of community safety/neighbourhood services is relevant to
    trans people as many experience anti-social behaviour or hate crime.
    Section 17 of the Crime and Disorder Act requires local authorities in
    England and Wales to consider crime and disorder reduction and
    community safety when carrying out all service delivery and duties.
    Local authorities in Scotland promote safer communities through local
    community safety partnerships.
    The Equalities Review research found that 46% of trans people had
    experienced harassment in their neighbourhoods and that 73% had
    experienced some form of harassment in public. Hate crime research
    has found that nearly a third of hate crimes occur outside the victim’s
    home and 20% of incidents involve neighbours.23
    Transphobic hate crime is now one of the five ‘strands’ of hate crime
    recorded by the police – but often trans people are reluctant to report it.
    This may be because of previous bad experiences with the police or
    because they fear reprisals by neighbours and that the criminal justice
    process will ‘out’ them as trans (see Chapter 6). Anti-social behaviour
    officers need to be alert to the possibility of victimisation of a person
    because of their trans status.    The GRA even with it ammendments is not complete in its entirity, one has to refer to other laws, and the ammendments made to them that facilitate changes relevant to parts of the GRA, ie the marriage act the Human rights charter, criminal law, etc.

    For Judith for interest  http://gendersociety.com/forums/topic/9957/temp-grc-divorce

     

    Cristine Jennifer Shye.  B/L.  B/Acc
    This post was edited by Cristine Jennifer Shye. BL at January 19, 2016 7:56 PM GMT
      January 19, 2016 7:30 PM GMT
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  • A guide to recognising and reporting homophobic and transphobic hate crime.

     

    Mythbusting facts ‘I can’t call the police and tell them someone called me names!’ If you’re walking down the street, or in some other public place such as a railway station, and someone shouts homophobic or transphobic abuse at you, so that you feel upset or threatened, this is a hate incident or a hate crime. The police will take it serious.    Under the law they have a requirement to act,

    see-:  We must always be on our guard to ensure that the courts are made aware of any element of discrimination that may be present in a particular case. The CPS has a duty to ensure that where aggravating features are present in a case, the correct charge is preferred and the facts relating to motivation are brought to the attention of the sentencing court. Prosecutors must pay particular regard to the provisions of sections 28-32 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 (increase in sentences for racial or religious aggravation) and section 146 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 (CJA) (increase in sentences for aggravation related to disability or sexual orientation and gender).


    ‘Everyone has a  fundamental human right to a basic level ofdignity and privacy. It is unlawful to make  negative comments about anyone’s actual or perceived sexual orientation or transgender  status.’

     

    GIRES - (Gender Identity Research and Education Society) a charity also has an online reporting facility , you can choose to ask them to forward your details on to the local Police Force in your area in addition to providing them with information for their system.

     

    Cristine Jennifer Shye.  B/L.  B/Acc
      January 22, 2016 3:38 PM GMT
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