Forum » Gender Society Public Forums » UK Transgender Law » Collecting Information On Gender Identity September 2011

Collecting Information On Gender Identity September 2011

Tags : None
  • Gender Identity Research and Education Society http://www.gires.org.uk
    Registered Charity No: 1068137
    Improving the lives of trans people [email protected]
    01372 801554
    GIRES, Melverley, The Warren
    Ashtead, Surrey KT21 2SP, England    

     

     

    Collecting Information on Gender Identity
    Executive summary
    Public authorities in England, and those contracted to provide services on their behalf, are now
    preparing for the commencement of the specific duties that arise from the Equality Act (2010).
    These include a requirement to publish, by 31 January 2012, relevant information about employees
    and service users who are protected by the gender reassignment characteristic.
    A few individuals experience a mismatch between the way they look on the outside and how they
    feel inside. This condition is increasingly understood to have its origins before birth. The people who
    experience it do so to varying degrees and express it in a variety of ways. For some, the experience
    is so intolerable that they transition to live permanently in the opposite gender role, supported in
    most cases by medical treatment to align the way they look with their innate gender identities.
    These persons have the gender reassignment characteristic that is protected under the Equality Act
    (2010). The Act also protects those associated with them, such as family members, and those who
    are perceived to have the characteristic.  ..........more  @  http://www.gires.org.uk/assets/Workplace/CollectingInfo.pdf

    Cristine Jennifer Shye.  B/L.  B/Acc
      June 7, 2012 5:00 PM BST
    0
  • 110
    Thanks for the post Christine. I'm not sure I understood it all but it was both interesting and worrying reading. I really hope some good will come of it but if people are too afraid to admit to being trans not sure this will work x
    <p>man i feel like a woman</p>
      July 10, 2012 8:26 PM BST
    0
  • Thank you for the post! Very informative and interesting on trying to bring information to those in the medical field and work place to help Trans quality of life and understanding. Yet at the same time fear this information can harm those it is meant to help if in the wrong hateful hands! I know many trans woman and men in the USA that just want to blend in and be left alone and will not stand up to be counted. Luckily I am not one of them and am proud of who I am!
      July 10, 2012 9:13 PM BST
    0
  • Very interesting read. Thanks for letting me know about this. I have to agree with Trisha, as having known many transgendered people who would fear this information about them becoming public for a variety of reasons, many of which were mentioned in the article. Progress and attitudes are changing and need to continue to change, but it's still a slippery slope when publicly acknowledging one's gender identity merely in the hopes that they will somehow be protected from the hordes of the uninformed.
      July 10, 2012 10:35 PM BST
    0
  • Hi Cristine - thanks for the link and heads up!!! Good read!
      July 10, 2012 11:04 PM BST
    0
  • I thank you cris for inviting me to this forum but I have to ask why ?? As you know Im canuck and only a CD . I dont see anything that could benefit me or anyone thats canadian .
      July 11, 2012 4:58 AM BST
    0
  • http://gendersociety.com/forums/topic/7974/confidentiality

    Cristine Jennifer Shye.  B/L.  B/Acc
      July 11, 2012 9:21 AM BST
    0
  • Thanx Cris for the info
    Christy Bradford
      July 11, 2012 9:40 AM BST
    0
  • http://gendersociety.com/articles/267/guidance-for-the-media

    Cristine Jennifer Shye.  B/L.  B/Acc
      July 11, 2012 9:53 AM BST
    0
  • Hi Cristine. Seems like ages since we last spoke. I hope you are well. Regarding this forum post...I have to confess that I do not fully understand what it is or what has happened or why. If it is data mining by a governement agency that makes me highly suspicious. I do not trust the Tories at all. Its worth remembering that Cameron chose to abstain on the vote for the GRA and that Tebbit created the wrecking clause to try to scupper it. I beleive he has called SRS mutilation in the past. The only opposition to the GRA came from the Tories.  Hi to everyone long time no see :)

      July 11, 2012 11:58 AM BST
    0
  • I find these long-winded documents a real drag to read through, but I was slightly mystified by the opening paragraph so I stuck with it. Isn't it a bit of a contradiction that the gender equality act has been set up to protect trans people and allow them their privacy and a normal life, yet now public authorities apparently have a "requirement to publish relevant information about employees and service users who are protected by the gender reassignment characteristic"?
    Really? They now HAVE to ask intruding questions and PUBLISH info about their trans employees? Presumably such published info will be "anonymous", but that's not the point, and in a small town like Kendal anonymous is never going to happen!
    Have GIRES suggested or instigated all this? I don't get it. It seems like a lot of unnecessary intrusion just so the government can compile some statistics.
    I also feel sorry for employers being presented with such instructions and having to make sense of the hows and whys. For example:

    "How confident are you, or would you be, working with or providing services to, a transgender person, on a scale of 1-5?
    1) Very confident
    2) Fairly confident
    3) Not sure
    4) Not confident
    5) Very unconfident
    A similar but more challenging question would be:
    How comfortable are you, or would you be, working with or providing services to, a transgender person?"

    It's exactly the same question!

    And it's suggested that they ask all of their employees:
    "Is your gender identity inconsistent with (different from) the sex you were assigned at birth?"
    ie Are you transgender?
    How many closet TG's are going to answer that honestly, and not worry about the consequences of being outed?
    I know it's relatively early days for the gender equality act, and I'm sure everyone involved has the best intentions. But after reading this directive I'm just left scratching my head and asking why.
    You don't have to ask everyone about their gender identity any more than you need to know their sexual preference. We are all still human, I just think all this will leave trans employees with the feeling that they are being singled out. Even if it's for "the right reasons", that is exactly what trans people don't want.
    xx
      July 11, 2012 12:39 PM BST
    0
  • I think that a fundamental question arises here. Do people see our government as a benevolent entity or not? If the answer is yes we might be able to feel confident that this will be a positive thing. But if we answer based on evidence we might conclude that Cameron and Clegg seem to endorse gay marriage. However being a carer and in regular contact with vulnerable people of a multicultural and minority lifestyle I would say that many feel marginalised and dispossessed presently. Therefore I cannot help but feel very uncomfortable with all this. Incidentally Charing Cross have started requiring patients to sign a consent to disclosure form before they will continue their substandard treatment of their victims, which I before today assumed to be against the GRA but in light of this forum see that it must be related.
      July 11, 2012 1:22 PM BST
    0
  • Firstly, I gather the consolidation of this information is to judge the effectiveness of the revisions of the GRA 201o, its implication on the standards of service, improvement or not... in employment, services, treatment etc. and will be anonymous

     

    Secondly my understanding of the confidetiality part of the act, it would be unlawful for people to be forced to sign a disclaimer/ consent to disclosure. of personal information. There are actual guidelines and punishments laid down for disclosure of information.

    Cristine Jennifer Shye.  B/L.  B/Acc
    This post was edited by Cristine Jennifer Shye. BL at July 11, 2012 3:42 PM BST
      July 11, 2012 3:28 PM BST
    0
  • Hi criss, I notice that this is to apply to England , Is there any information about a smilar act coming from the devolved scottish govt.
      July 11, 2012 5:55 PM BST
    0
  • I really don't know Rosie, I presume it will, it would seem that because there are no government ''performance'' figures, that various pressure groups, charities and organisations are pushing this agenda. Lets hope they don't get egg on their faces and we the trans community are not the ones that get their fingers burnt.
    Cristine Jennifer Shye.  B/L.  B/Acc
      July 11, 2012 6:11 PM BST
    0
  • I am concerned about Alison's post ''Incidentally Charing Cross have started requiring patients to sign a consent to disclosure form before they will continue their substandard treatment of their victims, '' I will be seeking more advice on this, The details and information required on this disclosure form, Does it mean IF you refuse to sign away your privacy rights WILL a person be denied treatment. Will we eventually have lists by name of all the people treated in each hospital for, ingrowing toe nails, broken leg, syphilis, clamydia. etc etc etc. published in newspapers, with costs and what each individual had for supper during their stay in hospital?

    Cristine Jennifer Shye.  B/L.  B/Acc
    This post was edited by Cristine Jennifer Shye. BL at July 11, 2012 6:21 PM BST
      July 11, 2012 6:19 PM BST
    0
  • Here's the current consent form required by CX:
    http://www.wlmht.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/GIC-information-consent-form.pdf
    I don't think it's anything to worry about, they will have done all that when I was there, but technically without my consent.
    It is presumably (depending on the "share list") just consent to disclosure to the relevant people, ie in connection with your treatment.
    xx
      July 11, 2012 6:36 PM BST
    0
  • Thankyou Lucy.

    Understandable that medical records/history must follow on
    Cristine Jennifer Shye.  B/L.  B/Acc
      July 11, 2012 6:49 PM BST
    0
  • Hi Chris recived your link so took a peek.

    I sighed at the content..............seems like a major blunder of an attempt to perhaps see how well said act has worked or achieved its aims.

    When your so far down a road that you tend to forget your "status" IE a transgendered person for example my current situation where i have found full time work again at no point have i been asked about my status had no boxes to tick, had a full medical and the woman interviewing me in my medical assumed i was on HRT because of my age (51) and never even suggested to me that is because iam transgendered in other words i have been employed as a woman not once have anyone in HR been informed of my status i took the decision to not mention it as i wish to be treated purely on a gender/ individual performance basis and do not desire or want any positive descrimination on my behalf.

    I realise that this may for some of the trans " community" be a negative approach from me but my view is if iam a woman why not treat me as such ? we after all only know the histories of anyone we work with through their own revealing over time each chooses what about their past to wish to share with their collegues at work place.
    In my job i am face to face with the public assisting them and I have no idea which of them "reads " me as appear to treated as a woman by all i interact with.
    So for me i have no desire to reveal my past with my employee's or work collegues etc.
    I do understand the desire for others following such a path that they may feel more confident if ""trail blazers " pave the way to acceptance and know that those less fortunate than i with bone structure build physic and mannerisms may find it less easy than my own individual jpourney and the experiences (positive i have had). but after all we each make our own way in life. I am a statistic with the GIC and my previous employer but not as far as i aware with any other dept aparty from DVLC and passort due to document changes.

    I think there are probably better ways they could do their research in a less clumsy and more discreet way.
    flowering into the woman I always was.
      July 11, 2012 7:19 PM BST
    0
  • interesting reading thanks for sending.
      July 12, 2012 1:45 AM BST
    0
  • Its the "I understand if I do not consent, I can no longer be treated by the Gender Identity Clinic, WLMHT." That I didn't like. I was hit with it at the moment of my appointment and there was no attached information given regarding the share list. The appointment was only allowed to go ahead when I signed on the spot, and although it is supposed to only be used within the NHS as they say in their get out clause its up to the patient to gain guarantees of confidentiality from other parties to the information. However nobody will be notified when your info is shared. I realise people will think I am being paranoid and I accept that they are right but it just really worries me because I don't trust them,
      July 12, 2012 1:56 AM BST
    0
  • not at all paranoid Alison, very worrying, how and if information is leaked, its too late and how do you prove who was responsible for the leak, We all know how blase the government departments are about keeping confidential information. It stands to reason, information, regarding health history, etc, must be shared between each hospital a person has attended and the GP's and specialists they have seen in the past. but it is worrying that they say no sign no treatment???
    Cristine Jennifer Shye.  B/L.  B/Acc
      July 12, 2012 4:27 PM BST
    0
  • Thank you Cristine, This is a good piece of info to have for my records
      July 13, 2012 2:19 PM BST
    0
  • Interesting read Christine, the folks in the UK are way ahead of the the good ole USA. I think we are progressing then sometimes I think we're going backwards.
    <p>A life without purpose, is a life without reason!</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;myspace.com/tammybrianne</p>
      February 7, 2013 4:02 AM GMT
    0