Tag Archives: gender recognition act reform

Checking my underwear

By Jean Johnson | Sun 23rd September 2018 - 10:54 am

Dateline: Brighton, September 2018

Wandering into Conference a leaflet is thrust into my hands. It touches on current Government consultation on the Gender Recognition Act.

One paragraph of the leaflet sets the tone “sex self-ID that would allow any man to get his birth certificate reissues in the opposite sex. Just like that. On demand. With no change to his body and no medical supervision.”

The rest of the leaflet is a list of scenarios each more prurient than the last. None of these scenarios are evidenced as ever having happened, no evidence that a trans woman has ever abused the trust of other women in these sensationalist and inflammatory ways. Just a list of “what if”.

Leaving aside the paucity of the author’s hypothesis there is another consideration, if not sex self-ID then what?

The author suggests “changes to his body” and “medical supervision”.

While this article is not a treatise on the NHS most people recognise that for anything beyond measles that means triage, waiting times, a postcode lottery, financial limits and gatekeepers.

In the context of the current gender recognition process (leading to a Gender Recognition Certificate and a new Birth Certificate) that means two medical practitioners from suitable disciplines with experience in treating gender dysphoria.

Let me tell you about my gatekeepers.

My third psychiatrist was a sincere doctor from Iran. They cared about their patients, understood the genuine and immediate health care implications of gender dysphoria – depression, stress, frustration, anger, self-harm, self-loathing and suicide. They wanted to help not just by treating the symptoms, but the root cause as well. Everything a good doctor should be.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 5 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Greg Hyde
    "That wasn’t what voters who came together to drive the Conservatives out of government were voting for".....Let's be honest Mark in relation to immigration, ...
  • David Raw
    On the subject of British politicians and racial prejudice, I remember from my very young days the treatment of Seretse Khama by both the Attlee government and ...
  • Peter Martin
    @ Mick Taylor, "Liberals were the only people to oppose changes to immigration based on race..." ?? That's not actually true. Nearly all grou...
  • Mick Taylor
    I was making three points. 1. When Labour have a choice on immigration, they make the wrong, often racist one and the one which makes no economic sense. 2. Li...
  • Jenny Barnes
    The Good Law Project et al are bringing a legal challenge to the interim EHRC guidance https://goodlawproject.org/were-bringing-a-legal-challenge-to-the-ehrcs-...