“It is clear from the report that trans healthcare is in crisis.”
BY NIC CROSARA, IMAGE BY EHIMETALOR AKHERE UNUABONA VIA PEXELS
Over the past year the Women And Equalities Committee have looked into the calls for reform of the Gender Recognition Act and has collated their findings. The report shares what they have learned and offers recommendations for the government on how to reform the act. It establishes the urgency of our current times and states that the government has two weeks to respond.
Our report into the Reform of the Gender Recognition Act is being published tomorrow. Take a look at the work we have done relating to this inquiry over the past year: https://t.co/uOlY23nhuN pic.twitter.com/l123I2UQyQ
— Women & Equalities Committee (@Commonswomequ) December 20, 2021
Robbie de Santos, Director Of Communications And External Affairs at Stonewall has come out in solidarity with the report from the Women And Equalities Committee saying that it: “rightly holds the UK Government to account for falling short in its reform of the Gender Recognition Act. An Act that once made the UK a global leader in trans equality now finds itself behind the times, and the report lays bare the extent to which it is now failing our trans communities”.
“It is clear from the report that trans healthcare is in crisis. Severe under-resourcing of Gender Identity Clinics is leaving trans people waiting for an initial appointment for three years or more. That is not good enough. We support the recommendations in this report, and call on the Department for Health and Social Care, along with the Government Equalities Office and NHS England, to work with great urgency to provide trans people with high-quality, accessible and timely care.”
Robbie de Santos also highlights and agrees with how the committee’s report calls for progress toward non-binary legal recognition. “With no mechanisms in place, non-binary people are forced to put themselves into a box which does not fit who they are.”
Whilst non-binary people can change their title to the gender neutral “Mx” they still have to see that M or F marker on their passports and other forms of ID. Whilst same-sex marriage in the UK was legalised in 2013 and took effect in 2014, non-binary people still don’t have marriage equality. Whilst they can get married, this cannot be done without doing so as a man or a woman.
Robbie de Santos made a call for action in his statement: “Ahead of its Safe To Be Me conference in 2022, the UK Government must show real leadership for its LGBTQ+ communities and take clear steps to ensure that trans people are free to be themselves.”
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