Not in My Name

Despite somewhat more muted remarks from Liz Truss recently (September 2020), social and legislative protections for trans people are still at risk of being undermined, particularly in the case of trans women. As a cis-woman, I wish to make it clear that any move by government to undermine the rights to equality and inclusion for trans women, would not be done IN MY NAME”.

Terry Reed OBE, JP, BA(Hons), MCSP, SRP, Grad Dip Phys. Trustee of Gender Identity Research and Education Society letter sent to the Prime Minister:

You plan to make changes in relation to trans people that will be devastating to the well-being of young and adult gender diverse people. There will be a rise in the already desperate suicidality among young people whose well-tested treatment is being withheld. 40% of trans people have attempted suicide at least once in their lives compared with 5% in the overall population.

This is a letter, from a young person to her (female) endocrinologist:

“Please listen to me. I have no conflicting feelings about my gender. I am female. Living in a male body hurts beyond belief. I sometimes think I will go crazy with the sadness and desperateness of it.

My body will never, ever be as I would like it to be and now it is really a case of damage limitation.

This terrible thing has happened to me and it’s worse than you could ever imagine.”

Under old protocols, she was refused treatment; she took an overdose. Earlier treatment, as is now advised, is safe and reversible. The scare-mongering regarding the age of consent to this benign treatment, is misplaced. The real fear is what will happen to gender diverse young people when, driven by ill-informed politicians who think they know better than skilled clinicians, they suffer the ‘psychological torture’ occasioned by withholding intervention.

Trans women have been present in women’s spaces for decades, without GRCs and without problems. The GRC does not guarantee that male genitalia are not present. The GRC is irrelevant in these circumstances, whether obtained under the present protocol or by self-determination. Policing the entrances to woman’s facilities throughout the UK, would require an army equipped in the same way as for airport security.

Impractical, unenforceable, mischievous.

The legacy you leave when your political life is over may include a massive increase in suicides among the transgender community.

I am a cisgender woman; you do this NOT IN MY NAME