Tuesday 17-11-2020 - 10:00

The Women and Equalities Select Committee have opened an inquiry looking at the government’s plans to reform the Gender Recognition Act (GRA), and they’re looking for individuals and organisations to submit evidence. This inquiry offers a chance for the government to be properly scrutinised for their inadequate plans to reform the GRA (which amount to an unspecified reduction in the cost and the process moving online) along with other issues around trans equality in the UK, such as healthcare.

The GRA is the piece of legislation that lets trans people apply for a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC), which changes the ‘legal sex’ of a trans person from the one they were assigned at birth. This allows trans people to obtain a birth certificate with the correct gender recognised on it. Obtaining a GRC is a relatively minor administrative process in terms of how it impacts the lives of trans people, but the amount of stress the process causes through its strict requirements on how a trans person should be living and the invasiveness of the Gender Recognition Panel, coupled with the immense media outcry demonising trans people in the wake of the government’s consultation, has forced GRA reform to become a much bigger issue. Additionally, this new inquiry includes in its scope the provision of transition-related healthcare in the UK, which is currently primarily delivered through Gender Identity Clinics (GICs), which have years-long waiting lists and act as gatekeepers to healthcare despite the harm this causes to their service users. 

After putting trans people through a public consultation on our basic rights and dignity which led to a slew of harassment and hostile press, it’s outrageous that the government is trying to get away with tinkering around the edges of the many issues with the GRA. Medical gatekeeping that reduces transness to an illness, a trans person’s spouse being able to veto their legal change of gender and no provision for non-binary people to be legally recognised are just some of the problems the government has entirely failed to address despite the results of the public consultation – you can read the response I co-wrote for NUS here to find out more.

That’s why it’s vital that trans people and our allies take action and respond to the select committee’s inquiry. We can’t and won’t let the government ignore our calls for change while they try to placate us with more harmful GICs instead of taking action to make trans healthcare accessible and supportive. I’ve been involved in putting together guidance from NUS on how to respond to the inquiry, but it’s important that this is only the starting point. The inquiry needs to receive as much relevant evidence as possible, so simply copying suggestions on how to respond won’t be helpful. Instead, use what you know about trans people, what trans people in your life have told you, and whatever other information is available to you to write your response – the guidance can help you get started.

Trans people are tired. We’re tired of the consultations and inquiries asking questions which have been loudly answered for years, and we’re tired of our lives being debated and torn apart in the national press. This week is Trans Awareness Week, but we don’t need awareness, we need solidarity. Support the UoM Trans Campaign and the NUS Trans Student Campaigners Network in fighting for our trans students, and respond to the select committee inquiry by Friday 27th November.

-    NUS guidance for the select committee inquiry
-    UoM Trans Campaign Twitter and Facebook
-    NUS Trans Student Campaigners Network Twitter and Facebook group
-    NUS response to the government’s response to the GRA consultation

Written by Rosa Kucharska, SU Trans Officer