Transgender issues in the law, politics, sport, and the impact on children
The government has finally published its transgender guidance for schools.* Teachers have been waiting a long time. We were promised we would have this document ‘for the summer term’. Well, it has arrived just in time for Christmas. But was it worth waiting for?
Yesterday’s* judgment by Lady Haldane is good news for everyone. She ruled that the UK Government was right when it blocked the Scottish Government’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill. Much has already been written about why the bill was incompetent, and why it would have been bad news for women and children, but where does this decision leave transsexuals?
Almost twelve months after rapist Isla Bryson was sent to a women’s prison, the Scottish Prison Service has come up with a new transgender policy. From 26 February 2024, transwomen – including male transsexuals like me – will be barred from the female estate if they had been convicted of crimes that harmed women. Quite right, but behind the headlines – Trans women who hurt females to go to male prisons, according to the BBC – the devil is in the detail.
Scotland’s government has plenty of things on its to-do list: tackling inflation, dealing with unemployment and cleaning up the mess left behind by Nicola Sturgeon. But amidst these tasks, it has found time to wade into the gender debate – by publishing its ‘non-binary equality action plan’ to help those who do not fit in to one gender or another.
Lisa Nandy could not have been more wrong when she waded into the transgender debate this week. The Labour MP, who has been criticised by JK Rowling over her stance on trans rights, said that ‘when we look at the way we reduce the debate to things like bodily parts, I think when we look back in history we will be utterly ashamed of ourselves.’
Twelve years ago, I was a happily married, middle-aged man with a good job and three wonderful children. But something was wrong. I had convinced myself that I had been born into the wrong sex.
After years of crushing anxiety and even moments of physical self-harming caused by this understanding, I transitioned in 2012 and underwent gender reassignment surgery four years later.
The Health Secretary Steve Barclay is expected to announce plans to ban transwomen like me from female hospital wards today*. Let’s be clear, the privacy, dignity and safety of women in hospital have been overlooked for too long – but Barclay will also need to offer separate wards or rooms for transgender people. Yes, women should not be expected to budge up and make room for men who identify as transgender, but nor should the Health Secretary make the lives of those who transitioned – perhaps many years ago – more difficult than needs be.
Debbie Hayton