Sex and Gender

 Yesterday I read two articles in the Guardian.

One is : Labour’s contradictory policies on trans and women’s rights must be addressed by Susanna Rustin. The emphasis of the article is upon sex based rights as opposed to gender based rights and is a plea for the labour party to move in this direction in a clear and unequivocal way. The article ends with the words:

... a group called Labour Women’s Declaration advocates for sex-based rights within the party, and is also engaged in cross-party efforts. Currently, between 20 and 40 Labour MPs are known to be sympathetic. I hope they can persuade Labour to shift its position with regard to the sex-based rights of women. Not only because I agree with them. But because I don’t think it would be at all surprising if voters were to turn against politicians who speak in riddles about the differences between male and female bodies – and deride advocacy on behalf of biologically female people as a relic from prehistory.

The other is: Labour needs to own its policy on gender - and unequivocally back trans rights by Zoe Williams. The emphasis here is somewhat different, and the article ends with the words:

Labour needs to take a stand based on principles of equality with which they are familiar. They could also maybe learn from their history of being wedged – on Brexit, and long before that, on nuclear disarmament – by political enemies who care much less about the issue than they enjoy watching Labour fall apart.

Underneath this manoeuvring is careless cruelty to trans people, who despite being 1% of the population are apparently the issue of the age, and yet whose suffering and exclusion doesn’t feature in the discourse at all. Beneath every confected outrage about trans athletes, trans prisoners and men pretending to be trans in order to lurk in toilets, there is a consistent theme, that trans people are not victims but predators. It’s such a fanciful reversal of reality – in which trans people are beset by horrifying levels of hate crime, homelessness and domestic violence – that the entire debate is starting to sound baffled and stupefied. That’s no excuse for Labour, who should be able to see exactly what course to take.

My own feelings are much more in line with Zoe Williams than Susanna Rustin. 

Female-only spaces

Half way through 2020 and this is the first thing that I've written here all year.

Surrey Swans is currently in a virtual kind of state.

Life is slowly getting back to more like normal but there's a long way to go yet, and no-one knows what the new normal will really be like.

Recently I received an email from TransActual 

It was based on a report that appeared in the Sunday Times on June 14 2020.

So far as I can tell, you can only read the Sunday Times article by subscribing to it.

However, the article is mentioned in The Guardian here:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jun/14/trans-rights-government-reported-to-be-dropping-gender-self-identifying-plans?fbclid=IwAR1WpclT0QNmFSMHP3PqGzupVFRImLcpnJMUwTSJpwkY965luDJ_Yfq4SAY

It mentions that "the government was said to be preparing to set out new safeguards to protect female-only spaces including refuges and public lavatories."

Also, ITV News here https://www.itv.com/news/2020-06-13/boris-johnson-drops-plans-to-make-gender-change-easier/ mentions "the Government was said to be preparing to set out new safeguards to protect female-only spaces – including refuges and public lavatories – to stop them being used by those with male anatomy."

In response to the letter I've written to my MP (Member of Parliament), Adam Afriyie:

I received an email today which highlighted some disturbing possibilities concerning possible actions that the Government may be considering with respect to the rights of people that identify as being Transgender.

The email referred to an article published in the Sunday Times on June 14 2020 (https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/boris-johnson-scraps-plan-to-make-gender-change-easier-zs6lqfls0).

The article in the Sunday Times says that it is based on a leaked Government document.

The article is referenced by many other news outlets including the BBC here https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53101071, The Guardian here: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jun/14/trans-rights-government-reported-to-be-dropping-gender-self-identifying-plans?fbclid=IwAR1WpclT0QNmFSMHP3PqGzupVFRImLcpnJMUwTSJpwkY965luDJ_Yfq4SAY and ITV News here: https://www.itv.com/news/2020-06-13/boris-johnson-drops-plans-to-make-gender-change-easier/

The BBC article says “The government has not yet commented on the leak or its accuracy" so I’m hoping that the leak is not accurate.

I understand that there are people that have concerns about making gender transitioning simpler than it currently is.

However, if the leaked document is accurate and there are plans to make the lives of people that identify as Transgender more complicated than they already are then I’m really saddened.

The reports suggest that the Government may take steps “to protect female-only spaces including refuges and public lavatories.“

Again, I understand that people have concerns about these “spaces”.

But making it easier to prevent trans people from accessing public lavatories would actually be a step backwards.

My understanding of current legislation is that organisations already have the right to protect single-sex spaces on a case-by-case basis where appropriate.

I identify as genderfluid.

At times when I present as female, if there are no gender-neutral lavatories available then I use the “ladies”. This has never been a problem for me. No-one has ever complained. The idea of using a “gents” toilet facilities on such occasions is unimaginable.

So, I’m writing to you to ask if you will oppose any changes in legislation that would be likely to make the lives of transgender people more difficult than it already is.

Would you commit to supporting amendments to any new proposed legislation to ensure that this does not happen?

When I receive a reply I'll post it here.

Mistaken Identities?

I read an article in the online Sunday Times entitled Gender reassignment: I’m man enough to admit that it was a mistake .

That's an exaggeration - I read the beginning of the article (the part that isn't behind the paywall) and I watched the video.

The article is categorised as being about Health, NHS and Religion.

It's about a man named Peter Benjamin who transitioned from male to female and then decided that it had been a mistake and "de-transitioned" back to male.

The article says that "He is speaking about his experience out of concern for people who, like him, change gender, only to find their lives as isolated and challenging as they were before."

If the points being made here things like:

• people shouldn't approach gender reassignment without thinking hard and long about who they are
• people do sometimes make mistakes and it's important not to rush into things
• gender reassignment surgery will not solve every problem for every person that undergoes it

then I'm OK with it.

If the message, however includes anything like:

• gender reassignment helps no one
• God makes boys and girls and doesn't make mistakes, so trans people need to get over it and live the lives that God gave them

then I'm not at all OK with it.

If Peter Benjamin is in a happier place for himself than he was before then I'm glad for him.

In the video, he says:

I've got friends now. I've got people I can talk to.
I've got a church that I go to now.
All the crossdressing, all the transgender has gone, completely gone.
I feel so much better in myself. I don't fantasise about it. There's no lust there any more. It's completely, completely gone.
I am back to being who I was before, so that's how I'm going to liver my lie now. 

If his intentions are honestly just to help other people then maybe that's OK. Unless Peter or the church that he goes to are of the opinion that the way to help all trans people is to encourage them to carry on living lives according to their birth sex irrespective of any sense of gender dysphoria that they may have. In which case it is not at all OK.

In the end, I believe that we are all different. There isn't a one-size fits all answer to all of life's challenges. What might be right for Peter is not at all right for every single trans person on the planet.

Human Library and Human Books

The Human Book experience happened yesterday (5 October 2019).

I prepared some notes ... see below ... though I didn't actually use them on the day. But a lot of the things that I shared are included in the notes.

Sally and I arrived at about 10:30 and spent a while drinking coffee, chatting with other human books, librarians and organisers and hearing about how things had been organised.

The book borrowing began at 11:00,

I was first borrowed at about 11:15 and made it back to the human book shelf at about 14:10, so it was quite busy. Each borrower had about 10 minutes ... though it was often a bit longer than that because there were always a few questions.

Mostly I was on loan to one or two borrowers at any one time, though there were three at the very end.

I found it to be a very positive experience.

Questions that I was asked included things like:

• How much of my time is spent as Andrea / Andy and what influences it?
• When am I at my most comfortable?
• What about work?

And people said things like:

• Thank you
• You are welcome here
• You've helped me see beyond the confines of what I've seen before

And here are the notes:

Gender Fluidity: My life as Andy and Andrea

• My life began in the mid 1950’s as Andrew
• Over the years the name morphed into Andy
• But my mum always called me Andrew.
• I grew up as a normal kind of boy whatever normal means.
• At the age of maybe 12 I would sometimes secretly try on my mum’s clothing
• One day disaster seemed to strike, and I was caught in the act by my brother.
• But I don’t think he ever actually told anyone about it
• Today he doesn’t remember it.
• But I’ve never forgotten.
• I had no idea why I did this.
• But when I was caught, I stopped.
• Time passed and I became a student
• I became a Christian and started to go to church.
• I remember as a student writing a letter to the student union magazine about why a group of marginalised people were wrong in the way that they lived. Even though I’d never taken the trouble to talk with any of them about it or find out the truth
• I graduated, got a job, met Sally and we married
• I would sometimes buy ladies clothing and wear it secretly.
• I would feel guilty and get rid of the clothing.
• Then buy more
• We had children
• Buying, wearing and disposing of the clothing continued.
• I didn’t really know why.
• It was a secret associated with a sense of fear of being discovered by my wife, by my church
• And, in a way, with feelings of shame and of guilt
• Roll forwards to 2007
• My involvement with the church had more or less ended
• I began to buy more clothing. A wig. Cosmetics. I tried lipstick, but it was a disaster.
• And still I had no idea why
• But to me, the whole thing was somehow getting to be more significant
• I had a growing need to be rid of this secret
• The secrecy was hurting.
• One day I allowed my wife to find out.
• She was more than surprised, but she listened
• There were challenges. It’s not easy explaining something when you don’t understand it yourself.
• She was hurt that I’d never told her
• But in the end, she took it in her stride and allowed me to wear dresses and skirts and blouses.
• She noticed that it changed me. We got along better. I was less stressful. Less angry
• I looked online and found Fiona Floyd who provided a makeover, dressing and photography service
• And I went along.
• I felt another name was needed; I chose the name Andrea.
• It was at Fiona’s that I discovered that makeup could involve more brushes than painting a house.
• On that day I remember looking into the mirror and feeling that I was meeting a part of myself for the first time.
• In a way, Andrea was born on May 6^th 2007
• But in another way Andrea had always existed – but had been hidden away
• Later that day, when removing the makeup, it was a little like washing a part of myself down the sink.
• I still didn’t know why. But it made me feel more complete somehow.
• At that time, I used the word transvestite.
• I practiced doing makeup as my wife watched football.
• Time passed
• I met other trans people
• I told my daughters.
• We’ve told friends and family members.
• I went out
• Andrea stopped being a secret.
• These days I choose the term genderfluid rather than transvestite.
• It’s more an expression of my sense of gender than just about the clothes that I wear.
• At times I feel more Andrea than Andy and vice-versa
• Even now I don’t know what that means
• But I don’t feel a need to understand it.
• It’s more just about being who I am.
• As time passes, I’ve learned that I’m not defined by the clothes that I wear nor by my gender.
• The truth is that I just am who I am.
• Just a person.
• I think that it’s true of everyone – those that identify as trans and those who don’t
• Each one is different with a unique set of experiences, thoughts, feelings and needs.
• But each one is a person.
• The person that is me, is sometimes expressed as Andrea and sometimes as Andy.
• But really, I’m just me
• There’s just the one person with different expressions of that personality.
• Maybe a bit like being a parent, or a child, an uncle or a nephew, a grandparent or a grandchild.
• I am all those things.
• But none of them fully defines who I am
• I’m just me.

Trans Employees and Supreme Courts

Todays top Google news Trans story is from The Guardian: 'There is no protection': case of trans woman fired after coming out could make history.

It looks at the case of Aimee Stephens. Aimee is a trans woman that was fired from her job because her employer objected to a man dressing as a woman. There are court documents that testify to this here.

According to the Guardian report:

Stephens’ case is one of three discrimination cases involving LGBTQ individuals that the court [Supreme Court of the United States] will hear on 8 October and the first supreme court case involving the civil rights of transgender people.

Some parts of the court documents mentioned above make for heavy reading. But there's a lot that is just telling of Aimee's experiences.

I'd heard of Aimee Stephens back in March 2018 when I'd been engaging a little with people at Walid Shoebat's web site here. There's an article about an earlier court case involving Aimee Stephens that I made some comments on. In my opinion the article misrepresents the truth of the case.

There are issues in all of this as to what authority an employer has in terms of hiring and firing people. Some people think that an employer (especially in a privately owned business) should be free to do whatever they want.

Personally, at least, I'm glad that employers aren't free to do whatever they want, and that there are restrictions placed upon them.

I think that there ought to be protection for people in their employment and that trans people should be treated first and foremost as people.

It's a shame that the employer in this case doesn't seem to have been able to find it in his heart to do this.

Human Library Revisited

Back in March 2018 I wrote about my experience of being a Human Book at a Human Library here.
On Saturday October 5yth 2019 I'm repeating the experience, with a slightly different title.
There's some info below.
Come along and meet some human books if you're able to.

Saturday 5 October 2019

11am – 2pm

Windsor Baptist Church / Tree House Café

Victoria Street, Windsor, close to Victoria Street Car Park

A unique opportunity to step into another’s shoes

and understand life from a different perspective.

Just like in a real library, a visitor to the Human Library

can choose from a range of titles.

The difference is that books are people and reading is a conversation.

Come along between 11am and 2pm to have a 10 minute conversation with a Human Book of your choice, and broaden your understanding of human life.

Tea and Coffee available.

“Gender Fluidity: My life as Andy and Andrea ”

“From Colombian Cartels to Argentine Tango ”

“A Decade on Stage: From Peer Gynt to Britain’s Got Talent”

“My Mental Health Journey” “From Homed, to Homeless, to Homed again”

“From Yorkshire to Wales: Homesickness and Building New Life”

“Mental Health in the Family” “Living with Domestic Violence”

“Giving Away Millions: My Charity Work for the Lions”

“Angel of the Night: My work as a Street Angel” “Depression: The Black Fog”

“A Force for Good: Getting Involved in Local Politics”

“My Restorative Justice Meeting with the Person Who Harmed Me”

“My passion for the Environment, From Boyhood to Now”

Don’t judge a book by its cover!

Schools, Sex Education, Sharing and Pronouns

On Monday 16 September 2019 the trans story at the top of the Google News list is headed: Trans children to get sex education with gender they identify with at Metro.
It's a report based on what claims to be a leaked report from "the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and seen by the Sunday Times".
No links are provided either to the Sunday Times or the EHRC so it doesn't make it easy to validate what it says.
According to Metro "The document also advises that trans boys and girls be allowed to participate in personal, social and health education lessons with the gender they identify with."
So far as I'm aware there are schools that already teach subjects like "sex education, social and health education" to mixed groups of boys and girls.
There's an article here: https://pubertycurriculum.com/sex-education-in-elementary-schools-gender-segregated-or-coed/ which looks at the pros and cons of segregating boys and girls during such classes. And another here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/protecting-children-sexual-abuse/201802/should-boys-and-girls-get-sexual-education-separately that discusses whether boys and girls should be taught separately. And another here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2018/10/19/why-we-shouldnt-be-separating-boys-girls-sex-ed/ So far as I can tell all the authors are non-trans females and don't seem to have any axes to grind. All of them seem to be saying that, on balance, they think that the classes should be mixed rather than segregated.
Metro quotes a "campaigner" named Tanya Carter as saying: "What use is it to that pupil to learn about periods or breast development? No one is asking the girls whether they would feel happy with a trans pupil in that group."
To be honest I think boys should know about these things. Talking about it in a classroom environment could provide a way of allowing children to see that the topics aren't shameful or taboo and help each other understand each other in a better way.
There are other more contentious issues that relate to pupils sharing things like:

• changing rooms
• rooms when on school trips (I think that this means bedrooms, though the article doesn't make this clear)

My take on this is that schools shouldn't actually expect any pupils to undress in any shared space - even where the children are all non-trans and of the same sex. Changing rooms and bedrooms should be private spaces.
Sports are more complex. There are debates about unfair advantages that trans-girls would have over cis-girls (i.e. non-trans girls) in some sports.
If sport in school is seen as a solely competitive activity I can see this as a problem. In terms of sport being a great way of encouraging physical activity and a healthy lifestyle I'm not sure that there need be a problem. Whatever problem does exist here is probably more one of competitive fairness rather than safeguarding. In school sport it needn't be an issue unless we want to make it one. In adult competitive sport I'm not so sure. But the Metro article is about schools so I'll leave the extended debate for another day. 
There are also some points made in the Metro article about using a trans-child's preferred name and pronouns.
My own view on this is that anyone that can't be respectful enough to use names and pronouns in this way perhaps should look for a job where they don't need to use pronouns or peoples names.