- Staff Notice
Ministers put curbs on trans rights
Groups that exclude self-identifying women from female-only sites are to be protected
Ministers have vowed to defend women’s rights to exclude transgender people from female-only spaces such as changing rooms, lavatories and swimming sessions.
In a significant victory for campaigners, the government has promised not to put the rights of those who identify as women ahead of those who are biologically female. Its intervention comes in the wake of a series of clashes that have come to light in the year since the government floated proposals to allow adults to change their gender legally without a doctor’s diagnosis.
This was just being discussed on Sky News and the pundits were horrified that transgender people could be excluded from sites where they want to go to, but if you are a lady in a female changing area, would you be comfortable changing in front of a transgender woman who looks like a man?
I must admit and state my complete ignorance on the issue of transgender people and transgender rights. If someone is not comfortable in their "own skin" that must be horrifying, but I don't understand how someone knows that they are transgender? Could they not simply be gay? How do they know the difference?
There's been lots of controversy in schools recently with schools coming under pressure to recognise children that are transgender, but the flip side to that is, how do you tell a little boy that "his" friend is not a boy, but a girl, when "he" looks like a boy? It's a total minefield.
The government is to announce a consultation on the forthcoming Gender Recognition Act, but as this recent Guardian article says, the issue is very controversial, how can it ever be reconciled?
The Times article goes on to talk about a lady who requested a female nurse to give her a cervical smear and the nurse who did it had stubble. Another example was of a lady with a fear of men was locked up in a psychiatric unit with a 6ft burly transgender person.
In a tolerant society, we want to be understanding of those who maybe different from the majority, but how far does this tolerance go in regards to the rights of transgender people?