Do I have the spoons to do this? Nope. Am I still going to because everyone needs to be fighting this? yup.

TL;DR:

The UK tory government is planning a large-scale rollback of trans rights, including potential “bathroom bills”, on top of scrapping the much-needed reform to the Gender Recognition Act. If you are cis, your voice is more likely to be heard than ours. You can:

  • email no 10 and express your disagreement with the proposed transphobic laws.
  • email your MP – and your MSP if you live in Scotland – to ask what they plan to do to support trans rights and oppose the reform.
  • If you leave in Scotland, email the First Minister and ask her how she plans to support trans rights in Scotland.

and Donate to organisations that support trans rights, especially black trans voices who are most vulnerable, and read up on trans rights:

Amplify trans voices, especially from black and indigenous trans communities. Listen. Speak up when you see transphobia.

I’ve seen a lot of people post to fight against the leaked tory plan to unravel UK trans rights (good!) but I think some are missing the bigger point. Which is probably exactly what the transphobic assholes want us to do, honestly. There’s four main points to what the government is apparently considering:

Killing the GRA reform

That’s the one that people seem to be focused on. Not a single trans person is surprised by this move, we saw it coming light years away. The reform would have let trans people obtain a gender recognition certificate without going through gatekeeping and cis-normative doctors’ opinions, on the basis of self-declaration. This never had anything to do with bathrooms like TERFs would like you to believe. Trans people are already allowed to use the bathrooms that matches their gender without a GRC.

“protecting women-only spaces”

This is an incredibly scary TERF dog-whistle. At the present, the equality act (which also applies in Scotland, not just England) allows discrimination against trans folks in some cases:

a service provider provides single-sex services. If you are accessing a service provided for men-only or women-only, the organisation providing it should treat you according to your acquired gender. In very restricted circumstances it is lawful for an organisation to provide a different service or to refuse the service to someone who is undergoing or has undergone gender reassignment

Scottish Trans Alliance

The issue here is that the definition of what services can legally refuse access to trans people is vague, and could be re-defined to include bathrooms, which the tories seem intent on doing. Make no mistake, that would be just as bad as the “Bathroom Bills” that flourished in the US a few years back. If you thought “oh well we’re better than Georgia” 1) clearly, we’re not and 2) you’re gonna have to fight with us.

Not only are those laws un-enforceable (what are we gonna do? Check everyone’s genitals when they come in?), they are highly misogynistic. While TERFs love to claim that cis women are at risk from trans women using the same bathrooms, there have been multiple occurrences of cis butch women being harassed by TERFs because they were sure they were trans and tried to chase them (Vox/German Lopez).

There has been, at least, one instance of a TERF bragging about trying to get an up-skirt photo of someone they believed to be a trans woman. If this become law, cis women and trans people alike will be more at risk. Trans and non-binary folks by the humiliation of having to use bathrooms they know full well are not for them, cis women by the self righteous TERFs who will try and shame anyone who doesn’t “look like a woman” out of bathrooms.

“Cracking down on quack doctors”

…who apparently hand out medical opinions left right and centre. These do not exist. Getting any kind of access to transgender healthcare in this country is a matter of years. It took me 12 months to get an appointment at the Sandyford GIC (Gender Identity Clinic). This was two years ago, and the waiting list is now up to 24 months. Down in England, some of the GICs are now approaching 4 years between referral and first appointment.

You don’t get support - any support - until you’ve been “diagnosed”. I’d like to be clear: these waiting times kill people. The only way most people get access to hormone treatment in less than years is by going through private services. These are ran by doctors who, I would bet my life on that, know more about caring for trans folks than some of the “experts” I’ve had appointments with at NHS services.

If these people are who the article refers to as “quack doctors”, they’re preparing to kill trans people, simple as that. More than 50% (Stonewall) of trans people have not only thought about, but attempted self harm and suicide. Studies show that providing gender-affirming hormone treatment improves those statistics. Stripping away the one avenue people have to speed up transition is criminal.

Restricting access to healthcare for trans youth

The article also refers to Liz Truss “strengthening advice on medical procedures on under-18s that have irreversible effects on their fertility”. This is once again a TERF dog-whistle. There are no such procedures being done in the UK at the moment, and no-one is advocating for that.

The best you can get as a trans or questioning teen is hormone blockers – these will delay puberty, the idea being that you can avoid going through a puberty that doesn’t match your gender, and re-evaluate at 16. This is not irreversible. If at 16 you realise that you aren’t trans, you can stop taking blockers and experience a normal, albeit slightly delayed puberty. Otherwise, you can be moved to gender-affirming hormone treatment and not require a lot of the painful and distressing process of undoing a puberty that wasn’t yours.

Denying trans youth access to blockers is dangerous. The only thing that achieves is destroying the mental health of a minority that’s already struggling.

What you can do:

  • email no 10 and express your disagreement with the proposed transphobic laws.
  • email your MP – and your MSP if you live in Scotland – to ask what they plan to do to support trans rights and oppose the reform.
  • If you leave in Scotland, email the First Minister and ask her how she plans to support trans rights in Scotland.

and Donate to organisations that support trans rights, especially black trans voices who are most vulnerable, and read up on trans rights:

Amplify trans voices, especially from black and indigenous trans communities. Listen. Speak up when you see transphobia.