The current Gender Recognition Act requires a person to live in their "chosen gender role" for two years before they can legally change gender, which must be binary. I was discussing this with my family yesterday.
For this post I'm ignoring that the phrase "chosen gender role" is pretty crappy because we don't choose our gender and what the heck is the role of a woman or man anyway? That phrase isn't just bad for transgender people. It's bad for everyone.
I'm ignoring that there is no option for people of whatever non-binary gender, that is, not just male or female. It's one of the many things that needs to change for people whose gender is not binary. As far as ID and gender goes in the UK it's legally a case of "No X Please, We're British."
It's the two years I want to talk about. Now, you might say that waiting two years after legally changing your name isn't that long to wait when, for the most part, getting a gender recognition certificate doesn't affect your day to day life and the choices you make. In some ways it does affect people's day to day lives depending in part on who they are and what they enjoy doing. I'm ignoring that too.
What I'm not ignoring is that the two year period is now a completely meaningless timescale. That's because in order to apply for gender recognition one of the things you need is a letter or form from a psychiatrist with a specialty in gender dysphoria. As if a highly paid consultant psychiatrist is the best person to confirm what tends to be bloody obvious to people with no wage or specialty.
And in order to get that you need to be seeing such a psychiatrist and to have been given by them an official diagnosis. I don't know if this is still the case but for me that was, via ICD10, "Transsexualism F60.0" a diagnosis with a VERY problematic description and not an ideal name either. ICD11 changes things somewhat. I haven't even properly fit that diagnosis for several years unless parts of the description are completely ignored.
In order for that outdated and totally binary diagnosis to happen you need to have reached the top of the waiting list. According to the latest figures that may take four years. It may take five or more. And some of the gender dysphoria clinics now say they can't even estimate the wait. Waiting lists can be growing by a week every week and for one of the services people haven't got any closer to seeing either the gatekeeper to the service or, years later, the consultant psychiatrist.
I changed my name by deed poll less than a month after the GP agreed to refer me to the Northern Regional Gender Dysphoria Service. I was lucky. I got in at that one point when waiting lists weren't very long.
But imagine now. You change your name. You live "full time in your chosen gender role." You're told you can spend lots of money and get strangers to assess whether you're you. In two years' time. But you're also told you can't send off the form without a piece of paper that you won't get for at least five years.
Two years before applying for a gender recognition certificate?
For people being referred for diagnosis and treatment now, make that four. Or five. Or six. Or God only knows.
We can discuss whether or not self declaration of gender is the way forward, as has been introduced already in several countries without any of the scare stories being proven true. I understand the worries people have about this though many of them are far-fetched and unrealistic.
I'd like to see self declaration introduced but there are issues related to it that are perfectly fair for discussion and there are reasonable worries that, while they don't imply self-dec should never happen, do imply that checks and balances might be an important part of that self declaration of gender, if those things are not already inherent in the binding legality of that declaration.
We can discuss whether two years is a sensible minimum waiting time for a legal change that's for life. To be honest I think a waiting time of some sort is a good thing, while a very frustrating thing too if you're waiting. Not as frustrating as those waiting lists though. It's a safeguard for everyone meaning that nobody is ever likely to take advantage of the system for the scary reasons people suggest - many of which are in reality completely irrelevant to the gender recognition process - and there's far less chance of someone changing their mind after making a legal change that's difficult to reverse. We know detransitioning does happen every now and again, though not at the rate that media sometimes suggest and not to the detriment of any argument for the well-being and rights of transgender people. When someone does detransition they are always deserving of much compassion and support.
What I don't think should be up for discussion is whether or not the current gender recognition process needs reforming. It should. The current legal system combined with the current state of the gender dysphoria service make the process ridiculously bad.
Even if that reform is only such that there can be a gender dysphoria service that's funded and staffed well enough that people can be seen in good time and can get that essential piece of evidence without waiting an often heartbreaking length of time that would be a good thing.
Of course I'd like to see that happen to the service but realistically there's a good chance it won't. Even if self declaration by statutory declaration, which has lots of legal safeguards built in, isn't introduced I'd like to see the process not cost so much money. I'd also like to see the judgement on whether a person is who they say they are to be made by people who know the person and, importantly, to see legal non-binary gender recognition.
In short, whatever happens with reform of the Gender Recognition Act, should the government ever stick to its promise to deal with the matter rather than repeatedly sidelining it, I'd like the process to be more human and less dehumanising to all transgender people.
No comments:
Post a Comment