ISSUES
: Sexuality and Gender
Chapter 3: LGBTQ+ issues
38
Holding ‘proof’
If we consider possession of a
gender recognition certificate
definitive proof of gender we need
to open up access to those services
that allow people to address this,
specifically gender identity clinics.
There are a limited number of
these clinics and UKTrans, an
organisation working to campaign
and provide advice for trans and
non-binary people, report at
anything from six weeks to 3.5
years, with most clinics reporting a
waiting time of more than a year. It
is clear that those suffering gender
confusion will currently have a long
wait to access services.
What of those who haven’t
accessed these services, should
we treat them in their acquired
gender regardless of their position
vis-a-vis the law? This will be
a question for the transgender
equality inquiry by the women
and equalities select committee
that recently concluded. Tasked
with looking at our treatment of
trans people, the inquiry will be
considering issues affecting trans
people in the criminal justice
system and access to services.
Addressing these issues is
becoming increasingly important.
In a society that supports the rights
of individuals to live unmolested
in their chosen gender role we
need to think very carefully about
how to treat those who are not
legally recognised in their acquired
gender.
20 November 2015
Ö
Ö
The above information has been
reprinted with kind permission
from
The Conversation
. Please
visit
.
com for further information.
© 2010–2016, The Conversation
Trust (UK) Limited
Government has “no
plans” to ban gay
conversion therapy
By Ned Simons
T
he Government has “no
current plans” to ban
gay conversion therapy,
a Conservative health minister
said today after the practice was
attacked by both Tory and Labour
MPs.
Before the General Election, David
Cameron said that the therapies
were “profoundly wrong” and
pledged to “protect people from
harm” under a Conservative
Government.
Recent research carried out by
Britain’s leading LGBT charity,
Stonewall, revealed that one in ten
healthcare workers had witnessed
colleagues express their belief in
the so-called treatment.
The statistic rises to 22% in
London health and social care
environments, and has been hailed
“incredibly harmful and dangerous”
by Ruth Hunt, Stonewall’s chief
executive.
The Royal College of Psychiatrists
have said previously that conversion
therapy creates “a setting in which
prejudice
and
discrimination
flourish”.
Tory MP Mike Freer led a debate
on the practice in Parliament
on Tuesday and called for it to
be banned. “Being gay is not a
disease, it is not an illness and it
is not something that I or any other
gay man or woman can be cured
of. To suggest otherwise is not
only demeaning, but morally and
medically wrong,” he said.
“Imagine the outcry if Parliament
were to give tacit approval to curing
heterosexual men and women of
their heterosexuality. There would
be uproar. Allowing conversion
therapy to try to turn our straight
colleagues gay would not last a day,
yet we allow therapists to peddle
the myth that they can ‘cure’ people
of being gay.”
Labour MP Wes Streeting said “the
suggestion that there could be a gay
cure that makes all LGBT people,
and young people in particular, feel
that they are different and somehow
alien”.
He added: “That is what causes
them mental ill health.”
However Health Minister Jane
Ellison said while the Government
did not believe that being lesbian,
gay or bisexual “is an illness to be
treated or cured” – a ban was not
currently being considered.
“I fully understand the concerns
about so-called gay conversion
therapy, but the Government
have no current plans to ban or
restrict it via legislation, or to
introduce statutory regulation for
psychotherapists,” she said.
Ellison said she acknowledged
there was a “continued challenge
to the Government to go further” in
preventing gay conversion therapy.
Former Tory minister Nick Herbert
said there needed to be “a stronger
statement of guidance from the
Government” that it was wrong.
4 November 2015
Ö
Ö
The above information has
been reprinted with kind
permission from The Huffington
Post UK. Please visit www.
huffingtonpost.co.uk for further
information.
© 2016 AOL (UK) Limited
