Dear Sarah Dines,

My name is Avery, I am a 17-year-old transgender female individual residing within your constituency. Avery is not my legal name and I have only just begun the process necessary to transition to a female sexually. The contents of this email are based upon the experience and opinions of myself and other gender-diverse peers.

I write this as a request for your support if you are to attend the parliamentary debate about the reform of the Gender Recognition Act on 21 February 2022. I hope that the thoughts, experiences and, opinions of me and peers within your constituency are considered.

Context:

If you are already familiar with the Gender Recognition Act of 2004 and the issues of transgender people, I suggest you move onto the next section.

For a British transgender individual, the process of changing one’s legally recognised gender is a bureaucratic and lengthy process. 

To complete this process, a Gender Recognition Certificate must be obtained through a “gender dysphoria” diagnosis. In addition to this requirement, the individual needs to live as their chosen gender identity for two years with others acknowledging this fact. This is difficult to prove as there is currently a stigma attached to gender-diverse peoples and so they may not have been openly identifying because of the fear of not being accepted for who they are by family and/or loved ones. The acquisition of this certificate currently costs £140, this is more than a legal name change and twice as much as a new passport. The government did say that they would change this, however, no action has been taken within the last two years.

Some individuals do not identify as transgender or with the binary male or female identities. These people may choose to classify themselves non-binary, and they are not currently legally recognised by the UK government as this. 

I recommend reading upon the act if you are not aware of it as I will only be focusing on specific points within this email.

The Reforms:

Points within this section are based upon the Government’s statement on reform of this legislation on 7 October 2020.

A change that has been proposed within this reform is a change in how a Gender Recognition Certificate can be acquired. The process will be moved to the gov.uk website and the price will be decreased to a nominal amount of £5. This is vital as changing one’s legal identity should not feel intimidating; diversity should be celebrated, not punished. This will also benefit many families and individuals on lower incomes as an extra £140 can be difficult in some circumstances.

The country is already becoming a better place for transgender people with the introduction of three new gender clinics in 2020 which would have seen waiting lists cut by around 1,600 patients by 2022. This is a positive change and a step in the right direction.

One of the most important proposals is the legal recognition of non-binary individuals. Many non-binary people wish to live their lives free of being categorised into two sex-based identities. This is vital legislation which has already been recognised by governments such as the ones in Germany and Canada. This gained a positive response from the government at the time of the proposal but over these last two years it seems to have been ignored as no measures are being taken to aid with the acceptance and recognition of non-binary identifying individuals. 

This legislation and many more actions for transgender and gender-diverse rights have been supported by the Women and Equalities Committee as found in their most recent report on 21 December 2021. Additional actions suggested by them within this report is the idea that transgender people should not be required to provide evidence of them living with their identity for two years and that two different doctor’s notices should not be a requirement to change your gender. This is an approach that encourages self-identity over medical identity. You can read more about their report here: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5802/cmselect/cmwomeq/977/report.html

Conclusions:

Personally, this legislation would be incredibly beneficial for me and my peers. This is because we are struggling with long waiting times, medical proof and, a lack of recognition from our government. We wish to be free to identify however suits us as sometimes people are born with a sex that does not match them and they should not be punished for that. 

We need to ensure that citizens have the right to identify as they wish within our society and be certain that the UK does not fall behind the rest of the world on progressive legislation. Our society boasts of being one of diversity and inclusion however some people are still left out. This proposed legislation is not the best possible outcome for the gender-diverse community however, it is a strong move forward.

If you feel you personally cannot comment on the issue or that you will not be attending the debate on 21 February, I hope you can spread awareness between your colleagues to help your constituents and many different gender-diverse people within the country.

Yours Sincerely,

Avery (Jozef) Greatorex