Transgender Equality

1
Transgender Equality

• James Morton
• SCOTTISH TRANSGENDER ALLIANCE
• www.scottishtrans.org
• info_at_scottishtrans.org

2
What is Gender?

• Gender is determined socially it is the
  societal meaning assigned to male and female.
  Each society emphasizes particular roles that
  each sex should play, although there is wide
  latitude in acceptable behaviors for each gender
  
• Hesse-Biber, S. Carger, G. L. (2000). Working
  women in America Split dreams. Oxford
  University Press.
• Gender is used to describe those characteristics
  of women and men, which are socially constructed,
  while sex refers to those which are biologically
  determined. People are born female or male but
  learn to be girls and boys who grow into women
  and men. This learned behaviour makes up gender
  identity and determines gender roles
• World Health Organization. (2002). Integrating
  gender perspectives into the work of WHO.

3
What is Gender?

• "The idea that men and women are more different
  from one another than either is from anything
  else, must come from something other than nature
  far from being an expression of natural
  differences, exclusive gender identity is the
  suppression of natural similarities.
• Glover, D Kaplan, C, 2000, Genders, Routledge,
  New York
• Gender can be considered to be a construct of
  society used to create and enforce distinctions
  between that which is assumed to be male and
  female, and to allow for the domination of
  masculinity over femininity through the
  attribution of specific gender-related
  characteristics.

4
What is Transgender?

• Transgender can include all those whose gender
  identity and/or gender expression differ in some
  way from the socially constructed gender
  expectations placed upon them at birth.
• Gender Identity an individuals internal
  self-perception of their own gender.
• Gender Expression an individuals external
  gender-related physical appearance and behaviour.

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Traditional Gender Binary
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Separating Out Aspects of Gender Construction
WOMAN
MAN
OR
Male Physical Body Male Gender
Identity Masculine Behaviour Attracted to Women
Female Physical Body Female Gender
Identity Feminine Behaviour Attracted to Men
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Creating A Non-BinaryGender Spectrum
WOMAN
MAN
8
Transgender Umbrella
Transsexual Women (Male-To-Female)
Transsexual Men (Female-To-Male)
Androgyne People (Non-binary Gender)
Intersex People
Cross-dressing People (Transvestite People)
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Transsexual people

• Transsexual people are usually distinguished from
  other transgender people by their strong desire
  to live completely and permanently as the gender
  opposite to that which they were originally
  labelled at birth
• As part of Gender Reassignment (Transition),
  usually take hormones and may undergo various
  surgical procedures.

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Trans Men Trans Women

• A female-to-male FTM transsexual man trans
  man is someone who was labelled female at birth
  but has a male gender identity and therefore is
  transitioning to live completely and permanently
  as a man.

• A male-to-female MTF transsexual woman trans
  woman is someone who was labelled male at birth
  but has a female gender identity and therefore is
  transitioning to live completely and permanently
  as a woman.

11
Intersex people

• Sometimes a persons external genitals, their
  internal reproductive system or their chromosomes
  are in between what is considered clearly male or
  female.
• Most intersex people will self-identify clearly
  as men or as women.
• There are many different intersex conditions.
• Doctors often guess which gender to assign to an
  intersex baby. Sometimes the intersex person will
  turn out to have a different gender identity from
  the doctors guess so the intersex person may
  have to transition as an adult in a similar way
  to transsexual people.

12
Androgyne people

• Androgyne people do not feel comfortable thinking
  of themselves as simply either men or women.
  Instead they feel their gender identity is more
  complicated to describe and non-binary.
• They may describe their gender identity as a
  mixture of aspects of being a man and being a
  woman or alternatively they may reject defining
  their gender at all.
• Some androgyne people may take hormones and
  change their names in a similar way to
  transsexual people. Some may use a combination of
  male and female names or an androgynous name.

13
Cross-dressing people

• Some women and men cross-dress in public just
  because they feel more comfortable expressing
  themselves in particular masculine or feminine
  clothes.
• Some women and men cross-dress as a form of
  drag performance on stage or at parties.
• Cross-dressing is more about gender expression
  rather than gender identity. Most cross-dressing
  people are happy with their birth gender and have
  no wish to permanently alter any of their
  physical characteristics.

14
Socially liquorice allsorts

• From Oxford professors to those with learning
  difficulties
• Across class structures
• Universal social stigmatisation risks
• Loss of family, friends, home, job
• Transphobic hate crime
• Health inequalities
• Poverty
• Some are out and proud
• Many are stealth

15
Growing Population Of Trans People
16
Sex Discrimination definition of Gender
Reassignment

• Gender Reassignment" means a process which is
  undertaken under medical supervision for the
  purpose of reassigning a person's sex by changing
  physiological or other characteristics of sex,
  and includes any part of such a process
• (Sex Discrimination Act 1975, Section 82)
• In other words
• Anyone who goes to the doctor saying they think
  they want to change the gender in which they
  live.

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Legal protection on grounds of Gender Reassignment

• Legal protection from discrimination and
  harassment if a person intends to undergo, is
  currently undergoing or has previously undergone
  gender reassignment.
• Also called transitioning.
• Does not need to involve any surgery.

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Gender Recognition Act 2004

• Can apply after living as acquired gender for 2
  years. Not required to have had any surgery but
  required to end any existing marriage or civil
  partnership.
• Provides corrected UK birth certificate and all
  the legal rights of the persons acquired gender.
• Confidentiality protected criminal offence with
  5000 fine to reveal gender history without
  persons consent. Important exceptions where the
  information is required
• for prevention or investigation of a crime
• for medical emergency treatment when person is
  unable to provide consent.

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Priority equality areas for transgender people?

• To not be harassed, discriminated against,
  assaulted or considered a less valuable human
  being due to their gender identity, gender
  expression or physical sex characteristics.
• To have agency over their own body and make their
  own reproductive, physical and behavioural
  decisions without undue external coercion.
• To self-define their own identity.