We are so disappointed to see the recent guidance from the NHS around the treatment of trans+ people. Not only does this seem to go against the idea of personalised care, but we are actually being excluded from services we are paying for. Whilst the NHS leadership may have carefully considered the issues, the decision ranks of moral cowardice and a lack of substantive common sense – rather more of a rush to upset many of the most vulnerable people in society to mitigate perceived risk and placate ‘noisy’ opponents of trans+ people.
The decision does not solve any problems around healthcare settings security and risk – where trans+ people are not (and have never been) the substantive issue and it flies in the face of common sense where staff, volunteers and others are free to access these spaces without gender constraints – the safety of staff and patients remains exactly as it was before this guidance – maybe this is just a performative smoke screen as affecting trans+ people will not affect security at all.
Actually, safety has been put at risk – but only that of trans+ people who now have to access a potentially hostile and unsafe ‘service’.
We encourage the NHS to rethink this decision (without any expectation that they would listen or care!) – we will be joining with other trans+ organisations to see what options we have moving forward.
You can contact us at gillian@transvox.co.uk