Our message to the PM

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Dear Prime Minister,

I’m writing to you today as a UK citizen deeply concerned about proposed rollbacks to safeguards for trans dignity and safety in this country. On 14th June, The Sunday Times had as its front page an article on how the much-needed reforms to the Gender Recognition Act were being shelved. Compounding the trans community’s worries about this was that in the same article, prospective plans were revealed that would tighten the screw of exclusion for trans people from single-sex spaces.

The consultation period on the Gender Recognition Act was very difficult for the trans community – trans lives and dignity were debated as though a minority’s right to existence itself was up for debate. Still, 70% of respondents were overwhelmingly in favour of positive change. To ignore this would send a clear message to the country that engaging through democratic means does not lead to positive changes for the most marginalised. This would, of course, be a worrying message to signal from yourself as Prime Minister and I would urge you not to greenlight it.

The threat of rollbacks to trans rights, dignity, and legal protections in the UK cannot be overstated. I’m asking you to carefully consider the direction you wish to take with regards to the dignity of one of the most marginalised groups in this country. Please do not allow trans lives to be used as a pawn in a game they didn’t ask to play – trans people simply want to get on with their lives in safety and in peace.

Unduly excluding trans people from public life would be a huge step in the wrong direction, and a monumental loss to the UK’s proud human rights record. Please do not allow this to happen under your watch.

Response to the reporting that GRA reform to be dropped

by Jay Stewart, CEO

The Sunday Times front page announced today that the, “PM scraps plans to make gender change easier”. The article details alleged plans to abolish amendments to the GRA.   

If true, this is deeply concerning.

We need reforms to ensure all trans people have access to legal gender recognition without the unnecessary barriers of expense and bureaucracy. All trans people should have the right to be recognised and treated in their gender.

The UK is falling behind other countries on this matter.

Remember the reform that we are looking for has already taken place in Ireland, Norway and Colombia and many other countries. Whatever the fears are, people should be reassured that they have not happened in these countries and that they won’t happen here.

What’s more 70% of the 100,000 responses to the consultation agree that reform is the right way to go. It is undemocratic to disregard these responses.  

In the context of #BLM and C-19, this is added upset to our communities.

Our health system is failing us with critically long waiting lists that will only get worse; hatecrime is increasing and our mental ill-health is being exacerbated.

At Gendered Intelligence we want a world where all gender identities and expressions are respected, understood and celebrated. If I have a message to trans, gender diverse people and our allies everywhere, I wish to channel Maya Angelou:

“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.”

Blu’s Volunteering Story

For Volunteers’ Week 2020, here is our volunteer Blu on their experience at GI

I have been volunteering for Gendered Intelligence for a year now, having been a young person under their wing for 4 years beforehand. I don’t think I’m alone in saying that GI have been a family for me since the beginning.  

Before finding GI, I don’t think I understood truly what it meant to feel empowered. A few years into being a young person with GI, I concluded that the only reason why they had so much belief in me was because it was their job. I can now safely say that this isn’t the case. As a volunteer I am still caught off guard by the time and care that is given to my thoughts (and random ideas that I come up with at 2am). In a world that ignores and suppresses voices on an individual and systemic basis, feeling heard takes a lot of getting used to, but it has given me the courage to keep coming up with those 2am ideas and some of them haven’t been all that bad. 

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In a world that ignores and suppresses voices on an individual and systemic basis, feeling heard takes a lot of getting used to

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I think something else about volunteering for GI that has really helped me is it’s the first space in which I rarely apologise for things that I don’t need to apologise for. When working in an environment where we try to adopt a transformative approach to mistakes, it’s hard to entertain unnecessary guilt. This, teamed with never ending cart- loads of affirmation, empowerment, and celebration, has really helped me to know my worth and stand my ground. I feel more human than anywhere else when I’m surrounded by people who I can trust to challenge me and who I feel comfortable challenging.  

For me GI feels a bit like that thing where everyone stands in a circle and leans back on each other… 

I guess the word is “community”.

That’s all I really have for now, but I hope it sheds some light into how it feels to be a volunteer at GI.

Blu

Volunteers’ Week 2020

A message from Sahaf, our Community Development and Partnerships lead, on Volunteers’ Week

In this time of uncertainty, our volunteers are even more vital to the continuation of our work. At Gendered Intelligence, we see volunteering both as a way to help us deliver our services, but also as a service in and of itself. It’s a tool that helps us empower trans people. It allows for us to provide community members with new skills and experience, and to create spaces for trans people to meet people and make friends. Both aspects are needed now more than ever.

Like all charities, the pandemic has had an impact on our organisation. But our volunteers have been a major lifeline. In April alone, our volunteers donated 30% more time to us than the monthly average. This was in addition to taking extra time to find their way around new software that we’re using for our remote service delivery. We also received so many new volunteer applications that we ran two inductions. We usually run an induction every other month so that’s a fourfold increase in the number of new applications!

But, we don’t just see volunteering as a means for our staff to get additional support delivering their work. We’re currently looking to expand our provision for adult trans people with a new area of work focused on community development and volunteering will be a key tool in this work. Our first community development project, GIANTS, was launched a week after the UK lockdown came into effect. GIANTS provides a group of volunteers with training on campaigning and messaging skills, along with continued peer and organisational support. Our GIANTS will then work within their communities, forming relationships and advocating for change, to create more welcoming spaces for trans people across the UK.

After a two-month long recruitment period, our first cohort of 20 GIANTS will have their induction this Sunday. They’re an incredible group from across England with special focuses on trans inclusion within faith communities, in sport, in education as well as their local high streets. They will be self-organised and their work will be community-led, informed by their own knowledge and experiences of navigating these spaces everyday. As the largest trans-led organisation in the UK, we can provide our support and experience, but they will be the real change-makers as they know best what needs to change. We’re all very excited to see the amazing things they will accomplish. 

As GIANTS has always been envisaged to be a project delivered remotely and online, it was crucial that we launched as planned. It was something positive and uplifting that we could share with our community in a time when hope was and is needed. As a trans-led organisation ourselves, we feel the impact of the current backlash on trans rights, as well as the effects of the pandemic, and we know how much hope and change is needed. Our work will always be driven by a desire and a need to improve the lives of trans people in the UK. And this would be much, much, harder without the support of our incredible volunteers. 

So from all of us at GI, I want to convey our heartfelt gratitude to all of our volunteers who put in so many hours and do so much for us. Thank you!