#Equality act

[rhube]

UK peops, please sign this! Non-UK peops, pleas reblog.

Petition link.

I included the tweet (yes, it has alt-text) because the context given is important.

#transgnder #non-binary #trans #equality act #uk politics

[karadin]

Biden Issues Chilling Address On TERRIFYING Targeted Attack Reality

"Today, on Transgender Day of Remembrance we are reminded that there is more to do [to] meet that promise, as we grieve the 26 transgender Americans whose lives were taken this year, while each one of these deaths is a tragedy – the true toll of those victimized is likely even higher, with the majority of those targeted being women of color," - President Biden

sometimes Biden gets it

#transgender #trans rights #human rights #equality act #LGBTQA rights #president biden #democrats

[coochiequeens]

Tide is turning.

#UK #sex Matters #maya forstater #Save Women’s Sports Saturday #Only less than a quarter of British people think biological men should be allowed in women’s sports #Equality Act

[probablyasocialecologist]

The recent debate on the proposed amendment to the Equality Act 2010 - to change the definition of ‘sex’ to ‘biological sex’ - caused much apprehension in the trans community. This article provides an in-depth analysis of that debate, primarily aimed at interested trans people, their allies, and experts. For many readers, this first section will tell you what you need to know. Although the debate was framed as about ‘clarifying’ the definition of sex under the Equality Act 2010, the reality is that the proposed amendment to the definition of sex would constitute a significant legal change. The Gender Recognition Act 2004 establishes that a trans person with a Gender Recognition Certificate becomes the acquired sex for all legal purposes. The Equality Act 2010 was drafted with that legislation in mind, and the case law has similarly developed along this vein. The proposed amendment to the Equality Act 2010 thus constitutes as significant legal change - not a mere clarification. The content of the debate itself was both toxic and often nonsensical, adopting framing which positioned trans people (and especially trans women) as predatory and violent threats, especially to children. This contained substantial transphobia, misogyny, and transmisogyny. The demonisation frequently relied on provably false or entirely imagined information. This culminated in the mocking of a trans person’s expression of suicidal thoughts. The section ‘A respectful debate?’ continues a detailed breakdown and debunking of much of this framing, and the various anecdotes and examples provided to support it.

#uk politics #transgender #lgbt #gender critical #equality act #transphobia

[jenniferdiazisatransgirl]

A Counter To JK Rowling’s Article in The Times

I try and ignore what JK Rowling is posting but it is kinda hard to ignore and when she is given the platform of a newspaper to post misinformation, I feel the need to counter. (By the way, I copied and pasted this from my FB)

So JK Rowling was given an entire opinion piece in The Times yesterday to write about her opposition to the Gender Recognition Act in Scotland.

Let's make this clear. Who or who doesn't have access to single-sex spaces has nothing to do with the Gender Recognition Act of 2004. It never has done. It is covered by the Equality Act of 2010 where there are actually exemptions where a trans person can be refused access to a single-sex service upon a case by case basis where the goal is to meet a legitimate aim. It however, is not allowed to be a blanket ban.

The one exception to this is prisons, where the accepted practice is that you initially go by what is recorded on a person's birth certificate and a panel should meet on where a trans prisoner is to be held.

The Gender Recognition Act of 2004 covers birth certificates and a persons tax record. When issued with a Gender Recognition Certificate a trans person is issued a new birth certificate in their acquired gender and their legal sex is altered for tax purposes.

This enables a trans person to marry in their acquired gender and for their death certificate to also read the same when they die. It also places a few additional protections. Like for example, a person with GRCs previous gender is not allowed to be disclosed without their consent unless necessary.

Scotland's proposed change removes the medicalisation of being trans which JK Rowling somehow argues will increase medicalisation of children. Not sure how demedicalisation leads to further medicalisation. Plus I have an interesting note about the medical process here.

So to get a doctor to sign off on the fact you intend to live in your acquired gender for the rest of your life you are actually required as part of the medical process to use single-sex facilities of your acquired gender to get that sign off. As I said, single-sex facilities are not under the remit of the Gender Recognition Act, but to get the necessary sign offs to meet the present requirements of the Gender Recognition Act you HAVE to use those facilities. To get sign off for surgery you HAVE to use those facilities.

How do I know all this? Cos unlike JK Rowling who has no experience of being a trans person in the UK and who has no expertise on the subject besides having a seeming obsession with trans people, I am a trans woman who has gone through the entire process from start to finish.

I realised I should be a girl when I was 10 (2003).

I came out when I was 15 and got referred to the local gender identity clinic that same year (2008).

I had my name changed in 2012.

I started HRT in 2013.

I had gender reassignment surgery in 2016.

I got my gender recognition certificate in 2017, after initially being rejected in 2016 because for some reason the Gender Recognition Panel decided the letter from my Gender Identity Clinic didn't meet their criteria. The Gender Identity Clinic who provide these letters fairly routinely.

And before I go I just want to highlight this. The proposed reform to the Gender Recognition Act of 2004 in Scotland are to remove the medical aspects, lower the age to 16 from 18 and make it so you have to only live 3 months in your acquired gender as opposed to 2 years.

JK Rowling argues there is no measure really for someone living in their acquired gender and it is one point I'm tempted to agree with her on. However, the medical process that JK Rowling as a cisgender* woman has never experienced does seem to have a measure for this.

Most of you on here know me fairly well. You will know in day-to-day life my go to outfit is jeans, t-shirt, plaid shirt and depending on the weather maybe a hoodie. At work black trousers and a plaid shirt. It is genuinely how I feel comfortable.

At my appointments at the GIC though, I'd sit down and one of the first things the doctor would do is examine how I was dressed.

Doctor: Hmmmm, I see your wearing jeans today. That's rather masculine attire isn't it?

Me: They're from the women's section.

Doctor: (dismissively) Hmmmm. (writes notes)

And I heard it a lot, that how I choose to dress is not in keeping with the gender roles the GIC expect I conform to as a woman. That I'd never get hormones and surgery if I didn't put on make-up and a skirt for my appointments. And I do not exaggerate. I don't know if they still do it but Porterbrook GIC had an image consultant who REPEATEDLY asserted these things to me during my appointments with her.

Honestly, my appointments to Porterbrook GIC felt like a trip to the fucking 1950s where women were expected to be prim and proper housewives.

I'd like to imagine the gender identity clinics have improved but frankly I still don't hear good things to this day. And God, JK Rowling and her friends like to talk about how trans people are re-inforcing regressive gender stereotypes. Well, the medical process you want us to continue to go through to get a GRC, oh boy is it full of regressive gender stereotypes.

To recap though:

- Who has access to single-sex spaces is not covered by the Gender Recognition Act of 2004, but by the Equality Act of 2010 which does have a single-sex exemption clause where trans people can be excluded from a single-sex service on a case by case basis, where the goal is to meet a legitimate aim.

- The Gender Recognition Act of 2004 covers what my birth certificate says, whether I am husband or a wife when I marry, what gender is recorded on my death certificate and in a day and age when it was less equal, my tax and pension rights.

*cisgender means someone whose gender (sense of self) matches up with their sex. For lack of a better word it is the opposite of being transgender. Like straight is the counterpart to gay, cisgender is the counterpart to transgender.

#trans rights #transgender #gender recognition act #equality act #Scotland #United Kingdom #miscellaneous

[anarchistdragonnerd]

It's not just about trans women, which is what they focus on. Trans men will be forced into 'female sex' spaces, and there is no consideration to this. yes the equality act could use work, and i think biological sex should be a defined group, but so should your legal sex and gender. multiple groups can exist at once.

Kemi, please try to be compassionate.

#trans #transgender #uk #uk politics #uk trans #trans rights #equality act

[wakewithgiggli]

If you're in the UK, please sign this position. It's in favour of Trans Rights.

#trans #trans rights #equality act #petition #giggli speaks

[serene-sun]

Montanan just passed a law to legalize bullying trans kids. Florida is voting on the legalization of kidnapping trans kids. 30 states have banned healthcare for trans people. THIS is happening, America is becoming a communist country. If your a mother, father, sister, brother, sibling, aunt, uncle, anyone who cares and wants their children and friends to live SAFE, then please sign this. We HAVE to get this equality bill passed.

#lgbtq positivity #lgbtq community #lgbtq #lgbtq petition #equality #equality act #equality bill #serene sun environment

[redbeardace]

The Equality Act still doesn't protect us.

Learn more here: https://www.inclusiveea.org/

#pride month #asexual #asexuality #aromantic #aro #pan #pansexual #pansexuality #equality act #lgbt #lgbtq #lgbtqia

[diddyface29]

Friendly reminder that the Equality Act still hasn’t passed through Senate in the US and this petition Taylor Swift started during Lover era still hasn’t reached a million signatures.

#taylor swift #calm down #lgbtq rights #gaylor #kaylor #taylor swift lover #swifties #equality act

[patiencesinners]

(via highesthopesfoundation)

#highest hopes foundation #brendon urie #pride month #Equality act #Panic! at the Disco

[perfectlymassivetimetravel--blog]

#McDonald's #chick fil a #pride month #equality #equality act #politics #trans rights #basic human rights #in the town I live in chick fil a has lines wrapped around the block #also shame damn

[tofueatingwokerati]

TRIGGER WARNING ⚠️ sensitive topics covered as well as references to self harm.

I was moved to my present address for my safety after being stalked, harassed and assaulted by a council tenant.

The police did nothing after I reported him beyond a virtual slap on the wrist by a PCSO (and people wonder why women don’t report these crimes) and the council did equally nothing to safeguard me.

It took two years to get me moved and only after I went to the government ombudsman, and revealed to my housing officer I was a rape survivor, was anything finally done.

A council manger, Paul Hadley (since retired I’ve been informed) said to me that it was my fault, that I must have been doing something to encourage him and in front of an antisocial behaviour officer present that the council were “not responsible for their tenants behaviour” and proceeded to deny me any safeguarding.

More complaints and ombudsman interventions would follow. Battle for equality rights never ends if you’re a women and happen to also have disabilities.

In the two years it took to get me moved I’d been in A&E as a suicide risk and was regularly self harming. My disabilities worsened and I ended up needing crutches as the pain intensified. My hips now “pop” regularly and I have permanent back pain after living through that ordeal.

After the ombudsman intervention I was given priority status to move. That came with more hurdles and barriers. Paul Hadley, again said I would get this property over his dead body. Somerset Council were consistently unprofessional, in breach of their duty of care and left me at risk consistently.

The housing officer I’d shared my rape experience with got me this home but they placed their own employment at risk to do it and said she would be paying for it for the rest of her time there. Being close to retirement I don’t think she cared what they thought of her any longer, she was an exceptional exception to an otherwise toxic council mentality towards tenants.

It shouldn’t need an employee to put their job in jeopardy to do what the law already specifies is their duty and role as a public service.

When I viewed my current home it was in awful condition and wasn’t accessible. I asked what work was being done to address this prior to my moving here and was advised nothing beyond pre-scheduled works example updating the boiler (which turned out to be faulty from day one). Beyond a decorating kit which I couldn’t safely use I was told repeatedly I could “always self fund” despite this being a provision under law and they had specific disability grants available for the works I was asking for, they refused me all accessibility and refused me an occupational assessment.

Whilst I was safe from one danger by moving here, the stalker, I was thrown into a new set of dangers to my health and safety.

As a vulnerable disabled person I was subject to bullying and harassment from neighbours very early on as they felt I was too young to be living in a bungalow without ever knowing, or caring about the context of my disabilities and what I was moved from.

One case of neighbour harassment became so extreme it ended in a protection order on their visitor.

The property, as already stated was in a terrible state. I photographed it all and sent it to legal counsel. They advised me not to move in (too late by this point) because it was not fit for human habitation and not up to council relet standards.

It took seven years to get the kitchen accessible and it’s still not 100% with faults from installation causing me undue resistance on my joints and risk of injury. I continue to battle that out with the council. It took going to the ombudsman again and the then CEO of the council to even get the kitchen adjusted under equality law.

The boiler has been faulty from day one. It has always done this thing where the pressure builds up and it eventually “burbs”. It’s so bad it sounds like it’s going to blow the cupboard door off. Eventually it started failing and I repeatedly needed to get out of hours engineers from the council to patch it up.

One year it was failing daily and I kept reporting it. The engineers kept having issue scanning the gas meter to log the call. They had a new system and it was having teething issues. This meant that every engineer would not have record of the previous days call out and openly treated me as a liar. Thankfully I had all the email communication to the gas repairs department and was able to prove this was a persistent problem.

During this time I was loosing mobility and dexterity in my joints, notably my hands and fingers. This meant I couldn’t keep myself safe. I was paying extra home help just to be safe, prep more meals and washing up as I couldn’t do anything myself (the kettle had to be repeatedly boiled as I had no hot water during all this).

I was huddled up in my bedroom trying to keep warm. As has been consistent with this council there was no safeguarding and no assistance. After almost a week of this and getting more & more unwell, I filed a formal complaint. I was given a tiny little heater and eventually compensated for the additional electric I was using as well as hourly cost of extra home help.

Since then it has failed again and again. In fact I dread every winter knowing it is going to fail.

Each and every time my mobility is materially impacted, because it usually fails overnight, meaning it’s had 8 hours for the temperature to plummet then hours more before an engineer can come out to patch it up.

In that time I loose mobility and dexterity. It happened again recently (dropping to 14°C by the time I woke to discover the boiler fault) and despite using electric heaters I simply could not warm up. Electric heaters are no substitute for central heating. It left me unable to make a meal and I was unable to get emergency home help to plug the care gap.

One engineer advised me that as long as they have parts they will patch it up indefinitely until it fails permanently. This is without any risk assessment to someone like myself materially impacted by temperature.

I filed another complaint upon many complaints at this point, with the council and they are refusing me a boiler update.

They’re refusing me a risk assessment and refusing me an occupational assessment whilst being fully informed this is having a detrimental impact on my health and safety.

It got so bad that I started to have intrusive thoughts and ended up on the phone to crisis. After an hour with them they were able to stabilise me. I then sought legal advise and as will come as no surprise was informed yes the council are in breach of equalities law but also they’re discriminating me on disabilities ground by refusing a risk assessment of my needs. The council have openly stated that I am getting “special treatment” any time works are carried out even though it ALWAYS falls under equalities/reasonable adjustments.

I even wrote to Duncan Sharkey, the CEO of Somerset Council. I got a short response from a different department repeating the deadlock to upgrading the boiler, refusing me equal access to refuse & recycling collection (thats a whole other story of discrimination over almost a decade) and telling me to take it up with the ombudsman.

So here we go again, I now need to go back to the ombudsman but this time I am looking at legal options (I even took out extra home insurance knowing this would happen) as well as taking this to the national press is my next step. Enough is enough!

Ultimately this goes beyond a boiler, beyond me as one person. This is about an institutional failing towards disabled people and a toxic mentality of blaming tenants when the council don’t want to spend money to carry out their legal duty. They hide behind policy and procedure to deny you equal access and place wilful barriers to health & safety by denying risk assessments.

I once had a council surveyor blame the damp in my previous home on my cats “heavy breathing”, telling me to get rid of the cats and in his report blamed me for not using the extractor fan. There was no extractor fan. Can you guess, yes the council had refused me an extractor fan in that property, but still the council blame the tenant for their failures. As an aside the damp was so severe along the entire block that the wall was collapsing in one property and they had to be relocated for their safety.

But yeah, blame the tenant, it’s Somerset Councils continued consistency, blame the tenant and discriminate, all to save a few pennies whilst taking rent money from us all.

Rouge landlords are not consigned to the private sector!

#disability #discrimination #ehlers danlos syndrome #hEDS #Somerset council #gender discrimination #equality #equity #health and safety #equality act #mobilty #faulty boiler #damp #mould #rougue landlords #damp and mould #government #ombudsman #legal action #equality act 2010 #Equalities Act 2010 #anti-discrimination law #mental health #uk politics #local government

[timetofindtheacorn]

god I hope the Equality Act gets fucking passed because I'm tired of waiting

#equality act #equal rights #queer

[gwydionmisha]

#EHRC #Equality Act #Tories #Trans #News