Lord Lucas seeking further input.

[NotAssigned]

Posted on his Twitter account :

"I aim to explore, through written questions to the government, how they see the Equality Act 2010 being applied in practice. Such questions must follow a standard format. I cannot ask the government to confirm something or do something. However, I can and just have asked questions like the ones below. Suggestions for additional questions would be most welcome.

To ask HMG what policies the NHS has in place for patients who require to be treated and cared for by staff of a particular sex."

To ask what policies are in place to ensure that patients are not sleeping in the same space as people of the other sex would naturally follow on

Or to ask whoever is responsible for crime monitoring what policies are in place to correctly monitor the sex ofmoffenders and victims (to see fir example if we are reducing sex based violence)

How do we reach him if were not on Twitter?

I’m not on Twitter either but remember how those transsexual men were arrested on the tube and BTP recorded them as females? Wonder if they were searched in custody by female officers ??

He tweeted before that people could email him at [email protected]

I would like clarity on the meaning of ‘case by case basis’
Does it mean every individual, or does it mean particular areas? (Not sure how to word it, can someone help? You know what I mean I hope)

Where are you reading case by case basis? I usually take that to mean every individual.

Case by case refers to each organisation not each individual.
The guidance clarifies it.

Am on the move so can't link.

I'm not sure my questions are what you are asking for but here goes anyway:

A person has the protected characteristic of gender reassignment if the person is proposing to undergo, is undergoing or has undergone a process (or part of a process) for the purpose of reassigning the person's sex by changing physiological or other attributes of sex.

What does 'gender' mean as opposed to sex and how is it defined (without recourse to circular logic or sex stereotypes).

What does 'other attributes of sex' mean?

How can any 'process' reassign sex when changing sex is impossible?

Why does proposing to undergo a process mean you have the same protections as someone who has actually undergone a process?
If I propose to become an pilot, I'm not given a licence before I've done any training just because I state my intentions.

Would HMG consider a law to allow:

Race reassignment (e.g. white black people?)
Disability reassignment (e.g. able-bodied disabled people who just feel disabled and propose to use a wheelchair or crutches as part of the process of transition)

If not, why not, and why does similar reasoning not apply to the concept of male women/female men?

@midgebabe

To ask what policies are in place to ensure that patients are not sleeping in the same space as people of the other sex

That's the problem in a nutshell. The standard "default" position is to just bung any old *trans person into a ward that corresponds with whatever pronouns or self-identification they're using at the time.

A couple of months ago I had to be admitted into hospital for a minor elective procedure which meant I had a stay of a couple of nights. By default, the bed manager arranged for me to be put into a female bay on the ward.

Despite being post-op and having a GRC I objected for two reasons

1. I didn't want to make women uncomfortable with me being there
2. I felt uncomfortable having to dilate (even behind closed curtains) with women around me.

Pointing this out to nurses and a sister caused confusion (at best) and consternation (at worst) that I was trying to be "difficult". I didn't want to go onto a female ward and they didn't want to put me onto a male ward (which tbf I didn't want to do either - for reason 2 above). They genuinely couldn't grasp my reasoning.

In the end they had to "bed shuffle" and stick me in a side room. To say they were not impressed at my speaking up was an understatement.

(As an aside, every time I had blood tests I had to keep telling them to put "m" on the test markers - cos biology, and had the confused look from MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS that I had to keep pointing this out when they kept ticking "f")

Be that as it may - there seems to be an automatic response that if you're using "she" as your pronoun or a designated female title, ie "Miss", then you go straight onto a female ward as a matter of course.

I'm not entirely sure WHAT the answer is - as there probably aren't enough *trans patients in a hospital at any one time to have some form of "trans-only" bay, and side rooms are usually reserved for the very sick/dying.

Of course many *trans people won't speak up because of either embarrassment or "validation", and will happily go onto female bays - but from a dignity point of view, for women especially, it has to change.

Answers on a postcard to the usual address

To my mind if there are only a few people, not enough for dedicated spaces, then a side ward is correct.

I guess your experience suggests a question should be how will the nhs ensure that people receive sex appropriate treatment, whilst still respecting them as people

To ask whether transwomen will be allowed to compete in women's sporting events.

What are the current targets for the NHS on single sex wards? What is the current status of provision?

How is “single sex” defined by government / NHS England for this purpose?

What is government’s policy on single sex elite sports?

Which publicly funded UK sports bodies allow natal males to compete in the girls’ or women’s category?

As per Antibles. I have questions as to the practical application of the GRA and feel it needs to be changed to clarify the following points - or repealed, either works for me.

Regarding the following:
A person has the protected characteristic of gender reassignment if the person is proposing to undergo, is undergoing or has undergone a process (or part of a process) for the purpose of reassigning the person's sex by changing physiological or other attributes of sex.

What is the legal definition of ‘proposing to undergo’ in this context? How would an individual demonstrate this? Can someone under the age of 18 do this?

What is the legal definition of ‘is undergoing’ or ‘has undergone part of a process’ in this context? What would the individual be doing or have done to demonstrate this?

What is the legal definition of ‘physiological or other attributes of sex’?

How can individuals and organisations act within the law when this law is so poorly defined?

Interesting Hamster, thank you for sharing.

So these policies that aren't taking the needs of female patients into account, are not flexible enough to take into account the specific needs of an individual post-op transsexual patient either.

So, who do they benefit?

What are the “non-physiological” attributes of sex?

In my area the NHS ignored the EA2010 when writing and almost issuing guidance on trans patients. They only remembered to carry out an EIA and think about the public sector equality duty when loads of women objected.
I'll be writing to him!
Deatils are here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3784009-Are-you-in-Devon-Bristol-North-Somerset-or-South-Gloucestershire-Tell-NHS-your-view-on-trans-guidelines-NOW

What are the “non-physiological” attributes of sex?

Corduroy trousers for the chaps and floaty skirts for the ladies? Seriously, I have no idea. Is it something metaphysical akin to Layla Moran’s soul-spotting?

To ask what policies the NHS has to accurately record the sex of every patient correctly, acknowledging the harm that may be caused to transgender patients who have changed their 'gender' marker on their NHS records as there is only one field for sex/gender.

I want to ask something about strip searches - not forcing females to be strip searched by transwomen, or women to strip search transwomen, or vice versa with men/transmen. Can't quite figure out the wording though. Maybe:

To ask what policies the police have to uphold the dignity of all parties when strip searches are carried out on or by transpeople

Does that make the point clearly enough?

Piece written by Lord L which you might find interesting.

www.tes.com/news/gender-neutral-toilets-above-all-keep-children-safe?amp&__twitter_impression=true

Relevant to any service: to ask how one tells a genuine transperson from a person pretending to be trans in bad faith in order to inappropriately access single sex spaces, given that their bodies are exactly the same....

He has now tweeted about the Tavistock, linking to a Mumsnet thread- thank you Lord Lucas!

“There is a transcript of the Dr Polly Carmichael / Victoria Derbyshire interview at mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_ri… We need to be sure that we are doing our best by these children, and working to do better.”

twitter.com/lordlucascd/status/1235129803545759744?s=21