MH issues and trans women

[missbonita]

metro.co.uk/2018/04/16/fears-grow-missing-woman-andre-kirlew-vanished-hospital-7470196/

I've just seen this article about Andre who is clearly a seriously unwell individual. My heart goes out to anyone suffering a serious mental illness, and the article states he has been diagnosed with both bipolar disorder and paranoid schizophrenia, which must be utterly debilitating.

What I do not understand is why such a seriously unwell person is being taken at their word that they are in fact a woman and given the status of being transgendered? Would this person be allowed into women's toilets, changing rooms etc?

I have worked with people with severe mental illness and I don't want to be disrespectful or belittle the severity of the situation but I cared for a man who told me that Tony Blair was communicating with him thru the lights another told me he was an Aztec Warrior - why do we not believe them?

I feel so confused, please be gentle if I've said something utterly stupid.

Thanks

It does seem to be one of a very few characteristics that someone can identify into.
Religion would be another, which makes sense, as you identify as a member of a religion if your beliefs and practices align with that of other members of the religion.
But this seems so strange as your biology is intrinsic to you and anything gender-related that isn't about biology is so subjective and culturally specific.
My understanding is that someone identifying as female can access most or all single-sex services as most service providers don't use the exception in the equality act which specifies the circumstances under which you can have a single-sex service.

Please be assured that my questions are totally genuine - I am not looking to annoy or provoke - there is just a lot I don't understand.

If someone with a MH condition identified as a Muslim, Jew or Catholic (not exclusively they are just ones I know) I am not at all sure they would be welcomed into the congregation. They would have to study for years, show good character and convert through scripture study.

I find this so odd - to just accept the word of such an unwell person and give them a legal status. I can't fathom it.

Hopefully they will be safely back in hospital soon.

I agree - for their own sake. It must be terrifying.

I was interested in the title, though. I was thinking it was about mental health issues related to trans women, but it seems like it's more that you're wondering how you differentiate psychosis from an identity issue.

I wonder what you did in mental health, I'm aware that trans issues aren't well understood by MH support workers and some professionals.

Psychosis comes and goes and responds to antipsychotics, GID doesn't.

So, just continuing the theme. What has this got to do with feminism?

This would raise a question about Self-ID and the related policy and cultural changes.

There might be all sorts of reasons that someone male might say they are or even believe they are or want to live as a woman, other than GID The current GRA offers some gatekeeping around this in terms of diagnosis, a panel, etc. The proposed new laws and indeed policies (eg Caledonian Sleeper) lose that. So how does the proposed legislation enable women/the law to differentiate between someone with GIDS or some form of psychosis who says they are female?

Last line of the above paragraph is the link to feminism in that it has a direct impact on women's rights.

Trans is probed and questioned and disbelieved, trans women are said to be mentally ill/paedophiles/sex offenders and dangerous to women a lot here, it suits the meme - not surprised.

It's not helpf

I was a carer - no medical qualifications, it was a long time ago and I was on a mens ward - I found it very frightening to be honest. It was a poor agency placement for a young naive woman with no skills to cope with the illnesses.

I have posted in feminism because I have read info from people who are very knowledgeable here and think I would be called a 'transphobic' in other parts of the site. I am not, but I am a feminist and I want to better understand this.

thanks for your replies.

It's not helpful to discuss an individual like this, especially this individual who is clearly very vulnerable.

Good point wine . There needs to be some level of protection, and even with the existing GRA, some segregation, for the sake of everyone

I have been probed and questioned and disbelieved for all sorts of things over the years - when I was assaulted, when I was harassed, when I sued for sexual discrimination. I have not said any derogatory things about trans women but I do question where the missing person is a trans woman.

missbonita, going off on a tangent a bit, I understand, there's so little funding in MH services. It's pretty amazing that you lasted on there, very brave!

Did you see the series on BBC Iplayer about someone who worked as a carer too? Shocking treatment of women with BPD/ED, it's heartbreaking.

Sapphire

Agree about individuals Beauty (with the exception of mentioning evidence of risks e.g. News coverage of someone identifying as women and sexually assaulting them in a women's shelter, where this is relevant to policy discussions)

Can still discuss in more general terms - e.g. I have been aware of individuals who.... how would women be protected from this with Self-ID etc?

Wine, sorry to hear you've been through all that, did you win your case? I've been told I've had several cases for discrimination + sexual assault. I just don't have the spoons to go through all that, I'm glad you stuck up for yourself.

Sorry, I meant to say misbonita. Yes wine that sounds horrendous, when did that happen?

Thanks for replying

Yes, my sexual discrimination case was settled 4 hours before we went to court to save face for the company. Following my pay off another 7 women walked out and were also paid off. This was a UK utility company - not some small upstart. It was terrifying as they took me to the edge and made up lies about me etc but winning was a defining moment in my life as used the money too set up my own business.

I can see why people feel its wrong to discuss this individual and their right to privacy, I am just so utterly confused at the moment and MN is the only place I have been able to discuss this.

I think the point about the GD continuing beyond psychosis is really important and that makes sense to me.

Speaking as a person with MH issues who's been identifying as an Anglican for years, I can vouch for the fact that there aren't any entry requirements. Actually, some people might think that a bad thing, since I don't believe in God, I'm just there for the singing. It works ok though - I just turn up and behave as though I did. If, however, I were to start proclaiming that not all Anglicans believe in God, and that prayers and hymns should leave out all reference to Him as exclusionary, I think people would quite rightly tell me to fuck off (perhaps in more godly language)