"[P]utting LGBT people’s needs at the heart of the NHS": Government spokesman

[gcscience]

What a ridiculous comment: to put any particular group at the heart of the NHS - apart from the most sick, disabled or suffering of course - seems to go against its very ethos.

www.independent.co.uk/news/health/trans-rights-reform-lgbt-gender-recognition-conservatives-maria-miller-theresa-may-a8707691.html

Has someone just made a payment to MM or is she always like this.

I'm sure LGB people will be thrilled. Oh, hang on...

There was only 1 health service listed that is apparently difficult to access. What are the others?

Also are smears not accessible to TM?
Do they not receive the automated letter from their GP like other females?
Do thay not understand that having a cervix means they are at risk of cervical cancer?

I am yet to be convinced TP are failed by the NHS for basic healthcare simply because they are trans.

What happened to the majority of the population if they’re going to start distinguishing sections? It would help to start there if they are....

Also are smears not accessible to TM?
Do they not receive the automated letter from their GP like other females?

This is the result of a healthcare provider recording people's gender identity rather than their sex. This is what trans lobbyists have demanded.

What happened to the majority of the population if they’re going to start distinguishing sections? It would help to start there if they are...

Remember the trans man on Twitter outraged because their "life-threatening" need for a mastectomy should have, in their mind, have taken precedence on the waiting list over a woman with breast cancer?

However, the article seems to suggest an interesting change of tack from Miller on the GRA reform.

Yup, TRAs insisted that they be treated according to gender. If that means people miss out on health screening for their biological sex then that's TRAs fault.
We wouldn't want any hurt feelz would we?

Agreed about the interesting last paragraph about sex based protections though

Yes, that and her suggestion that reform of the GRA is not really the most pressing matter in terms of trans rights. Interesting.

This shows up identity politics very clearly...to raise one group above all others is not Leftwing and definitely not Socialism...this is Thatcher's "we have no Society" Neoliberalism.

If they choose to opt out of female specific healthcare then that's down to them. They can still have a smear they just need to take responsibility and request one. If you have a cervix you are entitled to a smear.

Curious if this is more jockeying for position from MM due to May’s precarious status, plus point scoring.

The govt spokesperson just parrots all is OK and blah blah look how much we have budgeted whilst MM attempts to keep women and Stonewall on-side to keep her status.

Nothing of substance from either ...

“My advice to ministers is that they should be clear that there is no threat to single-sex services, they are clearly protected in law and they need to be clearer on that,” she said.

Just repeating the word 'clear' doesn't make the issues go away.

I read it that she's trying to distance herself from GRA reforms. Apparently the priority was service access and changes to GRC were not the key issue.

This makes me so angry, especially the bit about other people being able to take basic healthcare for granted. I have a 7 year old severely disabled child. When he was born his appointments were regular and all was ok. I have seen things get worse and worse over the years. Now if a consultant says he will see my son in 3 months I know I will have to chase as I won’t hear. Blood tests are currently 9 months overdue and I’m getting nowhere with chasing. So many of his basic needs such as appropriate dental care etc are a fight and remain inaccessible, yet apparently it’s trans people who need special attention. If he didn’t have me to advocate for him his health would be in a poor state. No Maria Miller, other people cannot take basic healthcare for granted, trans people are not more important than anyone else. Stop pandering to their victim mentality.

The Independent two years ago:

“The only negative reaction that I’ve seen has been by individuals purporting to be feminists,” Ms Miller said. Many are furious with her call for women’s refuges to ensure equal access to people who have transitioned from male to female.

She praised the “important work” of single-sex services, such as rape crisis centres. “But those sorts of services should be supporting trans women,” she insisted.

Many trans people simply don’t have access to the basic healthcare that the rest of us take for granted – things like cervical smears are often things that trans men are not able to access

If this is true, it's terrible; but why would it be true? How would being trans stop anyone accessing their GP or A and E?

If she doesn't really mean basic health care, but actually a few specific problems, then what are they? Even the one example given seems a reach- maybe having a GRC stops the reminder letters being sent?

Imagine if any other minority group was in that sentence.

"Putting blind people at the heart of the NHS."

"Putting Asian people at the heart of the NHS."

"Putting Pagans at the heart of the NHS."

I don't think you could even get away with saying "children" or "the elderly" without at least one newspaper going ballistic. We need to keep pushing this question, why is this cause elevated over all others?

The Telegraph has an article on this subject too, which I can't access, but I did read the comments, which were very critical of Maria Miller.

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/01/03/transgender-people-do-not-have-enough-access-basic-healthcare/

That Independent article is complete mush, to anyone who can't hear "dog-whistles." Nothing is ever spelled out! I understand that political types like to leave room to manoeuvre between interest groups, but the "journalistic technique" of "giving them enough rope" is often indistinguishable from not challenging interviewees!

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/730396/lgbt-action-plan-easy-read-lo-res_v2.pdf

This LGBT action plan that was referred to seems to be based on the very subjective experiences of trans people. For example having to wait too long for healthcare, was there a waiting time given or did the correspondents just feel it was too long?

My oldest child had to,wait 2 years to see CAMHS then waited another 3 to get an autism diagnosis. In that time he missed out on so much support that would have helped him at school and we are now working through the anxiety that that experience has left him with. I am sure his current mental health issues would be less had he been able to access mental health services much sooner.

I really think that these people live in their own entitled little worlds and do not appreciate that their struggles are no worse than other groups of people in need of help.

I think that this may be the start of the row back from GRA reform and it's a biscuit thrown to the baying transactivist hounds. It could be a chink of light for us.

If this is true, it's terrible; but why would it be true? How would being trans stop anyone accessing their GP or A and E?

I am imagining a situation in which a transman doesn't get his reminder for a cervical smear because he's had his gender changed on NHS systems and - because they have conflated it with sex - he is no longer registered as being what he is, that is a female-bodied person with modifications and ongoing longterm hormone treatments.

The solution appears to be to register sex and note preferred gender separately, with the former enabling appropriate health care and the latter allowing politeness.

Yes that is the solution, deal with where there will be anomalies and ensure that everyone is going to be called for tests which are appropriate to them. Of course doing this wouldn’t grab headlines or further the trans agenda much though.

This was raised on LBC this morning - Tara Hewitt and Nic Williams debating.
Hewitt basically said that NHS staff are horrible and mean and 'misgender' trans people which is a hate crime and they should be prosecuted. They must have alienated any NHS staff listening tbh and the statistics quoted seemed ridiculous to me. They also complained about transmen not getting smears with Nic Williams pointing out that transwomen are called for smears and that this is where telling the NHS your gender not your sex gets us. Utterly ludicrous.

BUT, it is a refocus from Maria Miller and I think that that is positive. The tide is turning people!