it’s about making that process less traumatic and inhumane for trans people, one of the most stigmatised minorities in our society.
The process:
- Visit GP, get diagnosed with gender dysphoria
- Get second medical opinion (usually from a mental health specialist)
=> no transition required, just a name change. (If you can afford to go private, 1 and 2 are reportedly not difficult to achieve.)
- Collect two years' worth of utility bills, credit card bills or other things your bank would accept as proof of ID. Nothing with a photograph is necessary.
- Contact civil servant free of charge to get them to check the paperwork is in order.
- Submit paperwork via post
- Tribunal meets quarterly and rubberstamps all applications with complete paperwork. No one is asked to prove they have transitioned or how they present. 95% of applications are successful. Unsuccessful applicants can reapply as many times as they want at six month intervals.
The only possible step that could be meant by "traumatic" or "inhumane" are steps 1 and 2. And medical diagnoses can often be traumatic, but that's not a reason to remove that step.
Furthermore, the European Court of Human Rights profoundly disagreed in a judgement in 2017 that having to provide evidence of a medical diagnosis before being issued with a GRC violates the human rights of those who identify as trans.
The EHRC stated that all states have a responsibility to the whole of society and not just to one group and ruled that a medical diagnosis strikes the right balance between the interests of wider society and the interests of those who identify as trans.
It seems clear to me that our First Minister disagrees with the EHRC on the state's responsibility for all of society but that difference in opinion is not proof of her claims.
(Addendum: the most marginalised and stigmatised label is about homosexual transsexuals, who are the ones overrepresented among the homeless and poor. This group is well served by the current law, because they need medical care (at the very least they require mental health support) and the requirement of a medical diagnosis for a GRC therefore is not an inhumane or traumatic experience for them but part of their pathway to a life where they are functioning better.