Non-binary Equality Working Group: 35 recommendations to the Scottish government

[NonnyMouse1337]

I don't know if this has been posted before. I'm not able to search properly on Mumsnet any more.
Here is the report with 35 recommendations from the Non-binary Equality Working Group to the Scottish government.

www.scottishtrans.org/non-binary-working-group-response/

I've only just started reading it.

Non-binary people do not fit easily into the categories of "man" and "woman". This means different things to different non-binary people, but overall, it means that our lives, bodies and identities need other ideas to describe them, and that our needs aren't easily categorised as men's or women's. Because so much of our society is based on the idea that there are only men and women, non-binary people face a lot of specific problems and need specific support. Solving these problems would often solve problems for many people who aren't non-binary as well.

🙄🙄🙄

Only sex is binary
And that clearly is

Otherwise
Yes nothing that isn't sex related should be binary divided

Why do I think that they are it interested in really getting rid of unnecessary stereotypes ?

Are the enbies trying to claim they are even more marginalised than trans people? 😂

The community members in the working group were unpaid and gave a lot of time to the process, but it's very difficult to do this when you're facing all of the barriers you're trying to change. As a result the most marginalised people were often not in the room when they needed to be. We did not include non-binary people of colour properly, and we were often frustrated by the limits of the process.

What does it mean that the working group didn't include non-binary people of colour properly?
Surely you just ask for volunteers / participants?

Good to see this working group still putting in hours at the coal face addressing the problems of everyone in Scotland, eh?

Oh, gosh, it looks like it's non-Binary awareness week! Is that the week that we have to remind each other we don't put any bins out at all, due to cutbacks?

🤯🤯

Who are we talking about?

A non-binary person is a person who experiences their gender as in-between or beyond the two categories "man" and "woman", as fluctuating between "man" and "woman", or as having no gender, either permanently or some of the time. A trans person is someone who does not identify with the sex assigned to them at birth.

Many but not all non-binary people are also trans, and some, but not all, trans people are also non-binary: the two categories have a big overlap. Many of the issues faced by non-binary people are inseparable from those faced by trans people who are not non-binary, so many of our recommendations are of value to all trans people. Because of these considerations, we have used "trans and non-binary people", where relevant, throughout this report.

I'd like to know how many non-binary people we are talking about, here.

Recommendation 10

Review the use of a sex code in Community Health Index (CHI) numbers, and enable non-binary people to be recognised in medical records.
Decision

ACCEPT

...the Scottish Government is open to considering a review of sex codes within the system, noting the Chief Statistician's guidance on collecting data on sex and gender and the advice on data recording from National Records of Scotland'

Recommendation 16

....introduce a non-binary response option in the next Scottish Census.

Decision

DECLINE

Actually, reading over that, I'm quite surprised at how many recommendations the ScotGov declined. Declining demands generally doesn't go over very well with this community. Is Nicola going to have to do another hostage video later?

a person who experiences their gender as in-between or beyond the two categories "man" and "woman", as fluctuating between "man" and "woman", or as having no gender, either permanently or some of the time.

Lads, I hate to break it to you ...

A trans person is someone who does not identify with the sex assigned to them at birth.

What does it mean to 'identify' with a sex? Actually? If you're not 'identifying' with your body, are you dissociating?

Many but not all non-binary people are also trans, and some, but not all, trans people are also non-binary

Jolly good!

Most of the 'partially accept' responses are pretty much 'Okay, but no' answers.

I don't think the non-binaries are going to be happy.

If you're NB then what are you transing from and to?

They are the responses you give to a toddler when it's around 4pm and they haven't had their juice and biscuits.

'Can we have like any identity we like on our birth certificate even catfishgender?'

'Well, I can see that you really like that idea, but no'

'What about we can do our own face tattoos when we get to age 10?'

'That sounds like a lovely idea darling! But, no'.

Many but not all non-binary people are also trans, and some, but not all, trans people are also non-binary

Sounds a bit trans-binary. What about the non-trans-binaries?

Non-trans-binary people do not fit easily into the categories of "trans" and "not trans".

Wait … what? How can you be non-binary and trans at the same time? Surely if you’re ‘trans’ you accept that you’re transitioning from one side of the binary to the other? You either accept the existence of the bloody binary or you don’t, you can’t have both ways 😖 Ffs, I’m going to go and read a nice sane book like Alice In Wonderland … !

You've got that all wrong. It's non-trans-non-binary people who really are having the hardest time. Being cistrans-binary can be very, very othering. The emotional labour of all those double negatives, it's really draining.

I do think that for some, especially teenage girls, non-binary is a way to jump on the trans bandwagon and be special and oppressed / avoid the stigma of being "cis", white and middle class, without much commitment. And while I think that it makes no logical sense, and pretty much everyone is non-binary anyway in terms of gender, I am quite glad it exists as an option for (quite understandably) gender-confused kids because it's probably saving a lot of young people from being channelled down the route of full transition. I know some NB people do want surgery and hormones but many don't. I'm very relieved that a troubled friend of my DD has backtracked from IDing as a boy and decided on NB instead, because it's going to be a lot easier to leave it behind if she grows out of it and accepts her sex as many do.

I have no beef with anyone deciding they are non-binary, I can see the logic. What is a problem is governments basing policy on what is exactly as meaningful as an one of those enneagram tests.

What does this mean?

We recommend, in the strongest terms, that the strategic action framework is used to drive a transformation of services that is ambitious, desegregated, led by principles of informed consent, and designed and delivered collaboratively with trans and non-binary people.
Informed consent means that, "instead of a mental health practitioner assessing eligibility for and granting access to services, transgender patients themselves are able to decide on whether they are ready to access transition-related health services. In this model, the role of the health practitioner is to provide transgender patients with information about risks, side effects, benefits, and possible consequences of undergoing gender confirming care, and to obtain informed consent from the patient."[5] Informed consent is thus compatible with the "Realistic Medicine" approach adopted by the Scottish Government and NHS Scotland, but further empowers the service user within that framework.

coughs white supremacist coughs

The group membership was limited in the lived experience it was able to contribute. All group members were white, and the community members involved were those who were able to make themselves available for meetings during working hours without being paid for their contributions.

I agree Blossoms, its almost a gender critical response to the current climate. But also a handy rebellion against your GC parents. Apart from the preferred pronouns and the coming out, its very similar to burning your bra, wearing a suit to prom or not shaving your legs in other generations. Its a big FU to gender stereotypes in a culture of orthodoxy that is weirdly not at all accepting of difference. With a side order of validation and adopting an identity while trying to find out what makes you you. And the boys need an identity that differentiates them from the denigrated 'toxic' males. Just like the New Men and the Metrosexuals before them. Nothing new under the sun.

"instead of a mental health practitioner assessing eligibility for and granting access to services, transgender patients themselves are able to decide on whether they are ready to access transition-related health services. In this model, the role of the health practitioner is to provide transgender patients with information about risks, side effects, benefits, and possible consequences of undergoing gender confirming care, and to obtain informed consent from the patient"

I'm imagining how this might work for our overstretched NHS in general ...

"instead of a health practitioner assessing eligibility for and granting access to services, patients themselves are able to decide on whether they are ready to receive the treatment they think they would like"

Umm I don't think so!!

I guess it's something along the lines of this work of art:

edinburghath.tumblr.com/post/163521055802/trans-health-manifesto

^ I just sat and read that with my eyebrows creeping further up my head with each paragraph. That’s quite a list of … demands. It honestly reminded me of the writings of a young man I knew on a psych ward who was deeply psychotic.

Well, I was looking for something to read to help me nod off.

Scotland, population 5m; 96% white. Exactly how many “non-binary people of colour” do we think there are? Maybe twenty?

Wow.

Has Scotland overcome its huge drugs and alcohol problems, then, that it can chuck money at this utter DRIVEL?

I've read that edinburghhath list on here before. I remember another poster suggested adding to the list "we demand all pears be cutted up" 😆