Transgender people in the UK are forced to pay to prove their identity to a Gender Recognition Panel. This process is humiliating, outdated and unnecessary. We urge the government to introduce an act equivalent to the Irish Gender Recognition Act, and allow trans* people to self-define their gender.
Having your gender recognised by the Gender Recognition Panel requires trans* people to go to pointless expense – whether requiring them to pay administration fees (and having to go through the lengthy and underfunded NHS gender transition system) or paying to attend a private clinic to receive the required evidence as well as paying to be seen by the panel.
Furthermore: no provisions are made for non-binary gender identities.
Did you know that as of March 2015 only 3,906 Gender Recognition Certificates (GRCs) had been issued since the Gender Recognition Act of 2005, compared to the 8,760 patientscurrently being treated by gender identity clinics in the UK? Did you know that there are possibly about 56,000 trans people in the UK? Did you know that it takes years and a non-refundable £140 to apply for a GRC (though actual costs are more like £1,000), and they might decide your gender isn’t real enough to be your legal gender, and trans people are more likely to be unemployed or on low income, receiving inadequate physical and mental health care, etc.? If you’re trans but have no GRC, if anyone needs to see your birth certificate you are involuntarily outed, which is discriminatory and sometimes outright dangerous.
This change to the Gender Recognition Act 2005 is sorely needed. The current system is actively harmful. It is unnecessarily expensive, time-wasting, and judgemental.
THE HEATWAVE HAS OFFICIALLY BEGUN WE ARE GOING TO BURN
So the Americans will understand, 23 Celsius is the same as 73 Fahrenheit.
Yall are fuckin weak tbh
What the fuck why does this country think that’s a heatwave?
If anything that’s cold
Because we’re not used to it. Britain’s usually a cold, wet country, and we don’t have the infrastructure to handle hot weather. When I worked in a care home, everyone started mildly freaking out when summer came because the old and the sick are particularly in danger. There’s always a high death toll, and ecological problems, and people getting heatstroke, and lots of extra worry for disabled folk, especially since public transport is usually disrupted…
So, well, yeah, we are weak. But there’s very little we can do about it. And it really sucks to come on Tumblr and hear people making light of something that kills people, and will kill them again this year.
The Queen opening Parliament today. She offered her praises for Tory austerity policies saying, “Britain should live within its means.”
The irony of watching a woman sat on a golden throne, covered in diamonds, and wearing an ermine cloak – flanked by her equally undeservedly wealthy family members – telling the nation that austerity is the way to go.
