The bones of the story? Roz Kaveney (you might have read one of her articles or books) was at the London pride march, and wanted to go to the toilet. However, "[o]fficial stewards who were running the toilets at Trafalgar Square announced that I, and any other transgender or transsexual woman, had to use the disabled toilets and was not allowed to use the regular women's toilets." Naturally, she and other trans people were rather pissed off about this, and a group of them gathered to talk to the stewards.
Their response . . . was to radio in “we're being attacked by a mob of trannies! send backup”. They were joined by a policeman, who was a LGBT liaison officer, who claimed that we had to be able to show our Gender Recognition Certificates if we wanted to use the women's loos and got quite upset when I explained to him that I had been involved in drafting the Act and that it did not take away rights that existed before it.
Holy crap, right?! Obvious shitness is obvious. Perhaps less obvious to some people is reason 473893 that this kind of legal documentation and categorisation of trans people is not necessarily a good thing. Because this is the sort of thing that goes down - it's no longer about how you identify, it's about having a piece of paper to 'prove' you 'really are' what you say you are. (And what do you have to do to get that piece of paper? Do you have to be 'approved' by a government psychiatrist? Clinical psychologist? Must you be taking hormones? For how long? Do you need to have had surgery? What kind of surgery?) It's about proving you're trans enough in order to get the bit of paper to prove you're woman/man enough to be let into the loo. And it's literally about policing gender. Because if you don't have your toilet licence (mmm, shades of primary school), the cops can apparently deny you entry.
Rebecca, who is blogging again at Burning Words, also has
a great post about this very topic, and includes a rage at one of the comments on Roz's original post and contact details for complaints.
ETA: Sarah of transatpride starts to get responses.
15 comments:
I saw this earlier on friendsfriends and it's just sickening. Of all the places you'd think you'd be safe from that sort of harrassment. :-/
The Gender Recognition Certificate thing is quite frightening, though. Are you supposed to carry it with you at all times, ready to show your papers at a moment's notice? Urg. And what of someone like the woman kicked out of a bathroom in New York last year, who was cisgendered, just not particularly "feminine" looking? Should people who don't fit society's male and female boxes precisely be made to carry papers as well?
(I LOLed at the macro, though.)
the gender recognition thing is definitely not meant to be used this way. you're not required to carry it or show it to get into the toilets.
but look at how easily precisely this sort of thing happens! if you're not meant to carry it around, if you're not meant to be asked for it, why do you need it? what's it for other than to prove to people something that shouldn't need proving, to put the onus and responsibility for 'acceptance' onto the transperson. and what does that make? divisions between those 'trans enough' to get the piece of paper and those who are not. divisions between the 'good trannies' who fit in and can produce these things, and the 'bad' trannies who can't or don't want to.
ironic that in this case the 'bad' trannies include the very people who helped bring the certificate into being.
Exactly. It seems like something that can so easily be misused.
i'm kinda speachless with rage. hideous.
I actually find both of the responses equally as disturbing.."i apologize if in any way it spoiled your day" seems ridiculously paternalistic to me.
And this gender recognition centificateis totally scary sounding to me. x Cyd
yeah totally: "sorry if it spoiled your day that was meant to be about pride and solidarity an inclusion and fun by BEING TRANSPHOBIC DICKWADS AND DOING EVERYTHING THAT WE SHOULDN'T BE DOING AND NOT LETTING YOU GO TO THE TOILET AND INSULTING YOU ETC. sorry about that. no hard feelings, yeah?"
O_o
That's...so fucking appalling. That it happened at all, but particularly that it happened at Pride. Holy shit.
Gender Recognition Certificates were supposed to be just a mechanism for amending your birth certificate so you could legally change your sex for all purposes and not have to out yourself every time you needed to show a birth certificate. Considering some of the legal difficulties that existed before the law came into force, it was a real step forward. Might have known someone would find a way to undermine it.
yeah, it's fucked up. and i do understand why people thought the GRCs were a good idea (and in some cases why they've been very useful), but i think it's just such a dangerous thing to do, because it's so policing/enforcing/defining/etc. and it is totally, totally fucked up that you have to make a submission to a fucking panel in order to get your gender the official stamp of approval.
Yeah, but you tend to have your gender *not* respected by institutions by default (is currently mad at Centrelink for screwing up my name AGAIN).
Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
I'm unable to get a GRC.
I was born in the UK, but I'm excluded on 2 grounds - originally 3.
First, there was getting the evidence from UK registered medics. Foreign ones don't count. But I overcame that.
Then there's the Intersex bit - as I was medically female before being seen by psychs, I didn't have GID, despite the "boy" birth certificate. I had a female gender role, a mostly female body, and was quite happy with that. I was happier when I had some surgery to make my body even more female, but surgical status is irrelevant.
Then there's the bit about me being married. I live in Australia, so an "interim GRC" is useless, we can't convert to a civil union as they don't have those here. To qualify for a divorce, we'd have to actually separate, with really bad consequences to my son, who turns 7 soon. Oh, and perjure ourselves too. No Way Jose. I'd like a correct BC, an incorrect one causes massive inconvenience and even some personal danger when travelling, but not at the expense of my child, no way, no how.
Now onto the main topic - it seems the marshalling and security of the Pride March was subcontracted to a firm that had good GLB training - and zero T training. They screwed up, and it's being fixed. The problem with the policeman is being investigated, as what was done appears to have been illegal, an actual crime. I think disciplinary measures should be confined to re-training though, there probably wasn't so much malice as utter cluelessness.
zoe, your situation perfectly highlights how the GRC stuff doesn't really work - or it works only in a very conservative way (especially when combined with australia's stupid relationship laws - or, i suppose, any number of international legal inconsistencies).
yes, i saw that pride had apologised, as they should. and hopefully the shit that the uk and international trans networks have kicked up will result in some changes! solidarity indeed! :)
and thanks again for your comments!
I'm starting to think that the idea of a legal gender at all is incompatible with giving everyone basic dignity and stuff. But given that governments are very attached to the idea, GRCs seem like one of the least bad options out there.
nick - i totally agree! i have no idea why people NEED to have a legal gender. i don't know really what purpose it serves but to keep people in their place, and STOP ALL HAVOC from breaking loose. because, you know, no legal gender would be first, then it would be bestiality and then the terrorists would have won.
wow.
All this bullshit about going to a loo to pee. What would have happened if they were let in the first place? were they thinking someone was obviously going to get molested [molesting done by the transgendered person clearly...] or
something?!
I read about having to show the certificate and it made me think of yellow star patches.
Its a completely stupid situation, and at a pride march of all places, its EXTREMELY disappointing.
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