Foreword to the DfEE’s consultation paper

by Christine Burns

February 3rd, 1998

Press for Change, in common with many other organisations representing trans people’s interests in the United Kingdom received the Consultation document from the Department for Education and Employment in yesterday’s post.

The document contains proposals which are being suggested to form the basis for UK legislation in repsonse to recent court cases won in the UK and Europe by PFC and its’ associates.

Even the most cursory of glances revealed that this document is badly flawed. If implemented, many of its’ proposals would take away rights which UK trans people have only just WON in court. In many areas the document is unworkable too, as it makes ignorant assumptions about the varied circumstances in which trans people live and transition.

It is a prescriptive document rather than a liberating one, written quite clearly to placate people who would not wish us to have any rights, rather than to protect the people who need most protection.

It is also a downright offensive document, embodying the belief, for instance, that trans people should justifiably be kept away from children, and mandating discrimination (which would be intolerable against a lesbian or gay man) in professions involving body contact.

With such a flawed document our first instinct was to defer public circulation until we had had an opportunity to help the DfEE reconsider its’ first draft. We feared, otherwise, that the ministry would be swamped with indignant voices, and that the proposals would be SO thoroughly discredited that the whole process would be put back by months. Accordingly, the transcript you see below was only sent to members of PFC’s employment working group, our lawyers, and key activists with a specific input to the process. In parallel, my colleague, Stephen Whittle, set out to explain the problem to the document’s coordinator, Mrs Margaret Scott of the Sex and Race Equality Division.

Unfortunately, in Stephen’s words, Mrs Scott immediately adopted a very defensive stance, refused to consider the suggestion of a revision, and stated flatly that there would be NO iterations … this was it. Comments would be noted, and then the proposals would be drafted into a bill which she anticipated the government would have no difficulty enacting, given its’ huge parliamentary majority.

So much for democracy.

This being the case, therefore, we have no option but to allow all trans people, online and offline, UK resident and otherwise, to comment in an exercise which is LABELLED “consultation”, but which appears to be everything BUT.

We call upon you to copy and distribute this repressive and retrograde document to all other groups you may be in contact with, LBGT activists in particular, and ask them to consider the contents as though the word “transsexual” had been replaced throughout by the word “gay”, or “lesbian”, or “black” or “disabled”. For it is only in THAT context that the true offensiveness of this document may be appreciated for what it is.

Is this “New Labour” ?

Is this the political party which champions the integration of the European Convention on Human Rights ?

I hope that the non trans lawyers and medical professionals who receive this list will join this process, by pointing to the flaws it contains in terms of their own experiences of the cicumstances facing trans people.

What YOU can do

You have ONE chance to voice your feelings. I don’t need to coach you in what to say. Just go through each paragraph one by one and tell Mrs Scott and her associates just what her “proposals” can and would do in your own circumstances. Remember what the last two years of case law have brought you … and then count up the things this document quietly and insidiously proposes to take away … and make sure that NOBODY is in any doubt that if they WANT to push this through in such a high handed manner they are in for a very loud and angry fight.

Post your comments to:

All it costs is a stamp. But will you please either email (feedback@pfc.org.uk) or post a copy of your response to us, as well, so that we can collate all the submissions as future evidence. (PFC’s address is: Press For Change, BM Network, London WC1N 3XX)

Perhaps then, they’ll have the sense to learn their subject … and consult the experts … the people the legislation is supposed to be protecting … before visiting any more pet ideas upon us.

It is best for a submission to come directly from you, but if you would prefer to send your comments to Press For Change, we have provided a form for you to fill in.

Christine Burns
Vice President, Press for Change
Tuesday February 3rd, 1998

	Read the Consultation document
	Read some comments by Stephen Whittle
	… and Press For Change’s formal response to the consultation
	Please DO take the time to send in your comments — either directly, as described above, or by using our on-line form
	Read the Letter from Employment Minister Andrew Smith MP announcing the consultation process (October 1997)
	The Gender Trust’s submission to the government
	Who are the government ministers involved?