In December 2011 equalities Minister. Lynne Featherstone launched the coalition government’s Transgender Action Plan, the first ever government action plan to advance transgender equality. This is the latest in a series of government plans to address basic inequalities for the LGBT community following on from the Working for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender equality: moving Forward report and action plan issued in March 2011. I am posting this as a reminder and because I am transferring content from a site I am closing down.
The Transgender Action Plan sets out the areas that the government feels that following extensive research , are those issues of transgender equality that need to be addressed as a priority and falls in to four sections
Section 1 – Early years,education and social mobility
Section 2 – A Fair and Flexible labour market
Section 3 – Opening up public services and empowering individuals and communities
Section 4 – Changing culture and attitudes
What I feel is good about this action plan is that it places emphasis on tackling prejudice and discrimination in schools and in the workplace in private sector. Tackling prejudice in schools in particular is an area that has not been effectively addressed by previous equalities legislation prior to the Equality Act 2010 and this action plan puts some additional emphasis on the duties of schools.
Tackling transphobia, homophobia and all gender based bullying, prejudice and discrimination early at school is, I believe the most important step needed. Children are far more receptive to equalities ideas and will often encourage parents and older people to change attitudes rather than the other way round. Often by the time someone completes school their prejudicial attitudes are fairly well embedded and they are likely to pass those negative attitudes on to their children.
I'm all for this. Glad to see the positive strides we're making.
ReplyDeleteHi Will
ReplyDeleteWhat I am not seeing yet is this plan being put into action - my partner still has to put up with people talking about me and making inappropriate comments behind my back. People have now learned not to get caught being discriminatory - it will be up to us to change the attitudes underlying discriminatory behaviour.
Rikki
It's not just comments behind trans people's backs. Yesterday on the train a group of male youths immediately shouted "tranny" at me as soon I boarded. They kept up a loud and obviously transphobic conversation the whole time I was on the train, with not a word from any of the other passengers criticising their behaviour. (I heard "you've had your fun" from one woman -- from her tone of voice it seemed as though she was more concerned with the noise than the transphobia.)
ReplyDeleteI don't hold out much hope of educating such people directly (although I did rhetorically ask them as I left the train whether they would throw around the word "nigger" in the same way they used "tranny"). But I was really disappointed by the lack of reaction from the other passengers (I've called out similar abusive behaviour in public places in the past). It's just easier to metaphorically stick your fingers in your ears and sing "la la la, I can't hear the abuse going on right next to me", it seems.
On the subject of the "Transgender Action Plan", we're supposed to soon be seeing results of several "actions" (e.g. most of the trans health stuff) that have a end date of December 2012. Let's see if they actually materialize.
[Sigh, Blogspot lost my comment due to its broken OpenID implementation, let's see if I can remember it.]
ReplyDeleteIt's not just comments behind trans people's backs. Yesterday on the train, a bunch of male youths shouted "tranny" at me as I boarded, and then continued a loud and obviously transphobic conversation for the whole time I was on the train. There was not a word from any other passenger criticising this behaviour (one woman said "you've had your fun now", but from her tone of voice it seemed as though she was more concerned about the noise than the transphobia).
I don't hold out much hope of *directly* educating people who engage in that kind of abuse (although I did rhetorically ask them as I left whether they would throw around the word "nigger" in the same way they had "tranny"). I do hold out some hope of educating people like the other passengers that it is a good thing to call out transphobia and other forms of abuse when you see it.
On the subject of the "Transgender Action Plan", we're supposed to be seeing some of the results (e.g. most of the trans health stuff) that had an end date of December 2012. Let's see if anything actually materializes.
-- David-Sarah Hopwood
Sorry you didn't feel able to identify yourself, but can I suggest that you report the incident. The only way we will ever bring about any change is if we make ourselves seen. Call the local police non emergency line and report the incident - they have to record it and it makes a difference in the stats. So few trans people report incidents that everyone that is reported gets noticed. and eventually if enough of us do it - change will happen.
ReplyDeleteAlternatively go to http://www.report-it.org.uk/your_police_force and select your police force and fill in an on line report