Someplace Else

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You will not believe how fast I signed this, oh my word.

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 This process is humiliating, outdated and unnecessary.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.

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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 patients currently 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 £140 to apply for a GRC, 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.

We’re at 275 signatures as I type this, and we need 10,000 signatures to get a response from Parliament. If we make it to 100,000 it might actually get debated in Parliament.

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Sign it sign it! I don’t care if you’re trans, help your trans friends and the trans friends you’ve not met yet! Help your unborn trans children!

Reblob it whether you’re in the UK or not! Share it with your mum! Leave flyers on lampposts! Attach a sandwich board to your cat promoting this petition!