Meeting With Local Councillors

Today I met with one of the three local councillors for my area, as planned.

We talked a lot about a lot of things; I had lost track not too long into the hour and a half long conversation. I mostly dropped as much relevant education into the conversation as possible. Whilst I tried to ensure that I stressed that I could only reliably speak about my own experience so far, I did end up being a bit of a spokesperson, a position I feel inadequate for.

We began looking at a piece of policy taken from Sheffield City Council; an Equality Impact Assessment, regarding financial equality. It was only a snapshot of policy in general, but I was encouraged that transgender issues were not listed under “Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual”, but listed alongside men and women. I was only left with a page, but the policies seemed formulaic. I don't see this as a bad thing though. I used this to talk about employment opportunities and the way things can go for a transgender or transsexual. There is a link in the policy document to the gender trust, a specific gender campaigning group, which from a cursory glance appears a good place to go to if people need information.

I found myself having to explain Cisgendered at one point, as she had never heard the term before. I had to explain the equality side of it, and its necessity as a way to differentiate between transgender and transsexual people, and cisgendered people without making trans people sound like they were not real, less than, or just 'other'. I had to explain about labels and how I felt about them, and I explained that I disliked transgendered as a descriptor of myself (my gender as I see it is fixed, not between or transitioning to the opposite) and that I accept that I am transsexual as my sex is what is transitioning, but when complete, I will regard myself as what would technically be called a cisgendered female. I laid out a general dislike for labelling, and recognise that my dislike leads to a bit of a simplified view of labels rather than what their inferred meaning is (I recognise that trans means to be moving from one to another, and the concepts of gender and sex are fairly fixed, for example).

I also talked about the NHS process too, whilst also not talking about the process I was going through. I specifically mentioned that questions about my own personal sexual transitioning were not very polite, and she agreed with me. While I don't know the entire process myself, I think my understanding was enough to at least be able to outline things. Most notably was the point of the waiting times, whilst much quicker than in the past, is still considered slow.

In between bits we talked about the area, my feelings about what I hoped I could achieve and what I felt would be the best way to proceed onwards. It was something that came up though, was when I talked about the fears I had in the area, that I was called on being potentially too negative about the feelings I had about other people in the area. I had to be very clear at that point, I do have a bit of a negative view of the area, it's a hard fight to stay as positive as I do about it. When every trip out leads to a situation where someone treats me as a sideshow or an amusement, they're not just poking a bit of fun, but poking holes in who I am. As this is a frequent occurrence, it takes a heavy toll on a persons emotional well being, especially if confronting it at the time can lead to much worse happening to you.

So...

The councillor will be looking for more policies regarding transgender and transsexual people, and forwarding them on to myself to look at and comment on. (Mostly I believe I will ask around and get comments from other people too.)

We're going to plan to meet with the manager of a community centre, just by where I live, who will be very supportive and help us establish a project in the area on educating and providing information for people about transsexual and transgender issues. (I will consider myself freelance in this regard, I don't want to be tied to a specific area, especially if I can cover the whole city.)

We shall probably talk more over time as well, as I didn't even begin to go into detail about lots of things. The councillor was very supportive overall, it was a very positive meeting.