This post is about a chain of emails between myself and one of my local councillors.
I used the write to them website to send this message to the three councillors for my area:
"I am a Trans-gendered person living in the [edited out] area. I
feel the area is very unsafe for me a lot of the time, and prefer to
stay out of it as much as possible. This interferes with me doing
everyday things, due to the discrimination I feel when dealing with
other members of the public and shop owners in the area. It is not an
easy thing to go through on a personal level, and to suffer intolerance
and ignorance while doing things that are mundane does not make it any
easier; Thankfully however, I have friends and family that support who
I am, and encourage me to carry on living my life.
I wanted to raise this with you this and hope that I might persuade you
to help promote equality and acceptance of gender variant people, in
order to make the area a better place to live for people of genders
outside the norm, and reduce inequality and ignorance in the area in
which I live.
I also wish to raise an issue I had while waiting to be seen by
Sheffield's specialist clinic held by the NHS. From my GP's referral to
having an initial consultation, I was left waiting for seven months. It
is my understanding that this is unacceptable given the nature of my
problems, and the guidelines that the NHS must abide by. Their waiting
list is very long, and they can only take on a limited number of new
cases a month. I am lucky that I am now being seen by them, but the
delays are wholly detrimental to the well-being of individuals on the
waiting list.
Thank you for reading my letter, it is my hope that you can reply
positively to it."
I received two responses, I'm choosing to focus on one for this post, I will post about the other response separately. The reply was:
"Thank you for writing to me. I am sorry you have experienced discrimination in [edited out]. As I am sure you know, discrimination is a criminal offence and if you have the names and/or addresses of the people who have discriminated against you, please get in touch with [edited out], the Safer Neighbourhoods Officer at [edited out] Police Station. If you would like to give me this information, I can pass it on for you. As a Liberal Democrat it is both my personal belief and the ideology of my party that it is absolutely abhorrent that gender difference is stigmatised.
On the subject of the way you have been treated by the NHS, you should make a formal complaint through the PALS service which has an office in every hospital. These staff act as advocate for the patient where a hospital service has not measured up. You can also complain to NHS Sheffield in Prince of Wales Road (formerly the PCT) as they are the commissioners for all health services and if their choice of priorities is causing distress, they need to be told.
If you would like to talk to me, either by phone or at a personal visit, please contact me on my home telephone number of [edited out].
Again, please accept my apologies for the distress you have been subjected to."
A positive response, although I felt my itch had not been scratched. So I replied:
"Thank you for the reply, and the suggestions on how to follow up my complaints.
I am very much aware of the criminality of discrimination, but it's a law that is impossible to enforce when the discrimination and offence comes from people I've never met before passing me by on the street. As much as I would love to legally receive justice from the law, it seems impossible to do so without details of the person that I am unlikely to have. I believe the best way around this lies in education, promotion and improved policy to take away stigma against trans-people, and encourage professionals to treat trans-people with equality. There are many websites with information, that I find a little helpful to refer people to, such as www.gires.org.uk but in the everyday, there is very little places that feel safe and welcoming to myself.
I am willing to have a meeting about this particular issue as I feel very strongly that the way trans-people are seen in society and in particular this area is very unfair. I am currently looking into the possibility of getting involved with (or if this is impossible, setting up a) campaigning charities with the hope of educating and informing people, and taking away the hardships that trans-people face in their everyday lives."
I received a reply:
"Thank you for giving me this additional information. I am now able to understand more fully your concerns. On the subjects of both education and a self-organising group for [edited out] and possibly beyond, I wonder whether you would like me to introduct you to [edited out], who manages the [edited out] Forum at the [edited out]. The [edited out] Forum, with money made available from the Council and other charitable organisations, organises and runs projects, some of which fall under a category of Healthy Valley (this one receives funding and support from the 'PCT'). I have worked with [edited out] for a number of years and know that he shares many of the beliefs I and my party share."
We have gone from there to organise a meeting between myself and the councillor, (you don't really need the emails quoting at you,) Which will be happening on May 20th.
I think this has been worthwhile so far. I will keep updating on this after each major event.
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