Govt starts talking: trans people meet the working group
Trans people meet the working group
22nd March 2000
Those who read Hansard thoroughly may have noticed in the record of House of Commons proceedings a written answer from Home Secretary Jack Straw MP to Liberal Democrat MP Jackie Ballard (who is also a patron of Press For Change). The minister confirms that a meeting was held on January 19th between members of the Home Office-led Inter-Departmental Working Group on the status of transsexual people and representatives of the trans community.
Hansard, 15 Feb 2000 : Column: 497W-498W
Jackie Ballard: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what further representations he has received regarding the working group on the status of transsexual people since 19 July 1999; what further meetings he and his officials have had with groups representing transsexual people; and what plans he has made for such meetings in the future. [109393]
Mr. Straw [holding answer 14 February 2000]: Since 19 July 1999, the Interdepartmental Working Group on Transsexual People has received representations from nine organisations and 83 members of the public. A number of hon. Members have also written to me about the work of the Group. In addition, the Working Group had a useful meeting last month with representatives of five organisations representing the transsexual community (the Gender and Sexuality Alliance, the Gender Trust, Gender Identity Research and Education Society, Liberty and Press for Change). Consideration will be given to further meetings as appropriate.
The minister’s answer unfortunately omits to mention that CHANGE was also represented, but I’m sure this was an oversight. The full list of those representing trans people was: Christine Burns (Liberty and The Gender Trust), Jan Doerfel (FTM Network), Roz Kaveney (Gender & Sexuality Alliance), Claire McNab (CHANGE), Bernard Reed (GIRES), and Stephen Whittle (Press For Change)
As you know, we had been seeking such a meeting since the Working Group was set up last year, and many of you had asked your MPs to convey to ministers the importance of talking directly to the people whose fate was being considered.
So we are delighted that the Working Group did take up our suggestion, and convened the meeting. One of the advantages of meeting later in the process rather than earlier was that by the time we all sat down around a big table in the Home Office’s headquarters in Westminster, the civil servants had already spent a lot of time examining the issues in detail. They had a much more thorough understanding of the problems and the possible solutions than would have been the case when they started their work last year.
The result was a meeting which everyone concerned found very useful and positive: a valuable opportunity for us all to re-examine the principles at stake and to explore the details of how they might be translated into practical measures to end our 30-year status as non-persons.
You’ll notice that the paragraph above is slightly vague: and that’s a deliberate vagueness. The working group is not a decision-making body: its task is to examine the issues and to report to ministers on its research, suggesting options for change. That job can be done most effectively if it is not placed too harshly under the spotlight, and can explore all the nuances and complexities of the situation without fear that its explorations will be pounced on and possibly mistaken for conclusions.
We hope that you will understand that we can only continue to work effectively with the Working Group if we respect the privacy of what happened in that meeting. We intend to do just that: tempting as it is to tell you the details of how positive that meeting was, it would not help our cause … but we can wholeheartedly agree with the Home Secretary’s observation that it was a useful meeting.
But we are all committed to being open about our work on your behalf, and we want to tell you as much as possible about what we do in your name. So what we can do is to share with you the full text of the presentation made to Working Group on behalf of all the groups represented in that meeting: CHANGE, The FTM Network, The Gender Trust, The Gender & Sexuality Alliance, GIRES, Liberty, and Press For Change.
You’ll find it on the Press For Change website at http://www.pfc.org.uk//node/455.
Please do take the time to read this presentation: it represents the common position of all the major groups representing trans people in the UK, and is a crystallisation of all the work which these groups have done over the last few years in defining our legal and civil needs. When we went into that meeting, the trans community spoke with a common voice on the issues we face, and we want you to be able to see the approach which we bring to our discussions with government.
That, I’m afraid, is probably as much as we will be able to tell you for now about what the Working Group is doing, and how we are helping it. As you know, it will report to ministers by Easter this year, and we expect the report to be published shortly thereafter.
The contents of that report are the responsibility of the Working Group: we will have to wait to see what it says to ministers before drawing any conclusions about what do in the new political landscape which will follow its publication.
In the meantime, many many thanks to all of you who have helped persuade the government of the merits of talking with us. The fact that we *are* now talking is evidence of your success, and we are using this opening to ensure that the working group has its disposal all the expertise which we as a community have developed through these long, hard yesrs of campaigning.
Sometime after Easter you will be able to see how successfully we have used that opportunity which you have created on behalf of all of us.
Claire McNab
(Vice-President, Press for Change)
