Someone in a previous thread brought up the existence in the UK of the 2004 Gender Recognition Act. Under it, a person self-identifying as transgender may apply to the Gender Recognition Panel to receive a Gender Recognition Certificate, or GRC. That cert allows people to get a birth, marriage (unless clergy in the Church of England decline), or death certificate showing their correct gender, and it provides protection from gender-based employment discrimination. The application must include evidence of living "full-time" in one's correct gender for two years, and two separate diagnoses of gender dysphoria from a medical doctor and a psychologist, or two doctors (both must be registered in the UK). And a diagnosis of gender dysphoria is also necessary in order to start HRT or be considered for gender-affirming surgery (which is your facial or naughty-bits adjustment).
Now for example in the US, diagnoses of gender dysphoria and initial treatments such as HRT have become relatively easy to come by for adults. In the UK, there's the NHS. This video, while quite long, is very entertaining (the references are to Joseph Heller's Catch-22 book/movie), and more to the point has something of a deep exploration into the NHS gender treatment process, from the perspective of a patient-turned-investigative-journalist. Or rather, the NHS waiting-list process to be considered eligible to begin the NHS gender-treatment process. In case you weren't aware, wait times to get appointments with someone who is willing to issue a written diagnosis of gender dysphoria (spoiler alert: one's GP typically declines to provide this diagnosis) are measured in years, not weeks or months. Sometimes there are waiting lists to get on the appointment waiting list.
So my question to OT is, what good is it doing anyone in the UK to maintain such a severe bottleneck on diagnoses and treatments for transgender adults? Surely preventing just-convicted cismale rapists from taking advantage of low thresholds on official recognition to get sentenced to women's prisons cannot be the only factor. A law requiring someone to demonstrate eligibility for a GRC at the time of their crime in order to receive consideration for prison selection would neatly settle that without impacting every other transgender person in the UK. While the NHS is famously being cut to the bone, adding merely ten doctors would allow ten thousand diagnoses and initiations of treatment per year, probably clearing the backlog within a couple years. It is arguable that the NHS expends more in resources denying appointments and treatment to existing transgender patients.
So... Why the GRC barrier/filter? Why the (if not deliberate then at least criminally negligent) structural scarcity of NHS diagnoses and treatment? Who is supposed to be helped by such delays in the recognition or medical assistance to so many transgender adults in England?
(Yes, I am specifically talking about adults, to avoid sidetracks into whether children should be assisted in the same way.)
Now for example in the US, diagnoses of gender dysphoria and initial treatments such as HRT have become relatively easy to come by for adults. In the UK, there's the NHS. This video, while quite long, is very entertaining (the references are to Joseph Heller's Catch-22 book/movie), and more to the point has something of a deep exploration into the NHS gender treatment process, from the perspective of a patient-turned-investigative-journalist. Or rather, the NHS waiting-list process to be considered eligible to begin the NHS gender-treatment process. In case you weren't aware, wait times to get appointments with someone who is willing to issue a written diagnosis of gender dysphoria (spoiler alert: one's GP typically declines to provide this diagnosis) are measured in years, not weeks or months. Sometimes there are waiting lists to get on the appointment waiting list.
So my question to OT is, what good is it doing anyone in the UK to maintain such a severe bottleneck on diagnoses and treatments for transgender adults? Surely preventing just-convicted cismale rapists from taking advantage of low thresholds on official recognition to get sentenced to women's prisons cannot be the only factor. A law requiring someone to demonstrate eligibility for a GRC at the time of their crime in order to receive consideration for prison selection would neatly settle that without impacting every other transgender person in the UK. While the NHS is famously being cut to the bone, adding merely ten doctors would allow ten thousand diagnoses and initiations of treatment per year, probably clearing the backlog within a couple years. It is arguable that the NHS expends more in resources denying appointments and treatment to existing transgender patients.
So... Why the GRC barrier/filter? Why the (if not deliberate then at least criminally negligent) structural scarcity of NHS diagnoses and treatment? Who is supposed to be helped by such delays in the recognition or medical assistance to so many transgender adults in England?
(Yes, I am specifically talking about adults, to avoid sidetracks into whether children should be assisted in the same way.)
