01/10/2020
The Huffington Post says that the government is to make some changes in the system of gaining a GRA, or Gender Recognition Certificate. The reform is largely being seen as a sop to the trans community left disappointed after the decision not to allow for gender self identification in the UK. Equalities Minister says that the procedures will be made “kinder and more straightforward”. In addition, three new gender clinics will open during the coming year and that they aimed to cut the waiting lists for trans access to NHS services by around one and a half thousand patients within two years. “We welcome the step in the right direction to lower the financial barrier facing people wishing to apply for a Gender Recognition Certificate. But reforming a piece of legislation which is fundamentally broken does not and cannot mean slapping a discount sticker on it and expecting great results” remarked Cara English, representing Gendered Intelligence, and also said: “Historically poor take-up of applications through the GRA is unlikely to be improved in any meaningful way, with such fundamentally inhumane vectors of gatekeeping as the Gender Recognition Panel still in place. The indignity of having to explain — in detail — your personal and private life to a group of strangers will remain. The required diagnosis of gender dysphoria (by two doctors) will remain.”
http://genderedintelligence.co.uk/