“I am tired of fighting to be seen as human” — Govanhill Trans Community Reacts to Gender Reform Legislation Block

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Jan 17

Member of the Govanhill LGBT+ community told us they’re heartbroken, disgusted, appalled and tired — in reaction to the UK government block of Scotland’s Gender Recognition Rerform Act.

Natalie in the music video for Real Woman

By Jack Howse

The Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill (GRR) has been a hotly debated topic in Scottish politics in recent years. Consultations, reforms and rewritings were undertaken before, late last year, the Scottish Parliament overwhelmingly voted in support of the it, with cross-party support. It would bring Scotland’s legislation in support of trans people more in line with most European neighbours.

The GRR would allow trans people to self-identify and legally change their gender without medical consultation. With trans-identifying people waiting for an average of three years for their first gender clinic appointment, being able to have autonomy on their legal status would have been a welcome relief. The legal age that people would have been able to change their gender would also have been lowered to sixteen (it is important to point out here that 16 year olds cannot be put on hormone treatments, they can only access puberty blockers). There was also hope that waiting times would have dramatically reduced.

However on Monday, the House of Commons blocked these reforms by using Section 35 of the Scotland Act 1998, arguing that these reforms go against the UK’s Equality Act. This is the first time this action has been used and serves a direct strike in this ‘culture war’ that has embroiled politics over the past decade — a debate that concerns less than 1% of the population. It has also been condemned as an attack on devolution and the will of the Scottish people and government.

The Ferret Explains: What is a Section 35, and how does it affect Scotland’s gender recognition law

We wanted to get the reaction of some of the local Glasgow trans community, those most impacted by the law change.

Elaine Gallagher — Green Councillor for Glagsow Southside Central Ward

I’m appalled by this move from Westminster. The GRR was passed in the Scottish Government with a similar majority to the number of Scottish people who were in favour of it during the consultations. This is proper representative democracy in action, which the UK parliament is set to undermine. And it’s over such a small issue, better treatment for a few hundred thousand people.
Nurses’ pay, and ambulance teams and postal and transport workers and teachers, those issues affect all of the tens of millions of people in the country, surely these are the things that Westminster should be devoting its attention to.
As a representative of the strong LGBTI+ community in Govanhill, I see this as a return to the days of Section 28, which had such a chilling effect on people’s lives. Personally as a trans person it makes me reluctant to travel to England, in the same way that I would not travel to the USA, where my human rights could be under attack.
And as a Scottish person I see this as an attack on devolution and a threat to other devolved matters, like NHS Scotland, which we should all be concerned about.

Spyro — LGBT+ Youth Worker

My heart not only breaks for my trans friends, trans enemies, trans strangers, as well as my own autonomy over my body/identity/life experiences, but for the young people I work alongside and support.
Not only are they faced with a continuation of transphobic legal frameworks, but they will grow up with the knowledge that the government is actively blocking legislation that only serves to achieve human right and basic equality.

Bjorn Blakstad — Local Artist

I am tired.
I have spent a long time not understanding why I felt "othered" and rejected by my peers. I eventually found out that it was because I was autistic, trans and suffering from a fatigue disorder. The latter has been gradually worsening and finally exasperated by COVID in early 2022, leading to disability.
Discovering that I was trans was one of the most liberating things that had ever happened to me. It meant that I finally had a community and understood so much more about myself than I ever had before. I felt like I had a family for the first time, with people who understood my experiences and who had lived through what I had.
It was all positive and welcoming. I had moved to Scotland before this realisation, and this understanding of my identity helped me to feel even more at home in the community I had found here.
But now I'm just tired, tired of hearing the fear-mongering and lies being spread by the right-wing government just to keep a community they fear under control. Tired of fighting just to be seen as human. The exhaustion I feel is so overwhelming that I just want to crawl into a hole and go to sleep, hoping that it will be over before I wake up.
My entire life I have been self-advocating to be seen as a human and when I finally found a family, I was told that it was the worst thing about me.

Natalie — Musician

I am disgusted by this government’s continual flagrant disregard for democracy and our wellbeing — when there is a cost of living crisis, a stagnation of wages, a curtailing of human rights and the continual scapegoating of marginalised people.
Bleak realities can become normalized, it can reach the point where you begin to feel as though this is what you deserve. But it isn’t. Trans people have had to fight our whole lives to simply be, pain does not build character, or make you stronger, it simply hurts, deeply.
This is a pathetic excuse by an unelected government to entrench working people further in their differences. That is because no bill can match our collective uproar, no politician can still the passion of the masses. The Westminister government has shown its utter disrespect for the people of Scotland and our sovereignty, our ability to make decisions, to guide ourselves.
They want us to be scared, but they a fear us most of all.

Natalie performs in a band called comfort, who have released a new music video on this topic entitled ‘Real Women’

On the intentions behind the video Natalie said:

“The video is a response to the same tired trope people try to raise against trans women in particular. I wanted the video to have with the bigoted things people say in order to expose them for what they are; stupid.”