Author: Sarah Mander (Page 7 of 8)

LGBT History Month – Nicole

February 28, 2018 / Sarah Mander

For LGBT History Month the Diversity & Inclusion team is sharing some of their reflections. The following piece comes from Nicole Robinson, Diversity & Inclusion Consultant.

I have now lost count of the number of times I have come out. The idea that you tell one group of people, and that is it, for the rest of your life doesn’t really work. Being a bisexual woman married to a man means coming out over, and over again. It means invisibility, and it means deciding with every person you meet what to tell them.

It means having no space in London Pride marches, and very few queer spaces in general – and that’s before discussing the general lack of accessibility or the fact that (shock) clubbing and drinking alcohol might not be every queer person’s idea of a great time. My general experience is nicely summarised in this Buzzfeed post that shares experiences of other women like myself.

For me, that is the heart of what LGBT+ History Month is about. It is an opportunity to bring visibility to the people and the stories that I do not normally get to see and hear. It is an opportunity to reconnect, to recover, to celebrate, to ask for more of the people I am surrounded by. Most importantly, it is an opportunity to remember the incredible activists who have allowed us this path, and to the people who continue to fight today.

LGBT History Month – Helena

February 16, 2018 / Sarah Mander

For LGBT History Month the Diversity & Inclusion team is sharing some of their reflections. The following piece comes from Helena Mattingley, Head of Diversity & Inclusion.

Last week, I went to Berlin. It’s was a week after Holocaust Memorial day and each memorial I went to had a gathering of flowers and tributes to the victims of the Holocaust. As it is LGBT history month, it was particularly important to me to see the memorial to homosexuals persecuted under Nazism.

As an intersectional aside, section 175 of German law only prohibited male homosexuality. Just like English and Welsh law, female sexual orientation was not considered. Female sexual orientation was not seen to exist or be relevant– there is some intersectional work at play here, something for another blog post.

The memorial is a concrete cube, which mirrors the holocaust memorial on the opposite side of the road with one difference. A small, narrow view point is cut into the concrete to show a looped video of two men kissing. The cube is a physical embodiment of the repressive, intolerant, narrow minded prejudice, with the film showing love concealed from many viewing angles. It’s directly opposite the holocaust memorial (also known as Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe) which is a disorienting sequence of symbolic concrete sarcophagi.

The homosexual memorial exists because under German National Socialism, gay and bisexual men were labelled with pink triangles, deported to concentration camps through the ‘extermination through work’ policy, or if ‘lucky’ criminalised or forced to hide their sexuality. Individuals were tortured and murdered. LGB communities were destroyed.

Thinking about the symmetry between the holocaust memorial and the memorial to homosexuals persecuted under Nazism shows me two things – all victims of the holocaust share a commonality, and yet, there are differences too.

This for me is the most important part of inclusion. We all share a commonality of humanity, and we are all different.

The second most important part of inclusion is to learn from history.

LGBT History Month – Alex

February 16, 2018 / Sarah Mander

For LGBT History Month the Diversity & Inclusion team is sharing some of their reflections. The following piece comes from Alex Prestage, a Diversity & Inclusion Consultant.

February is LGBT+ History Month; throughout the course of the month, the Diversity & Inclusion Team have been prompted to consider, and share, just what LGBT+ History Month means to us as diversity practitioners. My perspective as a practitioner is informed by my queer identity and my experiences as a member of the LGBT+ community. Over the last five years I’ve coordinated and led organisations’ celebrations of LGBT+ History Month – as a result, this is a welcome opportunity to pause and reflect.

For me, LGBT+ History Month is both an intensely personal and public affair underpinned by my celebration of the impacts that LGBT+ people have made. LGBT+ history is as complex and variable as the people and idenities that make up that umbrella. Very little of this history is formally codified and often the language(s) we use to define and describe queer experiences vary greatly. Jess Bradley, NUS Trans Officer, skillfully discusses the impact the latter has had on trans history here. It’s important to note that LGBT+ History is a history that is often obscured or erased; LGBT+ History Month utterly rejects this erasure and emphatically celebrates the contributions of LGBT+ people and communities. As a diversity practitioner, and an LGBT+ person, I find power in that.

Throughout the month of February, I’ll be seeking out and sharing LGBT+ (hi)stories; I’ll be celebrating and supporting the many queer spaces London has to offer; and, I’ll be generating my very own LGBT+ History.

Love is Love.

February 16, 2018 / Sarah Mander

Sarah Guerra – Director, Diversity & Inclusion

Have you heard the one about the Diversity and Inclusion Director who fell flat on her back when she made an automatic, heteronormative assumption about the gender of a friend’s new flame?

February is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender (LGBT) History month in the UK. Its aim is to promote equality and diversity by increasing the visibility of LGBT people, their history, lives and their experiences in the curriculum and culture of educational and other institutions, and the wider community. The whole month is geared towards raising awareness and advancing education on matters affecting the LGBT community, working to make educational and other institutions safe spaces for all LGBT communities, promoting the welfare of LGBT people by ensuring that the education system recognises and enables LGBT people to achieve their full potential, and so they are able to contribute fully to society and lead fulfilled lives.

LGBT history month a good time to remind myself of my own fallibility and my journey in training myself out of heteronormativity, that is ‘denoting or relating to a world view that promotes heterosexuality as the normal or preferred sexual orientation.’ Basically, assuming that people are straight (as the norm) until proven otherwise.

Heteronormativity is what tripped me up that day talking to my friend. He had previously had a girlfriend and on that day he was telling me he was seeing someone new. My assumptions were that any subsequent relationships would also be heterosexual.

Would I have considered myself bi or homophobic? No! Of course not – I devote my life to equality, I have gay friends and family members…. But that lazy – ‘I know people’ therefore I have no prejudices or bias’s type of thinking is the issue.

What happened in this moment were my default settings kicking in. assuming everyone – he was like me, – he would fit what my deep brain told me was the social norm around relationship patterns.

All my relationships have been heterosexual. Does it make me a bad person? Not on the face of it, but to be truly inclusive, I need to question my privilege and learn from it, question what is normal and check myself. To pretend that being heterosexual doesn’t come with a set of social privileges would see me guilty of ignorance. Reflecting at the time and since I had to think about what it was like for him – knowing that he was going to be telling me something unexpected and that rather than just being able to say he was seeing someone new he had to manage my reactions and surprise to it being a same sex partnership. How that is not something I as a heterosexual person ever have to consider in a heteronormative world.

LGBT History Month is an excellent time to remind everyone, not least myself that quite simply, heterosexual or not, love is love. Relationships come in all shapes, sizes and structures.

This month, we recognize and celebrate the multiplicity and fluidity of sexual orientations. So, happy LGBT history month – we have lots going on here at King’s so do join in.

Learning and Listening: Lessons in Trans Inclusion

February 14, 2018 / Sarah Mander

Sarah Guerra – Director, Diversity & Inclusion

Being a parent is an emotional roller coaster presenting joy and challenge in pretty equal measure. As the parent of four children (2 step and 2 I birthed), I am constantly in awe of their openness and adaptability to learning new things, and just how quickly they can surpass me in their knowledge and understanding. I was fascinated, and a little taken aback, when my 13 year old daughter, Kaela, explained the concepts of gender as she understood them including the panoply of letters that could make up what I have traditionally referred to as ‘LGBT’:

LGBTQQIP2SA – Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, two Q’s queer and questioning, I for Intersex, people, P for Pansexual, 2S for Two-Spirit, A for Asexual with any orientation.

My initial reaction was to poo poo her! Those aren’t things! This was quickly followed by a degree of panic – how on earth do I do my job if there are so many more letters?

What I now recognize is that this was an opportunity for me to realise that my understanding of the world and people must continuously change and develop. As a diversity and inclusion professional I can’t and shouldn’t ever feel that there isn’t more for me to learn and understand about individuals and their experience of the world, work and study.

For those who are looking to expand on their own learning, I found this Stonewall resource on Trans Inclusion really helpful, and of course we have our own excellent Trans Matters guidance which is specific to King’s.

Of these resources, the following passage resonated particularly for me:

There is no universal experience of being trans. The Trans community is sometimes characterised as being individuals who wish to transition from one gender to another. In reality, the wide spectrum of gender identity is complicated. Increasingly, people feel comfortable openly expressing themselves in other ways than simply male and female.

Making myself listen and really hear my daughter and others (I would highly recommend Trans Like Me by CN Lester) has been transformative in my learning and understanding. Following this conversation, I asked Kaela how she identified, to which she responded that she didn’t need to – ‘people don’t need labels these days’. I realised that my expectation of defined boundaries and need for labels is the way I have been taught to understand myself and interact in the world. The world has changed since I first learned about these things and there is a wider range of gender expression that I am yet to fully understand.

Equally I don’t have to tie myself up in knots – the law and King’s has made it simple for all of us.

The Equality Act 2010 says that we cannot discriminate against transsexuals– that is people whose gender identity differs from the gender assigned to them at birth. Kings Vision 2029 states we care about our learners on an individual basis and that we will design mainstream interventions that remove all forms of inequality in learner engagement, retention and success.

To be the inclusive, world class organisation such as King’s must work to understand the complexities of gender expression and fluidity, and the implications of this on personal, practical and organisational interactions and how we can ensure that everyone, regardless of their gender identity, feels equally valued and able to succeed.

To do this, we simply need to harness two key research and teaching skills that we already use every day at King’s, listening and thinking.

#QueerToo

February 13, 2018 / Sarah Mander

India Jordan – Communities and Networks Coordinator

It Stops Here Fortnight runs from the 29th January to the 9th February. This bridges with LGBT+ History Month which takes place over February. In this light, it is important to discuss how sexual violence, harassment and bullying affects the LGBT+ Community.

The #metoo movement has been at the forefront of discussion around sexual assault and violence. The Me Too phrase first used by Senior Director at Girls for Gender Equality, Tarana Burke in
2006, to raise awareness of the of the pervasiveness of sexual abuse and assault in society. Despite the #metoo movement and focus on sexual harassment dominating the headlines in recent
months, there has been a lack of representation and discussion of this within the LGBT+ community, particularly in the media. The fact there hasn’t been a focus on this is surprising, considering the assault rate for LGBT folk is comparable, or in some cases even higher than the sexual assault rate for heterosexual individuals. As with most hate-based violence, a shocking 64% of trans folk have experienced sexual assault in their lifetime.

Stonewall recently published a report which showed that one in five LGBT+ people have experienced a hate crime or incident because their sexual orientation and/or gender identity in the last 12 months. Again, trans folk experience far more hate-crime than their cis counterparts, with two in five trans people experiencing hate crime because of their gender identity in the last 12 months. The report concluded that hate crime against LGBT people in Britain has increased by 78% since 2013.

These figures can seem overwhelming, and show that despite changes in legislation and slow movements towards a society where LGBT+ people are more visible and accepted, homophobia,
transphobia and biphobia is still rife. A part of how we can combat this is through knowing channels of support, understanding how you can intervene and be an active bystander. Do not underestimate the power of an ally, and remember that if you’re wearing a rainbow lanyard around Kings, you are visibly and openly stating your role as an ally.

If you are an LGBT+ person and have experienced sexual assault, bullying or harassment here are some of the ways you can get support:

It Stops Here – Disclosures, support and information
Get involved in Kings’ LGBT+ Staff Network
GALOP – London’s anti-LGBT+ hate-crime and domestic violence charity.
London Friend – LGBT+ Health and Wellbeing Charity
ELOP – North East London LGBT+ Community center and counselling

If you are an LGBT+ Ally, here is how you can help:

Active Bystander Training
Read up on what it means to be an Ally
Sign up to Diversity Matters training

Yes, #metoo

January 30, 2018 / Sarah Mander

Sarah Guerra – Director, Diversity & Inclusion

I chair the It Stops Here Taskforce.

I proposed this idea to the Principal quite soon after my arrival at King’s last year. Before I go any further I should note that It Stops Here wasn’t my brainchild. Hana Riazuddin and Alison Stenton have played a key role in leading King’s activity and set us on our path to realise our zero-tolerance ambition in relation to harassment, bullying and discrimination. Their determination and commitment created the strong foundations on which we are building. As Director of Diversity & Inclusion, it didn’t take me long to identify harassment as one of my top priorities.

Firstly, inclusion is about the environment and culture we are in and comes from how we feel on an everyday basis. Any behaviour, attitude or system that imposes limits and makes us feel uncomfortable or apprehensive means ‘inclusion’ for all is hampered. Both deliberate and unwitting forms of harassment, bullying and discrimination occur every single day and many are not challenged effectively, or at all, something that needs to be explored and dealt with. That would probably be reason enough on its own however reviewing the UUK Change the Culture report and various pieces of evidence from the higher education sector triggered memories of one of my own personal experiences, way back when I was an undergraduate.

I don’t tell this story to overshare or to garner sympathy and I would like to forewarn readers that the following contains thematic elements that some may find upsetting. I do so to expose how simple, naïve decisions can lead to something completely unexpected that has a long-term impact.

After failing to make the grades for a place at Sheffield or Liverpool, I ended up going to university in London. The vagaries of the English A level examining bodies that year meant that my exam contained a question that was pretty maverick (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!) so I got a D rather than the C or B I needed leading me into clearing! Being offered a place at the University of North London and being determined to have get the full “campus experience”, I moved into Halls even though I could have commuted from home (I can talk in another blog about being the child of immigrants and having no idea or support in navigating the path to higher education!).

Those first few weeks were such great fun. All that I had imagined – new people, lots of socialising, drinking, hanging out together in the common areas, kitchens and people’s rooms. I had a boyfriend a year or two ahead of me who was studying at Imperial and we agreed on a period of distance so I could make the most of my new home and be free to meet new friends. The halls I stayed in were in blocks of 12 rooms, housing around 150 people.

I quickly fell into a small friendship group made up of 4 or 5 lads who had known each other before and some girls from different places. One of the boys, let’s call him Ben, lived in a house miles away and had mates who lived in the residence. He was around a lot and, I think, generally slept on his friend’s floors. For some reason, that I really can’t remember, one night he found himself stranded and I offered him my floor to spend the night, which led to a sporadic pattern of him borrowing my floor as a bed. There was obviously talk and assumptions – but from my perspective and as far as I could tell his, it was platonic and convenient -we were mates. I couldn’t tell you how many nights he stayed in my room – on the floor! I mentioned it to my boyfriend and everything.

Anyway, one night, who knows what was different, he just got into bed with me. I was like – what?! He claimed – it’s just to sleep – just a bit more comfortable. It wasn’t ok but I wasn’t particularly frightened more puzzled and surprised. My recollection is that we were in, what I felt to be, this awkward position for about 10 minutes. I was trying to decide what I thought and what to do. I think, it felt like it might be a poor joke and then one of my best friends knocked on the door. I remember thinking – oh good this will resolve now without any confrontation.

I went to call out to come in, but before I could, Ben climbed on top of me and put his hand over my mouth. That’s when I realised things were in a completely different place. I froze. I stopped trying to talk. My friend, after hanging about for a short while, went away. This was in an age before mobile phones – so if someone didn’t answer the door that was that.

There we were, Ben on top of me with hand over my mouth, me frozen. When I think back now, the memory is so clear but at the same time, hazy. I can say, while it didn’t get any worse, in that he didn’t further assault or rape me, it was still a horrible experience. He didn’t ‘free’ me. We lay there like that for hours. He talked to me and I stayed quiet. I calculated how long it might be before someone thought more about me not being somewhere and might come and look for me again. I wondered if I could bite him or if I should scream. I wondered if I should pretend that I liked it. I thought about what everyone else thought and how they had all assumed we were sleeping together anyway. I felt such an idiot. How had a misread this so badly? What had I done?

At some point I must have fallen asleep. That, I know seems unbelievable and might seem like I wasn’t as scared as I was. I can’t explain that – but it’s what happened! When I woke up he was back on the floor. I lay for a few minutes wondering what would happen if I tried to leave. In the end I did without any issues. I didn’t tell anyone straight away. I just went to a friend’s room and found some reason for them to come back with me. He was gone.

Looking back, I realise it never occurred to me to report what happened. It never occurred to me that I could get any support. I was upset and scared. I was feeling stupid and slutty and was scared that people wouldn’t believe me. I was nervous something worse might happen. I wondered if everyone knew anyway? I thought it was my own fault – that’s what you get if you invite someone to share your room.

What did I want to happen? I don’t know if I would have known. What would I want now? Certainly for it not to happen again. For him not to do it to anyone else and probably to be told I didn’t do anything wrong. To be assured that inviting someone to do something like sleep on your floor is just that. That it doesn’t reduce your agency or ability to decide what happens in your personal space, to your body.

I never shared this experience at the time in any serious way – I mentioned it to a couple of friends but laughed it off. The days, weeks and months that followed were characterised with a significant awkwardness and discomfort. I spent a lot of time thinking and rethinking whether to do particular things, whether to go to particular events and feeling nervous and not knowing what to do when finding myself in proximity to him. Wondering what he was thinking and what everyone else knew and was thinking.

This story is nowhere near as horrific or traumatic as it could have been. It was an experience that was about someone not understanding or caring about consent or personal space. It was a story about naiveté and a lack of confidence or belief that there could or would be any support. I think myself fortunate that whilst it was unpleasant I had no significant long term effects from it. He gradually faded from my life and I rarely think about the specifics of the incident. Though I have thought a lot about how all these things are things that I don’t want anyone at King’s to feel unclear about, on either side of the picture, or have to suffer alone or in silence.

My experience encapsulates so much of the grey area that surrounds harassment and consent to this day. I hope it will help readers understand why it is so important to be committed to ensuring we as a King’s community must ensure we act concertedly to ensure It Stops Here and a zero-tolerance approach to harassment are more than catchy straplines. They need to be the standard of behaviour expected of us as part of the King’s community. We need to be clear about our responsibility to challenge impropriety and we need to be sure that support is available and accessed by anyone who needs it. They need to statements that everyone believes are rock solid if we are to have a truly inclusive community.

Digest Double Feature: Disability History Month – Sarah Guerra

December 7, 2017 / Sarah Mander

So, it’s UK Disability History Month? I feel this is probably one of the lesser known history months!

What is it? Or perhaps the better question might be, why does it exist? As with most history months, it’s an attempt to generate a public focus on the history of equality and human rights with a specific focus on disability. Disabled peoples’ contributions and achievements are often overlooked or undervalued and disability history month provides a platform for changing these attitudes and showcasing success. The Month is in its 8th iteration this year and there has been a steady increase in interest and activity.

Disability History Month runs from 22nd November to 22nd December and covers the scope of HIV/AIDS Day (1st December), the International Day of People with Disabilities (3rd Dec.) and International Human Rights Day (10th December). It also follows on directly from Anti-Bullying Week (19th to 23rd November) which is an important parallel as it has been reported that up to 2.5 times as much bullying is recorded towards disabled as compared to non-disabled young people and that some 70-80% of young disabled people claim to have been bullied in school and college.

King’s is showing its support for Disability History Month and this year’s theme, art, by holding a breakfast short film screening. We have carefully selected a range of short films that feature people’s experiences of visible and invisible disabilities.

As we talk about History Month’s as a platform for social change, I would like to extend that to this blog and use this space to talk about the ethos we will be pursuing here at King’s, a lot of which is rooted in the principles of the social model of disability. The social model of disability proposes that people are disabled by the barriers imposed by society that preclude their participation in social life and the workplace. These barriers can be physical and attitudinal and by identifying and challenging them we can ensure full participation, to everyone’s benefit. Attitudes based on prejudice, stereotypes or ableism also affect disabled people and can act as a barrier to having equal opportunities to participate in society. The social model locates ‘disability’ in the way society is organised – that is, in its physical and attitudinal organisation, disables certain people. This is in contrast with medical model of disability which has faced criticism for classifying people as disabled because of their individual conditions or impairments.

Seeing disability through the social model allows us to see the benefits of removing impediments that restrict life choices for disabled people so that disabled people can be independent and equal in society, with choice and control over their own lives. The social model of disability was developed by people with disabilities, frustrated by the fact that a traditional medical model did not explain their personal experience of disability or progress more inclusive ways of living.

As employers and providers of education, we have clear moral and legal responsibilities for supporting staff and students with disabilities. The Equality Act 2010 makes very specific reference to what is required for universities and other public bodies, which entail making adjustments, as are reasonable, to avoid disadvantaging disabled colleagues and students, to allow them to participate in work and education to the same extent as their peers. This obligation applies to policies as well as physical features of our environment and the provision of information.

Alongside these specific legal requirements, we are also bound by Public Sector Equality Duty which I have discussed in previous blog posts. This requires universities to

Give due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation

And

Advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it

And to

Foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.

As an education provider and employer, we are expected to do this by removing disadvantages experienced by disabled people and encouraging participation where representation and engagement are disproportionately low.

Having worked in a number of contexts, government, third sector and now education, I have seen the benefits that inclusive workplace practices can bring. Dismantling barriers effectively and sensitively leads to a far more positive experience for individuals as well as a better functioning, dynamic and productive organisation.

King’s has just completed its first organisation-wide baselining exercise, a self-assessment on our disability support and provision, with our partners the Business Disability forums. We are now analysing the results to see what we are already doing well and where we can improve. This assessment is a really great way to celebrate Disability History Month as it shows a firm organisational commitment and will lead us to tangible action and improvement for all staff. Focusing on our working environment, and developing tools and practices in linen with best practice shows that improving the accessibility overall has benefits everyone – whether currently impaired or not and enables those with impairments to give their best.

That is the crux of our legal responsibilities and of the social model – to recognise and change our thinking (and doing) around our physical and social environment and remove the barriers that these create, rather than narrowing in on the impairments on individuals.

Digest Double Feature: Disability History Month – Barry Hayward

December 7, 2017 / Sarah Mander

For Disability History Month, the Diversity Digest is featuring two not one, but blogs! Our first comes from your regular writer, D&I Director, Sarah Guerra, and we’re also featuring a special guest blog on Everyday Ableism from Barry Hayward, Deputy Head of Student Disability at King’s Disability Advisory Service.

Laura Bates started up Everyday Sexism to record the day-to-day experiences of exclusion and discrimination faced by women and and it occurs to me that there is everyday exclusion under every “ism” you can think of. My aim here is to highlight some of the everyday discrimination, or ableism, faced by disabled people and I invite others to share their experiences to throw a light on this area.

May I start by acknowledging that we have come a long way in the last ten years or so and it could be argued that universities have been at the forefront of inclusive practice, especially around disability.

Ten years ago, the number of students who would disclose to a university that they had a disability was around 7%. Now that figure is closer to 15% of students declaring a disability. It was not uncommon ten years ago for universities to state that it is not recommended that a student study there if you use a wheelchair due to the inaccessibility of their buildings.

Following the extension of the Disability Discrimination Act to apply to universities in 2003 as part of the enactment of the Equality Act in 2010, the right of disabled people to an equal education has become a reality but, exclusion around disability still exists and like sexism and racism it is now commonly carried out in much more subtle and indirect ways. Methods that are much harder to challenge than overt discrimination or abuse.

I’m sure you’ve all heard some of these phrases before:

“We are all disabled in some way aren’t we?”

Heard that one? This really rankles if you have plucked up the courage to reveal an impairment or health condition in the hope you might negotiate some accommodations at work. What this really means is “I don’t take this as a serious issue”

“I don’t need to use a microphone”

You may think that but some of us can’t hear unless amplification is used

“Cheer up, it might never happen”

How do you know it hasn’t already happened?

“Can you take minutes of this meeting?”

Dyslexic staff asked this on the spot will be challenged. Advance warning would mean they could record the meeting (or seek a reasonable adjustment).

These examples may seem minor and that’s the point really. There’s no malice intended, but a lack of thought can be very damaging to the recipient of such careless talk.

I could go further and discuss issues such as asking for reasonable adjustments and getting a furrowed brow in response (not a “no”, but not an overwhelming “of course”) but I thought I’d start with these examples. Please comment if you have similar experiences to share.

Barry Hayward, Deputy Head of Student Disability at King’s Disability Advisory Service.

Trans Matters

December 6, 2017 / Sarah Mander

As part of Trans Awareness Weeks and the Trans Day of Remembrance which both take place in November, King’s launched it’s Trans Matters guidance documents to provide support to trans and non-binary members of the King’s campus community, as well advice and guidance to those staff supporting these individuals. The launch included key staff and students who worked on the documents, Riley B and Dr Elliot Evans, as well as prominent trans activist, Jacqui Gavin.

King’s has recently become a member of Stonewall and Pete Mercer, the Head of Public Sector Memberships kindly agreed to feature as a guest blogger for our November post on the importance of trans support and allyship for our November post.

Under UK law, public and private sector bodies alike are required to observe and protect the rights of trans people. Following extensive consultation (rightly), KCL’s new ‘Trans Matters’ policy and guidance is therefore a response to both their legal and moral obligations to support their trans staff and students. As with all policies though, this document has the most impact when it’s put to use! – so it’s imperative that everyone takes time to consider its content and its significance.

While organisations are rightly taking action to meet their responsibilities, it’s important to also point out that the existing legislation (the Gender Recognition Act 2004) that allows trans people to legally change their gender is deemed by many to be deeply inadequate and obstructive. As things stand, trans people are forced to endure a highly medicalised, bureaucratic and demeaning process. It’s also designed in the image of a strictly binary conception of gender, leaving non-binary individuals without any legal recognition of their gender identity.

Globally speaking, the vast majority of countries in the world only permit people to legally change their gender if they have undergone sterilisation, including in 20 European states. More broadly, persecution of and discrimination against trans people in everyday life is commonplace across many cultures and societies.

In some parts of the world, in Latin America particularly, the threat is devastatingly acute. This Monday (the 20th Nov) was Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day that commemorates the many lives of trans people across the globe that have been lost to hateful acts of murder. This year alone, that figure stands at over 270 – this doesn’t include those that didn’t attract any media coverage, so the real figure is likely to be much higher.

The UK, of course, is also certainly not free from transphobia by any stretch of the imagination. According to our brand-new research ‘LGBT in Britain’, two in five trans people have experiences a hate crime or incident because of their gender identity in the last 12 months. And while there’s danger in steeping awareness of the trans community exclusively in victimhood, at the same time it’s also important to recognise where the rights of trans people are under attack so that we can work to prevent it.

If, like most people, you pay attention to the news, you’d be hard pressed to not notice the intense media obsession on trans identities right now. It’s every day. This relentless media onslaught is perpetuating harmful transphobic slurs, myths and outright lies about trans people and their needs. It’s taking its toll on the collective mental health of the trans community, within which many already face every-day prejudice, and further invalidating their identities and esteem.

This is why it’s important right now for you to come out as a trans ally. The task of beating transphobia must not just be left on the shoulders of trans people themselves exclusively. So whether it’s on social media or in your local community, we need as many voices as possible to come out in support of truth, dignity and basic human rights: for trans people to live their lives freely and be accepted without exception.

Pete Mercer

Head of Public Sector Memberships, Stonewall

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