Blick_UK Politics (9780198825555)_CH10

10.3 In theory 233

with a fine in the UK coronavirus lockdown period from 27 March to 11 May 2020 (Gidda, 2020). Both stop and search disparities and these data around fines for breaking lock- down rules contributed to the anger expressed in the UK Black Lives Matter protests in June 2020. Disparities continue to exist, and there is a long way to go before enforcement of legal frameworks fully eliminates these tendencies, but there has been progress towards

identifying the key issues and possible ways forward to prevent discrimination on the basis of personal charac- teristics. In Practice 10.1 shows some of the challenges in- volved in protecting the rights of a particular group, trans people. It is a significant subject of study because it is in an area where there have been recent efforts to define, es- tablish, and legislate for rights, and where they are a matter of ongoing controversy.

Political debate about provision for rights and non-dis- crimination in the UK is expanding to take in varied con- ceptions of gender, and in particular the idea of people being trans. But what does trans mean, and what are the legal and political implications of this characteristic? Sex is assigned to people when they are born, based on their anatomy, hormones, and chromosomes. For the majority of people, they are assigned either ‘male’ or ‘female’ (but intersex people are those for whom sexual characteristics may not fit into these categories). Though gender has been defined in many ways, it is usually agreed to be a more socially based charac- teristic, including aspects of identity, presentation, and expression. For a cisgender person, their gender match- es the sex they were assigned. A transgender person is someone whose gender attachment diverges from this assignment. Someone who identifies as female but who was assigned male at birth can be labelled a ‘trans woman’; and someone who was assigned fe- male at birth but identifies in gender as male can be labelled a ‘trans man’. It is possible for trans identity to be ‘non-gendered’—that is, neither male nor female. It can also take a ‘non-binary’ form, fitting on a spectrum somewhere between male and female, either at a fixed point, or perhaps shifting. Being trans may or may not involve obtaining medical intervention intended to affirm gender identity in phys- ical characteristics and presentation (House of Com- mons Women and Equalities Committee, 2016: 5–6). In 2018, the UK government reported that trans people ac- counted for between approximately 0.35 per cent and 1 per cent of the UK population—producing a rough fig- ure of between 200,000 and 500,000 people in total. It emphasized that arriving at a precise total was a difficult task (Minister for Women and Equalities, 2018: 83). In practice 10.1 Trans rights and UK politics

In recent years, trans issues have gained in political prominence, with campaigners for trans rights opposing transphobia—a term meaning prejudice against trans people. There is clear evidence of trans people under- going discrimination and of their life chances suffering in different ways. For instance, in 2018, the Stonewall campaign group published a report based on opinion research evidence. To give some examples, around 40 per cent of trans people and 30 per cent of non-binary people had in the previous year suffered some kind of incident or hate crime related to their identity. A quarter of trans people had been homeless; and 36 per cent attending higher education institutions had, in the previ- ous 12 months, suffered unpleasant treatment from staff. Where healthcare was concerned, 41 per cent said that staff had not showed understanding for them; and 62 per cent reported that it had taken too long for them to receive treatment (Bachmann and Gooch, 2018: 6). Concerns also involved the legal status of trans peo- ple. An important stage in provision for trans rights came with the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (see How did we get here? 10.1). Under this Act people aged eighteen and over can apply to the Gender Recognition Panel for a Gender Recognition Certificate, under which their gen- der can be recognized for most purposes; and they can obtain a replacement birth certificate that refers to their recognized gender, rather than the sex they were as- signed at birth. Between the passing of the Act in 2004 and 2018, nearly 5,000 people had received certifi- cates, 73 per cent of whom were receiving legal recog- nition as women, having been assigned as males at birth (Minister for Women and Equalities, 2018: 76). As noted above, in ‘promoting equality’, the Equality Act 2010 creates a series of categories, including gen- der reassignment, protecting those who fit within them

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