Engendered Penalties: Transgender and Transsexual People’s Experiences of Inequality and Discrimination Authors: Stephen Whittle, Lewis Turner and Maryam Al-Alami Contributors: Em Rundall and Ben Thom February 2007 A Research Project and Report Commissioned by the Equalities Review. The views expressed in this report are those of the authors, not necessarily those of the Equalities Review. © Crown Copyright 2007 Product Code 06 LD 04440/o This publication is one of a series of reports web-published on the Equalities Review website, www.theequalitiesreview.org.uk. To enquire about alternative formats, please contact [email protected], or telephone 0870 1226 236. The Equalities Review’s Final Report, Fairness and Freedom, is available at www.theequalitiesreview.org.uk (including EasyRead and large print versions). 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Please apply for a Click-Use Licence for core material at www.opsi.gov.uk/click-use/system/online/pLogin.asp CONTENTS Foreword 5 Acknowledgements 5 Chapter 1: Introduction 6 1.1 How many Trans People are there? 7 1.2 Experiencing Transphobia 7 1.3 Recent Developments in the Trans Community 8 1.4 Trans People Seeking Equality Now 9 1.5 InEqualities InAction: The case of the Prison Service disappearing Guidelines 12 1.6 The Future of Trans Equality and Non-Discrimination 13 Chapter 2: Executive Summary 14 2.1 Summary report 14 2.2 Trigger Points 14 2.3 Sectors and Spheres of Life 15 2.4 The Workplace 15 2.5 Changing Documents 15 2.6 Confidence in the NHS 16 2.7 Safety in Public Spaces 16 2.8 Goods, Services and Housing 16 2.9 The School Experience 17 2.10 In the Home and Neighbourhood 17 2.11 Conclusion 17 2.12 Recommendations 18 Chapter 3: Background to the Report 21 3.1 Other Recent Research on Inequalities and Discrimination 21 3.2 Defining Inequalities and Discrimination 21 Chapter 4: Findings – A Tale of Ordinary Folk 25 4.1 The Where and When of Discrimination 25 4.2 Great Expectations: the Online Survey Response 26 Chapter 5: Not fit to be seen in Public: Work, Papers, Health and Social Life 31 5.1 Workplace Discrimination 31 5.2 Problems at Work 34 5.3 Changing Documents 40 5.4 Accessing Healthcare 42 5.5 Going Out: the Street and Bar 51 Chapter 6: Nowhere’s Safe: Services, School, or Home 58 6.1 Housing, Goods and Services 58 6.2 The Best Days of your Life: School? 62 6.3 Experiences of Trans people in Domestic spaces 67 1 Engendered Penalties: Transgender and Transsexual People’s Experiences of Inequality and Discrimination Chapter 7 Accessing Equality: What do we want and how do we get it? 71 7.1 What do Trans People Want? 71 7.2 The Possibility of Claims under the Disability Discrimination Act 71 7.3 Gender Recognition Act (GRA) 2004 73 7.4 The Civil Partnership Act 2004 73 7.5 The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 74 7.6 The Equal Treatment Directive (2004/113/EC) 74 7.7 The Housing Act 2002 Part VII Homelessness Provision 75 7.8 The Equality Act 2006 75 7.9 Conclusion 76 Chapter 8: A Long Trans Life of Inequalities and Discrimination 77 Chapter 9: Bibliography 80 Appendix 1: Glossary 85 Appendix 2: Methods 89 Introduction 89 Data Sources 89 Online Survey 93 Problems, Successes and Limitations of the Study 94 Data Analysis 95 Appendix 3: Online Survey of Inequalities and Discrimination 96 Figures and Tables Figure 4.1: Top sectors in which people experienced discrimination 25 Figure 4.2: Top 9 spheres of life in which people experienced discrimination 25 Figure 4.3: Top 9 trigger points 26 Figure 4.4: Ethnicity of respondents 27 Figure 4.5: Age of respondents 27 Figure 4.6: How respondents identified their trans selves 28 Figure 4.7: The intentions of the 329 respondents not living permanently in their acquired gender 28 Figure 4.8: Percentage of respondents who were disabled compared with disabled people in the UK 29 Figure 4.9: Percentage of respondents claiming benefits compared with percentage of UK population claiming benefits 29 Figure 4.10: Occupational class of respondent group compared to national population 30 Figure 5.1: Respondents living / not living permanently in their preferred/acquired gender 32 Figure 5.2: Respondents not yet living in their preferred gender role, who stated that their job or workplace prevented them from doing so 32 Figure 5.3: Percentage of respondents who were required to use the toilets of their former gender or the disabled toilet at work, after transition 35 2 Engendered Penalties: Transgender and Transsexual People’s Experiences of Inequality and Discrimination Figure 5.4: Respondents’ experiences when using the toilets of their preferred/acquired gender at work 36 Figure 5.5: Respondents’ treatment by co-workers because of their acquired gender 37 Figure 5.6: Respondents who changed job or intended to change job because of their transition 38 Figure 5.7: Experiences at work by gender 38 Figure 5.8: How GPs responded when patients sought advice on gender reassignment 44 Figure 5.9: Percentage of respondents whose GP did not appear to want to help or refused to help access gender reassignment services by date of transition 45 Figure 5.10: Percentage of respondents refused treatment by a doctor or nurse because they did not approve of gender reassignment 46 Figure 5.11: Percentage of respondents who faced problems in obtaining funding from their primary care trust, by date of transition 48 Figure 5.12: Percentage of respondents refused or made to wait far longer than 6 months after referral from GP, for initial assessment for possible gender reassignment, by date of transition 49 Figure 5.13: Percentage of respondents refused access, or made to wait longer than expected, for trans-related healthcare after clinical recommendation 49 Figure 5.14: Percentage of respondents who felt that being trans had affected the way they could access non-trans related routine treatment on the NHS 50 Figure 5.15: Percentage of respondents who felt being trans adversely affected the way they were treated by healthcare professionals, by date of transition 50 Figure 5.16: Harassment experienced by trans people in public spaces 53 Figure 5.17: Harassment by gender 54 Figure 5.18: Genderpac survey results 54 Figure 6.1: Type of housing compared to UK national average 59 Figure 6.2: Top eight sectors in which enquiries relating to services were made to PFC 59 Figure 6.3: Respondents who had been asked to use different toilets or changing rooms at a health centre or sports centre as their preferred/acquired gender 60 Figure 6.4: Respondents refused services in a pub, restaurant, hotel or any other place providing leisure services such as a gym, because they were recognised as being trans 61 Figure 6.5: Respondents asked to not use or to use different changing rooms at a shop or retail outlet when in their preferred /acquired gender 62 Figure 6.6: Young trans people’s experiences of bullying at school by gender 63 Figure 6.7: Trans children’s experiences at school by gender 65 Figure 6.8: Educational achievements of respondents compared to national average 66 Figure 8.1: Respondents who reported attempting suicide or self harm, as an adult, resulting from being a crossdresser, transgender/transsexual person or because of other people's reactions to them being trans 78 3 Engendered Penalties: Transgender and Transsexual People’s Experiences of Inequality and Discrimination Table App 2.1: Sectors coding 91 Table App 2.2: Spheres of life coding 91 Table App 2.3: Trigger points 91 Table App 2.4: Keywords used for Press for Change data 92 Table App 2.5: Keywords used for FTM network data 92 4 Foreword This research project was undertaken for the Equalities Review between the period of July 14th and September 1st 2006. During this 6 week period, the researchers undertook a mixed quantitative/qualitative approach to collecting and analysing information on transgender and transsexual people’s experiences of inequality and discrimination in the UK. This report is an analysis and summary of the results obtained, and it outlines the levels of inequality and discrimination that trans people face. The work undertaken is certainly the largest data collection ever analysed and the largest survey response ever received when doing research on trans people’s lives. One can never claim that research data is entirely representative of a community, even less so when the community being studied consists of many small sub- communities as is the case with trans people. However, as will be alluded to in the introduction, the reality of the estimated number of transsexual people in the UK means that this piece of work reflects the experiences of a substantial section of the trans community. As such, we are proud of this research, and would claim that it is as near a reflection of the reality of trans people’s lives as is possible through data collection.