Transgender Quality of Life Research
Over the last three months, the Scottish Transgender Alliance Coordinator has been working closely with Scottish Government Social Researchers to look at the quality of life experiences of transgender people in Scotland and the UK.
We used the World Health Organisation’s Quality of Life measurement tool. This enables an overall Quality of Life score to be calculated from 26 questions about physical health, psychological wellbeing, social relationship and environment. We ran the survey online for four weeks and received 286 usable survey responses from transgender people living in the UK.
One of the issues we were interested to investigate was how people at different stages of transition rated their current quality of life. Our research found that respondents who have already transitioned are significantly more likely to have a high Quality of Life score than respondents who are currently transitioning and those who intend to transition.
Our research also showed that respondents who reported that they had experienced harassment or rejection on grounds of gender identity or gender expression in multiple areas of their life were significantly more likely to have a current low Quality of Life score.
A particularly concerning finding which also emerged from the research was the high level of transphobic harassment at school which respondents reported. More than 50% of the respondents reported having experienced bullying or harassment at school due to the gender identity or gender expression. As the age range of respondents was 16 to 78 years, we felt it was important to look particularly at the experiences of those who had most recently attended school. When split by age,
67% of those aged 16 to 25 reported experiencing transphobic bullying or harassment at school, compared to 43% of those aged 26 to 78 years.
The
World Health Organization Quality of Life (
WHOQOL) project was initiated in 1991. WHO defines Quality of Life as an individual's perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns. WHO Field Centre for the Study of Quality of Life
Identity Isn’t A Disorder
International Campaign to Stop Trans Pathologization
The online transgender forums and blogs are always lively places. During October 2009 they were buzzing with debate about how transgender identities are currently classified in the International Classifications of Diseases (ICD).
Currently, the ICD lists “Transsexualism” and “Dual Role Transvestism” as “Gender Identity Disorders” within the category of “Disorders of adult personality and behaviour”. This means that transgender people’s actual gender identities are, inappropriately, officially classified as mental disorders.
The campaign Stop Trans Pathologization: Goal 2012 originally began in France and Spain in October 2007, to demand the removal of “Gender Identity Disorders” (GID) from two key medical classifications listings: the DSM-IV of the American Psychiatric Association and the ICD of the World Health Organization, both of which are currently undergoing revision. The revision process ends in 2012, and the STP campaign is to protest the revision each year until the category GID is removed.
However, some transsexual people are concerned that if the current diagnostic category for transsexualism is simply removed, without any alternative (and less stigmatising) category put in elsewhere in the ICD, then it may become even harder to get national health service funding for gender reassignment hormone and surgery medical assistance.
From November 2009 until January 2010, the Scottish Transgender Alliance will be carrying out a consultation of transgender people’s views on the issue of how to ensure access to NHS funding for gender reassignment while also enabling trans people to have their gender identities respected as equally valid to non-trans gender identities. We want to know if trans people in Scotland consider this a priority issue, and whether they want the Scottish Transgender Alliance to join the Stop Trans Pathologization 2012 campaign.
National LGBT Skills Programme
Funding for an Equal FutureSaturday 4th December 2009, 10am -5pm, Edinburgh
Funding for an Equal Future is a free one day training event aimed at giving LGBT groups and organisations increased knowledge of funding models and the skills to successfully apply for funding. We will also look at fundraising and sustainability of funding.
The LGBT sector is historically underfunded and under-resourced, but this coupled with an economic downturn is creating new stresses on an already fragile sector. While there are many success stories, many LGBT groups and organisations will need to work harder and smarter to secure new and diversified funding and in turn move from survival to flourish.
The 2009 sector survey carried out by the Equality Network highlighted the key challenges and needs of the LGBT sector in Scotland. When asked the areas of information or training that organisations would find useful, over 60% said producing successful funding applications. This mirrors sentiment in the sector as a whole, where funding an equal future has become increasingly important.
This training is aimed at any LGBT organisation or group in Scotland. Evaluation Support Scotland will be on hand to facilitate some of the training sharing their expertise. Places on this course are free, and travel bursaries are available. Places are limited and will be allocated on a first come first serve basis.
If you would like more information or a registration form contact scott@equality-network.org
National LGBT Forum
Thursday 14th January 2010, Perth
The National LGBT Forum is celebrating its first birthday. After meetings in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Stirling it’s the turn of Perth to host the forum and time to tackle some of the more complicated issues affecting LGBT communities.
The next meeting of the forum will look at the topic of race, religion and belief. As well as a panel of speakers from ethnic minority, religious and LGBT communities, part of the forum will be a roundtable discussion on the topic. We’re looking for your ideas and suggestions on what areas you would like to see on the table for discussion.
If you would like more information, have suggestions or require a registration form to attend the event please contact Scott Cuthbertson (scott@equality-network.org).
We would like to thank Perth and Kinross Council for their support in hosting this meeting of the National LGBT Forum. If you would be interested in hosting a meeting, please contact scott@equalty-network.org
EveryoneIN Report Launched
Friday 28th August saw the groundbreaking launch of the first ever Scottish research report on the intersection of race and ethnicity with sexual orientation and gender identity. The joint Equality Network and Black and Ethnic Minorities Infrastructure Scotland (BEMIS) launch of the report was massively oversubscribed and all the paper copies of the full report and summary were snapped up within a week.
PDF copies of the full report and the summary can still be downloaded from www.equality-network.org/minorityethnicLGBT
We have applied for further funding from EHRC Scotland to take forward the key recommendations. The Everyone In project has freshly shown the value of intersectional work as a way to consider all of the equality strands: as the intersection both influences and emphasises the interplay between all of the equality strands. This is a first step to increasing our knowledge and capacity to better address the needs of all our diverse peoples.
The report has received international attention and a presentation of the findings took place at the end of October at the ILGA Europe LGBTI Conference in Malta. The theme of this conference is “Overcoming Religious & Cultural Barriers to LGBT Equality".
Challenging Prejudice Together
At the end of October, Hilary Third (from the Scottish Government Equality Unit) delivered two presentations at the ILGA Europe LGBTI Conference in Malta, focusing on:
- The Sentencing of Offences Aggravated by Prejudice Act (which became law this year, and recognises homophobic and transphobic hate crime and hate crime targeting disabled people)
- The Scottish Government’s role in/commitment to the Government Network (alongside Flanders and the Netherlands)
Hoever, Hilary Third’s first presentation in Malta was at the international transgender conference that takes place the day before the LGBTI conference, outlining Scotland’s unique approach to promoting equality for transgender people: the Scottish Transgender Alliance Project remains the only trans project in Europe funded by a central government.
New adoption and fostering laws
The law on adoption and fostering in Scotland changed on 28th September 2009. The new law treats same-sex and mixed-sex couples equally.
The Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 came into effect that day. The Act allows same-sex couples to apply to jointly adopt a child. If the adoption goes through, both of the couple become the child’s legal parents.
The Act also allows one partner in a same-sex couple to apply to adopt the other partner’s child. After the adoption, both of the couple are the child’s legal parents.
In both cases, a same-sex couple means a couple in a civil partnership, or a couple who are not in a civil partnership but who are living together as if they were civil partners, in what the Act calls “an enduring family relationship”.
Another law that came into effect on 28th September is the Looked After Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009. These are the new regulations about fostering of children. The regulations allow same-sex couples to be considered as foster parents on the same basis as anyone else.
There are other laws – the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007 – which say that same-sex couples must not be discriminated against. This means that all adoption and fostering agencies must now give the same opportunities to same-sex couples as they give to mixed-sex couples, without discrimination.
The Equality Network, and our partners at Stonewall Scotland, LGBT Youth Scotland, Lesbian Mothers Scotland, Gay Dads Scotland and Rainbow Families, provided evidence to the Scottish Parliament when it debated the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act. The part of the Act allowing same-sex couples to adopt was passed by the Parliament by 101 votes to 8.
The Equality Network also worked successfully for amendments to the new fostering regulations, and to the detailed regulations on adoption, to ensure that they treat same-sex couples equally.
Earlier this year, the law on fertility treatment also changed. The new law allows civil partners to both be registered as the legal parents of a child born to one of them through donor insemination. This applies to children conceived on or after April 6th 2009.
For children conceived before that date, only the birth mother is registered as the parent, but the other mother could now apply to adopt the child to become the other legal parent.
You can find more details on our website at www.equality-network.org/YourRights
Marriage and civil partnership
Thanks to everyone who completed our opinion survey about marriage and civil partnership law. More than 300 people did, and we will be publishing a full report soon.
Meanwhile, preliminary results are that only 5% of you think that the law is fine the way it is. 85% want the law changed to allow same-sex marriage. The majority want civil partnership retained alongside marriage, so that both are available as choices for same-sex and mixed-sex couples. And the majority say this is a high priority for us to work on.
The Equality Network continues to support the two petitions to the Scottish Parliament which are calling on the Scottish Government to introduce same-sex marriage. See www.equality-network.org/marriage for details.
The Parliament’s Public Petitions Committee wrote to the Scottish Government to ask what they will do about this. The reply, from Community Safety Minister Fergus Ewing, said that because the UK Government oppose same-sex marriage, the Scottish Government could not do anything about it.
The Equality Network considers this to be an unsatisfactory response. Marriage and civil partnership law is devolved, although there are some reserved UK issues such as inheritance tax to be considered. We have proposed to the Scottish Government ways we think the law could be changed to introduce same-sex marriage in Scotland, without needing to wait for the rest of the UK. That’s what devolution is all about.
We are calling on the Scottish Government to accept that the current law enshrines inequality and that this is a high priority for LGBT people, and to start discussions with LGBT organisations about how the law could be changed.
Challenging Prejudice Together
Scotland House is a modern building in the centre of the European quarter of Brussels, occupied by organisations and branches of government representing Scottish interests in the EU.
On 28th September 2009, Alex Neil, the Scottish Government Minister for Housing and Communities hosted a seminar in Scotland House on the Scottish Government’s approach to promoting equality and inclusion for LGBT people. The National LGBT Forum website was one of the showcase projects that the Scottish Government wanted on display.
The seminar provided the Minister with an opportunity to speak to representatives across Europe about the Scottish Government’s strategic approach to LGBT equality, which has been developed in partnership with the three national LGBT organisations in Scotland, the Equality Network, LGBT Youth Scotland, and Stonewall Scotland.
The strategic approach is underpinned by a funding package supporting nine projects, four of which are coordinated by the Equality Network: Community development, Information, Policy, and the Scottish Transgender Alliance.
The total funding package, £1.7M 2008-2011, supports projects designed to support community capacity building, involvement of LGBT communities in policy making and service planning and to develop good practice in LGBT-inclusive services.
“We are proud of our work in this area which we know is considered to be both proactive and progressive, and we wanted to share this on a European platform.”
The Minister – who delivered the welcome and opening address - was accompanied by representatives from the Equality Network, Stonewall Scotland, LGBT Youth Scotland and the Scottish Transgender Alliance who shared the platform and delivered short presentations demonstrating their role in delivering the shared objectives. This emphasised the importance of partnership working as the foundation for the Scottish approach.
There were representatives from the governments of Netherlands, Flanders, Republic of Ireland and the UK. As well as community activists from Belgium, Italy and Germany, the seminar attracted a number of respected academics from Belgian and Dutch Universities. Several European equality bodies (International Lesbian and Gay Association, International Gay and Lesbian Youth Organisation, Transgender Europe) participated, and the European Commission and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (Scotland) were also represented. Notably, there was a significant attendance from transgender people and organisations – this is an area where Scotland is considered to be the most advanced of any European country.
“The seminar was extremely well-received, and it is clear that our approach to working in this area is the envy of many of our European neighbours.”
The Scottish LGBT representatives were keen to point out that although things are improving, there is still a great deal of work needed particularly around changing attitudes, and to ensure that LGBT are able to participate fully in daily and public life and to maximise their own potential, without fear of homophobia or harassment – at school, in the workplace, accessing or receiving public services, or in the community.
The Minister responded positively to calls for the Scottish Government to show leadership on this agenda on a European platform, and to play a role in supporting those countries whose legislation and policy may be less advanced in this area. The Minister reinforced the Scottish Government’s ongoing commitment to participate in the Network of LGBT Government Focal Points as a way of taking this forward.
The day after the seminar, the Minister went to the European Parliament for meetings with four of the Scottish MEPs, and spoke with them about the work being done in Scotland to promote LGBT equality. Scottish Government officials have also agreed to keep in touch with their researchers in relation to the forthcoming EU Equal Treatment Directive.
Briefing on the EU Equality Directive, 28th July 2009
www.equality-network.org/policy/briefings
The National LGBT Forum website is a trove of useful information and advice to our employers and to statutory bodies and service providers across Scotland, and a unique source of information, news, and communication among ourselves. Funded by the Scottish Government, developed by the Equality Network, supported by LGBT Youth Scotland and Stonewall Scotland, to be a useful resource for all the communities of LGBT people in Scotland.
We can’t do this without you
Every week, at least 40 weeks out of the year, for the past five years, the Equality Network has sent LGBT News to our network of individuals, organisations, venues, local and national government, statutory bodies. News and events sent to us, researched by us: promoting local, national, UK-wide, European, and global equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. We believe in providing clear and accurate information to government and grassroots, to corporations and employees, to the single and the partnered.
If you’re reading this, you know that spreading LGBT News is only part of what we do: from conferences to national LGBT websites, the Equality Network strives to be inclusive and open in our work, to challenge discrimination and to consult, involve and inform the individuals and the communities for which we work.
We’ve achieved a lot. EveryoneIN, our recent report on the experience of minority ethnic LGBT people, and the intersectionality of the discrimination they face, has received international recognition: because of our work Scotland is the only country in Europe that recognises transphobic hate crime: our guide to your rights as a bidie-in, Shacked Up, for same-sex couples living together in Scotland, is uniquely useful.
We can’t do this without you. We need you.
You help us when you promote our work, when you come to our conferences, when you respond to our surveys, when you use our resources, and when you donate money that we can use in our work and campaigns outside the funded projects.
We’re asking you to become Friends of the Equality Network. You can give to us online, via a secure donations site designed for charities. We receive generous funding for our projects, but like every other charity, our running costs exceed our project funding. We need your help to continue doing everything we already do, and to enable us to do more.
If you will commit to giving us from £5 a month, we would like to give you an icon you can display on your Facebook page or website or your blog. Your name will be listed on www.equality-network.org/friends (in whatever form you prefer: you can also opt to be an Unknown Friend) and your donations will be used to support our continuing work.
But whether you can afford to give money or not, we thank you: we wouldn’t be the Equality Network without you.
Events
Transgender Day of Remembrance - Fri 20th November
National LGBT Skills Programme: Funding for an equal future, Edinburgh, Sat 5th December
ACPOS (Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland) LGBT biennial conference, Tulliallan Police College, Thu 17th December 2009
National LGBT Forum: Race, Religion & Belief, Perth, Thu 14th January 2010
Speak Out Highlands and Islands, Residential course, Inverness, 29th-31st January.
LGBT History Month – 1st February to 28th February 2010
Transgender Day of Remembrance - Friday 20th November
The Transgender Day of Remembrance is set aside to memorialise those who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice.
World AIDS Day - Tuesday 1st December
HIV: Reality. Discover real stories about HIV. Understanding the facts is the key to fighting prejudice and protecting yourself and others.
Holocaust Memorial Day – Wednesday 27th January 2010
The Legacy of Hope
LGBT History Month – 1st February to 28th February 2010