Transgender Day Of Visibility

Happy international transgender day of visibility a day to celebrate trans, non binary and gender variant people and highlight discrimination and oppression. There's still so much terrible discrimination, harassment and violence about and so it's unsurprising that for many it's unwise and unsafe to be visible. Being anywhere on the trans spectrum requires a lot of learning and discovery which can take many years, hopefully days like these can help.

Updating the GRA in Scotland

If you had only read the newspaper coverage of the Scottish Governments proposed reforms to the Gender Recognition Act of 2004 you might be led into thinking there was something really radical in the draft bill. The nation becoming innundated with people from all corners of Britain wanting to change their birth certificates, children given sex swaps, men taking over women's changing rooms, people being forced to transition by the sinister trans cabal. 

The reality is that it is a modest reform which will bring Scotland up to date with international best practice. To paraphrase for those unfamiliar with the current system of changing the sex on their birth certificate across the UK it requires providing evidence over several years, be signed off by two separate doctors and convincing a panel. In essence unnecessarily time consuming and bureaucratic. Replacing all that with a legally binding declaration and a reasonable period of reflection. It's a system that works successfully in other jurisdictions without fuss and should be welcomed especially as the proposed reforms in the rest of the UK are lieing in rapidly lengthening grass.