My 25-year fight for trans equality: Stephen Whittle’s talk at the LSE
Stephen Whittle (@stephenwhittle) is a trans man, activist and Professor of Equalities Law at Manchester Metropolitan University. In a lecture given at the LSE, he discusses Press for Change – which was founded in 1992 and campaigned using social education, legal case work, and parliamentary lobbying to successfully change the UK into what is now one of the most transgender-friendly countries in the world. Whittle discusses what worked, what didn’t and what is left to be done. Introduced by Hakan Seckinelgin, Associate Professor in the Department of Social Policy at the LSE.
Gay Liberation Front poster advertising an event at the LSE. Photo: LSE Library. No known copyright restrictions
The LSE Library is holding an exhibition, Glad To Be Gay: The Struggle for Legal Equality, until 7 April 2017. It draws on the unique Hall-Carpenter Archives and the Women’s Library collection to mark the 50th anniversary of a pivotal piece of legislation: the 1967 Sexual Offences Act.
Gays Against Fascism march in 1974. Photo: LSE Library. No known copyright restrictions
I’m hesitant to comment on this because I WAS around 20+ years ago and it was a different landscape for trans* people back then. I can empathize with much of what Stephen describes such as automatic loss of job, career etc. that was a consequence of disclosure. Times are hard for many trans* people today but much harder before and on an altogether different level.
But I cannot allow to go without comment an unpalatable fact that the passing of legislation that afforded recognition to some trans* people slammed the door firmly shut on those who were left behind.
I campaigned in the 1990s for the recognition of my identity as a non-gendered (trans*) person and it was made apparent to me that my interests would not be taken forward by Press for Change in its negotiations with parliamentarians and the government.
For more than five years I subsequently lived under the threat of future prosecution due to the incumbent Labour governing administration’s avowed intention to introduce a mandatory national ID card scheme that would have forced me to apply for and carry an ID card with an inappropriate gender that I had long ago rejected, due to my invisibility with a gendered societal structure that failed to recognize my existence.
My intention and only recourse was to refuse to take part in the scheme. I would have faced prosecution and a criminal record if Labour won the 2010 election and this scheme had gone ahead. Where was PfC? Certainly not fighting for my rights.