Dear Steve Allen,

No responsibility has been taken here by you. You say only that you “deeply regretted” the incident, but this is very slippery. If the MPS truly want to build trust with trans people you must use the words “sorry” or “apologise” and must be SEEN to “sanction” or “penalise” the off duty LO’s ILLEGAL citing of the Gender Recognition Act to curb someone’s freedom.

What other group of citizens could conceivably be denied access to the loo in this way? Imagine if an LO demanded ID from anybody else and sent them to the disabled loos for failure to produce… It is an utter OUTRAGE… Get a grip… You must APOLOGISE properly.

It is also deeply shocking for you to then defend the officer “the motivation and actions of the police LO involved were positive and he has my full support” when they were implicitly discriminatory and therefore negative! Please don’t insult trans people pretending that the motivations of the LO were otherwise.

Remember discrimination and victimisation under the SDA does not have to be conscious or deliberate for a Tribunal to find guilt. This incident is both and could be heard by a Tribunal and the Claimant would likely succeed. Remember too that this off duty LO *chose* to wade in to display and assert his assumed authority over everybody to support the Pride volunteer(s). Blaming the victim and others by mentioning “inappropriate language” and “placards inadvertantly causing injury” is ugly misdirection.

It is also deeply offensive to my mind to expect as an acceptable remedy for volunteers to show up to endless meetings with highly paid individuals from the police, council, PCT etc. You only do this because such authorities “must invite homosexuals” from the outset to “participate in a review of local crime and disorder” to satisfy your obligations under the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act’s three year Crime Reduction Strategy schedules.

Such future meetings are a distraction from the facts of best practice now today; how to deliver equal treatment for trans people is already very well known and has been for many years. Just do a google search or better employ full time equalities experts to advise you. This is not rocket science.

The actions of the LO were due to ignorance and must now be prevented from being repeated with visible ongoing comprehensive *independently verified* trans awareness TRAINING of all officers.

And please don’t try to brush this under the carpet by writing that “those specifics are being or have already been addressed.” Until a full apology is made by the MPS and sanctions imposed on the LO even if only a token this issue will remain unresolved indefinitely.

I’ve had to put up with similar slimy deeds over and over again with our local Sussex Police ever since the failed Anti Victimisation Initiative began in 2000 and the later suppressed evaluation reports. Another example of denial, data burial and consequent refusal to learn by authorities.

Please acknowledge receipt of this email. Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Natasha

I’ve also added contact details for the local branch of the police, if people are interested in complaining about the actions of the gay and lesbian liaison officer concerned.