Unbelievable
Jul 7th, 2008 by Rebecca
I’ve been meaning to get back into blogging again for a bit, after a couple of months where I’ve been dealing with a bit too much personal crap to be paying much attention to the world around. This incident of “what the FUCK were you thinking?” at London Pride, however, should prompt as much outrage and scorn we can raise.
UK trans activist Roz Kaveney’s account of what went down:
Official stewards who were running the toilets at Trafalgar Square announced that I, and any other transgender or transsexual woman, had to use the disabled toilets and was not allowed to use the regular women’s toilets. I pointed out to the stewards that I transitioned and had surgery before they were born; I was more polite than a polite thing. No dice.
Having this happen at any public event is worthy of a furore, but I can’t even comprehend the sort of cluelessness on the part of those at Pride that would allow for this to happen. It’s really not that hard: you’re organising an event which purports to include the trans community, nay, to represent trans pride, and yet everyone at the scene lacks the most basic awareness of trans issues, or just plain don’t care.
It gets worse.
I went and fetched a posse of transwomen and transmen and we made a collective fuss. Their response - and remember these were official stewards AT PRIDE - was to radio in ‘we’re being attacked by a mob of trannies! send backup’.
Just…fuck. Upon being challenged on an issue where they were firmly in the wrong, their response is not only to decide that they’re being attacked by a mob, but to do so with derogatory language to the minority involved, who, y’know, ARE IN THE GROUP YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE REPRESENTING.
And worse.
They were joined by a policeman, who was a LGBT liaison officer, who claimed that we had to be able to show our Gender Recognition Certificates if we wanted to use the women’s loos and got quite upset when I explained to him that I had been involved in drafting the Act and that it did not take away rights that existed before it. At one point he threatened to arrest us for demonstrating on private property - those loos belong to Westminster Council, so you are not allowed to make a fuss there.
Both of these things greatly disturb me. Firstly, that you have an police LGBT liaison officer who appears to be both blatantly ignorant about trans issues, and not to give a shit about it. There’s something very wrong about the training of community liaison officers if the whole respecting transfolk thing gets missed altogether. This officer needs to be very promptly canned.
Worse than that, though, is the use of Gender Recognition Certificates in this way - and that’s something that might well be a warning to any jurisdictions using similar systems. They’re meant to be a legal document signifying a change of status under the state; they’re most certainly not meant to be a “gender card” if you will, signifying who you’re allowed to discriminate against. Nor are they expected to be something that one would be carrying on one’s person. If as it seems here it’s being used in that way, that needs to be stopped, and that law needs to be changed to make damn sure that pulling this sort of thing has consequences for those who do it. It’s something that I hope Press for Change get onto in the wake of this, and it’s a lesson to those pushing for the adoption of similar systems elsewhere to see that that gets included into any new legislation.
And here’s a big “fuck you” to the stewards concerned for further trying to justify it on the base that there had been a sex attack that night. The trans community gets enough of this absolute bullshit from the batshit right without having to get it from equally ignorant folks who are supposed to be on our side. Props, though, to the trans guys who stood by the women who’d been turned away, declaring that if Roz et al were being told they couldn’t use the womens, then they, beards and all, should have to use them.
To make matters worse, someone who appears to have been one of the stewards dropped by and commented anonymously on Roz’s post:
Amongst the stewards there were indeed a number of trans people and official Pride policy is to treat any individual as the gender they present as. But seriously, you want more trans recognition then it’s up to you to get pro-actively involved rather than complain after the event when something goes wrong.
And for the record a woman was attacked that was not just an excuse. It is possible that there was an over reaction in an attempt to prevent further problems. Unfortunate but surely in such a tense situation to an extent understandable. There proposed solution of asking you to use the disabled toilets (gender neutral) whilst far from ideal was an attempt offer a workable solution.
Yes this wasn’t good but your way of dealing with it only suceeded in putting more pressure on already tense and overstretched Stewards and police officers, which was far from ideal and in my opinion did no favours to tran gender issues and the way trans people are viewed.
It seems that, according to this lovely person, preventing us from using the fucking bathroom is our fault, associating our community with sex offenders is “understandable”, and crying foul in the face of treatment that would be atrocious at any event, let alone at a queer one, “does us no favours.” I say that it does London Pride no favours if these are the sort of volunteers it places in a position of responsibility that involves dealing with members of the trans community.
I think this sort of conduct on the part of an LGBT organisation warrants an international outcry; christ, if it happened to me here, I’d be seeing them again in court.
Here’s the contact details for Pride London. I suggest people drop them a line and let them know how unconscionable this is:
Email: info@pridelondon.org
Post:
344-354 Gray’s Inn Road
London
WC1 8BP
Phone: (in the UK) 0844 884 2439
People may also be interested in contacting the police department in Westminister concerning the actions of the gay and lesbian liaison officer. Their email address is westminster@met.police.uk, and there’s also a contact name and UK phone number for their consultation group, which is supposed to deal with minority issues: Julie Etheridge, 020 7641 3258.
There’s also an online petition about the incident going around; please sign that as well if you get the chance. (Thanks to Helen G in comments for pointing that one out)
I’m glad to see that you’ve returned to blogging, Rebecca.
I sent the following e-mail to Pride London:
I am an American trans womyn writing in support of my trans sisters and brothers in England. I have become aware of the incident of blatant trans-misogyny carried out by Pride volunteers against trans womyn at the recent London Pride parade, where they were prevented from using the women’s bathroom and forced to use the disabled bathroom, along with Pride volunteers using transphobic language “We’re being attacked by a mob of trannies” and official oppression of the trans womyn, including threats of arrest, by a LG liaison officer. This incident also was an act of ableism, as when you dehumanized trans womyn and forced them to use the disabled bathroom, you interfered with disabled people who truly need an accessible bathroom.
In addition, it appears that bisexual people came under considerable verbal harassment from lesbian and gay participants.
You then had one of your people come on to the blog of the trans womyn who was turned away, and *anonymously* post a comment slandering the trans community for daring to protest such a blatant act of hatred.
This behavior on the part of an organization that purports to support bisexual and trans* people is utterly unconscionable. You should be ashamed of yourselves. Why do you bother with the B and the T in your organization’s public information? It is obvious to me that you don’t give a shit about the bisexual and trans* communities; worse than that, instead of *just* ignoring bisexual and trans* people, you actively collude in our oppression.
Your organization has an awful damned lot to answer for.
You owe Roz and the trans* and bisexual communities an apology, some *serious* action to purge transphobia and biphobia from your organization, and accountability to the trans* and bisexual communities.
Thanks, GG. Amen to that.
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.
Saw this on the internets, in response to this incident:
Also I have no idea how to link images… oops.
Yeah, I’ve seen that one going around. ‘Tis apt. Fixed the link, too.
[…] bloggar om händelsen: Burning Words och Nix Williams. Trans At Pride har också publicerat Roz text. Cred till Sasha. Läs även andra […]
[…] really liked Nix Williams and Rebeccas […]
[…] whole sorry tale is over at Roz’ blog - and if you click over to Rebecca’s blog, she has kindly provided the contact details for Pride […]
An online petition against this discrimination has been launched and can be found here
Email I sent to the MPS in response to their press release and covering letter yesterday 12 July circulated by PfC news feed.
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
Nice email, Natasha - I was also unamused by their response. The press release itself, especially, was a complete copout.