Mastodawn

This UK gov petition has less than a month to go. With over 80K signatures, it's close.

"Petition:
Legally enshrine the right of adults to physically transition using NHS services"

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/704793

Petition: Legally enshrine the right of adults to physically transition using NHS services

Introduce a law to legally protect the right of those aged 18 and over to transition using NHS services. This should specifically cover physical transition, including hormone treatment and surgery, as otherwise I believe it could potentially be interpreted as including conversion therapy.

Petitions - UK Government and Parliament

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Alex Lloyd 🏳️‍🌈♾️Jul 12

@AngharadHafod Hello. I don't understand this petition. Don't we already have legal right to transition using NHS?

It isn't ILLEGAL to transition in this country (at least not yet), and NHS should eventually support us. UK Gov has responded to this petition, so I don't see why it exists.

Maybe idea behind petition was to give legal right for anyone to transition using NHS resources regardless of whether there's medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria. But that's not how petition's worded. 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈

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zbrown Jul 17

@AlexLloyd @AngharadHafod arguably the law as-is is somewhat ‘neutral’ on the issue, but in practice the NHS does not provide transition care and the Government has made it clear they've no intent to change this.

I beleive the idea of the petition is to have an explicit requirement that transition care is provided, and for there to be consequences if it isn't.

This of course won't happen, but I support the dream I guess.

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Alex Lloyd 🏳️‍🌈♾️Jul 17

@zbrown @AngharadHafod Hello. I'm trans🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 & Welsh🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿. UKGov🇬🇧 doesn't run NHS in Wales and we do things differently over here...

There's a great deal to do to improve lives of trans folk like myself & to combat overwhelming social injustice, however, IMO, this petition was sadly a completely wasted opportunity. There was never any possibility this petition would change anything, and we need substantial change, not pretentious gimmicks.

But I agree, yes, Wales is superb. 😊
Take care of yourself. 👍

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zbrown Jul 17

@AlexLloyd @AngharadHafod yes I'm sure having *zero* provision for children or anyone in the north is *superb*, a near two-year wait in the south is certainly ‘better’ but c'mon…

The petition isn't a wasted opportunity because there never was an opportunity, the self-id petition led to an unusually civil ‘debate’ but no variation on any petition is going to achieve any amount of change, let alone substantial.

But they are still useful to show public support, so lets work with what we've got.

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zbrown Jul 17

@AlexLloyd @AngharadHafod sorry I think tone may have gotten away from me there

It's just, I know all about devolution, I also know that none of the administrations are particularly resisting anything — indeed they are voluntarily going along with it.

I'd love for Cymru or Scotland or NI to be a nice little bubble, especially Cymru, but they ain't, and I don't see that we gain a thing from pretending otherwise.

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zbrown Jul 17

@AlexLloyd @AngharadHafod The sole GIG Cymru clinic has a shorter wait than most of NHS England, that's nice, but it's not that much shorter, is still nowhere near acceptable, of the top of my head it's about on par with NHS Scotland.

That Wes Streeting nominally only directly administers England doesn't mean much when everyone else falls in line, and he still has meaningful power over the whole UK if he wants to.

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zbrown Jul 17

@AlexLloyd @AngharadHafod As independent as Llafur Cymru has often been, I can't imagine short of something radical happening that they'll be the ones to meaningfully resist.

If the SNP does it'll only be to spite Westminster, that's already painfully clear.