Transgender EuroStudy – Legal Survey and Focus ... - ILGA Europe

Transgender EuroStudy:
Legal Survey and Focus on the
Transgender Experience of Health Care
Recent Developments in the
Trans Community
The last 15 years have seen a major change in the trans community. The growth of home
computer use in the 1990s and the encouragement of many trans women at the forefront of
information technology and internet development were to be crucial in the development of a new,
geographically spread, but no longer isolated trans community (Whittle 1998). More recently, it has
become a community with an understanding and an awareness of common experiences, through the
use of the internet, email lists and websites, and the increasing media coverage of trans stories. The
trans community is still relatively ‘young’ in that the ‘first generation’ underwent gender reassignment
in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Moreover, the political, legal and social landscape was very different then and
is continuing to change.
Like the ‘coming out’ of gay people in the early gay liberation movement, trans people over the
last 15 years have become politicised through new communication technology – particularly in the UK
and the US, and are more visible in public positions – for example in academia and politics. Up until
recently, trans people post gender transition were required to ‘disappear’ – to become ostensibly ‘post
transsexuals’ (Stone 1991). This report found that the ‘disappearance’ of trans people post transition
continues to be the norm in some European States, making it difficult to locate trans people to
participate in this research. If all trans people in Europe had become ‘non-trans people’ and
‘disappeared’, we would have had no participants. We are glad that this was not the case and we
managed to find networks of trans people who could be contacted as with no participants there is no
research.
The research in this report demonstrates that trans people are consistently denied access to
even the most basic medical treatment required to enable them to live in their preferred gender role.
They are medicalised, they are subsumed into the category of mentally ill, they are humiliated by
medical practitioners and they are denied access to non trans-related care because they are trans.
It is clear that the bodies of the European Union, and in particular the European Commission,
cannot dictate to Member States how to organise or adminster their healthcare systems; it is equally
true that the European Commission is in the position to highlight the rights of trans to equal
treatment in accordance with directives and case law on this point. By acting promptly in accordance
with the recommendations contained in this report, the European Commission and other concerned
bodies could ensure a European wide shift in attitudes and practice towards trans people.
Trans people have the same rights as everyone else to adequate, respectful and accessible
healthcare; the shame they are forced to undergo for even the most basic medical treatment offends
against basic principles of equality and human rights. There can be no doubt that prompt action is
needed, and is possible, the only doubt is whether that action will be taken.