Third Gender petition

[ganimede]

From an e-mail

David Solomon has created a petition on the government petitions webpages, calling for legal recognition of third gender status in the UK.

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Transgender/

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to legally recognize a third gender.

Submitted by David Solomon – Deadline to sign up by: 03 April 2008 – Signatures: 110

Our 'ladies & gents' society allows no space for a third gender - yet gender variant people do exist.

UK law, including the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act, only recognizes & legislates for women & men - deemed equal, but different. Thus a transsexual is afforded protection under UK law only if s/he is about to have, is having, or has already had gender reassignment surgery (a 'sex-change' ) to become either a man or a woman.

However, not every transgender person has gender reassignment surgery. Many can't undergo such a challenging series of operations because their health isn't up to it. Others don't want surgery & some just can't make that irreversible decision. Some transpeople define themselves as neither male nor female.

Importantly, gender dysphoria can still hurt. A two-gendered society that imposes a masculine or feminine gender identity upon us in spite of this is cruel & stupid.

Legal third gender recognition would hopefully lead to transgender-friendly public toilets, third gender tick boxes on forms & a legal obligation for employers/education authorities to make their dress codes/uniforms gender-flexible & non-sexist.

Let's put transgender on the agenda!

Crossposted to tguk and transgender.