TRANS RIGHTS BEING IGNORED IN NEW LAW BY THE UK GOVERNMENT

(An older story, published now as part of my portfolio. This was written in Semester 2 of Level 5 as the News story I wrote for my Politics module)

The Conservatives have introduced a new law which prevents male to female transgender prisoners from being held in female prisons. 

The law will stop trans prisoners who still have male genitalia, or have committed sex crimes, or some violent crimes, from being held with biologically female inmates. 

Exemptions to this law can possibly be made if the individual in question is considered a ‘low risk’. 

This has caused a great deal of controversy, with a large public outcry that this new law demonises transgender individuals, tarring them all with the same brush. 

Now, transgender women, who cannot be ‘safely held’ in men's prisons, will be held in what the Secretary of State for Justice describes as a ‘specialist unit’. 

There are also still questions for the government to answer - one of those being intersex people, who identify more strongly with one gender identity. 

Approximately 1.7% of the population of the UK have intersex traits, a similar amount to the number of individuals in the UK with naturally red hair.

People who are intersex display both biologically male and biologically female anatomy. Some people go through their lives unaware, whereas others know from birth. 

Campaigners argue that it is important to recognise that being trans and being intersex is different, but with such a strict focus on biology, both could be affected by this law. 

This being such an unrecognised issue, but still, a relatively common one, calls into question the basic human rights of both transgender and intersex people.

We contacted a Transgender Rights Advocacy group, TransActual on two occasions for its thoughts on this issue, however, no response has been received.

With that in mind, on TransActual’s website, transphobia includes portraying trans people as a “threat”. 

This law could be interpreted as actively portraying trans people as a threat, and even links into the ‘trans bathroom debate’, which challenges a trans person's right to use the bathroom they feel most comfortable using. 

The most commonly used reason against this argument is that trans women pose a threat to cisgender women, an argument lacking validity.