Some thoughts on Toiletgate
Jul. 7th, 2008 01:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rozk(My beloved, rarely mentioned here, has an eye for the jugular, and has christened the Pride events thus.)
1. There are two crucial issues at stake beyond Pride. One is the way that people outside the loop regard the Gender Recognition Act as mandatory - in order to have rights, transfolk have to get The Certificate. This is about policing us and making us acceptable deviants. Since a lot of the more genderqueer bits of the community, or people who don't go the medical route, are not likely to get The Certificate, this puts them at risk. (My reasons for not having one, when I was involved in negotiating the law, have to do with the fact that I am a procrastinator, though also with a vague reluctance to compromise with a settlement that I was not entirely happy with because of the way it enshrined the medical model so totally.) As I pointed out to the policeman yesterday, the Act is not supposed to supersede existing rights transfolk have acquired in law and practice over decades, nor is, say, the requirement of equality in provision of goods and services dependent on that bit of paper.
There are misconceptions creeping into the behaviour of eg banks as well as the police which need to be cleared up.
The other issue is the one![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mirrorshard has written about well which is the unaccountability of the private security firms events are obliged to hire. These firms have no ideology nor any idea that they are supposed to reflect the ethos of the event they are helping to run. The sort of colossally inappropriate behaviour we saw yesterday is the sort of thing of which there will be more. Go read the post here. Of especial concern is the fact that the police tend to see security people as in some sense part of the Job, unless they are known criminals, and take their side in conflicts.
Beyond the issue of getting Pride to take full responsibility for the behaviour of their employees and ensure they hire people who will do the job properly, and the issue of ensuring that all police, and most especially LGBT liaison people, have proper trans sensitivity training, these are the long-term important issues we will have to go on dealing with.
2. I would have been completely useless without the Translondon and FTM London people whi were there for me when I needed them. Natacha and Bird documented the demonstration as it was happening, and others put themselves on the line, getting shoved and mocked by the security women, and acting as my witness with the policeman. In all such events, it is the community that makes things possible, and not just any one individual; luckily, I learned this long ago, and, once I realized that there was a situation, went off and looked for backup rather than seeking martyrdom.
Always do actions as part of a group; always stay calm; always document.
Various things are in train - Christine Burns of PFC has been helpful and written some amazing letters, andpirates_daily has been my guru on this as on so much else. We will get this sorted because a lot of influential people are on side on this. Also, half the transwomen on the planet seem to be friending my Facebook...
I was depressed yesterday by this - partly because, unconnectedly, I had earlier been hit in the head. Now I am feeling part of an empowered community. People tried to humiliate us yesterday, but we are smarter and stronger and we have, and are, Friends.
1. There are two crucial issues at stake beyond Pride. One is the way that people outside the loop regard the Gender Recognition Act as mandatory - in order to have rights, transfolk have to get The Certificate. This is about policing us and making us acceptable deviants. Since a lot of the more genderqueer bits of the community, or people who don't go the medical route, are not likely to get The Certificate, this puts them at risk. (My reasons for not having one, when I was involved in negotiating the law, have to do with the fact that I am a procrastinator, though also with a vague reluctance to compromise with a settlement that I was not entirely happy with because of the way it enshrined the medical model so totally.) As I pointed out to the policeman yesterday, the Act is not supposed to supersede existing rights transfolk have acquired in law and practice over decades, nor is, say, the requirement of equality in provision of goods and services dependent on that bit of paper.
There are misconceptions creeping into the behaviour of eg banks as well as the police which need to be cleared up.
The other issue is the one
mirrorshard has written about well which is the unaccountability of the private security firms events are obliged to hire. These firms have no ideology nor any idea that they are supposed to reflect the ethos of the event they are helping to run. The sort of colossally inappropriate behaviour we saw yesterday is the sort of thing of which there will be more. Go read the post here. Of especial concern is the fact that the police tend to see security people as in some sense part of the Job, unless they are known criminals, and take their side in conflicts.Beyond the issue of getting Pride to take full responsibility for the behaviour of their employees and ensure they hire people who will do the job properly, and the issue of ensuring that all police, and most especially LGBT liaison people, have proper trans sensitivity training, these are the long-term important issues we will have to go on dealing with.
2. I would have been completely useless without the Translondon and FTM London people whi were there for me when I needed them. Natacha and Bird documented the demonstration as it was happening, and others put themselves on the line, getting shoved and mocked by the security women, and acting as my witness with the policeman. In all such events, it is the community that makes things possible, and not just any one individual; luckily, I learned this long ago, and, once I realized that there was a situation, went off and looked for backup rather than seeking martyrdom.
Always do actions as part of a group; always stay calm; always document.
Various things are in train - Christine Burns of PFC has been helpful and written some amazing letters, and
pirates_daily has been my guru on this as on so much else. We will get this sorted because a lot of influential people are on side on this. Also, half the transwomen on the planet seem to be friending my Facebook...I was depressed yesterday by this - partly because, unconnectedly, I had earlier been hit in the head. Now I am feeling part of an empowered community. People tried to humiliate us yesterday, but we are smarter and stronger and we have, and are, Friends.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-07-07 12:43 am (UTC)It may amuse you to know that the great Jessica Mitford started her career of activism by organizing a mass piss-in in the maternity ward where she was recovering from the birth of her daughter. The nurses were slow in fetching bedpans, sometimes making the patients wait a couple of hours -- and the patients, mindful of their own dignity and the nurses' wrath at having to change the beds, were desperately trying to hold it in. Until Decca suggested that, the next time the nurses made them wait, they should all piss in unison. That way the nurses would have to change all the bed linens at once.
I am glad to report the piss-in worked.
(Yes, she was a radical before this -- but she herself counts this as the first action she organized.)
no subject
Date: 2008-07-07 08:53 am (UTC)As a total sidebar; if things are this bad over a subgroup of society being asked for a specific document how bad will it get if the whole population is given ID cards which are not compulsory to carry. Slippery slopes, and all that.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-07 09:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-07 01:04 pm (UTC)Keep standing up for decent behaviour ie understanding and common sense
Just a thought...
Date: 2008-07-07 06:45 pm (UTC)For my sins, in my current job I've become a bit of an expert on Public sector duties under Equality & Diversity legislation (don't ask!)
There are a number of things anyone wanting to create some noise may wish to do:
1) Use the EU sexual orientation legislation around the equality of provision of goods, facilities and services - you, a lesbian, did not have equal access to toilet facilities.
2) Westminster Council providing toilet facilities is a 'function' under Gender legislation. Theya must, according to the legislation, carry out Equality & Diversity Impact Assessment of all their policies and functions and consult on and publish on the findings of the impact assessment. I suggest you write and ask for a copy of their EQIA of public Toilets.
3) Assuming you get a dusty answer, contact the Equality & Human Rights Commission and ask them to take this on as a test case.
I can give you chapter and verse on the legislation if you email me offline - there's probably some mileage in the Human Rights legislation as well...
no subject
Date: 2008-07-08 11:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-08 01:05 pm (UTC)Just read through everything on your blog and two message boards... and I am overwhelmed with thoughts and feelings on a number of subjects, including and not limited to: the atrocious excuses (even after the fact), our communities and their cohesion, personal political action, London Pride, The B and T in LGBT and much more. I am sure I will express all of which at some point, though its whirling in an emotional tumble at the moment. In the mean time though, this really sucks and I am so sorry you had to go through such a horrible experience. I am glad that you have felt so much community support and I just wanted add my own care and support to that too.
Keep us informed as to how it goes.
Lots of love,
Josephine