LGBT over and Out

Well conference over, and I'm back safe but unsound.

I really enjoyed my first LGBT conference despite my unfounded reservations about not fitting in. I should have learnt by now that not fitting in is my destiny so I'd better get on with it.

The second day was into the meat of the conference sandwich, with motions to debate and discussion groups to contribute to. I decided to speak on Motion 3 : Gender Reassignment and workplace stress, which just like the movie Snakes on a Plane is self pretty self explanatory.

Lucy moved the motion with a moving and thought provoking speech. My contribution was hastily scribbled in my notebook while waiting for the motion to come up. As I stood at the podium waiting for the microphones to rise a looked over and saw my face in close up on the  huge projection screen. Right then all I could think was "That lipstick really doesn't suit me". When I looked back at my notebook all my scribblings now appeared to now be in some long dead language almost totally unlike English. Luckily as I started to speak sort sort of translation emerged.

The text of my contribution went as so

"Morning Conference, Jenny Harvey, North Staffs Community Health branch.

It's my first time with you all and I have to say I'm loving it <applause, they always do this if you are a first time speaker>. Don't clap the only reason I haven't attended before is down to my laziness. The hormone therapy is great stuff but it doesn't fix everything

The motion mentions the Good Practice Guide produced by the Scottish region. It is important to distribute this as widely as possible.

Just as our employers struggle to understand the needs of Transgendered employees, our Union at times struggles to fully understand Transgendered members needs.

It is in my Union that I love, that even 4 years since I last used that worn out old gender I still got referred to as him at Headquarters and when I stood for a woman's seat on a national committee a senior member of staff told me "Its ok, I've checked it out". I'm not sure other women members had to be checked out.

These are minor niggles compared to what Transitioning employees can have to put up with in the workplace. Coupled to that is the huge amount of stress that an individual has to endure just to get though this period.

Everyone's job in an often under resourced public sector has a degree of stress. when you first transition this stress can go off any scale. To have to concentrate on every aspect of your being. To concentrate on your appearance,,, your poise,,, your walk,,, your talk, for every minute, every second of your working day is utterly exhausting.

This stress is only prolonged by delays in getting treatment. Even if you can convince your GP, your Psychiatrist, in my case he informed me he was a fundamental Christian so I guess he thought me a sinner, your Primary Care Trust and finally the Gender Identity Clinic that treatment is appropriate, you have a lengthy wait for an appointment and an expensive and long trek to the opposite end of the country, for a 25 min appointment.

This motion will not end workplace stress, but it will help build on progress to date and I hope continue the fight to push our NHS to give us the timely and respectful treatment we need.

Please support the motion."

Hardly, "I hav e a dream" but it went down ok. Later in the afternoon I attended a discussion group on Transphobia in schools. The government has refused to legislate against discrimination towards transgendered children in education stating that it was so rare and that  children under 16 were excluded from gender reassignment surgery. This totally misses the point. As transgendered people we were all children once (I'm still pretty childish at times) and struggled with our gender identity during school years. I like many buried these feelings. I was bullied for many reasons; my wonky eye (I was called Clarence after the lion), my weight, even my green jeans! I figured wearing a skirt and declaring myself to be a girl may not help the situation and would possible hasten an early demise so I kept Shtumn. Anyway the point is that the hostile environment in schools to anyone of difference is a complete barrier to anyone coming out. It would have made such a difference to my life if support and information had been available I may not have spent so many years thinking I was just a bit mad. It was interesting to note that the group was almost totally made up of male social workers and youth workers.

That night there was a social do with a band who were a cross of Roxy Music, Human League, Queen and Russel Brand. It was a good night and noticeably the only ones who seemed to make an effort over our appearance were our small band of Trans members. Hey, what's point to tereotypes if we don't make an effort to live up to them.

Sunday was poetic justice day. I decided to miss the last hour of conference to make an earlier train home. Being a Sunday in Britain the railway companies decide to give timetables the day off to attend to everlasting track repairs. Instead of a simple 2 hour no change journey we had to travel to Gloucester to  catch a bus to Birmingham to wait an hour for a train to Stoke that was so overcrowded we had to stand shoulder to shoulder between carriages. The train announcer with no hint of irony announced "sit back in comfort for a pleasant journey. The whole shebang took over 4 1/2 hours. Serves me for skipping that last hour.

After managing to pack away my by now trashed room, I took a few more snaps of the bit of Bristol around our hotel. Wish I'd had more time to explore.