As a trans woman, I’d rather die than be put on an all-male hospital ward
Before offering your opinion on the latest move by the government to improve the ‘NHS Charter’ – ask yourself this.
How would you feel if a woman you know, perhaps vulnerable, was forced into being treated in an all-male ward at a hospital. How would that woman feel?
Terrified, most likely. And that is exactly how I would feel in the same situation. My instincts are the same as most women – I just happen to be trans.
Yet that’s the traumatising possibility now facing me and others following the publication of the government’s new approach to healthcare, which would ban trans women from single sex female wards.
Even if they have a full female anatomy, exist on a day to day basis among other women and are fully recognised by the British state as women through a gender recognition certificate.
There’s a very large ‘F’ on my passport, meaning my sex is registered as female, so why on earth would I be placed in a male ward or a separate room?
It’s abhorrent, cruel and feels like a clear breach of my human rights.
But it seems the Tories are just fanning the flames of the same culture war issues as always in a desperate bid to win the election.
Let me be clear. I would never, ever go on an all-male hospital ward. I’d rather die at the scene of my injury or illness than be placed on one.
Ministers say that trans patients could be treated in separate rooms – but that is just humiliating segregation, hinged on the idea that my presence around cis women is offensive or dangerous.
It’s offensive, and I wouldn’t even trust the Tories to provide these single rooms, especially given the use of mixed-sex wards in the NHS in England is already on the rise.
It seems the Conservatives simply want to try and scapegoat the trans community, using us as a political football.
And what’s most galling is that Labour are waiting on the sidelines ready to put the boot in too, with the man almost certain to be the next Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, backing the ban on people like me being treated as women by the NHS.
Both parties seem content to justify this latest attempted humiliation of trans people by saying they respect biology and want to protect women.
Earlier this year, trans charity Translucent polled 180 acute and mental health trusts in England, asking how many complaints they had received in the 12 months to September 2023 regarding trans women on women’s wards.
After almost 90% responded, the devastating figure was announced – one. Just a single complaint.
I’m going to say that again so it sinks in – one.
I’ll tell you something about me I’ve never spoken about publicly before.
For three years I bought hormones and other medication on the black market, through the post from Colombia.
Anything could have been in those tablets, but I took them because they gave me a chance of being who I am.
I didn’t pursue my transition on the NHS because I was too embarrassed, too scared. But I needn’t have been.
When I eventually realised I was being stupid, I went to see my NHS GP who was absolutely brilliant.
She was shocked at the risks I’d been taking, and she put me on the path to managing my gender identity properly.
My experience showed me the NHS was a safe place to be. Same when I eventually fully transitioned in 2015 through the health service.
The NHS made me who I am, and have done the same for countless other women like me.
But now, as long as these changes come into place, I will never go to a UK hospital again.
They are no longer safe spaces.
I’ve spent my whole life fighting to be who I am, a woman, and no-one is taking that away from me – not a hospital administrator, a doctor, or anyone.
Certainly not Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer. The current and likely future Prime Minister will both have blood on their hands if this goes ahead, because I know other trans people feel exactly the same as me.
There’s also another big fly in the Conservative ointment of ‘protecting biological sex’ and ‘preserving dignity.’
A fly called trans men.
Despite the gender-critical cry of ‘we can always tell’ – the trans men I know are almost always indistinguishable from their cis counterparts.
Many have beards, bald heads and muscles. They read car magazines and smell of leather and aftershave, because they are indeed men.
Which means that, if some people get their way, your mum, wife, daughter or grandma might find herself on a ward with some very manly-looking patients, all because ‘biology’ trumps all.
(Although, I would like to mention that trans men are as much a threat to cisgender women as trans women are.)
But, if we’re engaging with the transphobic argument, I’m not sure how you square their presence with the stated goals of ‘dignity’ and ‘protection’.
It seems that those great defenders of women haven’t given a second thought to them.
This new charter goes against everything the NHS has stood for since its inception.
Everybody has always been welcome. No judgements made. It set me free and got me through some really dark times – for which I will be eternally grateful.
I don’t believe for one millisecond that most of the people who work in the NHS want trans people humiliated in this way.
That’s why many have sounded the alarm over these proposals – with Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, saying ministers need to avoid dragging the health service into a ‘pre election culture wars debate.’
Likewise, Dr Emma Runswick, deputy chair of the British Medical Association council, warned that some of the changes could do more harm than good, and had the potential to invite further discrimination, harassment, and ostracisation of an already marginalised group.’
But it does seem that the NHS is coming under serious pressure to rowback LGBTQ+ policies.
Only this year, the Rainbow Badge scheme, which supported LGBTQ+ staff in a number of ways, including by giving them Pride pin badges to wear, was shut down.
Rainbows are a sight only offensive to homophobes and transphobes – but for me it’s a sign that the NHS is becoming less and less safe for trans people.
That was further backed up when, in the wake of the controversial Cass Review, the Royal College of GPs said the majority of them should not provide a number of basic elements of trans healthcare, including prescribing certain drugs, or even carrying out blood tests to inform decisions on hormone doses.
Combined with these latest NHS guidelines, and what I see as the government’s general anti-trans policymaking, it’s hard for people like me not to conclude we are being targeted, scapegoated, and becoming easy culture war punchbags.
That’s a body blow, made worse by the cowardice also evident in the Labour Party, who I implore not to let this happen.
Again, I need them to know that when I say I’d rather die than go on an male ward, I’m serious.
And I’m not alone.
Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing Ross.Mccafferty@metro.co.uk.
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