Yesterday I had a meeting (yes, fully dressed en-femme) with a possible new business collaborator - they work with people diagnosed with various "(dis)abilities" in the education field. In the afternoon they were receiving a "transgender intelligence training", so I stayed to sit-in on the training. The trainer was a trans-man who'd transitioned a long, long time ago.
Given the environment, it was safe to come out as transitioning, and to know this had zero effect on going forward in business, in fact it was probably more of a tick in the box of "we have another diversity covered now" for them. Businesses in the UK need to be trans-aware, and to be seen to be doing their bit. There never was a better time to come out and be that expert at work - if one so chose.
One legal aspect came out that I felt was really important to share: "in the UK, it is illegal for anyone to pass on information about a trans person's trans identity/transness, subject to prison and a £5000 fine". This covers the entire transgender community by implication of the law as written. So a doctor has no right to tell a consultant he refers anything about your "transness" unless it's a directly related medical necessity, such as for SRS.
The training itself was open and informative, the delegates were engaged, interested, asking questions, curious. They wanted to know how to interact, how to avoid causing offense to trans people, particularly the pronoun situation. While the official line is "ask and use the gender requested", i think we all know here we prefer to be "ma'med", right? (and transmen prefer to be "sir'd")
I think what i'm saying is "the door is open, society is ready, walk through it".
PS out getting lunch from a snack shop with a lady colleague and the serving-lady gave us a parting "enjoy your afternoon ladies" (big smile).
Originally Posted by Jennie-cd
