We're simply seeking our identity

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From the Labour Campaign for Gay Rights* From the Labour Campaign for Gay Righ SOCIALIST Organiser fights to act as a real SOCIALIST Organiser fights to act as a real campaigning paper which can organise campaigning paper which can organise workers in the struggle for new leadership.

To do so we need consistent support and money. Socialist Organiser Alliance groups Why not join with us? Supporters are askrd to undertake to sell a minimum of 6 pap..s per week and contribute at least £1.50 If there is no group in your area why not To 'Get Organised", write at once to us at LAST YEAR the News of the World published an expose of an actress in the latest James Bond film. The format was identical to one it had published only a few months earlier for which it had been severely condemned by the Press Council.

A county court judge considering a divorce case involving a young child • only permitted access to her by one of the parents if she (the parent) wore male-orienttaed attire with no jewellry or makeup.

In 1977 a man employed by the British Sugar Corporation was dismissed by them for 'lying' about his sex.

The viciousness, hostility and discrimination which was aroused in these three examples had a single cause - all three people involved were transsexuals.

I too am a transsexual. I have a knowledge about my sex which is at complete variance with my physical body - what I desire is the body and social acceptance of what for me is my true sex, which is female.

This way of seeing myself arose somehow in childhood as I grew aware that there were fundamental differences between males and females. It may be helpful to illustrate what I am saying if I add that I do not see transsexualism as being causéd by gender-role conditioning. I think that it would, in fact, still exist in a non-sexist society since it is concerned with femaleness/maleness and not femininity/masculinity.

*Articles are by individual members of LCGR, and do not necessarily reflect LCGR policy. abour Campaign It is only very recently that I have had the courage and, equally importantly, the help and support of others like myself, to make the attempt to live according to my innermost nature.

Like most transsexuals, I wish to pass unrecognised in society. The few who have achieved spectacular publicity are neither typical nor representative. As with the rest of society, transsexuals include those who are asexual, homosexual, heterosexual or bisexual; sexual relationships are no more or less important than they are to any other person.

Transsexualism is a question of identity; it affects people assigned at birth to either sex; it is independent of class, race or socio economic system; it is certainly not a 20th century medically.contrived phenomenon people have felt this way about themselves throughout history.

Of course, today more help is available, particularly with the latest medical techniques but it is a complete misconception to see the availability of medical technology as creating the transsexual "problem"; rather the opposite action by the medical profession has to be fought for and insisted upon.

The position in this country is that medical treatment to bring about necessary changes is available on the NHS but surgery is not promised until an individual has lived according to their frue sex for usually two or more years. Legally many official documents can be changed, however, under present law a birth certificate cannot be altered for changes occuring aiter birth; thus I remain legally the sex I was assigned at birth, creating great difficulties.

Thus the state, through the NHS will give expensive and scarce medical help to aid the changeover whilst at the same time denying the right to change the most fundamental document concerned with it.

Absurd

This absurd situation has arisen because the judge in the leading case regarding our legal status (Corbett v. Corbett) adopted a definition of male and female limited to chromosomal, gonadal and genital aspects and ignoring psychological and hormonal. The case was concerned with marriage but this narrow reproductive view of sex identity has been used to justify legal and administrative decisions in other areas, particularly pensions and employment.

In employment transsexuals have little or no protection from unfair dismissal if their status becomes known in view of the decision in E.A. White v. British Sugar Corporatin IRCR 121 (1977) in which a female-to-male transsexual was sacked when his past was discovered. The Industrial Tribunal found the Sex Discrimination Act (1975) was applicable as he was female (!) and then dismissed the case because he 'lied" to his employer about his sex. The Tribunal also decided that the Factory Acts should also be applied in this absurd and ludicrous manner.

It has, in any case, become all too clear that this would presumably be invoked if a transsexual was more open and honest.

The importance reforming the law on Birth Certificates stems from the fact that under present circumstances such change would affect concrete rights on marriage, pensions, actions under the Sex Discrimination Act and many other situations where ordinary birth certificates are legally valid.

At present a case on the question of amending one's birth certificate is being pursued by a British citizen at the European Court of Human Rights. The Commission of the Court has already given a decision in regard to similar case of a Belgian female-to-male transsexual where they found this was a violation of two articles of the European Convention on Human Rights: i) Article 8: respect for private life; ii) Article 12: the right to marry.

Aspects, which in such a brief article I can only mention, concern the treatment of transsexuals in prisons and special hospitals: the need to ensure that on the question of access, custody and adoption of young children, transsexualism is not factor used in determining a person's eligibility and suitability; and the prevention of invasion of privacy by the gutter press.

Why the hostility and discrimination? As I see it, transsexualism highlights the inflexibility and narrowness with which society views sex and gender.

A patriarchal society uses biological differences between men and women to define gender roles and to male domination and power. However. the conditioning and the role one is trained and expected to perform in society.

Thus the essentially

arbitrary nature of this classification by sex is exposed for what it is -an element in the structuring of society, and not a biological and therefore inescapable, fate. So, at the societal level, we threaten the basis on which our capitalist and patriarchal society exists, whilst with individuals we threaten those with feelings of insecurity about their sexuality: so the fear and hatred.

However, transsexualhave been established in most big towns.

per, nonth (20p for unwaged).

help us to build one?

28 Middle Lane, London N8. Name Address sees it as a goal to be proclaimed and asserted.

Thus, for instance, my wish to be the anonymous author of this article because I do not wish to be characterised permanently as "transsexual" (i.e. used as a form of label).

One of the charges transsexuals are open to is the perpetuation of gender-role stereotyping. It would be foolish not to admit that it occurs for just like other men and women we are susceptible to the pressures to conform and are exposed to the conditioning that society practices on its members. alo for now leadership. As a way of combatting sexist conditioning and beginning the process of self-awareness a number of us have formed: TAG (Transsexual Action Group) whose address is TS Group, Box BM 683, London WCIN 3XX. TAG is a collective whose aims are:

*to communicate with other transsexuals and increase mutual awareness;

*to liaise with other groups fighting against sexism;

*to increase public awareness of transsexualism;

*to campaign for equal rights.

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Socialist Organiser, Thursday 18 March, 1982 Page

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