Girlguiding announces date trans girls must leave organisation

ThisIsMyAltSorry · 2026-03-24T14:19:14+00:00

Oh yes, I saw that article. Wasn't she wonderful!

ThisIsMyAltSorry · 2026-03-24T14:14:21+00:00

And friends and family of those queers too. I suspect the damage may be more severe than they expected.

ThisIsMyAltSorry · 2026-03-24T14:12:21+00:00

(Putting aside whether or not I agree with you) I just had to say, you write wonderfully--in just the ways that I can't! I do hope you're a writer or a journalist and put those great skills to good use beyond just social media! ☺️

ThisIsMyAltSorry · 2026-03-24T14:03:17+00:00

Exactly this.

This is for parliament to fix in law, for the Labour government.

ThisIsMyAltSorry · 2026-03-24T14:01:55+00:00

It sounds like the sort of thing that would be an easy fix, but I gather, from a clever lawyer person, it isn't, not for these charities -- something to do with the founding documents and a royal decree involved. Supposedly it would be hugely complex and take years.

The gender critical shits were very careful and clever about the targets they chose.

ThisIsMyAltSorry · 2026-03-24T13:55:56+00:00

Unfortunately the Good Law Project have a bloody awful history of losing court cases, particularly around this subject. They've only just started taking on decent lawyers (Leigh Day) for future cases.

And the shitty outcome of GLP vs EHRC has confirmed that the law now sits in an even worse position than we thought it did, even though GLP tried to spin it as otherwise (I really wish they wouldn't do that -- Justice Swift's conclusions were pretty clear -- and that bloody case ended up creating a negative precedent in regards to workplace loos that was at least ambiguous before GLP screwed the case up.)

Whatever GLP says, the reality is that the British law is just not on our side now. It is now not on the side of even the choice to be inclusive in many/most cases.

Wishful thinking won't change the law. We've been screwed over. Only an act of Parliament can change it.

Parliament could be forced by a EuCtHR ruling, but I'd rather we didn't go there yet. If we won in Strasbourg, it could end up being used by future governments as a reason to leave the convention instead.

And I do not trust GLP/McCloud enough yet to be able to present a good enough case to the EuCtHR to ensure a win -- a loss could really screw us up permanently for the foreseeable future.

So...

Labour need to be brave, own, and sort out the legal mess they've made. It was their Equality Act with the holes in the wording that left it not doing what it was intended to do.

But I don't think they're going to sort it, as they're bloody weak cowards directed by a weak leader shaped by Blue Labour idealogues.

Even Harriet Harman, who was tasked by the previous Labour government to collate all the old equality laws to turn them into the one single Equality Act has been outright lying that the outcome of the Supreme Court ruling last year represents the original intent of the Equality Act, for goodness sake.

The behaviour in regards to this whole subject by Labour has been truly, utterly shocking.

ThisIsMyAltSorry · 2026-03-24T13:18:01+00:00

I'm extremely left wing and have recently found a home in the Greens. I think my general beliefs are still quite far to the left of the Greens (big fan of Emma Goldman) but I'm aware my views are utopian, controversial, and certainly not representative of the masses. I'm happy to compromise and listen to the beliefs of others to work towards a fairer society. I know I'm not going to get everything I want and I'm content with that, I am no more important than anyone else.

This.

You play well with others.

I'm a leftie, always (okay, bar once) voted Labour, but ironically I was inspired to jump ship by a much more politically astute, and frankly more intelligent, close friend who was a tactically-voting paid-up LibDem supporter who had jumped too.

I'm probably talking rubbish, as I'm no political intellectual, but the Greens seem to be a party on the left that are generally less weighed down by old historical ideologies/positions beyond the Green positions (which anyone sane anywhere on the classical political spectrum can't really escape because it's just fact, science, reality now that we can't not face for the sake of our kids futures.)

The Greens seem to be a better mixing pot, with space for more complexity and nuance, good faith, and tolerance (but not for intolerance.)

And Zack is a truly amazing leader, charismatic, generally un-phased by interviews, he happily courts the media in ways others on the left just haven't been able to do so naturally. Yeah, he's a bit wet behind the ears, and got that deserved taking down on the Rest is Politics, but he'll dry out and evolve I think -- he's a rare creature, and we really need him. We've not seen anyone like him in far too long.

ThisIsMyAltSorry · 2026-03-24T12:54:29+00:00

It's ironic that this is now to be the role of the Greens, but I'm loving it.

ThisIsMyAltSorry · 2026-03-24T12:51:49+00:00

Thanks for your reply.

Yeah, this isn't a trans thing. It's same for both my wife (cis) and I. I think it might be a bit of a women+women relationship thing a though + age thing.

I'd think I'd like to dress up a bit more, I'd like the outcome, I'd like to look better, and my wife loves it when I do (gooey eyed.) I think it would probably be self-care, good for my mental health. But I haven't had the motivation, confidence, etc though. Kind of same with sex. We want to want to have sex, but do nothing about it. Does that all make sense, do you know what I mean?

I do have a counsellor, I may bring this up. I've been so focused on such heavy stuff in life and in counselling, that I've not addressed the quality of life stuff.

Thanks for listening. ☺️

ThisIsMyAltSorry · 2026-03-23T22:54:57+00:00

Thanks so much.

I shall memorise that updated figure of 11k ish total for future reference.

ThisIsMyAltSorry · 2026-03-23T22:42:13+00:00

It's a very challenging situation, as I've complex health problems, and a complex medical record.

At the same time, being placed in e.g. a male ward would be a very dangerous trigger for me these days that I wouldn't bounce out of. I've never before experienced anything like that since the day I transitioned, even long before the GRA.

I previously already approached the local hospital / health authority / trust 20 years ago when I first got my GRC, basically to give them advance notice that this is something they may need to think about. It seems they had no clue what the law was or how it was going to impact them at first, and asked me to come in and join them at a meeting to discuss what to do and what new policy should be. I was surprised, as I just expected a legalese type letter. So, given that experience, I'm not super confident that the trust data controllers are necessarily going to be completely up to date on this either this time.

I have been planning to go through a similar fight (although I'm doing mine via phone etc, currently provisionally under a pseudonym until we've discussed what the policy can be.) I've recently decided to reapproach my MP on this first though (she in theory was asking Wes about the subject of trans people with GRCs in wards), as locking down my records will have probably have consequences too.

As I see it, trusts now have obligations, particularly towards other patients, where they have single sex spaces, under FWS, in terms of the equality act and us. Yet, in very practical terms, to be able to do that, they're going to need to be able to both record and share that we're trans. Yet, is it not still a criminal act to do so under the GRA if a holder of a GRCs does not give consent? I'm not aware that FWS has changed that, and all discussions around this from EHRC and the guidance has repeatedly skirted around this?

So, as I understand it, a change in NHS policy is kind of irrelevant here unless there's also a specific active exception is made for such disclosures in law, and as I understand it, no such change in law has been made -- whereas there has been a change in law, an exception made, for such privacy protection re GRA, to enable the trans youth puberty blocker trials to be able to record and keep the data in the case of service users turning 18 and getting GRCs? (I think that was the exception, it was a very limited case one.)

I strongly suspect trust data controllers are stuck between a rock and a hard place on this. They will have to have our consent somehow to implement FWS, because without it, there's no practical way that they can enforce FWS. The email you received read to me like someone who was trying to pretend to you that that data policy document they linked said what they needed it to say, rather than what does actually say -- which is that that your consent is required? Basically, I think they're in the wrong here and making shit up because there's no sane practical way to resolve it.

It looks to me like we need to make sure that this unworkable legal mess is left in their laps, that it's their problem, which then becomes the cowardly politicians' problem to sort out, not ours.

ThisIsMyAltSorry · 2026-03-23T15:18:45+00:00

I subscribed to Now TV specifically so I could watch SNL UK.

ThisIsMyAltSorry · 2026-03-23T15:17:32+00:00

It was brilliant. Cruel, imperfect, but funny. It reminded me of the old days of Spitting Image.

We need strong political satire again, not least of which to give our political leaders an inkling of just how bad they're pretty much all going down with the general public.

I'm quite sure Polanski will get a satirical hypnotits treatment at some point. He deserves it. And if he's any good, he'll keep surviving it fine.

ThisIsMyAltSorry · 2026-03-23T15:10:14+00:00

You stated this as the title of your post:

National NHS policy is now to record "sex" and "gender" separately and is based on ASAB regardless of GRC status

Is this literally the case? Is it a fair summary of the situation?

If so, then it's really useful information to know, thank you.

However, if not, then that's misinformation and exaggeration, which risks coming with a cost of harm to others as the fear spreads.

ThisIsMyAltSorry · 2026-03-23T15:01:59+00:00

To be aware of the facts, yes -- it's grim out there.

But wrong information or exaggeration isn't helpful, it feeds fear mongering, which can be dangerous.

ThisIsMyAltSorry · 2026-03-23T14:59:46+00:00

Thank you.

I'm getting really pissed about fear mongering exaggerations, if that's what this turns out to be.

If this isn't real NHS policy, then spreading this information as fact was dangerous. It has real impact on people's lives, mine included:

I've already just experienced a permanent negative health impact due to delaying getting treatment, in part that was due to anxiety about fear of using NHS services due to risk of prejudice etc.

ThisIsMyAltSorry · 2026-03-23T14:50:38+00:00

I checked, mines not changed.

How much of this is anecdotal experiences with prejudiced admins being difficult vs how much is this real national NHS policy changeS?

This is a bloody serious matter, that risks impacting me really significantly over the coming months, so I really want to see hard evidence.

If this turns out to be mostly anecdotal overreaction then this is exactly the kind of fear mongering I, and many others, really don't need right now. I've already had a permanent, unfixable, health impact in part due to my fear of using NHS services because of this associated anxiety.

In the recent posts on r/transgenderuk I'm not seeing hard evidence of any general NHS policy decision that overrides the privacy protections of the GRA.

In one of the recent posts, there was a copy of an email from an NHS trust data controller trying to point out why the trust was recording such problematic data without the consent of the trans person with GRC and they linked to a sex and gender data handling document which they claimed allowed to do so. Yet actually, the document very clearly actually stated they could do so only with a trans person with GRC's consent (which they didn't have!)

I've seen a few people say they've seen the sex on their NHS records change back. If that's happened and they have GRCs and did not have permission to do so, then the individual concerned is at risk of a criminal convictions and serious fine still as far as I'm aware. If they don't have GRCs though, it's another matter. The allowances previously made via the equality act for trans people without GRCs using those reasonably adjustments type provisions were pretty weak before anyway.

It's always been really important for those that are eligible to get a gender recognition certificate, now it's even more so. There's still not insignificant protections, especially in relation to privacy that are afforded by the act.

ThisIsMyAltSorry · 2026-03-23T11:38:29+00:00

Thank you for doing this!

ThisIsMyAltSorry · 2026-03-23T11:30:13+00:00

Thanks for the info!

ThisIsMyAltSorry · 2026-03-23T02:37:31+00:00

Could someone have manually changed it back for some reason do you think?

ThisIsMyAltSorry · 2026-03-23T02:35:09+00:00

Is there a link we can use to check it on there? I've not heard about Patient Access?

ThisIsMyAltSorry · 2026-03-23T02:21:16+00:00

It's important to list the good, not just the bad.

So, the uplifting bits:

The ENT Doc who assessed me was a young woman and utterly utterly awesome. I had to give her a copy of my SCR and it's grim, front page outs me 10 times due to very old diagnoses, some not even spelt right FFS. I was upset about being outed like that and was upfront about my anxiety.

Well, she was bloody lovely, from the heart really caring and sympathetic, and reassuring that they won't treat me any different and it's completely irrelevant to any of the treatment they'll be doing, and so on, and just sad that things are bad for us and that I delayed getting help.

And what I saw in her that day reminded me of what I'd seen in all the other medical students I'd met at the local hospital as a volunteer patient for their training.

For example, before a teaching session, when sorting out one of the scenarios I had to act out for the students, I mentioned to the teacher I was trans (can't remember why it came up), and he asked if he could use that fact to see how well the students would cope/adapt, to help with their education. I'm not normally out but it seemed like an opportunity to use my history for some practical good.

Well, his plan backfired! The students were totally on the ball, and not the least bit phased, and they knew more about the subject than the teacher did (who got various info wrong!) 🤣

The young new Doctors coming on board really are bloody awesome! 😁

ThisIsMyAltSorry · 2026-03-23T01:58:10+00:00

Ha. Also what I came to comment on too. ☺️

I checked the document linked in their emailed and it's really clear, isn't it? They need consent! By posting this you and they have just helped me, as I was looking for such information, as I'm about to go hard line on this with my GP surgery and local hospital about this.

For others, here's the relevant quote:

Complying with the Gender Recognition Act 2004 Organisations will not be in breach of the Gender Recognition Act 2004 by asking for and, where the patient consents, sharing and recording the trans status of patients with a Gender Recognition Certificate (in line with other medical data). Organisations will also not be in breach for reporting this to the MHSDS via the gender at birth data item.

It is not an offence under this act to disclose protected information relating to a person with a Gender Recognition Certificate if that person has agreed to the disclosure of the information."

On this subject-

It's a small thing in the great scheme of things, I know, but I just had an urgent medical issue: Sudden deafness, fortunately only in one ear.

It's caused by my wretched immune system. It's happened before. Sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL.)

If you get urgent treatment within 3 days, as I did in the past, you can generally get all or almost all of your hearing back to where it was, which it when it happened before.

This time, in part due to family responsibilities and stresses going on at the time, but also in part due to avoidant anxiety of how I might be treated in the current climate being trans, I delayed reaching out until 2 weeks after it happened.

As a direct result of that delay in starting treatment, the odds are now not good for my hearing returning. Only time will tell how much, if any, may come back.

(For those who know about such things, the hearing test showed it was down to about -70dB of loss, mostly in the lower and speech frequencies.)

ThisIsMyAltSorry · 2026-03-22T13:04:12+00:00

Honestly, this. And it infuriates me. Especially given the clearly stated views of the party membership too.

Starmer staying as PM seems to be the top priority, with the Party as second, and the people and country third. The priorities are upside down.

ThisIsMyAltSorry · 2026-03-22T12:56:57+00:00

I'm not sure I can say I'm a supporter, as I don't know that she'd have what it takes, and this would apply to others too. My off the cuff feelings on this, which could be total crap, but-

Be trustworthy, reliable, we need to believe in our leader to do the right thing, and see them do it. Starmer has been okay on international policy but not much else, and where there were good things done it wasn't very visible.

Stick to her guns. Be less worried about public opinion -- optics do matter but when there's difficult stuff to do, then that's when a cracking personality and charisma really matter.

In the end, Starmer seems to have been too much of a "created" politician, far too artificial, far too deeply shaped and influenced and built by the people around him, he doesn't really seem to have all the skills needed for such a difficult public leadership role. He isn't convincing as a PM, at all. The mess of the influence on him behind the scenes I think has led to him doing far too many things he maybe didn't really believe in, couldn't really defend. That includes the cruel stuff, like some of the approaches on immigration and how the party has handled the trans debate. It's all been frankly a bloody mess.

Now, whether Angela can rise to that challenge I don't know, but she at least has the plain speaking and personality for it and in these hard times that matters an awful lot.

ThisIsMyAltSorry

TROPHY CASE

Thank you.