Rikki Arundel's Blog

New Gender Speaker Website and Blog

rikki@arundel.com (Rikki Arundel) — Wed, 28 Jan 2015 19:13:00 GMT

If you are subscribed to this Blog you will have noticed a lack of activity here over the past couple of months - the reason for this is that I have been hard at work on a new web project.

One of my New Year Resolutions is to cut down the number of different sites I have and so I have decided to switch everything gender into a new WordPress site at www.GenderSpeaker.com. This will enable me to merge all my blog and web site content into one, re develop the directory I used to have and make it all easier to manage.

This also means that I need to merge all the subscriber lists to the new mail service which I will be hosting myself instead of outsourcing to Feedblitz. As a result you will receive a new newsletter with the latest post to my new blog later this week. If you do not wish to remain on this mailing list - then please click on the unsubscribe link on the newsletter and you will be removed immediately.

If you are happy to remain on the mailing list - I will be posting regularly, particularly over the next two months to celebrate LGBT History in February and Women's History in March. In addition to this I am working quickly to update and improve all the static content -

Please do visit the new site to see this at:

www.GenderSpeaker.com

Leo's Tip's for Anti Bullying Week

rikki@arundel.com (Rikki Arundel) — Mon, 17 Nov 2014 19:15:00 GMT

This week is Anti Bullying week and as far as I am aware for the first time CBBC has broadcast a documentary on the life struggles of a young trans boy called Leo. Written by Leo this is an excellent insight into the life of a young trans person. His mother has always been hugely supportive of him despite having to "lose her daughter".

I was really impressed with this documentary. Leo is confident and full of life. It is clear from what he says that he has had to face considerable pressure from people and the media for simply being himself. I hope that there is a way for this documentary to be seen widely by everyone, but especially other trans children and their parents and by schools, especially those like Leo's primary school who simply did not get what was going on and were therefore unable to provide the support needed, until Press for Change intervened.

Leo has also produced a short video outlining his 7 anti bullying tips. This programme is part one in the new 8 part series My Life exploring the various life challenges faced by young people.

Gender is the second highest cause of bullying behind body shape and gender non conformity is the primary problem. Any child who does not conform to the huge societal pressure to be clearly male of female is liable to extreme bullying. Sadly the attitude of many parents and staff to this is to add pressure on children to conform as a solution to stop the bullying.

Fortunately since 2010 when the Equality Act came into force there has been a steadily growing acceptance of the fact that some children are born with gender dysphoria and that they need support to cope with this condition. Last Month year Jazz Jennings, a 14 year old trans girl, published a book co authored with Jessica Herthel telling her story. This is one of the first books aimed specifically at educating young children and their parents about trans issues.

Amazon UK information

Click on the image to the right for more details on Amazon UK.

For the US Amazon site click here

If you have any influence on schools then please let them know about this book and encourage them to use it to help children understand what transgender is all about. There is lots more helpful information at Schools Out and Welcoming Schools

The soaps have included trans characters from time to time although the prize for addressing the issues faced by young trans people must go to Hollyoaks who have had two significant trans stories over the past 5 years.

The first character was Jason Costello, a young trans man (female to male trans person) played by actress Victoria Atkins from August 2010. The character left in December 2011 to emigrate to America and start a new life as Jason where people would not be aware of his past. This story addressed the challenge of a young trans person coming out as trans to parents and friends, the complications that brings about in relationships and the inevitable bullying.

The second storyline is about to finish this week with the departure of Trans woman Blessing Chambers played by actress Modupe Adeyeye. Introduced in February this year - she finally came out as trans in May a young trans woman. On 21st November the character is leaving as a result of complications in her relationship with Dennis Savage played by actor Joe Tracini. Perhaps next time they will try to find an trans actor to play the role.

If you have time I strongly recommend that you watch "I am Leo" which is on CBBC iPlayer for at least the next week and spread the word so that we can use this years Anti Bullying Week to start to make a real difference in stopping the gender based bullying that is currently responsible for almost a third or trans people attempting suicide.

Top 40 radio DJ comes out as Stephanie

rikki@arundel.com (Rikki Arundel) — Mon, 13 Oct 2014 11:58:00 +0100

I got an call this morning from James Piekos at Radio Humberside this morning asking me to have a chat on the radio about the weekend announcement by DJ Simon Hirst that he will be changing gender today and will now be known as Stephanie. The show will be available on Iplayer for the next week - My interview was at just before 10.am on 13-10-2014

If you have not heard the interview with Stephanie by Steven Nolan on Radio 5 Live, I certainly recommend it. It is rare that someone as high profile comes out so publicly, and I was really pleased to hear just how open she has decided to be about her life experiences that have led her to this very brave decision this weekend.

What is sad is that she felt the need to have to quit her job as a top radio presenter first and hopefully radio stations having seen the overwhelming support she has received on Twitter and Facebook this weekend will be doing their best to get her back on the radio.

However I can really understand why Stephanie felt the need to retreat to the safety of personal space before making this decision public. I remember just how much fear I felt when I did the same nearly 15 years.ago. As a top professional speaker I knew that there was no way to come out quietly and I had seen the way the media had treated trans people in the past.

In addition to delivering Transgender Awareness Training I also coach public speaking skills which many people see as their greatest fear in life. However in my experience its not speaking that we fear - it is the humiliation or embarrassment when we get it wrong that is the real fear. I am convinced that the greatest fear for all for humans is ridicule - humiliation, embarrassment, loss of face, making a fool of ourselves - or however you want to describe it.

This fear of ridicule is so great that people often choose to kill or attempt to kill themselves rather than suffer. Between 30% and 40% of trans people attempt suicide, especially when young, because that is easier than risking coming out. I once refused to stop for the police when I was cross dressed, because I felt it would be better to be arrested later for failing to stop than risk the humiliation of being discovered dressed as a woman.

So I will repeat the advice I gave this morning on Radio Humberside, and this is not just about coming out as trans or gay - it is about having the courage to be yourself. Find a few people who you really trust and come out to them first - get a support structure in place and then come out. It is far better to come out than to have to face being outed and you will be surprised at how much support you receive.

And for the people who don't or can't accept who you really are - well they are not really the friends you thought they were. I am not saying that this is going to be easy - but you will be amazed to discover that being the "real you" is a much better life than constantly hiding and living in fear of discovery.

LGBT History Month - The Buggery Act 1533

rikki@arundel.com (Rikki Arundel) — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 17:52:00 GMT

I have read a lot of the history of persecution of LGBT people and one thing seems clear. Apart from a few isolated cases or periods of persecution, same sex relationships were not just tolerated, but seem to have been largely accepted as normal until the reign of Henry VIII.

Even the Bible overall is not overtly opposed to homosexuality. The few negative biblical references are vague at best, and in most instances the subject of fierce debate and largely a matter of interpretation. And there are even strongly help views that some key biblical relationships such as those of David and Jonathan and Jesus and John appear to have been far more than simply male friendships.

The persecution of homosexuality in the UK appears to have begun in 1533 when Thomas Cromwell piloted through parliament the Buggery Act which made the act of anal penetration of a man or a woman (buggery) or any intercourse with an animal (bestiality) and offense punishable by hanging. However as you will see, there is no evidence that this act was passed because of any real social issue with homosexuality or sodomy, rather it was a political weapon in Henry VIII’s battle with the Catholic Church.

According to the Act

...the offenders being hereof convicted by verdict confession or outlawry shall suffer such pains of death and losses and penalties of their good chattels debts lands tenements and hereditaments as felons do according to the Common Laws of this Realm. And that no person offending in any such offence shall be admitted to his Clergy .

The penalties made this one of the most severe punishments in law and more importantly it was one of the few crimes for which a priest or monk could be put to death, and this is an important when we try to understand why Henry VIII put this law in place.

Initially this act was for one year. It was reintroduced for another year twice before becoming a permanent law in 1541. However there are only a handful of instances on record of anyone being charged under this act during the next 100 years.

The first man executed for buggery (and the only execution in Tudor times) was Walter Hungerford, who ironically was executed in 1540 on the same day as his patron Thomas Cromwell, the architect of the act. Like Cromwell he was charged with treason and heresy suspected of sympathising with the Pilgrimage of Grace who opposed the break with the Catholic Church. The buggery charge was added, probably to enable the state to seize his assets as he had been three times married and had three children.

Nicholas Udall, cleric and headmaster of Eton College, was charged under the Buggery Act in 1541 for sexually abusing pupils in his charge which he admitted. However with the aid of members of Thomas Cromwell’s household, his sentence was commuted to imprisonment and he only served one year. He did not return to Eton, however he did return to teaching in 1554 as headmaster of Westminster School.

So if there is no evidence of a serious social or political issue with buggery before this act and few people charged after it was enacted, it begs the question WHY was it enacted in the first place?

The clue to that is in the date. In 1533 Henry VIII had a problem. For a number of years Henry had been trying to have his marriage to Catherine of Aragon annulled on the grounds that she had consummated her previous marriage to Henry’s older brother Arthur before he died. Catherine denied this and partly because her nephew, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, was able to exert considerable influence on the Pope, all Henry’s petitions had failed.

Catherine had been barred from court and Henry had secretly married Anne Boleyn who was now pregnant with his child although in the eyes of the Catholic Church, Henry was still married to Catherine. If the child was born out of wedlock it would be barred from succession. The solution was to separate the Church of England from Rome with Henry as the Supreme Head of the Church. Anne Boleyn gave birth to a daughter Elizabeth in September 1533.

So what did the Buggery Act have to do with this?

The separation from Rome was not unopposed and Henry’s chief minister Thomas Cromwell was tasked with bringing about the Reformation and Dissolution of the Monasteries . He set about introducing a ruthless programme of legislation to establish Henry’s supremacy over the Pope in religious matters. The primary opposition to this came from the monasteries. In all the Catholic Church was very powerful, owning around a third of Britain. Furthermore clerics were almost immune from prosecution.

Two hundred years previously Philip V of France had used sodomy laws in France to torture and execute the Knights Templar and confiscate all their assets. With Cromwell’s programme of legislation including the Buggery Act, Henry was able suppress opposition from those who did not accept him as the Supreme Head of the Church of England. The Buggery Act in particular gave him power to execute any cleric who confessed to buggery and to seize their assets. There are no official records of the use of the Buggery Act against clerics, but there is evidence that Cromwell investigated religious orders and found evidence of sexual impropriety which would have provided sufficient grounds to “extract confessions”. Many monks were executed at this time.

So it will not be of any surprise to discover that in 1553 when Mary I, daughter of Catherine of Aragon ascended to the throne she immediately repealed the Buggery Act and began the process of crushing the protestant church, gaining the popular title of Bloody Mary in the process. However despite numerous attempts she failed to produce an heir to the throne and on her death in 1558 Elizabeth 1 became queen.

The daughter of Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth had been raised a protestant. She set about re-establishing the Church of England as separate from the Church of Rome and in 1563 reinstated the Buggery Act which then remained in force until 1828 when it was replaced by the Offenses Against the Person Act but the crime of buggery or sodomy remained a capital offense until the passing of the Offenses Against the Person Act 1861. It be another hundred years before homosexuality was partially decriminalised

In the eighteenth and nineteenth century however the number of prosecutions substantially increased and lesser offenses of attempted buggery were introduced with severe penalties including imprisonment and time in the pillory which I will explore in separate article.

The Buggery Act 1533 was not just significant in the UK. This period marked the start of the British Legal System as we know it and that legal system was the foundation for future legal systems in all the commonwealth counties in Africa, Asia Australia and North America. So to a large extent we have Henry VIII to blame for persecution of LGBT people throughout the world.

Russian Homophobia - Far worse than we imagined

rikki@arundel.com (Rikki Arundel) — Thu, 6 Feb 2014 15:02:00 GMT

As a slight deviation from my LGBT History Month Project I had to write about the situation in Russia today.

Last night I watched the Channel 4 documentary Hunted. I say watched - I actually had to switch off eventually because I found the programme too disturbing. The programme is available on catch up on 4OD but be warned this is a very disturbing documentary as you will see from this short trailer.

If you have not heard about Hunted, it shows how, as a result of Russia's anti gay laws, gangs of vigilantes are now hunting gay men and subjecting them to humiliation, beatings and torture sometimes resulting severe injury or death. The police provide little or no protection to LGBT people and often add to the harassment.

The vigilante group shown in the programme is a chapter of 'Occupy Paedophilia' who claim to be targeting paedophiles, yet all their targets are gay men. Their strategy, called "a safari", is to connect online in gay chat room and dating sites and encourage a gay man to meet them at an apartment. There the group waits to trap them. torture and humiliate them, and post a video of the event on the internet to "destroy their lives". This is exactly what happened in the documentary and I have to wonder what might have happened to the victim if the incident were not being filmed by journalists.

Why would they let a journalist film them? Simple - they have no fear of any repercussions for their acts. They do not try to hide their identities and vigilantes routinely get off even violent attacks with a caution. And it is easy to see why. Most Russian citizens interviewed think that what they are doing is good and openly a tiny proportion admit to even knowing someone who is gay.

Then I read an article in Pink News today headlined "Russian deputy Prime Minister: Gay athletes should ‘leave the kids alone’ The official line in Russia clearly is that all gay people are paedophiles. Russian President Vladamir Putin had made a similar comment a few weeks ago in arguing that gay athletes at the winter Olympics will be safe. If I was a gay Olympic athlete, after watching last nights programme, I would be very concerned for my safety.

There is very clear evidence from research connecting homophobia with suppressed homosexuality. Religious organisations have for centuries been at the forefront of anti gay propaganda whilst refusing to address the huge issues of priests sexually abusing young boys. The Russian Orthodox priest interviewed on Hunted was alarming in his views and I for one would not want to see children anywhere near him.

I know from conversations with counselors dealing with sexual abuse issues that most paedophiles are heterosexual men, often step parents or other members of their victim's family. Most homophobic men on Hunted last night seemed to want to engage in ritual abuse of their victims which, as we saw, often had an uncomfortably sexual slant.

If the Russian leadership continues to promote the view that all gay men are paedophiles it is hardly surprising that the people in Russia are becoming increasingly homophobic. The same messages are being promoted in Africa often heavily supported by American homophobic church missionaries.

What is happening in Russia is not just a Russian problem. The recent debates in the Common and Lords around the Equal Marriage Bill highlighted that these extreme views still exist especially within religious organisations who managed to negotiate an opt out from the provisions of the Act. The Church of England is prevented by law from officiating in a same sex marriage, even if a particular vicar wanted to perform the ceremony.

I think that it is time to get serious about exposing this hypocrisy and increasingly bring to public attention the abusive nature of these extreme religious and political fanatics. They seem to be targeting the gay community to hide the fact that often it is they themselves who are the worst paedophiles because they hide behind the cover or high profile respectability - just as Jimmy Saville managed to do for decades.

Update

I have just come across this short video that shows graphically the kind of problems that are happening to gay people in Russia and wanted to share with you - it is disturbing but shows how fascist propaganda can move people. 88 % of Russians apparently support the change in law and it seems that this is because they have been convinced that Gay people can make their children gay with propaganda.

The Homocaust – Nazi Persecution of LGBT People

rikki@arundel.com (Rikki Arundel) — Wed, 5 Feb 2014 03:40:00 GMT

Following on from my post yesterday, it seems that not all of Magnus Hirschfeld’s records were destroyed. The Nazi obsession with purity of the Aryan race fueled a obsession with the eradication of homosexuality. The fact that Hirschfeld was both a Jew and gay made him and his Institute for Sexual Science a prime target.

Before the rise of the Nazis, LGBT life in German was thriving and Berlin in particular was probably the most liberal city in Europe with a growing number of support organisations, bars, cafes, publications and cultural events taking place.

Paragraph 175 of the German Penal code, which criminalised homosexual acts, was being less rigorously applied and the lobbying work of Hirschfeld’s Scientific Humanitarian Committee was successfully gaining support in government for the decriminalisation of homosexuality.

All those gains were abruptly halted when Hitler became chancellor. On May 6th 1933 the Institute for Sexual Science was looted and closed. Paragraph 175 was toughened and courts were encouraged to apply severe penalties.

Over the course of the next 12 years thousands of LGBT people fled from Germany including Hirschfeld himself. More than 100,000 gay men and trans women were arrested for the crime of homosexuality. At least 50,000 received jail sentences, many in severe conditions. And estimated 15,000 were sent to concentration camps where they were required to wear a pink triangle to mark them as homosexual.

There they were subjected to extensive medical experimentation and many were castrated or drugged and subjected to electric shock treatments ina search for a cure for homosexuality. Gay men were seen as disposable subjects for wide ranging medical experiments. In one camp SS troops used the pink triangle worn on their shirts as a target for shooting practice.

Near the end of the war, Hitler’s need for troops was so great that many of the surviving gay men were released into the army where they were mostly sent to the Russian front in Siberia. There the conditions were very difficult and survival rates were even lower than in the prison and concentration camps.

In 1945 when liberation came, less than 4000 gay men and trans women had survived, but there was to be no reprieve. Homosexuality was illegal in both the UK and USA and the Allies and the new West German state made no efforts to change the Nazi anti-gay laws which remained on the statute books until 1968. Many of the gay survivors were re-imprisoned to complete their sentences, they were shunned by families for shaming them, and were never acknowledged as victims of the holocaust so neither they nor their families were entitled to the compensation other victims were granted.

It was not until 2002 that the German Government apologised for the crimes of the Nazis against LGBT People and erected a memorial in 2008. In the past decade have these victims have begun to be properly recognised. You can find more information about the shameful way Gay and Trans people were treated by both the Nazis and the Allies at the HOMOCAUST site where I read this

In the 1945 Nuremberg war crime trials that followed the liberation no mention was ever made of crimes against homosexuals. No SS official was ever tried for specific atrocities against pink triangle prisoners. Many of the known SS Doctors, who had performed operations on homosexuals, were never brought to account for their actions. One of the most notorious SS doctors was Carl Peter Vaernet who performed numerous experiments on pink triangle inmates at the Buchenwald and Neuengamme camps. He was never tried for his crimes and escaped to South America where he died a free man in 1965.

Today the Pink Triangle, originally intended as a badge of shame has been reclaimed as an international symbol of Gay Pride and the Gay Rights Movement, a movement that owes a great deal to a Gay Jewish doctor, Magnus Hirschfeld.

January 27th is Holocaust Memorial Day – this year 2014 being the 69th anniversary of the liberation and this year Tel Aviv joins Berlin, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Sydney and San Francisco in publicly recognising Gay victims of the holocaust.

Magnus Hirschfeld - The First Pioneer of LGBT Rights

rikki@arundel.com (Rikki Arundel) — Mon, 3 Feb 2014 14:50:00 GMT

The importance of the work of Magnus Hirschfeld is only just coming into general public awareness, mostly because his work was ruthlessly silenced by the rise of the Nazi's in Germany in the 1930's. The more I look at his life, the more impressed I become with this brave and influential man.

Born on 14th May 1868 to a prominent Jewish family in the German coastal town of Kolberg, now Kolobrzeg Poland, Hirschfeld studied medicine at various universities in Germany before travelling in the USA. In 1896 he moved to Berlin to study sex and sexuality and became an active and prominent Gay Rights campaigner.

He was an openly gay man and active member of Berlin’s gay community where he was known as “Aunt Magnesia.” Homosexuality had been illegal in German since the 1871 under paragraph 175 of the German Penal Code and this had led to gay men leading double lives to keep their sexuality secret. Inspired by the death of a gay patient who was unable to cope with this double life, Hirschfeld wrote his first publication in 1896, a pamphlet entitled Sappho and Socrates, on homosexual love arguing that homosexuality was a natural variation of human sexuality and should be decriminalised.

The following year, on his 31st birthday, Hirschfeld founded the Scientific Humanitarian Committee (Wissenschaftlich-humanitäres Komitee, WhK) with the primary aims of lobbying for the repeal of paragraph 175 and campaigning for social recognition of all LGBT men and women (although not then called LGBT). This was the world’s first Gay Rights campaigning organisation.

According to the Magnus Hirschfeld Foundation, “Between 1899 and 1923, Hirschfeld and his staff compiled a 20,000-page anthology. The “Yearbooks For Sexual Intermediaries” were intended to show that between the “full man” and the “full woman” there are an infinite number of gradations and combinations. Hermaphrodites, transvestites, homosexuals are the necessary natural link between the two poles of man and woman. The homosexual is a kind of “third sex”. He founded the “Institute for Sexual Research” in 1919 in order to provide a solid framework for this research.

That same year, Hirschfeld appeared in a 50 minute silent film about Homosexuality, – the first ever film to openly address the topic. The film “Different from the Others” was banned in 1920 and most copies were destroyed by Nazis in the 1930’s so only fragments remain but enough to understand just how ground breaking the film was. In the short clip below Hirschfeld plays himself as a sexologist consulted by a gay client.

Hirschfeld first came to my attention because of his work with Transsexualism which led to me featuring him in my Transgender Awareness Training Workshops. It was he who first coined the term Transvestite in 1910, and later Transsexual, although this latter term was not popular until the 1950's. Hirschfeld's Institute for Sexual Science (Institut füer Sexualwissenschaft) was the world’s first gender identity clinic and his staff performed the first known transsexual surgeries, the most famous of whom was Danish born Einer Wegener who became Lili Elbe. You can find more about this in the article on my Gender Network site.

Unfortunately in the early 1930s the political climate in Germany was dramatically changing with the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party, and Magnus Hirschfeld and his Institute for Sexual Science was becoming a primary target. Hirschfeld activities as a gay rights campaigner had made him vulnerable to homophobic behaviour of the far right and he was violently attacked a number of times. Hitler himself had described Hirschfeld as “the most dangerous Jew in Germany”

When in May 1933 Police, German students and Hitler Youth began burning un German books, it was Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sexual Science that was the first target on 6th May, 4 days before the main book burning event on 10th May. The image here, which is well known, is believed to be the burning of Hirschfeld’s Library and research, and in the middle of the fire the bust of Hirschfeld himself.

Hirschfeld himself was no longer in Germany at this time. He had left in 1931 on a global speaking tour and never returned to Germany, He did return to Europe in 1932 and eventually settled in exile in France, first in Paris and later the Nice where he died on his 67th birthday on May 14th 1935 of a heart attack.

I will be writing later this month about both Lili Elbe and The Nazi persecution of LGBT people so don't forget to share this post with your friends and sign up to receive the posts in your email - see the sign up box at the top of the right hand column. You can easily cancel your registration at anytime.

Share My Passion for LGBT History

rikki@arundel.com (Rikki Arundel) — Sun, 2 Feb 2014 20:06:00 GMT

Well here we are once again at the start of LGBT History Month and this year I plan to write a blog post for every day of the month following my introduction to the topic at the beginning of January.

I will also be updating my web site at GenderNetwork.com with mostly extended articles on LGBT History and I am inviting everyone to come and join in.

The objectives of this project are:

To Share My Passion for LGBT History

Anyone who has attended my Transgender Awareness Workshops will know that I like to include some history in the workshops. Some of that history is recorded in the history books, especially the more recent history – but some we have to really search for. Because LGBT people have been so persecuted in the past, the writers of history have often written us out of it, or have played down the role of LGBT people. Sometimes the history books have even lied to conceal the truth.

Some of what I write about will be controversial – for example:

Why did Henry VIII make buggery a capital offence? Very few people seem to have been hanged for the offence in the sixteenth century or seventeenth centuries but the Buggery Act of 1533 was passed just before the start of the dissolution of the monasteries. Was there a connection?
120 of William Shakespeare’s sonnets were dedicated to a Mr W H. Who was this mysterious man? There are many theories about Shakespeare being gay but sonnet number 20 suggests that this may have been a man who dressed and looked like a woman. Was Shakespeare in love with a trans woman?
In the Bible, Deuteronomy Chapter 22 verse 5 says “The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are an abomination unto the LORD thy God”. Yet when this was written men and women largely wore the same clothes anyway. In 1611 however, James I encouraged the bishops to preach against the evils of women dressing as men. Was this verse translated to support a then current political position favoured by James I. who was to authorise the version of the Bible still used today?

These are just a few of the issues I will be addressing this month. Please feel free to comment on posts. I will be happy to publish opposing views provided they maintain my general policy of treating everyone with dignity and respect.

To Build a Library of LGBT History Stories

History is not just about official stories from the history books. History is a living process. Do you remember what life was like for LGBT people in the past? I remember attending the first Ziggy Stardust Concert at the Finsbury Park Rainbow theatre on 19th August 1973. Even Elton John thought David bowie had “blown it” that night. Few music stars were out and many thought that the public would desert them if they did come out. I just wish I had had the courage that night to come out myself – but that would take another 25 years. However I never forgot the night and I have written an article about it to encourage anyone reading my blog or web site to add your stories. Lets create a living history of LGBT people. Tell us about –

Your coming out story
Early Gay Pride events you have helped to organise
Support Organisations or Gay venues you remember or helped to create
Discrimination, Harassment or Victimisation you have experienced.
Stories about LGBT personalities
Anything else that helps to create a living LGBT History

To contribute to Raising Awareness of LGBT Issues

I deliver Transgender Awareness Training and general Sex, Gender and Equality Training because I believe that this is the only way to bring about equality. It does not matter how many laws we change, unless we can change people’s attitudes, LGBT people will continue to be discriminated against; will continue to be victims of hate crime; will continue to self harm and attempt suicide at a rate that is over 70 time higher than the nation average.

Teaching children about the role of LGBT people in history is an important way to tackle prejudice at an early age. LGBT History, like Women’s History and Black History, is an essential elements of a well rounded education.

To Encourage You To Participate In LGBT History Month

What can you do to participate in LGBT History Month? Well lots really.

First – enter your email address and subscribe to this blog at the top of the column on the right. You can cancel your subscription whenever you like but in the meantime you will be able to read 28 fascinating articles and hopefully will have a different perspective on all LGBT people by the time we reach March

Secondly you can sponsor or participate in a host of LGBT History Month Projects, Visit the LGBT History Month web site to find out what is happening near you.

Thirdly, please contribute your LGBT History stories to my web site

Finally if you are running any LGBT History Month or Equality events this month or in the future, Why now consider inviting me Rikki Arundel, to speak at your events or to run a Transgender Awareness Training Workshop.

The Business Case for Transgender Awareness Training

rikki@arundel.com (Rikki Arundel) — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 02:15:00 GMT

One of the arguments often put up for not undertaking Transgender Awareness Training is that there are too few trans people to justify the costs. The is a good argument but unfortunately, since the Equality Act 2010, it is not longer a valid justification.

The Public Sector Equality Duty requires public bodies to pay due regard to the need to

Eliminate Discrimination, Harassment and Victimisation
Advance Equality of Opportunity
Foster Good Relations

Its the phrase Due Regard that provides public bodies with the basis for the argument that the numbers involved does not justify the cost. All organisations do have to consider the size of the community with a particular protected characteristic and then make value judgements regarding the extent of efforts to comply with the duty.

However when it comes the the Trans community, the Equality Act has fundamentally changed the way we need to look at the size of communities when assessing the need for Transgender Awareness Training.

Across the UK we know that about 12,500 trans people have presented themselves at gender clinics and that the number is growing at a rate of about 11% pa. However that really is the tip of the iceberg. and the change in definition of the protected characteristic of Gender Reassignment means that we now have to look beyond this small group.

The original definition of Gender Reassignment included anyone who was planning to undergo, was undergoing or has undergone a medically supervised process of gender reassignment. This restrictive definition meant that anyone not receiving medical treatment for their condition was not protected, even though practically no one would actually be able to determine who did and who did not quality without questioning them.

The Equality Act 2010 changed that definition to a Personal Process which, according to Equality and Human Rights Commission advice, includes anyone who has started cross dressing or has gone to a GP or counsellor for advice about. their condition. More importantly the trans person needs only to have started the process to be protected under this characteristic. So someone most people would define as a transvestite or cross dresser, who occasionally cross dresses in private, would still be protected against discrimination.

Why is this important? Well first this increases the number of people protected by the Act to about 500,000. Now imagine that a housing department or association sends an operative to a tenants house and when they arrive the tenant is cross dressed. Because they are in their home, they may not have make up on or a wig or may even have a beard or stubble. - they may look like a man in a dress.

If this trans person is then treated in a discriminatory way or comments are made that are interpreted as harassment, or the operative mentions this to neighbours who then harass the trans women - you have a claim on your hands which at best is going to be expensive in management time and reputation. Transgender Awareness Training would most likely have prevented this problem.

Of course often people don't discriminate directly against a trans person, its their children, partners, parents friends who get discriminated against or bullied. My partner, my children and step children have all had to face uncomfortable comments, bullying and harassment just because they are Associated with me, and they are protected under the Equality Act as if they had the protected characteristic of Gender Reassignment themselves.

But what if that tenant was not transgender - but were just dressed up for a party or had put on their wife's dressing gown to answer the door. Well if someone were to discriminate or harass them believing that they were trans, the Equality Act now provides that if someone is discriminated against because they are perceived to have a protected characteristic, they will be treated as if they have that protected characteristic.

Finally when some people realise that I am, trans, they don't get it. They see me as a "bloke in a dress" and the harassment or discrimination I receive is not because they see me as a trans woman but because they see ms as a gay man. If that happens I am still protected because I am protected in respect of my perceived sexual orientation.

What this all means of course is that when delivering Transgender Awareness Training we cannot completely separate Gender Reassignment and Sexual Orientation. Estimates suggest that about 6% of the population are Lesbian, Gay or Bisexual and when we add to this all the people who are perceived to be LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgender), or are family or friends of people who are LGBT - well that's probably close to a quarter of the population.

With those numbers, any assessment of Due Regard means that it is an issue that cannot be ignored. Unfortunately there are some people who because of their extreme religious beliefs or because of their deep seated homophobic or transphobic views, feel that it is OK to discriminate against and harass LGBT people and because in the recent past their discrinatory behaviour and views were supported by legislation, Transgender Awareness Training is essential.

Over the past decade their has been a huge amount of legislation to not just protect Trans people from discrimination, but to encourage the public sector to actively engage with Trans people and create a more inclusive society. The problem is that while we may have changed the law, changing attitudes is a much longer and more difficult process, one that can only be achieved with effective levels of T ransgender Awareness Training.

Living Dolls or Stepford Wives

rikki@arundel.com (Rikki Arundel) — Sat, 11 Jan 2014 16:44:00 GMT

If you did not catch Secrets of the Living Dolls last Monday and Tuesday night (6th and 7th January) on Channel 4, or don't have time to catchup on 4OD - here is a short trailer that provides a significant flavour of the programme which you might find useful to understand this blog post.

I didn't know this programme was being broadcast until a friend mentioned it and so caught it on catchup to find out what all the fuss was about. I'll be honest even I found this a bit disturbing.

My main concern is that there was no attempt by the producers to explore the motivation behind the men who the programme describes as "Female Maskers". Are they Transgender? My impression was that most were not although the meeting in Minneapolis was reminiscent of transvestite weekends I once attended. However because transgenderism or transvestism was never discussed in the programme, it is difficult to make any judgements.

I have had a look at some of the comments being made on transgender forums and in the main most trans people were as uncomfortable with the programme as I was. A few did admit to having explored the idea, particularly those who felt that they were unable to look acceptably female when cross dressed. My primary concern is that people viewing that programme will assume a negative attitude towards all trans people as a result.

The problem many trans women face is that they tend to transition, begin living as women, quite late in life. I was past 50 before I told anyone, and that was motivated by fear. The only people who had known were my partners and when one ex partner threatened to out me to the world I decided that the only way to protect myself was to start telling a few people. That way if I was outed people would not be shocked and would be less likely to react badly.

What I had not prepared myself for was the fact that it was fear of being outed that was keeping me "in the closet" . Once the secret was out I was no longer afraid and within two years I had found the courage to come out completely.

The greatest fear human beings face, is the fear of ridicule, of loosing face, being humiliated. I knew people laughed at trans people; I knew trans people were harassed; I knew trans people were liable to be attacked by homophobic and transphobic men so I stayed in the closet. Once I discovered that many people were OK with my secret, that fear subsided.

As I began to visit clubs and go out cross dressed more, I also discovered that if I did a good job with my appearance, it was very unlikely that anyone would recogise me anyway. I had worked in the financial services industry for 30 years so when I first came out and attended a few insurance industry events I made quite an impact. But what was apparent was that until I revealed who I was, no one recognised me at all.

So back to the Living Dolls. Most of the men in this programme who revealed themselves as "female maskers" could with a good makeover, probably pass as a woman, at least when walking down the streeet. They would need to learn how to do that makeover or go to a professional, but they would quite likely pass. Wearing a mask, they do not pass. They are getting attention, but not because people are seeing an attractive woman, and we saw the looks of utter shock on peoples faces when one went out for a walk.

For 70- year of Robert the motivation seemed to be that the image he presented when dressed, was of a woman now unavailable to him. He sees in the mirror the kind of women he wants to have, but cannot, and masking provides him with the beautiful women he cannot have.

Of course underlying all this is the fundamental issue that is faced not just by some trans women and female maskers, but by many women as well. Society requires that women in their appearance strive for an unachievable level of perfection dictated not by women, but largely be men. I heard a story once of a gender consultant who refused to refer a trans woman for surgery claiming that she was not attractive enough as a woman.

So perhaps that is the underlying motive here; a strange version of The Stepford Wives; men seeking idealised perfection in women, a gross female stereotype, and finding they can only achieve that in becoming a living doll. Some of these female maskers I suspect may be trans, faced with the challenge that the only way they can become their stereotypical idea of the perfect woman is as a living doll.

And the message to us all is that this stereotype of a perfect woman is not real. It is exactly what it appears - A Mask.

Why is LGBT History so Important?

rikki@arundel.com (Rikki Arundel) — Thu, 9 Jan 2014 13:57:00 GMT

February is LGBT History Month in the UK, and the 9th annual celebration of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender history in the UK started by Sue Sanders in February 2005. The theme this year is Music.

The inspiration for LGBT history Month came partly from its US equivalent in October each year, but mostly as a result of the work Sue had done through her Schools Out project to raise awareness of LGBT issues in schools and her campaigning for the abolition of Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988.

Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988, passed in November 1988, stated that a local authority:

"shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality" or "promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship".

Whilst section 28 did not create a criminal offense and no one was ever prosecuted, what it did was to support the homophobic and transphobic attitudes in many schools, especially faith schools, and many of the more conservative local authorities. As a result much of the limited support for LGBT projects was withdrawn and little or no education and support for LGBT pupils or children of LGBT parents was available for the next 15 years . Of course this also meant that LGBT history was largely erased from education.

The past 10 years since the abolition of Section 28 in 2003 has seen huge changes in equality law in respect of LGBT people, yet still today schools are reluctant to address the issues and sexual orientation and gender identity remain the second highest cause of bullying behind weight. Worse is that schools have allowed homophobic comment to go unchallenged. The fact that the expression “OMG! That is so gay” is considered by many to be not offensive is an example of how schools have failed to prevent bullying, harassment and victimisation on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity.

But even within institutions there is still a strong undercurrent of negative attitude founded mostly the strongly held homophobic and transphobic beliefs of major religions. This year in the debate over same sex marriage, attempts were made by mostly Conservative Lords and Bishops to reintroduce regulation giving schools the right to opt out discussing same sex issues.

It is that institutional homophobia and transphobia that has been the primary cause, of persecution of LGBT people. I am now starting to create an LGBT History Section on my GenderNetwork Website where I hope to draw together the real history of LGBT people across the world. Some of what you read there will fascinate you, some may shock you and some may even make you angry.

The problem with all history is finding the truth. I recall attending a lecture, when I was studying for my MSc in Gender Research, on using autobiography for research. The lecturer started the session by saying:

“Let’s be clear from the start. All Autobiography is Fiction!”

She proceeded to demonstrate this statement by comparing a number of autobiographies and biographies and historical records. When people write their own history they tell us what they want us to remember. In the past most history was written by mostly male academics, clerics and government officials. Free speech is a relatively new right. Governments throughout history have controlled what is written; religious orders have destroyed records that challenge their beliefs; journalists have lied to create a great story; legends have been created by theatre, poetry and songs that stretch or even invent the truth.

Yet despite all attempts to demonise LGBT people, the truth is still there if we look hard enough. Sometimes we have to make assumptions; sometimes we have to make interpretations based on the evidence; but I hope at least to challenge your thinking, open your minds to some new ideas, throw a new light on what you thought happened in the past and take you on a fascinating journey into a world that is quite literally “Hidden in Plain Sight”.

February is just three weeks away, and a great opportunity for all organisations, not just public sector, to promote a positive attitude to LGBT Issues. Why not organise a LGBT in music event, or an exhibition of local LGBT history, or run some LGBT, Sexual Orientation or Transgender Awareness Training, or sponsor or support a local LGBT support group, or best of all, do something to promote LGBT issues in your local schools.

There are loads of great ideas and resources on the LGBT History Month site. Remember that the theme this year is Music and there are a huge number of musicians who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender so there is bags of scope for finding a project that you could organise or support. And if you need a speaker for your event don't hesitate to contact me, Rikki Arundel

Why is everyone getting so worked up about a gay kiss on Eastenders?

rikki@arundel.com (Rikki Arundel) — Thu, 2 Jan 2014 16:07:00 GMT

I am not a fan of Eastenders but I understand that on December 30th Danny Pennant and Johnny Carter kissed and as a result there have been a number of complaintes to the BBC and lots of abusive comment on social media.

The episode was screened after the 9.00pm watershed, but this was not due to the content, but a scheduling issue with the film Shrek thankfully, because there really should be no justification for making any LGBT issue a reason for broadcasting after the watershed.

What I am finding difficult to understand is why people should think that this has ruined the programme. Eastenders has been at the foreront of addressing LGBT issues with the first ever gay kis in a british soap in 1987. The Colin and Barry storyline lasted from 1986 to 1989 at a time when there was a huge HIV/AIDS issue and that was addressed comprehensively in the storyline. The AIDS issues was then picked up with Mark Fowler who eventually died from AIDS related illnesses in 2003, although Mark was not gay.

But Eastenders has not just broadcast gay kisses, in 2011 they courted contoversy by broadcasting the first gay bed scene in a soap and of course addressed the issue of muslim men being gay.

Soaps do regularly tackle LGBT issues and in an increaslgly suportive way. There is still in my view room for improvement and as I wrote last week, it is important to address the negative public attitudes, not just avoid them.

It is a shame that homophobic attitudes still persist, but that is a fact of life and until schools and the education system generally address LGBT issues properly in the curriculum we are going to continut to have to read offensive homophobic comment based on ignorance. Watching a gay scene on a soap is not going to make someone gay. What it might do is encourage someone who is gay to face up to who they are and come out.

Why did Emmerdale cut a Transphobic Scene?

rikki@arundel.com (Rikki Arundel) — Sat, 28 Dec 2013 17:55:00 GMT

A scene in soap opera Emmerdale that had been shot and was due to be aired in early 2014 has been cut following a complaint by a transgender actress Samantha Valentine. However having read the reports of the scene, I am a bit dissapointed that John Whiston, the creative director of Emmerdale has decided to drop the scene rather than take the opportunity to address the issue that led to the complaint.

According to reports today the scene involved Laurel, Marlon, Rhona and Vanessa in a gay bar where they compete to get phone numbers from other women. Lauren chats up the barmaid, a trans woman played by transgender actress Samantha Valentine, and gets her number. However Marlon objects saying "That's not fair, that's a he, not a she."

Samanta then complained to ITV saying that she would never have agreed to play the part if she had known that the scene would ridicule trans people.

John Whitton has appologised making it clear that this would never have actually been aired as it would have been picked up by the producers at some point.

What suprises me is that Emerdale has been addressing homophobic prejudice for months now in the storyline with Rhona's addiction and relationship with Vanessa. I assume that these four characters were in the gay bar as part of that ongoing storyline.

So if a transphobic comment was made, that is frankly not all too surprising. Lots of people see transwomen as "he rather than she" and becaouse there is little education on this topic in schools or anywhere, this was a great opportunity to help change attitudes.

We seem to be getting to a position where media are now afraid to address the issues. Coronation Street have recently reminded us that Hayley is a trans women when her son turns up and blackmails her into giving him £5000 if she wants to see her grandchildren and then claims it was compensation for the humilliation she put him through.

Many trans people have challenges with family when they come out and although initially this was a major part of the storyline, Coronation Street has not really used the opportunity as well as they could have. Most people had forgotten Hayley was trans until this final exit storyline.

Of course most trans people don't want the trans issues to be there, they just want to get on with life in the gender they wish they had been born and to be fair to Corrie, they have tackled issues of prejudice, getting married, adoption and fostering and family rejection. There is some evidence that Roy and Hayley's relationship highlighted to the public the difficulty facing trans people and the public pressure influended the goverment at the time to start to process which led to the Gender Recognition Act in 2004

The reason why most people forget that Hayley is trans of course is that the actress, Julie Hesmondhalgh, who plays the part is female. When Corrie decided to provide Audrey with a cross dressing lover Marc, it was far less forgettable and after 6 months the character was axed because the plot was not popular with the audience.

Over the six months that the story ran however they did manage to address a number of challenging issues and there was plenty of discrimination, harassment and hate crime and some homophobic and transphobic storylines that highlighted the kind of challenges we face day to day.

Hopefully Emmerdale and Coronation Street will continue to feature storylines that address sexuality and gender identity and will do what they can to show harassment and discrimination as unacceptable behaviour.

Chelsea Manning - A Brave Heroine

rikki@arundel.com (Rikki Arundel) — Fri, 23 Aug 2013 02:46:00 +0100

What an interesting day.

Bradley Manning, a 23 year old US army private, having just been sentenced to 35 years for leaking 700,000 military documents to WikiLeaks, promptly announces that she is female and now wishes to be known as Chelsea, specifically requesting that in future she is referred to by female pronouns.

This is how the Washington Times reported that information

“I am Chelsea Manning. I am female,” he wrote. “Given the way I feel and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible.

“I also request that, starting today, you refer to me by my new name and use the feminine pronoun,” he said. “I look forward to receiving letters from supporters and having the opportunity to write back.”

To be fair it was not just the Washington Times - the BBC got it wrong as did most of the US media reports I have read.

Personally I was a little surprised at the news - I know how badly US prisons have treated trans people in the past and I wondered how she was going to cope. Within hours Department of Defense spokeswoman Catherine T. Wilkinson told ABC News that "there is no mechanism in place for the U.S. military to provide hormone therapy or gender-reassignment surgery for inmates."

So she will serve her sentence in Fort Leavenworth, an all male military prison with a decidedly poor reputation for their treatment of gay and trans prisoners. I have delivered Transgender Awareness Training in a number of UK prisons and I know that trans people frequently get raped.

Here in the UK however we do provide access to gender reassignment treatment. Trans people are allowed to wear female clothing while in a male prison, they can have hormone treatment and even gender reassignment surgery. If they qualify for a Gender Recognition Certificate - then they will be transferred to a female prison, no matter what the crime. This was established in a House of Lords decision a few years ago.

The US had no such policies - that is until last week. In reading the latest reports a came across this really interesting article in the Atlantic. Although first passed by congress in 2003 the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) was enforced for the first time week, requiring every state in the US to demonstrate compliance with the new set of federal regulations.

My research indicated that trans prisoners have a very high suicide rate, and that at least a third were subjected to sexual violence. Most trans people have needed to adopt one of two strategies to avoid being regularly gang raped. Strategy one is to "get married" to a prison godfather. That affords them full protection in exchange for them undertaking their duties as a wife.
Strategy two is prostitution - usually with the same prison godfather now as their pimp allowing both to become prison rich.

That all said I was surprised to learn from a former prison inmate that not all gay and trans prisoners are sexually assaulted. Apparently a small and very effeminate gay man was assaulted on one occasion by a huge beast of a man. A day later the beast of a man had a 10 gallon container of boiling fat poured over his head and was never seen again. The gay man was never assaulted again - by anyone.

But this may all be a thing of the past. The new regulations mean that every case now has to be considered on its own merits and a decision made on the safest way for someone to be incarcerated. The fact that Chelsea still has a male body will not exclude her from that treatment - which will be about time.

The most shocking thing I read about Chelsea manning is the way she was treated before the trial. Over 1000 days in prison, and a substantial amount of that time in solitary confinement. This report in the Daily Beast makes depressing reading. In Quantico, Virginia she was held for nine months in solitary, and unheard of length of time, deprived of sleep and clothing and ritually humiliated on the grounds that she was a suicide risk.

Chelsea leaked the documents to WikiLeaks because she was uncomfortable with the way she saw the US army treating people in Iraq and Afghanistan. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange believes that it was Chelsea Mannings leaked reports and videos more than anything else that brought and end to the war in Iraq - which is why she is seen by so many as a hero. Ironically, once arrested she was then subjected to the very same type of treatment that had prompted her actions in the first place.

I have been quite shocked by what I have read today. Chelsea joined the army to try to suppress her female gender identity. It didn't work - and so many of us have tried that approach and failed. It also seems that the announcement today was not much of a surprise. Chelsea had told her bosses in 2010 but was viewed as gay then at a time when she was not permitted to be openly gay.

I am pretty sure that this is not going to go away. There are countless advocacy groups with a strong interest in keeping this alive whether it is to promote trans and gay rights or human rights. I suspect that we will never forget Chelsea Manning, a brave young soldier who took on the might of the US military - and despite everything is still fighting.

The Human Rights Approach to Life – Treat Everyone with Dignity and Respect

rikki@arundel.com (Rikki Arundel) — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 00:11:00 +0100

I am a great supporter of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) because it has been one of the main drivers behind the transformational changes in equality law over the past decade. Why this government and some of our media, want to replace it is a bit of a mystery bearing in mind it was the British in 1949/50 who were the main architects of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The role of the ECHR is to provide a final court of appeal to all citizens of Europe if they believe that basic human rights are being violated by the state. In the UK however since the Human Rights Act 1998, most human rights issues are now dealt with in the UK courts with only about 10 cases each year actually being heard in Strasbourg.

Whilst Human Rights law itself is quite complex and applies only to the way the state treats its citizens, the basic principle is simple and one which we should all try to live by in all our dealings with other people. If we could, I believe that thousands of pages of legislation could be dispensed with.

Treat Everyone with Dignity and Respect

That's it. Simple - but is it? When I ask people on my workshops if they could live by this basic principle most immediately say yes...

Until I emphasise the important word in that statement. Everyone – murders, drug dealers, paedophiles, sex offenders, rapists, terrorists...

“Ah – everyone except... ” I hear people say. But we can’t do that. The principle of Human Rights has to apply everyone.

Who gets to decide on the exceptions? If the issue is a matter of national security, do we give someone the right to withdraw human rights from people in secret? There can be no exceptions.

After I changed gender I had a few minor problems with children in the area bringing their friends to “see the local trannie”. And if I was nowhere to be seen they would shout, knock on the door, or throw stones to get my attention. I put up with this for a few years and then in October 2008 things took a turn for the worse.

First thing I noticed was a hole in a window where a stone had been thrown too hard. I ignored it, until the next week when another window was broken, so I called the police and reported this as a hate crime. Nothing was done and the next week things got even worse.

I thought at first it was a hail storm, till I opened the French windows and realised that a gang of about 20 kids were all throwing stones over my back fence. And that was just the start. Every night between 5 and 20 kids aged about 12 to 15 attacked my house from the rear and the front throwing stones, mud and abuse before disappearing into the dark back ally’s.

I called 999 no fewer than 11 times in the next two weeks and lived in constant stress. All the windows, including the French windows were broken and I had had to board them up to prevent further damage. Police were around my house every night in cars, on bikes and on foot, but the kids still evaded them.

I had no idea who they were, because many of them were wearing hoodies and balaclavas to avoid being recognised. I was terrified to leave the house at night in case they were able to get into my house and spray paint the interior, something I knew had been done to other gay and trans people in the city.

Finally it reached a crescendo. They were riding past the front of my house on bikes hurling mud at the walls and windows and I lost it. I grabbed a retractable washing line prop and went out to confront them – I was ready to take their heads off with heavy aluminium pole.

“Come on you little Bas****s,” I shouted. All thought of treating them with dignity and respect was gone. One young lad stood there, mud in hand. “Come on then”, I yelled, then added “Why are you doing this to me?”

“Well, are you a man or a woman?” came the reply.

I threw away my weapon and started to answer his question. He dropped the mud he was holding and came forward and before I knew it he was joined by others, all firing questions as me.

Five minutes later I found myself on the green outside my house delivering a transgender awareness workshop to about 20 young people and as they removed their balaclavas I know it was all over.

I spent about 10 minutes talking to them before the police arrived and they dispersed but I never had another problem after that.

It was over because I did "Treat Everyone with Dignity and Respect".

If I had hit one of them with that pole I would have been arrested and the problem with have escalated, with parents adding to the problem.

Treating people with dignity and respect does not mean that we do not put people in prison or punish them for crimes or deport them to their country of origin; it means that when we do those things, we do it with dignity and respect, even when they have failed to treat others that way.

If you take this approach in all your dealings with people, especially colleagues at work, customers and service users, even our neighbors, you will never fall foul of equalities law and the world around us will be a much nicer place.

How Do You Deal With Hidden Prejudice?

rikki@arundel.com (Rikki Arundel) — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 13:27:00 +0100

“How do you cope with it?” said my colleague leaning forward so as keep his voice down.

“Cope with what? I said.

“All the people staring at you, talking about you, sniggering... ?”

“Where?” I said, turning in my seat to survey the people sitting around in the hotel lounge, apparently getting on with their own meetings.

“Oh, they’ve stopped now you’ve looked,” replied my colleague.

“Who was making comments?” I asked, raising my voice a little.

“Leave it” he said quickly raising his hand a little, obviously mortified by the thought that I might make a scene and further embarrass him.

I relaxed. “I cope with it because I don’t see it,” I said. “People do it behind my back – they hide their prejudice.”

That was a real incident 10 years ago when I first changed my gender and started on my journey to change attitudes by delivering Transgender Awareness Training. Since then the law in the UK has changed beyond recognition and most public sector organisations have in place equality policies to ensure that everyone is treated fairly and protected from discrimination, harassment and victimisation.

People have learned over the past decade not to be seen to discriminate and rightly they will be disciplined if they behave inappropriately. Unfortunately changing the law does not change attitudes and beliefs. That is much more difficult and the challenge organisations face today is the unconscious and hidden bias and prejudice that is impacting the way people are treated every day.

My experience over the past decade has confirmed to me that the people hold prejudices mostly through ignorance. Many have never met and spoken to anyone who is trans or gay, and they have been hugely influenced by homophobic and transphobic comments from friends, family and the media. They see and hear trans and gay people and their friends being humiliated and ridiculed, often behind their backs, and feel bullied into silence.

My voice is still very masculine so I always have challenges on the phone, but I also have problems day to day. A few weeks ago I attended a workshop and had made a point of dressing in a way that was unmistakeably female. Yet despite that the taxi driver referred to me as “sir”, as did the clerk at the rail information desk.

My partner also has a bad time. She sees people laughing behind my back; she sees staff in shops and offices making faces at each other when they hear my voice. A friend had to endure a transphobic rant from a cashier in a store who felt that I should not be allowed to use female changing cubicles and female toilets. She lost her job the following day.

Prejudice is often very subtle. I see people actively avoid me or not make eye contact, or make aside comments to a colleague and laugh. Often I find I am not given the same level of customer service, even refused service on the phone because my voice did not match the gender on my customer record.

And it’s not just me; often my friends and family find themselves being subtly treated with prejudice simply because they are with me.

I know some people talk about me behind my back, refer to me a “he” instead of “she”, point and snigger when I pass but I seldom see or hear any of it. My friends, family and acquaintances do. Where people hide their deep prejudice from me, they openly show them to people who know me, even confronting them for being with me.

What they don’t understand is that my friends, family and acquaintances are just as hurt and upset by their behaviour and comments as I would be if they didn’t hide it from me. And this could also be happening every day in your organisation.

Sometimes when people are the victims of this subtle discrimination and prejudice they complain – mostly we don’t. We just don’t go back, and we tell our friends about it.

And remember that it is the organisation that gets a bad name for homophobic and transphobic behaviour, not the individual members of staff.

The solution is to make sure that everyone receives transgender awareness training – and as far as possible training delivered by people who have the protected characteristic being addressed. I have seen some amazingly entertaining trainers who are trans, gay, have cerebral palsy, are burns victims etc.

Just talking about prejudice is not enough – we have to confront our hidden prejudices in order to address them.

Why Is Transgender Awareness Training So Important?

rikki@arundel.com (Rikki Arundel) — Sat, 17 Aug 2013 01:54:00 +0100

When the plans for extensive public sector cuts were first announced by the UK Government in 2010 it was the ”soft” areas like training and equalities that bore the brunt of the initial cuts.

Unfortunately when organisations stop investing in these soft areas for too long people start to make mistakes that can cost more than the saving that resulted from making the cuts.

Let me give you two examples from July 2013 of the consequences of the lack of investment in equalities awareness and training:

A local authority started proceedings to evict a trans woman from her house. The tenant had informed them of her change of name and gender and the records were updated but the tenancy agreement was not reissued. Court papers for the eviction were issued in her new name but added “Formally known as” and then her previous male name, the name still on the tenancy agreement.

A Social services team became involved in supporting a vulnerable teenager where one of the step parents is a trans woman. The case report, sent to all parties, referred to the trans woman as “the stepfather” and used male pronouns throughout. This was interpreted by the natal father as supporting his transphobic language and behaviour and information in the report was then used in a derogatory manner when shown to other friends and family.

These may seem innocent enough mistakes but - Section 22 of the Gender Recognition Act 2004 makes it a criminal offense to disclose information about a person’s change of gender without their consent.

Now whilst it is only a criminal offense if the trans person has a gender recognition certificate, there is no requirement for them to disclose that information, so no way for anyone to know. That means that from a good practice point of view you have to assume that all people who appear as if they may be trans have a gender recognition certificate.

Both of these incidents breach the Equality Act 2010; both have caused considerable distress to both staff and service users; both were the result of staff not receiving appropriate equalities training. These errors cannot be undone. The documents were both released to members of the public and by the time the mistakes were noticed the damage had already been done.

One of these incidents may lead to a criminal prosecution.

One has resulted in disciplinary action against an officer.

Incidents like these often result in extensive investigations involving highly paid officers in long meetings, investigations, reports and expensive legal costs. The real cost of a single equalities complaint can easily exceed a reasonable budget for equalities training.

Changing the law and changing attitudes are two very different challenges but remember that “ignorance of the law is no excuse”. The fact that staff had not received adequate training will not prevent them from being liable personally to a criminal prosecution – but that may result in them taking their own action against the employer.

Many of us are still celebrating the fact that The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 received royal assent in July, but the debate over than legislation really highlighted the homophobic and transphobic attitudes that still exist in the community and even amongst MPs and Peers. We have had equal pay and sex discrimination legislation for 40 years and are still a long way from equality. In fact there has been a disturbing increase in reports of sexual harassment just this last year.

In the past there were not that many transgender people accessing services but that is a big part of the problem. Because front line staff and managers do not have much contact with trans people they are often not sure how work with them and therefore the risk of mistakes is high. More importantly, because of the huge changes in law, more trans people are now finding the courage to transition so the chances of contact are increasing

Government research quoted in the 2011 Transgender Action Plan shows:

Nearly half of transgender employees experience discrimination or harassment in the workplace
88% of respondents said that ignorance of transgender issues was the biggest challenge they faced in employment
Transitioning at work was highlighted as one of the most significant triggers for discrimination
More than half of respondents said they suffered discrimination in accessing public services because of their transgender status
Between 2009 and 2010 transgender related hate crime increased by 14%

I have noticed over the past few months that equalities training is beginning to get a bit more attention and I suspect that after two years of austerity, even though there is still more to come, most organisations are now getting back to some sort of normality and hopefully Transgender awareness training is high on the agenda.

Gender Neutral Toilets in Brighton and Hove

rikki@arundel.com (Rikki Arundel) — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 12:54:00 GMT

Gender Neutral Toilets

I was's invited to participate in Peter Levy's lunch time show on Radio Humbersidte this afternoon to discuss a vexing problem. Was it appropriate for Brighton and Hove City Council to be replacing their male and female toilets with Gender Neutral Toilets?

I have been delivering transgender awareness training now since 2006 and I still fail to understand why toilets are such a vexatious issue. I changed my gender from male to female which means that I present myself as a woman and therefore I use female toilets. Of course like many trans women I don't always pass and people can deduce from my appearance that I may not have been born a woman; my voice certainly does not sound particularly feminine. So for me gender neutral toilets are a good idea.

My concern however is that the row that has been stirred up over Brighton's gender neutral tiolets has focused entirely on the fact that this decuision has been at the recommendation of the Trans Equality Scrutiny Committee. In Brighton and Hove because the city has a large and well supported LGBT community it has attracted a higher number of trans residents than other cities. But surely that is not the only reason for a sensible policy of gender neutral toilets.

Most disabled toilets are gender neutral, as are toilets on planes, buses and trains. Many towns and cities have free standing gender neutral toilet units. Many public buildings like hospitals and art galleries have them as do cafes, shops, service stations and many offices. I am sure men taking care of babies and parents wth young children have often wished for gender neutral toilets. And of course anyone travelling in Europe will have often come across them there.

So this is not just a trans issue, it is a practical issue. Brighton and Hove boasts Britains largest LGBT community and there are huge numbers of tourists from Europe every year who will be used to gender neutral toilets. I was actually visiting a friend in Brighton last weekend and I noticed many people who were not trans but whose appearance breaks with gender stereotypes for whom I suspect gender neutral toilets will also be welcome.

I am concerned that the tone of the press comment has been designed to prompt transphobic and homophobic comment implying that this is a safety issue. When new legislation was proposed in the USA to protect the rights of transgender people, the primery campaign against the proposals by religious fundamentalists was on safety suggesting that trans women (men dressed in female clothing) were all sex offenders dressing as women in order to attack young girls. In all the articles I have read about this proposal in Brighton and Hove the safetly issues has been highlighted

Local residents, particularly women with children, would much prefer to use separate facilities as apart from anything else, it is safer. Daily Telegraph

Why is is safer? Is it safe for a mother to send her young son alone into the male toilets or for a father to send his young daughter alone into the female toilets - both of which I have often seen happen. Interestingly I was using the female toilets today in Morrisons supermarket and there is a notice advising parents not to allow children to use toilets unaccompanied.

The other issue this proposal has highlighted is the use of the term Gender Neutral rather than Unisex. Brighton and Hove have decided on Gender Neutral and there are plenty of precedents for that. We tend always to talk about gender neutral language where copy is wrtten in a gender neutral style rather than the often used male style eg firefighter or police officer rather than fireman and policeman.

Also the term Unisex implies a gender binary where increasingly many people argue that there are more than two genders which favours the use of gender neutral. I suspect that people who are androgynous in appearance, masculine women and feminane men will all benefit. Of course the big downside to this is the smell often associated with male toilets. Perhaps the presence of women and children in the same toilets will will encourage men to improve their toilet hygene.

I will watch with interest to see if this story it anthing more than a storm in s teacup - however I suspect that with the Gay Marriage Bill presently making its way though parliament we will see the conservative press taking every opportunity it can to stir up homophobic and transphobic comment to try to undermine the passsage of that bill which significantly benefits trans people.

International Transgender Day of Remembrance

rikki@arundel.com (Rikki Arundel) — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 20:31:00 GMT

Today November 20th is the 14th International Transgender Day of Remembrance when the trans community in particular and anyone else disturbed by the statistics, should take a few minutes to remember those trans people who were murdered or took their own lives in the previous year. Sadly around 40% of trans people will attempt to commit suicide and trans people are 12 times more likely to be murdered that other people. The most frightening statistic however is the 20% year on year rise in the number of reported deaths each year, especially in Central and Southern America. This year 265 trans people have been reported murdered.

In the UK we are not immune from this transphobic violence and one of the recorded deaths was a young trans women from Finchley in London. Some time around May 1st 2012, 22 year old Chrissie Azzopardi died in her apartment in suspicious circumstances. The really sad thing about her death was that her body was not discovered until a month later. A man was arrested and later released on bail and nothing has been reported about the incident since. Every year in the UK at least one trans women is reported being murdered but often in cases involving attacks against trans women the fact that a person is trans is with-held to spare the family from harassment so the actual numbers may be more.

However the worst thing about transphobic attacks is the level of violence inflicted on the victim. Trans people are not just shot - they are shot or stabbed multiple times, their genitals are cut off and stuffed in their mouths, they are beaten to death or burned alive. Many of the victims are sex workers killed by clients but some are just children who fail to comply with gender stereotypes killed by their parents. You can find the full list the trans people reported murdered last year at Trans respect versus Transphobia.

Since 2008 when the project to record all transphobic deaths began there have been over 1000 reported deaths and it is possible that some of the increase each year is simply a result of the better recording of information. That does not make the problem any better. "We are witnessing a significant increase [of murders], which points to the extreme level of violence many trans people continue to be exposed to" said a statement from Transgender Europe.

Today October 11 is the International Day of the Girl!

rikki@arundel.com (Rikki Arundel) — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 09:50:00 +0100

Why would we need an International Day of the Girl?

Watch this 30 second video for the answer to that.

The reality of life as a girl, especially in the developing world, it one of exploitation and abuse. Poverty has a far greater impact on girls and women then on boys and men as does sexual exploitation and trafficking. The campaign to raise awareness of the challenges facing girls started in Canada with a Because I am a Girl campaign and has become international when the United Nations decided to declare October 11 International Day of the Girl.

Of course this not just about a day - This may be a day to raise awareness of the issues but hopefully after today we will all take a little time to explore the web sites, read the social media and watch the videos that have been created to inform and inspire us to take action.

The best thing you can do is share information.

Post this blog on your Facebook page, visit the links above and share them, like their Facebook pages and follow them on twitter - create a viral movement to raise awareness and create a buzz.

Visit Let's Inspire 1,000,000 people to speakOUT for Gender Equality and share and like the page - and like some of the posts and links.

That's all you need to do to speakOUT for gender equality - simply amplify the message - add your comments read posts, watch videos and inform yourself about the issues.

Today its about Girls - tomorrow it will be another gender equality issue. But above all its time for Gender Equality to become a reality - for everyone to be treated fairly irrespective of gender, whether that is male or female OR some other gender that may be neither or a bit of both.

Finally have a quick look at this short video produce by a group of university students to challenge the way self esteem is undermined for girls as part of the and Dove Self Esteem Fund project

Let's Inspire 1,000,000 People to speakOUT for Gender Equality

rikki@arundel.com (Rikki Arundel) — Thu, 4 Oct 2012 15:03:00 +0100

This may seem like an impossible goal - but it is beginning to happen - slowly at first but with your help we can make it go viral.

I posted about my GREAT vision a month ago and since then have set up a facebook Page and redesignited the GenderSpeaker Social Network to support this project. The Facebook Page is beginning to work and as this is the easiest way to bring about a viral reach, I am concentrating on that.

What I am asking people to do is simple

Take some action to promote gender Equality and/or Gender Diversity:

Go to "Lets Inspire 1,000,000 people to speak out for Gender Equality" and Like the page
Share "Lets Inspire 1,000,000 people to speak out for Gender Equality" on your blog or Facebook, or linkedIn or Twitter - in fact any social network to help me to spread the work
Check out the posts on "Lets Inspire 1,000,000 people to speak out for Gender Equality" and like or share some.
Blog about any aspect of Gender Equality that inspires you
Comment on blog posts, even challenge posts about gender equality - a good debate is a great way to raise the issue and fight the demons.
Write an article about Gender Equality or Gender Diversity
Link to "Lets Inspire 1,000,000 people to speak out for Gender Equality" Or post the link http://rikkiarundel/speakOUT
If you have an opportunity Speak about Gender Equality and Gender Diversity
Add your signature to any petitions about gender equality
Support Out4Marriage and other same sex marriage campaigns
Anything else you can think about that might help - Post your ideas as a comment to this blog.

I will be constantly looking out for any a interesting articles, blogs post, Facebook posts, videos etc to promote Gender Equality and Gender Diversity and will post them to the Facebook Page. and If you are still wondering why? Watch this video from the Women and Public Policy Programme of Harvard Kennedy School

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Click here to help Inspire 1,000,000 to speakOUT for Gender Equality and Gender Diversity

The Food Waste Scandal

rikki@arundel.com (Rikki Arundel) — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 15:29:00 +0100

I always have a bit of a rant about food waste whenever I see people leaving, especially members of my family leaving food. I hate it when a tin of beans is opened, half used and the rest left int he fridge only to be thrown a few days later. I find some sell by and use by dates crazy.

I can see when potatoes are no longer edible, but I see people throw whole bags of perfectly good ones away because they have started to sprout or are a couple of days past a sell by date. The same applies to all fresh vegetables. I still buy them loose from a greengrocers if I can, that way there are no sell by dates and we can all use our heads.

Now I am not silly about this. I have been known to eat tinned food a year or so past the sell by date - but I usually chuck it if it is fish or egg or meat. But lets face it if biscuits or crisps are old you can tell from a bite if they are too soft or have lost their flavour and they are not going to cause any health problems.

So knowing that I throw away over £20 worth of perfectly edible food every month because it was not eaten, or passed its sell by date and having seen plates of food bined because they had been served up at a meeting for more than 2 hours, I was aware that food waste was a problem. But I had no idea of the true scale until I saw this video.

And if you are wondering what this has to do with Gender Equality,,,

Well food shortage always impacts women and children more than men. It is women who are largely responsible for domestic food management and women who are most impacted by poverty. And because it is women in the developed world who manage food consumption in the home, hopefully those same women will begin to realise that their actions, however small, to cut food waste can together have a huge impact on the the global food crisis. If the USA and Britain cut its food consumption to the level we need, that would create food surpluses that could ease the food shortages elsewhere and perhaps cut back on the levels of deforestation in the developing world.

Culture Secretary Maria Miller comes @Out4Marriage

rikki@arundel.com (Rikki Arundel) — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 20:48:00 +0100

Well Maria Miller has joined the Our4Marriage campaign producing a short supporting video and defending her record. Having listened to the video it did sound a little party political to me, but she is clearly doing everything she can to address the barrage of criticism she has received from equalities campaigners.

I hope that this is for real and will watch this space with interest. I still want to see what she is going to do to back the entire LGBT and Trans action plans which seem to have gone a little quiet.

Video: Culture Secretary Maria Miller comes @Out4Marriage and defends record - PinkNews.co.uk: 'via Blog this'

A Passionate Speech About Feminism

rikki@arundel.com (Rikki Arundel) — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 13:28:00 +0100

This speech by Isobelle Allende is one of the most outstanding speeches about change and the role of women in that change process I have ever heard,

Filmed at TED in 2007 but is a relevant today as it was then...

and sadly I suspect I will be saying the same thing in 10 years time

Novelist Isabel Allende writes stories of passion. Her novels and memoirs, including The House of the Spirits and Eva Luna, tell the stories of women and men who live with passionate commitment -- to love, to their world, to an ideal.

What is Equality and Why is it So Important?

rikki@arundel.com (Rikki Arundel) — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 18:13:00 +0100

Over the past decade the term Equality has come more and more into popular use, particularly with the passing first of the Equality Act 2006 and then the Equality Act 2010 which replaced and harmonised most of the discrimination legislation from the past 40 years. And that’s one of the fundamental changes – previous legislation included the Sex Discrimination Act and the Disability Discrimination Act.

There has been the shift of emphasis away from the negative act of discrimination to the more positive act of creating equality which has characterised the past decade of legislation.

So what is Equality?

Equality is about fairness - it does not mean treating all people equally because actually we don’t all want to be treated the same. I don’t want equal treatment, I want fair treatment. When I apply for a job I want to know that I was considered on the basis of my skills and ability, and that the decision was not based on arbitrary beliefs or stereotypes.

In Africa there is a word Ubuntu which translates literally as “I am what I am because of who we all are”. Both Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela are strong proponents of the philosophy which is difficult to translate because we don't have a directly comparable concept. The nearest is probably the Golden Rule or Ethic of Reciprocity - Do unto others as you would have then doe unto you.

But Ubuntu is much more because it focuses on the benefit to the tribe not the individual . An African speaker friend Billy Selekane explained it to me as “What is good for the trive is good for the individual, but what is good for the individual is not necessary good for the tribe." In wealthy countries we are a long way from this philosophy... and a long way from equality.

Richard Wilkinson, co-author with Kate Pickett of The Spirit Level spoke in July 2011 at the TED conference which you can see below. This speech has had over 1.4 million views and looks at a disturbing connection between inequality and the health of a nation. What Richard has found is that the wider the gap between the incomes of the top 20% and the bottom 20% the worse the problems become - mental health, education standards, crime, teenage pregnancy, trust... in virtually every primary measure of the health of a nation, those with the biggest gap between rich an poor, which includes the UK and the USA, have the worst performance... by a huge margin.

Listen to any of the recent speeches by Danny Dorling and you will hear many of the same findings - and the fundamental truth that inequality is bad for everyone, including ironically the rich people. What also emerges is that inequality between states or counties reflect the same underlying problems, as does inequality between "tribes" or minority groups or people with protected characteristics.

My personal passion is with Gender Equality and I will be addressing this in more detail in separate posts as part of a G.R.E.A.T.Vision to inspire 1,000,000 people to speakOUT about Gender Equality and Gender Diversity. If you have not read it, I do recommend my post a couple of weeks ago - Lies, Damn Lies and the Gender Pay Gap.

It is hugely difficult in any organisation to build trust and inspire peak performance when there is inherent inequality in the organisation,. If we feel we are not being treated fairly, especially at times like now when we are being told "we are all in this together", we are unlikely to trust managers.

How can anyone expect harmony in the workplace when tall men hold a disproportionate number of senior positions; when women represent less than 15% of senior managers; when jobs undertaken primarily by women are paid lower average rates than jobs primarily undertaken by men; when men expressing femininity and women expressing masculinity in their dress or behaviour are ridiculed and bullied.

Equality is all about Fairness - and because all equality law is ultimately driven by Human Rights, it is about treating everyone with Dignity and Respect. It's not that hard - but it does take commitment from the very top to make it happen.

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Tomorrow I will address the question – “What is Diversity and why is that so important to us all?