I have done a couple of posts based on a policy document designed to advise the NHS and Prisons on the treatment of Transgender Prisoners, by Lord Patel. This gives a real insight into the thinking of prison and NHS staff.
You can read these in full here 👇. You can also access the full document drafted by Lord Patel.
I will return to the document again for a third piece because so many of the trans-identified males have competing mental health diagnoses which make them both, more vulnerable and, potentially, more dangerous.
In news that will surprise nobody, who has been paying attention, zero women’s groups were consulted. No, not even the vichy feminist groups who no longer dare say what a woman is! They did listen to the views of prisoners who identified as trans. None of the detail of their index offences, which led to incarceration, was provided. I mention this because we cannot say for certain men who committed sex offences, against women, were not invited to contribute on a policy proposal that has major implications for females. Lord Patel invited a trans-identified male to the House of Lords (Karen Jones) to discuss Transgender Prisoners. Jones’ criminal offences included manslaughter and attempted rape.
Focus groups were assembled to discuss the treatment of “transgender” prisoners. On the table was the option to make the female estate (not the male) mixed sex. Despite this there was little, substantive, vocal, recognition about why it used to be considered important to segregate females from male prisoners.
There was an almost casual acceptance that the safety of the male prisoners would be better served in the female estate and a, rather infuriating, view that females were more inclined to be accepting than men.
What I have not, yet, covered on my blog was the literature search appended to the document but naturally they had consulted the work of the Queen of Queer theory, Judith Butler. The idea of referencing the work of a woman so away with the fairies as a reliable source on a real world issue laughable.
They also reference the work of a trans-identified, male who seems rather proud of the fact they are the U.K’s longest serving prisoner from this category. I am genuinely unaware if this statement is on the level of if they were enjoying a little bit of prison BDSM fantasy in this quote. 👇
Buried in the footnotes is also a reference to a publication from Action For Trans Health. You may remember the infamous Jess Bradley from this group. He was the first trans-officer for the National Union of Students until there was a scandal about allegations of a sexual nature, in 2018. Link below:
Jess Bradley was also cited in the House of Lords as an advisor to Baroness Barker, in 2014.
Taken from this debate 👇 and recorded on Hansard. This is an annual event, by the way, where the Lords and Ladies pretend it makes sense to consider the needs of males and females as they are a coherent category with the same health needs, but do not discuss trans-identified females in that debate. I assume this would be deemed transphobic. I could be wrong but I am pretty sure there’s no similar event that means the health of “transmen” get discussed in the House of Lords.
For those of you unfamiliar with Action For Trans Health this was their manifesto which I screen shotted in 2017. The group still exist but have somewhat toned down their demands.
On health they demanded the following:
On education:
My favourite was their demands re the criminal justice system.
You can still find the link to the Action for Trans Health manifesto on Action for Trans Health current site. Of course it’s on Tumblr.
Is it any wonder Putin is making threatening noises. He must think now is a good time for territorial expansion while we seem to have lost our collective minds.