GLADD has a small trans membership and we are working hard to support our Trans members and engage in some of the wider national trans debates. We recognise that there is still quite a low level of understanding of transgender issues among the wider healthcare community so this page should hopefully provide a basic introduction.

The early sexologists of the nineteenth century made little distinction between lesbians, gay men and trans people, who have, since then, faced similar legal, medical and social challenges. All three groups have been systematically excluded from society, commencing with religious sanctions for being morally depraved; proceeding to criminalisation either by being excluded from particular civil liberties or by having particular laws made against them; and concluding with inappropriate medical interventions, which have treated them in eugenic, punitive ways. All three communities have worked together in order to release themselves from that social exclusion and to seek equity with all other UK citizens.

Historically, progress has been uneven and sometimes ironic. When gay men were criminalized in 1885, lesbians were not, but were instead forced into invisibility. When homosexuality was removed from the DSM in 1980, transsexualism took its place, although there never has been any evidence that transsexualism is a mental illness, any more than homosexuality or lesbianism: all three appear to have been an inappropriate categorisation, belonging more to repressive regimes which abuse psychiatry to suppress dissident citizens, than to a New NHS or to evidence-based medicine.

Nevertheless, trans people remain distinct from lesbians and gay men in their needs for high-quality medical support. The case of A, D, & G v North West Lancs Health Authority [1998] ruled that appropriate case has to made available by the NHS, and Guidelines for Primary Care Trusts & Strategic Health Authorities which are currently in preparation by the Parliamentary Forum on Transsexualism will lay out what that care should comprise. We believe that it is important for all clinicians to update their practice and that of their trainees and students, in this area, as a matter of ethical responsibility and social justice.

To support this, GLADD is pleased to make available the following documents and links which will allow clinicians to update their understanding:

Some useful links on trans issues in the UK include: