Jeremy Corbyn has challenged Theresa May to allow people to self-identify as transgender without having to go through medical checks, pledging that Labour would support any government attempt to change the law.
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But Corbyn said May would have his support if she scrapped the requirement for trans people to undergo medical tests, and instead allowed them to self-identify their gender, saying legislation could be passed with Labour backing if the Tories and DUP had a free vote.
“Discrimination has gone on too long. The Gender Recognition Act does not allow trans people to self-identify their gender and forces them to undergo invasive medical tests. This is wrong,” he said.
“Labour recognised this in our manifesto, pledging to update the act. Theresa May told Pink News that ‘changes need to be made’ but failed to include anything on this in the Conservative manifesto.
“So, I say to her today, Labour will help you keep your promise. Bring forward a bill to update the act and improve trans rights and Labour will back you. You can give your MPs and the DUP a free vote and Labour will make it law.”
There is no mention in the article of legal recognition of nonbinary genders, which is disappointing. I am a little nervous of a shoving-us-under-the-bus situation, even though this would be a hugely positive step for binary trans people.
Then on August 5, emboldened by Jamie Shupe’s Oregon court victory, Keenan applied for a gender change.
“I identify as intersex, both as my medical reality and as my gender identification,” Keenan said. “It never occurred to me that this was an option, because I thought the gender change laws were strictly for transgender people. I decided to try and use the same framework to have a third gender.”
Well-known on-demand music app Spotify have added a third gender option, non-binary, to their registration form for some countries.
Countries that have three options include the UK, Australia, and theUS, and countries that still have only the standard M/F include Canada, Turkey, Germany, France, and the Philippines. If you’re in a different country that we’ve not mentioned, please click through to their sign-up form here and tell us in an ask which country you’re in and how many gender options they offer! We’ll edit this post to give as complete a list as possible.
This follows a support request over 3 years ago for adding more gender options, which received over 300 votes. We found that request and blogged about it, appealing to followers to add their votes and comments, and the request was reviewed by Spotify soon after. In the mean time Spotify were willing to remove the gender information from users’ accounts manually.
If you’re in a country that doesn’t have three gender options available, you can contact Spotify here or on Twitter, @SpotifyCares, to express your support for the move being expanded to more countries. There are Twitter accounts for individual countries too, for which Google or @SpotifyCares can point you in the right direction.
And if you’re in a country that does have a non-binary option now, you can contact Spotify or tweet at them to say thanks!
An international travel document. An “O” for other, rather than X for indeterminate or intermediate or whatnot. And a self-determined gender marker. THAT is how you do legal gender.
