Statements like these are long overdue. People
choose whether to transition, but one does not choose to be dysphoric about the
sex they were born into. In this Bill of Rights, I refer specifically to people
who are transsexual, rather than use the broader terms, such as transgender or
gender variant. Although everyone has the right to respect in my view, I
assembled these rights to pertain mostly to the process of transition (either
male-to-female or female-to-male), which is a feature of transsexuality
specifically. I hope other individuals and groups modify this Bill
or suggest alternative ones, suitable for employers and legislators to adopt
and enact.
1. People
who are transsexual have the right to respect.
As societies and institutions become increasingly
aware of their transsexual members and participants, they become increasingly
confronted by the needs to assimilate and accommodate what they used to ignore.
Taking on these tasks from a position of basic respect will go a long way in
establishing inclusive policies and healthy environments.
2. People considering transition have
the right to be free from undue pressure to transition, to de-transition, or
not to transition.
Some aspects of transition, such as medical
interventions, affect only the person undergoing the process, and some aspects
of transition directly affect other people in their lives. People considering
and undergoing transition have the right to make their choices on the basis of
these only, and not for any political, religious, or societal statement it
might be perceived to be making.
3. People considering transition have the
right to receive from their health care providers all information pertaining to
their decision regarding whether, how, and when to transition.
This includes medical benefits and risks, cosmetic
possibilities and limitations, plain-language description about rates of regret
among those who transition, and any factors that might affect that risk.
4. Transsexual individuals have the right to
be recognized in their new gender by their employers and local and federal
governments.
Some recognition occurs at medical transition, and
some occurs at social transition. There are only very few instances wherein a
person’s physical gender is relevant to a government or employer; there are
very many instances where reference to gender is social convention. Transsexual
individuals have the right to be recognized as their new sex in all situations
except for those with a compelling need.
5. People in the process of transition have
the right to health care that respects the gender in which they live, including
to be addressed by pronouns and other language that acknowledges that gender.
Health care providers, including mental health care
providers, serve an important role in the transition process, and those roles
require specific consideration of a person’s changing medical and social
status. Only a portion of health care actually pertains to
transition, however. Once a person begins to live in their new gender, they
have the right to be recognized in that gender in all other aspects of health
care.
6. Transsexual individuals have the right,
during transition, to access sex-specific public facilities in which their
contrary genital status would not be evident.
For example, for the great majority of instances, a
presurgical male-to-female transsexual presenting as female can use a
female-designated restroom unobtrusively. Only in few instances, such as public
showers, would a mismatch between the sex-designation of the facility and
person’s preoperative status be an issue. In such instances, an alternative
should be available, in the same spirit that public facilities are responsible
for providing for the needs of individuals with mobility impairments.
7. People receiving mental health
services as part of their transition have the right for their mental health
care providers to have specialized training and competence in the assessment of
the DSM‑IV/ICD‑10 Sexual Disorders as well as gender identity disorders.*
In addition to its nonsexual aspects,
transsexuality and its competent assessment involves many interrelated sexual
issues, requiring a breadth of formal training. Relatedly, there are mental
health aspects of homosexuality that are analogous to transsexuality, such as
surviving histories of oppression or childhood ridicule. Training in GLB
issues, however, is not by itself sufficient to establish competence for
providing services regarding transsexuality.
8. Transsexual individuals have the right to
be free from discrimination in child custody decisions.
In such situations, the needs of the child are
paramount. As of this writing, there is no evidence that
transsexuality per se has any effect on parenting ability.
9. Transsexual individuals have the right to
decline to participate as subjects in research studies.
There is no aspect of transsexuality or transition
that diminishes one’s right to decline to participate in any research study.
Any research conducted in a clinical setting must be done under the supervision
of a recognized Research Ethics Board and with consideration of the
disempowered status that individuals seeking approval for transition might
perceive they have.
10. Medically qualified individuals have the
right to surgical sex reassignment and for such surgery to be funded by public
health care systems and health insurance companies.
The need for surgical sex reassignment is a medical
need (one with substantial mental health consequences). No just society can opt
out of providing for the medical needs of its citizens for no reason other than
for its prejudices.
