UK: Transgender people are being let down by the government, say MPs

Transgender issues should never be treated as a mental health problem, according to a radical parliamentary report that demands a complete overhaul of the legal protections for transgender people in the UK.

The House of Commons women and equalities committee said the government should introduce a non-binary gender option on passports, require all police officers to undergo transphobic hate crime training, and ensure transgender people cannot be excluded from single-sex institutions such as women’s refuges.

The report also insists transgender prisoners should be allowed to serve their sentence in a prison that is appropriate to their gender, says 16- and 17-year-olds should be allowed to switch their legal gender, and calls for an explicit ban on anti-transgender hate speech.

“I can think of no group that suffers more discrimination than trans people,” committee chair Maria Miller said. “We must think about the human rights of every single person who lives in our country, and at the moment the human rights of trans people are not fully protected.” Read more via Buzzfeed