Despite some sweeping statements to the contrary, this week’s Judgement of the Supreme Court was not a ruling on the definition of a woman or of ‘sex’. Indeed, paragraph 2 of the judgement states that “It is not the role of the court to adjudicate on the arguments in the public domain on the meaning of gender or sex, nor is it to define the meaning of the word ‘woman’ other than when it is used in the provisions of the Equality Act 2010.”

Trans people, like everyone else, retain their rights under equality law in Northern Ireland to not be harassed and discriminated against in the provision of goods and services or in employment. They, like any other member of our society, have the right to go about their daily lives without fear of hatred and intolerance. This is the same today as it was yesterday.

We at the Rainbow Project will continue to work for a better Northern Ireland for LGBTQIA+ people and their families. We ask you to join us in urging our elected politicians to stand up for the rights of all people in Northern Ireland, and to refrain from words and actions which create further division when what is needed is respect for all communities”

– Scott Cuthbertson, CEO of The Rainbow Project

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“Our Plan: Doing What Matters Most” is the Executive’s shared Programme for Government, agreed and published at the end of February. 

The Rainbow Project, alongside our colleagues in HereNI, submitted a joint response to the public  consultation on this Programme, which you can find below.

We raised a number of key issues, particularly the lack of direct mention or inclusion of any LGBTQIA+-specific issues such as progressing a ban on conversion practices and improving non-discrimination and equalities legislation. 

While we broadly agreed with the Executive’s nine key missions, and understand that this is intended to be a Programme for improving services and wellbeing for all in Northern Ireland, we believe it is vital to recognise where particular issues disproportionately affect marginalised communities.

This is particularly important in the context of the Department for Communities’ failure to bring forward the LGBTQIA+ Social Inclusion Strategy, promised in the 2020 New Decade New Approach agreement, or even to set out a timeline for its publication. 

These tables outline the indicators the Executive is using to measure the performance of its Programme for Government, broken down by characteristics. While it is to be welcomed that the Executive has placed some concrete targets and measurables within the Programme, we are concerned at the number of areas where data is not broken down by gender and sexual orientation, which could prevent work being done to address key inequalities for LGBTQIA+ people.

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Alexa Moore, Policy Campaigns and Communications Manager at the Rainbow Project, said, “We are extremely disappointed by the decision taken by the Executive to impose an indefinite ban on puberty blockers in Northern Ireland. We have made clear, in our meetings with Executive Ministers, that politicians should not override the expertise of frontline clinicians, young people and their families in taking the healthcare decisions that are best for them. 

“We regret that the Executive have taken the decision to ban puberty blockers when, in effect, trans young people have had little or no access to adequate healthcare in many years. This ban compounds what was an already challenging environment for families and children here in Northern Ireland. We call on the Executive to provide meaningful and urgent support to the young people who will be impacted by this decision.”

The clinical evidence for this decision has not been forthcoming, as the Executive has refused to publish any guidance it has received, but we remain concerned that evidence and circumstances for trans children and young people in Northern Ireland have not been adequately considered. The consultation on a permanent ban on puberty blockers, which was responded to by the LGBTQIA+ sector locally, had seemingly no bearing on the outcome of this decision, with local politicians being ‘bounced’ into decisions by London.

Christopher McIlwaine, Director of the Belfast Trans Resource Centre, said, “The Executive has serious questions to answer, particularly around what support is available for young people affected by this ban, and what contingency arrangements will be put in place to reduce the harm caused by this decision. 

We must see now, from the Department, a clear plan and pathway to support young people who have been accessing puberty blockers from private services, to safeguard both the physical and mental health and wellbeing of those most impacted.” 

Gender Identity Services for trans people in Northern Ireland have been in a state of disarray for the past number of years. Adolescent services have experienced staffing and funding pressures, resulting in many young people being left without support or care for several years. 

ENDS 

Notes to Editor: 

• The indefinite ban follows a series of 3-month rolling bans which were first put in place during an election period in July by the previous Conservative Government, and have been continued by the Labour Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Wes Streeting.
• The Executive has thus far refused to publish the advice it received informing both the temporary ban and the new indefinite ban, despite Freedom of Information requests submitted by Belfast Live [Executive Office refuses to release evidence considered by First and deputy First Ministers before puberty blocker ban]
• Gender Identity Services in Northern Ireland have been in a state of disarray for the past 5+ years. Over 1000 individuals sit on the waiting list for adult services, some of whom have been waiting for 7 years, and the youth Gender Identity Service (Knowing Our Identity, or KOI) has a waiting list of over two years. 

For any further comment or media requests, please contact Alexa Moore, Policy Campaigns and Communications Manager at the Rainbow Project, at: 

079 3354 5164 / alexa@rainbow-project.org

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The quilts, which formed part of ‘the Names Project’, were part of the world’s largest community folk art project, with panels being made to memorialise and celebrate the lives of those lost to AIDS-related complications.

Scott Cuthbertson, CEO of the Rainbow Project, said: “This powerful display of quilts memorialising members of the community lost to AIDS-related complications is an important reminder of how far we have come in tackling HIV and AIDS, as well as how far we need to go. Contracting HIV is no longer a death sentence, and those living with HIV can lead happy and healthy lives with effective treatments and support. However, whilst we are living in a time where HIV is a long term but manageable condition, stigma remains an issue, and we need to see a whole society approach to tackling stigma, encouraging testing and eliminating new transmissions in Northern Ireland”

In advance of the event, which takes place tomorrow (Saturday 30^th November) from 2 – 5pm in the MAC Belfast, the Rainbow Project has been able to reunite one of the quilts with its maker: the eldest daughter of Ruth Laffin, who died in 1991 at the age of 36.

Due to the stigma surrounding HIV and AIDS at her time of death, the quilt was anonymously dedicated ‘To Mummy,’ and was made from her duvet cover, her dress and her children’s duvet cover. Ruth’s five children wrote their names and a message on the underside of red hearts, which were cut from her dress and stitched to the quilt.

Leo Lardie, the Rainbow Project’s Sexual Health Officer, said: “It was so poignant and unexpected that our exhibition has already reunited someone with their mother’s quilt more than three decades after it was made. Every one of these quilts meant something to both an individual and the community around them; we’re privileged to be able to share those memories with LGBTQIA+ people and their allies today.”

For media requests, please contact Alexa Moore, Policy, Campaigns and Communications Manager at the Rainbow Project, at:

+ 44 79 3354 5164

alexa@rainbow-project.org

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Cass makes a number of positive suggestions which we would support, particularly around moving away from a centralised model of care to more decentralised regional care networks, providing holistic support to children and young people exploring their gender, and having a wider range of healthcare professionals who are competent in working with trans children and young people. We also support the call for further research on healthcare outcomes – provided it is collaborative, ethical and consensual – however this should not be used to deny access to the care that we know generates positive outcomes for trans children and young people. 

However, on the whole, we share the concerns of many in our communities regarding the impact implementing the recommendations of this report will have on access to puberty blockers and Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) for trans young people. The ‘watchful waiting’ approach, attempting to explain away trans identity by exploring every other possibility – whether it be mental health, neurodivergence, experiences of sexual abuse, or anything else – without providing access to care, has not worked in Northern Ireland and it will not work in England.  

The refusal to accept a vast swathe of research demonstrating the clear positive outcomes for thousands of trans young people who have accessed medical transition demonstrates a lack of willingness to engage meaningfully with the fact that this transition, for so many people, is hugely beneficial to their quality of life.  

This review appears to approach the idea of transition as a last resort, an outcome that should be avoided for children and young people at all costs. While we absolutely accept that not every young person who is exploring their gender and expression will come to identify as trans, that is no reason to deny care to those who will and do. Services should be designed for those who need their care, rather than with the aim of preventing them from accessing it.  

While the Cass Review was specifically intended to apply in England, we know it will have implications for care in Northern Ireland, and indeed across the UK and Ireland. It is our continued view that the Gender Identity Service Pathway Review, commissioned by the Health Minister remains the best way to review and reform services locally. We in Northern Ireland have separate gender identity services, which have operated diffently from those in England, so any notion to attempt implementation of the Cass Review in Northern Ireland would be folly. 

The focus of reviews of gender affirming care should be on reducing rapidly spiralling waiting times, moving away from a stigmatising and pathologising view of trans identity, and providing timely and accessible care to the hundreds of individuals on the waiting list stretching over 6 years. 

ENDS

For comment or media enquiries, please contact our Policy, Campaigns and Communications Manager Alexa Moore at alexa@rainbow-project.org.

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Speaking on the importance of World Aids Day Director of The Rainbow Project John O’Doherty said “It’s been over forty years since the emergence of HIV, and we’ve seen incredible developments in the treatment and prevention of the virus. Unfortunately, stigma remains one of the most difficult challenges for those living with HIV today. Stigma can take many forms such as hostility, aggression, and exclusion. People living with HIV can experience this in different areas of their lives, from their relationships, service providers and unfortunately still in healthcare provision.

“With substantial developments in testing and treatment people living with HIV can expect to live a full, healthy, and happy life. Today people with HIV have the same life expectancy as those who are HIV-negative. However, many people living with HIV feel isolated alongside a need to conceal their HIV status due to fear of stigma and discrimination. Many of the myths about how HIV is transmitted still exist today and we must do more to ensure all communities are educated about HIV and that we actively seek to address the stigma experienced by those living with HIV.

Sexual Health Development Officer Leo Lardie said:

“Knowing your HIV status is an important step in HIV prevention. The Rainbow Project can provide rapid HIV & syphilis testing for gay & bisexual men, men who have sex with men, transgender and non-binary people and anyone who is at risk of contracting HIV or is in high distress around their status. Free at-home sexual health testing is now available to everyone in Northern Ireland through the SH24 service. Sexual health testing has never been more accessible and this world aids day we would encourage everyone to get tested and know their status.

“Treatment of HIV has dramatically changed over the last 5 years and treatment is now available as a form of prevention. If f you’re HIV negative, you may be able to take pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to reduce your risk of contracting HIV. It can be used by people who are HIV-negative but at high risk of HIV to dramatically reduce their chance of contracting HIV. PrEP is highly effective and is free of charge via the NHS.

The Rainbow Project is campaigning for a government commitment towards zero new HIV diagnoses by 2030 through its Steps to Zero campaign.

Speaking about the campaign Policy and Advocacy Manager Aisling Playford said:

Due to new approaches such as treatment as prevention, the efficacy of treatment such as anti-retroviral therapy, and our increased understanding of how and when HIV can be transmitted this target is entirely achievable, but it requires commitment and investment. We won’t just end HIV transmission by preventive treatment alone and must commit to easier access to HIV testing for all and comprehensive sex education.

“Steps to Zero also focuses on providing support to those individuals living with HIV, perhaps most importantly by helping to eradicate the stigma surrounding HIV. We all have a part to play in making HIV and HIV stigma a thing of the past. We’ve each got to educate ourselves on sexual health not just to be able to make informed choices to best protect ourselves but to stop perpetrating the same misinformation that creates fear and stigma of individuals living with HIV. “

Notes to Editors:

“Undetectable” means that the presence of HIV in a person’s body is so low that they cannot transmit the HIV to anyone by any means. This is achieved through a person living with HIV accessing anti-retroviral treatment

PEP is medication you can take up to 72 hours after you’ve had unprotected sex to dramatically reduce your risk of contracting HIV, it’s available at any A&E in Northern Ireland for free.

PrEP is medication you can take daily or on-demand (two pills before you have sex, a pill every day for 2 days after you’ve had sex) to eliminate your risk of contracting HIV altogether. You can get PrEP at any GUM clinic for those most at risk of HIV.

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Lesbian and gay life in Germany began to thrive at the beginning of the 20th century with Berlin in particular seen as one of the most liberal cities in Europe.  There was a number of lesbian and gay organisations, cafés, bars, publications and cultural events taking place.

Nazi conceptions of race, gender and eugenics dictated the Nazi regime’s hostile policy on homosexuality.  The repression and discrimination targeted towards the LGBTQIA community started within days of Hitler and the Nazis coming to power.

On 6 May 1933, the Nazis violently looted and closed Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sexual Science. This centre acted as an important public venue for Berlin lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender life. They closed the centre, looted the collection and burnt it out on the streets.

Unknown numbers of German Gay men and Lesbians fled abroad, and others entered into marriages in order to appear to conform to Nazi ideological norms, experiencing severe psychological trauma.

The discrimination was put into legislation by the Nazi’s with the revision of Paragraphs 175 and 175a of the German criminal code with the intent of expanding the range of criminal offences to encompass any contact between men, either physical or in form of word or gesture, that could be construed as sexual; and strengthening penalties for all violations of the revised law. Lesbianism was not included in this legislation, they were subsequently not targeted in the same way as gay men. However, Lesbians suffered the same destruction of community networks as gay men and often were not able to play roles in public life or work.

An estimated 10,000 -15,000 men who were accused of homosexuality were deported to concentration camps.

Just as Jews were forced to identify themselves with yellow stars, gay men in concentration camps had to wear a large pink triangle. There was also Brown triangles were used for Romani people, Red for political prisoners, green for criminals, blue for immigrants, purple for Jehovah’s Witnesses and black for “asocial” people, including prostitutes and lesbians.). This year for the first time we have included a black triangle in our flower wreath at the Belfast LGBTQIA Holocaust memorial event.

Pictured Left to Right – Professor William Spurlin from Brunel University and Lord Mayor Kate Nicholl, Belfast City Council

Many men in the camps died from exhaustion, others were castrated and some were subjected to gruesome medical experiments. Collective murder actions were undertaken against gay detainees, exterminating hundreds at a time. But after the war the suffering continued, the Allies chose not to remove the Nazi-amended Paragraph 175. Neither they, the new German states nor Austria would recognise homosexual prisoners as victims of the Nazis – a status essential to qualify for financial reparations. Indeed, many gay men were taken from camps and sent to prison to continue to serve their prison sentences.

We take the opportunity each year to mark the passing of those who were lost and those who survived this horrific time in our history.

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The EHRC have not reflected the UK Government’s own research or the expert opinion of the UN Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity on conversion therapy and gender recognition. They have not listened to the lived experiences of Trans people, who have suffered under the failing system of Trans health care and increasing transphobia and misogyny throughout the UK.

We must have no further delays, loopholes or excuses to implementing gender recognition reform in Scotland and beyond or in banning the inhumane practice of conversion therapy. Our communities need and deserve strong human rights institutions to hold people to account and ensure that human rights for all are embedded in legislation.

We will continue to call on the Prime Minister of Great Britain, First Minister and deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, and First Minister of Scotland and their ministers to ensure legal recognition and protection.

We stand with the Trans Community, with our colleagues across the UK and Scotland that are rightly unsettled by these statements and reassure the LGBTQIA+ community that we will continue to fight for equality and justice for all.

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