Please place the following statement on your news service. A copy of the
statement has gone directly to those whom we know have an interest in this
matter
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STATEMENT ON BEHALF OF GIRES
re Separation initiated by PFC
Dear Colleagues,
The Executive Committee of GIRES has equal regret to that of the Vice
Presidents of Press for Change that the previous semi-formal link between the
two organisations has been severed.
Press for Change invested effort and goodwill in launching the charity for
which we will always be grateful. It used its own activists to establish the
charity and they set the charity's objects as being to advance education into
gender identity and intersex issues. They saw some common factors in these
two fields. In both, medical practices and society's poor understanding
cause major difficulties for those whom these issues directly affect.
However, once GIRES was established it became subject to charity law which
lays down clearly the reponsibilities of its trustees in pursuing its objects.
Thereafter, on some occasions, the collaboration between the two
organisations worked well, for instance in preparing material for the Home
Office Working Group. At other times, the relationship was difficult, for
instance during the preparation of the critique of the first draft of the NW
Lancashire policy on funding gender confirmation treatment.
Both organisations now accept the conclusion from this experience. They do
have different approaches which means that they will not respond to every
common problem in the same way. Where there is such a problem, they should
attempt to collaborate in a way that makes the best use of each
organisation's strengths.
Press for Change has an excellent relationship with a large number of trans
people. It campaigns extremely well on their behalf, an activity which
GIRES, as a charity, is not permitted to undertake. GIRES derives only 45 %
of its membership from this, the very group it serves. Knowledge of GIRES
within the intersexed community has, from the outset, been minimal and their
representation within its membership is tiny. Nonetheless, it values very
highly the support and opinions of all those members who have direct
experience of the issues with which it was set up to deal. Four of the five
members of its Executive Committee are themselves trans people. The fifth is
the father of a trans person.
In addition to that, however, the charity, through its members who are not
trans or intersexed and through its Research Panels, obtains funding and
professional advice that are not available to Press for Change. GIRES has
access to medical and other spheres where it can undertake an educational
role among the professionals and policy makers who have the power to improve
the way society treats the people whom the charity serves. In doing that,
GIRES has tried to represent truly the wishes of its client communities.
These basic differences in roles, membership and capabilities, inevitably
influence each organisation to think and behave in somewhat dissimilar ways.
Despite being a separate and somewhat different organisation, GIRES is keen
to collaborate with Press for Change and all the other groups which support
trans people. It has great respect for their distinctive contributions to
the cause of the trans community and hopes that they will feel its own work
continues to merit their support. It has worked with them in the past and
will welcome further opportunities to do so in the service of trans people.
We have already published a statement about our involvement in the intersex
field. For the reasons given above, GIRES is inexperienced in intersex
matters. Its initial attempts to assist that community were seen as
presumptuous. The Executive Committee now waits to see whether the charity
will, in time, be seen as a useful ally supporting the causes of intersexed
people Then, it would be pleased to be invited to assist them at what their
own support groups decide is an appropriate moment.
For the trans community, GIRES has raised all the money required to carry out
a national survey of the discrimination which trans people face in the
workplace. It has collected sufficient funds to cover the costs of PFC
activists on low incomes who conduct educational work. It has submitted
written recommendations to the Home Office Working Group that new birth
certificates be issued to trans people. It has, albeit unsuccessfully, used
the Press Complaints Commission's lengthy complaints procedure on behalf of
one its members who was offended by the Daily Mail. It has uncovered and
highlighted specific problems within the NHS in the provision of gender
confirmation treatment and worked to educate the policy makers to improve
their practices. It has just presented the first of what it hopes will be a
series of workshops that help the parents, brothers and sisters of trans
people to learn how best to support their loved ones. It continues to seek
the larger grants required to fund and expand Press for Change's own
educational work.
Consequently, GIRES is saddened by the manner in which some trans
commentators have used Press for Change's internet facilities to communicate
their own personal views about the charity's involvement in intersex issues.
Press for Change may perhaps come to regret the image of itself now portrayed
in its internet archives.
Only trans people can truly judge whether they have derived any benefit at
all from the nature and content of the remarks that have been made. They may
wish to consider whether this has increased or reduced the trans community's
ability to deal with the many problems it faces. That community has real
enemies in the outside world and merely weaken itself if it imagines that
GIRES is not its ally. Certainly, all this debate has necessitated a major
diversion of effort, within GIRES, Press for Change and other organisations,
when they should have been working for the good of the trans community.
The trans community should, GIRES believes, welcome a charity that can serve
their interests well and in ways that Press for Change cannot. However,
following the separation from Press for Change, it is timely to conduct a
review of how best GIRES can meet the needs of those whom it serves. There
have been well intentioned and constructive suggestions among the comments
levelled at GIRES. The Executive Committee has always behaved honourably and
lawfully. Nonetheless, the charity will take this opportunity to reassess
its structure, objectives and methods of working and modify them as is
necessary. This should enable the charity to move forward confidently with
the committed support of those who do believe it should advance research and
education on their behalf.
The Executive Committee thanks all those who have helped and continue to help
GIRES support the people it was established to serve.
Susan Marshall
Bernard Reed
David Willis
Janeen Willis
Yvonne Wingfield.
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