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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 ============================================================= 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. ============================================================ %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%