Students at Oxford get cash help to swap gender

AN Oxford college union is to pay for students who think they might be transgender to travel to see NHS specialists around the country.

It will mean anyone at Wadham College who wants to change gender using hormone therapy or surgery will be aided with union funds.

The union’s trans officer will promote the fund to students alongside other hardship grants, according to the student newspaper Cherwell.

The decision was made amid concerns that it can be difficult to get to gender identity clinics (GICs). Each term, £150 will be set aside from the union’s budget to fund students’ travel to them.

A motion passed by the student-run body read: ‘Transgender-related healthcare remains one of the most difficult forms of care to access – there are only eight gender identity clinics on the NHS.’

GICs provide services including psychological counselling, speech and language therapy, and hormone treatment. They are the first step for those seeking to be referred for sex-change surgery.