Tory activist: transgender people mentally ill
PEOPLE who want to change their gender are suffering from a mental illness, a Tory activist has claimed as she raised concerns about the Government’s new policy on the rights of transsexuals.
Mary Douglas, a spokesman for the Grassroots Conservatives campaign group, did not discount the possibility that the sexuality of Justine Greening, the openly gay Education Secretary, may have influenced plans to make it easier to change gender when this was put to her in an interview.
Her comments were described as “disgraceful” by party members on social media. Maria Miller, chairman of the Commons women and equalities select committee, insisted the Tories had been tackling equality issues since they came to power in 2010.
Ms Greening revealed on Sunday that a consultation paper to be published in the autumn will suggest making it easier to legally change gender.
Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, Ms Douglas said: “It should not be easy to do something as massive as change your gender. The law is there to protect us… sometimes from ourselves ... If somebody thinks they have a mismatch between how they think and the way their body is, the question is , which should be changed? Many people who have gender dysphoria also have – not all, but many – other mental health conditions, like depression or drug addiction or... they’re deeply troubled. It has been proven that when they change their gender, that doesn’t solve those issues.”
Host Nick Robinson said Ms Greening came out as gay last year, and asked Ms Douglas if she thought the politican’s personal experience was having an impact on Tory policy. Ms Douglas replied: “It’s a possibility, but I’m not going to suggest anything I don’t know, I don’t know Justine personally at all.”
Current rules requiring a person to give two years of evidence showing they have been living as the opposite sex before they can legally change their gender identity could be scrapped, along with a requirement for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria.