S22,misgendering and the police

[Being Misgendered]

I am a woman who has had a GRC for several years. Transition well behind me.

Then out of the blue an organisation resurrects my old name and say they will only start referring to me as female if I sign a new contract giving up many rights. I have written to them; my solicitor has written to them; I have shown them my birth certificate and even my GRC. They claim to have now updated their records in part - merely linking old and new names more prominently and making several more disclosures of my gender history to various third parties - but are still pressing for a new contract saying they can only record me as female then. (I have offered to sign a new contract on the present terms but my offer was rejected.)

The police (the Met) have been utterly useless. They have no comprehension that deliberate misgendering is abusive. To start with they ignored s22 because I couldn't give the names of the people to whom my history had been disclosed despite providing evidence that it was disclosed to somebody. Now they are trying to claim the organisation are doing their best - ignoring the fact that they still keep addressing me as male and won't apparently change that unless I give up historic rights - and that s22 is a strict offence.

My partner (who has also undergone gender reassignment) alleges she was possibly assaulted by an employee of the same organisation but the police did nothing when the incident was reported to them although there was CCTV and we have an audio recording of the incident. Again, she gets addressed as "sir" too.

1) does anybody have any tips on how to get the Met to take transphobic hate crimes seriously - can I escalate out of the borough? Even officers who attend have zero knowledge of why misgendering someone with a GRC is abuse or of s22

2) how do I get the organisation to refer to me as female and remove the male history to stop further breaches of s22 - court proceedings would just risk outing me?

[Ice Maiden]

It really depends if you have Gender Recognition Certificate or not.

If you have one of them. Then your past is legally 'protected information' That only the Secretary of State, or a court can disclose.

If you freely give this information 'in an official capacity' meaning to a doctor, or an employer (not gossip sadly). They have to adhere to this Gender Recognition Act 2004 (go read it, it is fascinating). Else if the breech this Act of Parliament you have the law and the Police behind you. They can be arrested, they can receive a £5000 pound fine and possibly a custodial sentence! You could certainly sue them civilly (no win no fee?).

However, if you do not (for whatever reason) have a GRC. Then this all becomes very messy rather . As 'legally' you remain your birth ((as designated by the state and a doctor (at the time)) sex.

[Ice Maiden]

#Replies

[Cas1999]

One of the 'complexities' of the GRC is that by obtaining one we potentially sacrifice some former rights, e.g. before retirement ages were equalised we had to change the age at which we could retire to that applicable post transition, another example is different life insurance premiums for men and women. If there are terms in the original contract which only applied to men (or women) then the company are potentially within their rights to refuse to continue them, but that does not excuse any breaches of disclosure or discrimination.

[Ella]

As I see it, you have two problems, first the ongoing misgendering etc & secondly,the inactivity of the Police. I believe you have up to six months maximum, to take a legal case against your misgenderer - your solicitor should be well versed in the legalities & advising you on this. If the police are not helping you, go to your M.P. & officially complain (it may be an Ombudsman to address your complaint to). If you want the misgendering to stop, you can take a private case against your misgenderer, gather your evidence & beware of timescales.