Happy International Transgender Day of Visibility 2022!
International Transgender Day of Visibility (TDoV) is an event celebrated annually on 31 March and has been celebrated since 2009. TDoV shines a spotlight on trans and gender non-conforming people around the globe.
“Transgender” is an umbrella term for individuals whose gender identity does not correspond with their birth sex. Most people are aware of trans-men and trans-women who are individuals that were assigned “male” or “female” at birth and have realised their gender does not align with what they were assigned. However, “trans” does not mean “from one to the other”. For those who identify as trans-gender or gender-nonconforming, it means “from one to another”. This might be from “male” to “female” but it may also mean from “female” to “non-binary”.
According to a Government Equalities Office report from 2018, “41% of trans men and trans women responding to a Stonewall survey said they had experienced a hate crime or incident because of their gender identity in the last 12 months. They also found that 25% of trans people had experienced homelessness at some point in their lives. Our national LGBT survey found similar results, with 67% of trans respondents saying they had avoided being open about their gender identity for fear of a negative reaction from others”.
Why is this important to me if I don’t identify as trans or gender-nonconforming?
As a provider of healthcare services it has been proven important to reflect the society we provide our services to, in order to offer enhanced support to patients with differing lived-experiences.
As a Social Enterprise, creating a safe working environment and adopting a more compassionate and inclusive culture improves staff retention allowing all staff a more secure work-life balance.
Ways we can all support trans and gender-nonconforming individuals:
- Avoid making assumptions based on appearance.
- Ask questions and be inquisitive whilst remaining mindful of others i.e “would I consider this appropriate if asked?”.
- Share your pronouns! A great way to enter each space acknowledging all gender identities is to openly share your pronouns.
- Think about using more gender-inclusive language i.e. “good morning ladies” could simply be “good morning everyone”.
Research!