Non-binary people in Europe: Situation and perspectives

1. Non-binary people in Europe: Situation and perspectives Vic Valentine Scottish Transgender Alliance Policy Officer Equality Network vic@equality-network.org

2. How we started the campaign • Do community research to find out the priorities of LGBTI people in Scotland • Once Equal Marriage legislation had been passed LGB people were (almost) completely equal under the law • Trans rights became the next priority • Although we have laws in place to allow people to legally change their gender, they are far behind international best practice

3. Calls of the Equal Recognition campaign • Remove the psychiatric diagnosis requirement from legal gender recognition • Reduce the age at which people can get legal recognition of the gender they live as • Provide legal recognition for people who do not identify as men or women

4. How have we campaigned? • Via social media – with template Facebook and Twitter posts of support that people can share • Postcards – asking people to sign up to show support, at relevant events (both LGBTI and not) • Photo opportunities

5. How have we campaigned?

6. How have we campaigned? • Directly to policy-makers: • Attending political party conferences and meeting candidates/MSPs • Meetings with various political parties whilst they were writing their manifestos • Giving evidence to Equal Opportunities Committee at Scottish Parliament • Providing information to the Scottish Parliament Information Centre, which disseminates research to all MSPs

7. How have we campaigned? • Transgender Equality Inquiry at UK Parliament • Committee recommended many changes to UK gender recognition law • Some success with non-binary inclusion (such as Gender X passports) • Non-binary survey • UK wide survey with 895 respondents • Focused on experiences in services and employment, and views on legal gender recognition • Gave us an evidence base on which to ask for things

8. Where are we now? • At the end of March, we organised an LGBTI Hustings event with other LGBTI orgs before the election – the leader of each Political Party came and answered questions exclusively on LGBTI equality • All made positive statements about reforming Gender Recognition law • Party Manifestos – 4 of 5 parties made manifesto pledges that matched our campaign, and 1 pledged to review the law • 98 of 129 MSPs now elected on pledge to implement ER calls

9. Where are we now? • Some media backlash • Awareness raising – need the general public to understand the campaign and why it’s important • Government consultation on reform – should be underway within the next year • Partnership building – i.e. with Trade Unions, women’s organisations • Secondary legislation – how will we deal with laws that treat men and women differently?

10. How did we get here? • Explicitly including non-binary people in our work, training and campaigns from the beginning means that politicians, service providers etc. are more knowledgeable about NB identities • Comparisons to other countries with existing laws that recognise NB people have been useful • Responding proactively to media enquiries/ coverage that is inaccurate • Tying in calls to Scottish government’s view of itself as “progressive” and “modern”

11. Contact Info: • Scottish Transgender Alliance • Equality Network, 30 Bernard Street, Edinburgh, EH6 6PR • Office: 0131 467 6039 • Email: sta@equality-network.org • www.scottishtrans.org • www.facebook.com/scottishtrans.org • @ScottishTrans on twitter