Don’t make it easier to change gender, urge conservative activists
by Kevin Rawlinson, Guardian:
People who want to change their gender are suffering from a mental illness and encouraging them to do so is akin to affirming the belief of someone suffering from anorexia that they are fat, a conservative campaign group has claimed.
A spokesperson for Grassroots Conservatives, which is independent of the party but primarily draws its membership from its supporters, said activists were concerned about the government’s plans to streamline the process of changing gender.
“In my view, it should not be easy to do something as massive as change your gender and the law is there to protect us, normally from other people, but also sometimes from ourselves,” said Mary Douglas.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday that, while she was not a doctor, she had read work by some who believed gender dysphoria to be a mental health issue. “Until very recently, that was the medical consensus and I don’t see that anything has changed.”
Douglas – who acts as the group’s spokesperson on family, religion and public life – added: “It’s certainly not intended to be insulting but if, for example, you have someone with anorexia who says ‘I am too fat’ … it’s not actually respectful or loving to affirm that person in a belief that is false, that doesn’t tie up with reality.”
She was commenting on the government’s proposals, which emerged at the weekend, to speed up and de-medicalise the process of changing gender. Current rules require an applicant to have had a diagnosis of gender dysphoria and to provide evidence that they have been in transition for at least two years.
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