Yesterday saw the fabulous Noah Halpin, founder of This Is Me – Trans Healthcare Campaign, carry out a takeover of the GCN Instagram account – and it was a huge success.
Noah marked Five Years of Gender Recognition with series of terrific interviews, memories and recommendations, celebrating trans and non binary voices.
However, while the country has made great strides in relation to gender recognition, as Noah pointed out on Instagram, there’s still quite a way to go:
“The Gender Recognition Act 2015 has undoubtedly been the biggest legislative win for Ireland’s transgender community to date. It has enriched the lives of many trans people in so many ways that many don’t even think about! However, it is a very binary piece of legislation and legal self-determined gender identity is only available to binary trans people.
“This means that non-binary people‘s gender identity is still not legally recognised by our state. The GRA 2015 is not accessible to non binary people.
Nor is it accessible to transgender people under the age of 18.”
Noah continued, “So we still have a lot of work to do to ensure that the GRA 2015 is inclusive of all. And we need your help! Because until we are all equal, none of us are!”
As well as celebrating his hero, the pioneering Dr Lydia Foy, Noah shared how inaccessible trans specific healthcare in Ireland is for the entire community. He explained, “The Transgender Healthcare system in Ireland is actively harming transgender people and is gate keeping access to services. Not to mention that there are no surgery options for trans people in Ireland.
“So we are sending trans people abroad for major, invasive surgeries with little to no aftercare when we return home. I was one of those people among many more. But we need your help. We need your help to fix this. We need an informed consent model and we need access to care in the community.”
In a series of unmissable interviews, Noah spoke to trans and intersex activist Sara R Phillips from TENI, Delroy Mpofu a trans man fighting for the end of Direct Provision, non binary activist Cearbhall Turraoin and GALAS Ally of the Year award winner Holly Shortall. You can check out those fantastic conversations in the links above. So get watching!
As well as Noah’s GCN takeover, you can also check out The Road to Recognition live stream over on Facebook by following this link, where activists, artists and campaigners shared their memories about the Gender Recognition Act.
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