The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) closed out their biggest ever Pink Training yesterday with a plenary session that launched an online action, #TransHealthcareNow calling on politicians and government departments on both sides of the border to follow the WPATH recommendations and generally provide better access and pathways to health services and supports for trans and non-binary people.

Guests on the plenary session included Noah Halpin (This is Me Campaign), Sara R Phillips (TENI) and Alexa Moore (Transgender NI), discussing the Islandwide state of play for gender recognition and trans healthcare with the understanding that access to healthcare is extremely difficult. The USI highlighted that and created an online action to encourage politicians and encourage the HSE to improve healthcare services for trans and non-binary people in Ireland.

This came in the form of a hashtag #TransHealthcareNow and was triggered by the Dept of Health mishandling the report from the national transgender healthcare steering committee as well as the massive increase in waiting times to access the National Gender service this year which has jumped from 15mths this time last year to about three years. The situation in Northern Ireland is also dire, since the start of 2018, no new patients have been seen in the Northern Ireland adult gender identity clinic. There are now over 400 on the waiting list, some of whom have been on this list for over 4 years.

Noah Halpin from This is Me told GCN this morning “the hashtag is a strong message from Pink Training’s close to 400 delegates. It’s a big move by the student body and a big statement a powerful calling out of trans healthcare in Ireland as not adequate. I thank the USI for drawing attention to it and thank all the students that took part.”

https://twitter.com/TheUSI/status/1333107149338193924?s=20

Galway Pro-Choice tweeted using the hashtag explaining that “Bodily autonomy underpins both the abortion rights and trans rights movements. We stand with our trans and nonbinary siblings, for their fight is our fight. #TransHealthcareNow”

We are calling on @SimonHarrisTD @DonnellyStephen & @RobinSwannMoH to follow the WPATH recommended standard of care and to stop gate keeping trans healthcare.#TransHealthCarenow pic.twitter.com/h6iQhwISUH

— TU Dublin Students' Union (@tudublinsu) November 29, 2020

You can join the conversation on Twitter and add your voice using #TransHealthcareNow