Your say / Society
‘Transgender prisoner trapped in legal limbo’
The case of Tara Hudson, the 26-year-old Bath woman who is being sent to an all-male prison, has ignited a wave of sympathy across the county. Thousands of people have signed a petition asking for her to be sent to a women’s prison instead. Her case is being supported by her local MP, Ben Howlett.
Bath magistrates elected to send Tara to a men’s prison because of Britain’s outdated and inflexible laws on gender recognition. Someone like Tara can live wholly as a woman, changing her name, bank accounts, diving licence and so on. But she remains legally male in the eyes of the courts unless she also changes her birth certificate.
Unfortunately the process of changing your birth certificate is lengthy, complicated, expensive and ferociously bureaucratic. Many people in Tara’s position give up, or don’t bother to try, because the process is so daunting and seemingly unnecessary. People don’t expect to have to go to prison.
The gender recognition process requires support from two independent doctors. In my case my surgeon had retired and was uncontactable, while my GP flatly refused to help. I had to get two gender specialists in private practice to speak for me. This was time consuming and expensive.
Applications may also be rejected by the bureaucrats regardless of medical opinion. I heard recently of one local trans woman who has had to hire a lawyer to help her through the process.
There are many groups of trans people who cannot use the process for various reasons. For example, despite the fact that some children are transitioning gender before even going to school, they cannot obtain full legal recognition of that change until they are 18.
All of this stands in stark contrast to the gender recognition law recently adopted by Ireland. There people wishing to change their gender simply have to make a public declaration of having done so.
Tara’s safety is now down to the prison service. Staff at Horfield have assured me that they are aware of the issues. It is also possible that flexibility built into the official prison guidelines will allow an exception to be made for Tara. Long term, however, we need better laws.
The government is currently conducting a parliamentary inquiry on the subject of transgender equality. Mr Howlett is a member of the Inquiry Committee. I hope that he and like-minded MPs can put pressure on the government to update the UK’s gender recognition laws so that no one else has to suffer the fear and anxiety that Tara and her family are currently going through.
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