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This is the harsh truth of what trans healthcare is like for many of us in the UK right now. There are over 13,500 of us on a wait list right now. The national average waiting time for a first appointment is 18 months. Several friends of mine have been waiting for FIVE YEARS.
In the same week I celebrated one year of being on the wait list for my local GIC (Gender Identity Clinic), I learned my referral hadn’t even been processed. In fact, none of us have been processed since at least 2016. We’ve essentially been waiting all this time for nothing.
If you’re wondering why there’s been a major uptick in UK trans fundraisers in the last couple of years — it’s not because we’re hopping on a trend. It’s not because we’re greedy. It’s because we have no choice.
So many trans kids are going to have their 20s and even their 30s wasted just waiting for treatment because the services here are so shockingly underfunded and understaffed. There are 7 NHS GICs in England — and if my local one goes under, my nearest one is 200+ miles away.
There’s talk of new (pilot) services opening up this year, although location-wise my friends and I in the Westcountry still don’t personally benefit from these at all. This page was last reviewed in May and won’t be updated for another 3 years.
Many trans people have taken it upon themselves to create websites providing up-to-date informations they’ve sourced tirelessly themselves because the correspondence from actual healthcare professionals in regards to UK transgender issues is absolutely appalling.
Gender clinics aren’t picking up the phone. Email addresses are conveniently no longer functioning. Websites haven’t been updated in years. The government is doing nothing because it’s not a “serious enough” issue. Influential people are denying our existence. Enough is enough.
Do I talk about trans issues a lot? Yes, I do. Because I’m a trans dude and I just want to live my life the way so many cis people get to without even trying. But even if this didn’t directly affect me, I’d still be watching my friends suffer. This isn’t OK. It’s never been OK.
Every single time I see someone else sharing a photo of their testosterone vials or their surgery scars, it freakin’ kills me. I’m so happy for them. They deserve to share and feel that happiness. But it also kills me, knowing that can’t and won’t be me for a very long time.
So no, I’m not going to shut up about trans issues because I am tired of watching my country treat people like me like we don’t matter or exist. I am tired of us being harassed and mocked and killed for not presenting “enough” and not having the means to do anything about it.
I am tired of not being able to do the things I enjoy anymore because my body and voice dysphoria has grown out of control. I am tired of not feeling like I can love myself anymore. I am tired of having to yell about this. I am tired of feeling like no one is listening.
I just wanna talk about words and be a dude, dude. Why is that such a seemingly unreasonable thing for me to ask?
