We need trans-only wards

The Health Secretary Steve Barclay is expected to announce plans to ban transwomen like me from female hospital wards today. Let’s be clear, the privacy, dignity and safety of women in hospital have been overlooked for too long – but Barclay will also need to offer separate wards or rooms for transgender people. Yes, women should not be expected to budge up and make room for men who identify as transgender, but nor should the Health Secretary make the lives of those who transitioned – perhaps many years ago – more difficult than needs be. 

The goal for transsexuals (a term I prefer to ‘transgender’ because it is defined within The Equality Act) is to transition using hormone therapy and genital surgery and then re-integrate into society to get on with our lives. While I think few people would shed a tear if a part-time cross-dresser was housed on a male ward, where does this leave the transsexual who transitioned many years ago? Someone who married their long-term male partner as soon as the Gender Recognition Act allowed it and is now known within their family as a mother or grandmother? An open male ward? 

Some campaigners might well declare, ‘once a man, always a man’, but the abrasive language of social media does not translate well into policy.