IGTA Worldwide Reports

IGTA Worldwide Reports

UNITED KINGDOM

PLEASE DISSEMINATE AS WIDELY AS POSSIBLE

Lesbian and gay activists today invaded the London offices of the Daily Mail (March 15).

Visit: http://bak.spc.org/bigotbusters - for full details of the action.

The Daily Mail is Britain's most insidiously homophobic newspaper, organising periodic anti-gay campaigns amongs its vast readership. Last year, the paper's bigoted rants were instrumental in defeating the British Government's attempts to equalise the age of consent for gay men. Most recently, the paper has aligned itself with conservative forces in
the House of Lords to ensure the retention of some of the most viciously homophobic legislation in Europe, the infamous "Section 28", which forbids the "promotion of homosexuality" by local authorities.

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subscribe: or-britisles-subscribe@onelist.com

unsubscribe: or-britisles-unsubscribe@onelist.com

List owner: or-britisles-owner@onelist.com

URL's:

http://www.outrage.org.uk

http://www.onelist.com/community/or-britisles

From "The Independent on Sunday"

Prisons inspector calls for sex change op

By Sophie Goodchild, Home Affair Correspondent - 13 February 2000

The Chief Inspector of Prisons last night said that inmates should be allowed free sex change operations while in jail. In an exclusive interview with the Independent on Sunday, Sir David Ramsbotham said that transsexual prisoners risk serious health problems because they have been denied treatment and should be given the same access to surgery as members of the public There are no official figures for the number of transsexuals in jail, but it is known that six prisoners are waiting for operations. The prison service views the matter seriously and is drawing up guidelines for publication in the summer. Sir David's views were last night greeted with outrage by the Conservative Home Affairs spokesman David Liddington who described sex changes for prisoners as "a complete waste of public money". "This means resources for thousands of law abiding people who genuinely need operations would be sacrificed," he said . Sir David admitted that sex changes posed problems for the prison service but insisted: "If delay to treatment is going to cause damage to health then I don't think being in prison should be allowed to be the cause of delay." As a result of treatment, he explained, formerly male prisoners may need moving to women's jails. "I can't imagine it myself but it is a medical problem. I don't see it is the business of imprisonment to damage them." In theory, all prisoners are treated as normal NHS patients. But in practice there have been no sex changes in jail and the decision over whether to go ahead has been heavily influenced by the prison service. Sir David referred to the case of one prisoner who had been been jailed because he stole money to fund a sex change.

"What was worrying was that the drugs this individual was using in order to facilitate the change were beginning to cause damage to certain vital organs." Last year, a convicted kidnapper won a legal battle against the prison service to be the first British prisoner to undergo a sex-change operation at a cost of £11,000. John Pilley, who is in Gartree prison, Leicestershire, argued that having given him treatment enabling him to develop breasts, it was unfair for the prison service to leave him in the limbo of being part-man and part-woman. But after seven years of hormone treatment he is still waiting for surgery. Pilley is in the same state of limbo as at least five other prisoners. Many take Androcur, a hormone which suppresses production of testosterone but can also cause liver damage with prolonged use. The prison service said that any request from a prisoner to change their sex would be treated in line with normal NHS guidelines.

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