To mark Trans Awareness Week, Tammy Hymas, who represents the St Ann’s ward, explains why more needs to be done to make healthcare inclusive in Haringey

When I moved to Haringey five years ago, I had only shared the fact I was trans with a few of my closest friends.

My borough’s vibrant queer and trans community, one of the largest in London, gave me a sense of belonging and the safety to be myself.

It was my desire to continue Haringey’s proud history of queer liberation – extending all the way back to the establishment of the UK’s first Lesbian and Gay Unit and the fight against Thatcher’s homophobic Section 28 – that prompted me to stand to become Haringey’s first trans councillor in 2022.

Yet as we mark this year’s trans awareness week, exactly 20 years since Section 28’s repeal, we must confront the barriers LGBTQ+ people still face, particularly the rising hatred and ignorance directed towards the trans community.

Last month, the Home Office reported that hate crime towards trans people had yet again increased, admitting that the rise could be fuelled by anti-trans rhetoric in the media and even from politicians. Not a day goes by without trans people being mocked, belittled and monstered in the press.

When accessing healthcare, trans people are waiting for over five years for hormone treatments that the General Medical Council advise could be prescribed directly by GPs after only 18 weeks with informed consent.

The NHS’ institutional failings and its refusal to provide timely and supportive care to trans people has deadly consequences.

Last year, a coroner’s report concluded that distress caused by immense wait times to access healthcare contributed to the death of Sophie Williams, a trans woman living in Tottenham.

The coroner ruled that more trans people could die “unless action is taken” given the barriers to gender affirming care and the transphobia widespread in mental health services.

Sophie’s story felt sadly familiar. After sitting on NHS waiting lists for years, I approached my own GP to ask for their support in accessing widely available medication as part of my transition. I was initially denied on the grounds that they “didn’t feel knowledgeable about transgender people”.

The reality is that many LGBTQ+ people in our borough are not accessing healthcare due to their experience of discrimination and even hostility from professionals. Shockingly, 70% of trans people had experienced transphobia from their primary care provider, with 14% refused GP care because they were trans. We are in a public health crisis for trans people.

In response, I have worked with Haringey’s Integrated Care Board, responsible for local NHS services, to fund two Haringey GPs to join LGBT Foundation’s pioneering ‘Pride in Practice’ programme, giving them the skills and confidence to provide inclusive healthcare that meets the needs of the LGBTQ+ community.

Yet there still remains so much more work to be done.

Senior Conservative politicians recently pledged to force trans people to use hospital wards in line with the sex they were assigned at birth, rather than how they live and present today.

There are very real inequalities in healthcare: Black women are four times more likely to die in childbirth, lesbian and bisexual women are twice as likely never to have had a cervical cancer screening, and there is a postcode lottery for trans people seeking NHS fertility preservation.

Instead of addressing these pressing concerns, Rishi Sunak decided to scapegoat trans people in an attempt to conceal the impact of over a decade of NHS underfunding and privatisation on marginalised groups.

All this will do is compound existing inequalities, especially in Haringey, one of the most diverse and deprived parts of the entire country.

Now is the time for bravery: to stand up against these cruel attacks toward trans people.

In the 1980s, Haringey Council leader and later MP for Tottenham Bernie Grant stood resolutely alongside LGBTQ+ communities in the face of Conservative bigotry and an onslaught from the press.

I know that our principled, inclusive and welcoming Haringey community will thank politicians who show the same courage today.

No news is bad news

Independent news outlets like ours – reporting for the community without rich backers – are under threat of closure, turning British towns into news deserts.

The audiences they serve know less, understand less, and can do less.

If our coverage has helped you understand our community a little bit better, please consider supporting us with a monthly, or one-off donation.