Saturday, 20 April 2013

A Letter of Concern to MP Results



Some of my regular readers might remember that a number of weeks ago I wrote to my local MP following the tragic events of Lucy Meadows death after the invasion of her privacy of the Daily Mail and Richard Littlejohn.  Unfortunately this was not a single isolated incident but just another of a long list of examples of the press feeling like they’re free to discriminate against transgender people with little to no consequences.

I thought that it was time that the trans community took matters into their own hands and take our concerns to the government as things clearly aren’t going to get better with the current systems in place.  I urged my readers to write to their MP’s and express their anger and sadness at theses events.  I’m not sure how many of you did this, but I did.  And I seem to have had something of a result.

After emailing my local MP I received a response from him, expressing his support for my concerns and reassured me that he would take the matter further.  At the time I thought ‘that’s nice, but it’s probably just a standard response to letters like this’.  Yesterday, however, it became clear that it wasn’t but that Mr Hollobone, my local MP, had in fact meant what he said.

I received a copy of the letter that Mr Hollobone had sent to the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State.  He includes my original letter within and asks that she carry my concerns further and hopefully reaches some kind of result.

I’m unsure as to how far this will go, and doubt that things will change just because I have sent my letter.  However, it has found itself into the hands of someone with some degree of power that can bring these concerns to others that may be able to make positive changes.

I think it is important that the trans community realise that we can make a difference, that our voices can be heard if we speak out.  If you haven’t done so already I urge you to follow my example.  One letter of concern can make someone take notice, hundreds possibly thousands can make a very real difference.  Don’t stay silent, things won’t get better for trans people unless we’re willing to stand up and do something about it.

Amy.

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