Trans people need support and help more than ever, says Crawley LGBTQU+ co-director

Kaiden Williams is co-director of Crawley LGBTQU+, who organise Crawley Pride. Here he tells what it is like to be a transgender person in Crawley and what it has been like for him growing up.
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My name is Kaiden, I am Co-Director for Crawley LGBTQU. I am also Project Lead for Sussex Trans Social, a meet up group for local Trans people.

I am 37 years old. For 30 years of my life, I have lived in Crawley. Growing up, I would play lots of football, climb trees, go to Cherry Lane adventure playground, AMF bowling alley and ABC cinema. I have seen Crawley evolve and change, and just like the town I grew up in, I have too.

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Ever since I can remember, I have always felt different. I enjoyed doing things that were 'typically boys' things. My Mum never said to me 'you can't do that, that's for boys'.

Kaiden WilliamsKaiden Williams
Kaiden Williams

Home life when I was younger was a very excepting and laid back environment. It was me, my twin sister and older brother. We were allowed to express ourselves freely, without judgement or assumption. I love my Mum for that because it allowed me to be me, truly me.

It wasn't until I was getting older, that societal pressures and expectations around gender were becoming evident to me. I was perceived as female, (Assigned female at birth) therefore, I was told how to behave, what clothes to wear, what toys I should play with, the list goes on.

Because of these expectations, it wasn't until late 2020, in the height of the pandemic, that I realised, after watching lots of YouTube videos and reading other people's experiences online, that I am Trans.

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For some people, part of their transition involves medical assistance.

Kaiden WilliamsKaiden Williams
Kaiden Williams

For me, I knew having hormone replacement therapy, (testosterone) was something I needed to be able to align the outside of my body, to the inside.

The term ‘transgender’ is used to encompass those whose identity, expression or behaviour does not align/conform with the sex they were assigned at birth.

Before you can begin with hormone treatment, you need to have a gender dysphoria diagnosis.

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Currently, the waiting times for just the initial appointment at an NHS Gender Identity Clinic is 5+ years (gic.nhs.uk). Imagine if you had to wait 5+ years to get medication for a mental of physical illness. It is such an unacceptably long time and because of these long waits, amongst other reasons, is why almost half of trans people had thought about taking their own life (mentalhealth.org.uk).

With wait times as long as they are, I had no choice but to go private for my Transgender healthcare.

I found a clinic in London and made contact. There was a waiting list of a few months. Whilst waiting, I needed to see a psychiatrist so I could get my gender dysphoria diagnosis. I also needed a full blood test and to sign consent and new patient forms.

In the meantime, I also had to discuss shared care with my GP, and this is one place where the NHS fail their Trans patients.

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As stated on the General Medical Council's website - www.gmc-uk.org – 'Decisions about who should take responsibility for continuing care or treatment after initial diagnosis or assessment should be based on the patient’s best interests, rather than on convenience or the cost of the medicine and associated monitoring or follow-up'.

The thing is, when it comes to Trans patients, GP's are so uninformed about our care, that they'd rather just refuse to help, than educate themselves.

They worry about the cost and the inconvenience of looking into the ways to help Trans people. My private Trans clinic sent over all the relevant information to my GP, regarding dosages etc, and they still refused. I rang a second GP in Crawley who also refused.

What this means for me, is that I have to continue paying the expensive monthly costs of my medicine and treatment because GPs in Crawley, aren't willing to support me. What they fail to understand, is that my bloods and health are monitored very closely by the private clinic. I feel very looked after and safe. Getting the prescription of testosterone from my GP would save me a lot of money each month, and with the cost of living going up exponentially, I am becoming more desperate.

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I will start contacting more GPs and hope that one agrees, although I am not holding out much hope.

With the UK government likely to exclude Trans people from the ban on conversation therapy, to the long waiting lists for gender care, and even the anti-Trans groups who deny the validity of transgender people and transgender identities, Trans people need support and help more than ever. We need help from our allies, to stand beside us when we protest, march and stand up for our rights. We need your voices to help raise ours. We need you, today, we need you tomorrow, we need you more than ever.

A spokesperson for Sussex Commissioners said: “Transgender, non-binary and intersex (TNBI) people experience significant health inequalities – something we are committed to tackling in Sussex through the recent launch of a locally commissioned service for the management of transgender, non-binary and intersex (TNBI) adult patients in primary care.

"This new locally commissioned service for GPs aims to provide improved care to TNBI people to combat health inequalities experienced by members of this community and ensure better health outcomes overall. “The service aims to improve the support available for TNBI people, including access to primary care; structured, supportive and integrated physical and mental health care; and annual reviews of physical, mental and sexual health. Any decision to prescribe hormones as part of working with patients is a matter for the individual prescribing clinician, in line with national guidance.

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“Since its launch in April 2022, 54 practices, including a quarter of those in Crawley, have signed up to the locally commissioned service and begun the training to deliver it. The contract is designed so that one or more practices in an area can take on the patients of another, so if the service isn’t available at one practice, patients should have access from another GP local to them. As this is a new service, we intend to review it in six months and address any gaps in coverage accordingly.”

This year’s Crawley Pride event takes place on August 19, 20 and 21. The first event took place last year and this year’s event will be bigger and better and will include a parade for the first time.

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