Rikki Arundel's Blog: My G.R.E.A.T. Vision is:

Rikki Arundel's Blog: My G.R.E.A.T. Vision is:

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Glad to be Out4Marriage

This morning I saw three short video's that made my day and I just had to share them with you. - Just follow the link to my other Blog and enjoy. 

Glad to be Out4Marriage

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GenderShift Blog closing down

As you may already be aware GenderShift was unsuccessful in securing funding to continue operating the support service at 44 Portland Street in Hull and as a result the organisation is now essentially closed.   I am not sure yet what is going to happen with the building and there is still a small hope that some funding will materialise that would enable the service to restart but I need to move on.  

I have decided to continue delivering transgender awareness training and diversity services as an independent trainer and coach and expand those services to more actively include gender, sexual orientation  and human rights issues and that means that means that I need to rebrand all the web sites.

Rather than trying to start up a new identity I have decided that the easiest thing to do is market myself in my own name and so I will be closing this blog at the end of the year.

I will be going through some of the posts here and updating and republishing them on the new Rikki Arundel's Blog which is already operating.  

If you are currenlty a subscriber to the Gendershift Blog - I hope you will consider subscribing to the new blog which you can do easily by simply entering your email address in the box below.

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I look forward to seeing you on the new Blog and on the GenderNetwork Website which is also undergoing a major revamp - please come along and visit 

Rikki Arundel's Blog: Lies, Damn Lies and the Gender Pay Gap

Rikki Arundel's Blog: Lies, Damn Lies and the Gender Pay Gap

Christian Bigots and Gay Marriage

Cardinal O'Brien opposes same sex marriage proposals 

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I cannot help but feel angry at the constant bigotry from Church leaders over the issue of same sex marriage, the latest being the decision by the leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland to withdraw from discussions on the topic - an action that is being interpreted as public snub to Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmon 

I understand that some church leaders have strongly homophobic and transphobic beliefs, founded on tenuous interpretations of a small number of biblical references.  But the difficulty I have is with Churches claiming that they own the concept of marriage. 

When my daughter married in a civil ceremony she asked me to read something at the ceremony. I decided to read the passage from Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet on marriage and that text contained the word God. Because the word God was mentioned I had to submit the reading to the registrar to seek permission to read it.  Once they had assured themselves that the piece was in no way a religious reading it was allowed.

The proposals for same sex marriage do not require any church organisation to agree to conduct ceremonies so the Government is still allowing them to openly discriminate within their church. There are some more enlightened churches that are happy to accept lesbian, gay and trans members and to marry them although regrettably the UK proposals at present will apparently not allow them to conduct same sex marriage even though they will continue to be able to conduct civil partnership ceremonies. 

Cardinal O'Brien wants to hold a referendum on the topic.  In my view that is seriously flawed. How is it possible to secure an unbiased vote when the church leaders declare that homosexuality is a sin and are allowed, despite equality legislation, to continue to express that view most forcefully? 

I think the Scottish government are to be applauded for steadfastly refusing to go down this route and for moving forward with the same sex marriage proposals which will end the stupidity of couples, where one partner changes gender, from having to divorce before they are allowed to change gender. 

First Transgender e-Bulletin from Lynn Featherstone

Lynn Featherstone, a LibDem MP is the current Minister for Equalities in the coalition government, While an oppositoin MP Lynn had always been a great champion of Trans Rights, regularly promoting bills and amendments on behalf of the Trans Community, so iit is not surprising that we are now seeing a very positive approach to trans rights.

The first Transgender eBulletin was published this month including a link to a Transgender Survey which I do strongly encourage you to complete if you are trans or if you work with trans people. As far as I am aware this is the first government run survey, although Press for Change conducted a huge survey as part of the 2007 Discrimination Law Review and the Scottish Transgender Alliance have undertaken some recent research in regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty.

This latest survey is very comprehensive and is a real opportunity to feedback to government the state of play in supporting trans people, especially in regard to medical treatment which frankly leaves a lot to be desired.

I am helping Claire Eastwood from Trans Yorkshire who is actively campaigning to make sure that the new Health Bill specifically includes provision to allow trans people to have choice when it comes to surgery. At present Leeds GIC is offering only access to Tim Terry as a surgeon, and any choice is then subject to an exceptional treatment appeal to the PCT.

Charing Cross appears not to accept patients from outside their "catchment", so the only way to access Phil Thomas and James Bellringer is to go privately. This is where the system get stupid. The cost of using Phil Thomas privately is cheaper than going through the NHS, yet PCTs are refusing because it is private treatment, even though the surgeons are the primary NHS surgeons in the south.

We have a meeting with my MP, Diana Johnson in May to try to get her support for an amendment to the Health Bill to make choice a statutory requirement. In the meantime the Government Equalities Office survey is another very useful means of influencing government and given Lynn Featherstone's history of support for trans issues, I am hopeful that she will respond poisitively to the results of this survey.

Summing up 2010

It’s probably a mixed blessing to say that this year has been another year of new experiences. Some of those experiences have been real learning experiences but when I back look at the outcomes, 2010 has been a year of amazing of progress.

In June 2010 GenderShift managed to secure over £250,000 in funding from the Department of Health to create the UK’s first single point of access centre for Gender Variant people. We opened in September and have been overwhelmed by the response from people of all ages struggling with their gender identity and sexual orientation. We have also see a huge increase in friends, family and employers seeking help. Our challenge now is to fund the running of the centre because our training revenues and access to general funding have been severely impacted by swinging public sector cuts.

This year has seen further sweeping changes in UK Equalities Law with the introduction of the Equality Act 2010 and brings new protections around Associated and Perceived discrimination while equalising the treatment of all people with “protected characteristics”. In response to this, and in preparation for the introduction of the Public Sector Equality Duty in April 2011, GenderShift has enhanced it's range of training seminars, workshops and presentations.

With so much pressure on the bottom line it is very tempting for organisations to apply cuts to soft targets like training, and equality and diversity training has definitely suffered. Unfortunately it is at times like these that people with protected characteristics are most vulnerable and it is really important for all socially responsible organisations to make sure that changes are fair to all staff, customers and service users.

That will be the theme of my Keynote Presentation, Seminars, Workshops and Consultation services. If you would like to discuss how GenderShift can help you, especially in relation to Sex, Gender and the Equality Act – don’t hesitate to contact me.

Hollyoaks actress Victoria Atkin to open new GenderShift Centre

Actress Victoria Atkin, who plays Jasmine/Jason Costello a young female to male transsexual character in Hollyoaks, will be in Hull on Sunday 5^th September at 2.00pm to open an innovative new support centre for trans and gender variant people. Funded by a £262,000 grant from the Social Investment Business, the GenderShift Centre is the UK’s first single point of access support centre for people facing gender identity and sexual orientation issues.

GenderShift successfully applied to the Social Enterprise Investment Fund in December 2009 and was awarded the money in June this year, beating off competition from thousands of organisations from around the country. "This is an exciting time for us" says Rikki Arundel, founder and director of GenderShift. "Many support services for lesbian, gay and bisexual people focus on sexual health, while support for trans people is often about gender reassignment surgery. We will provide a much broader service."

“We are delighted that Victoria has agreed to open the new centre on Sunday,” says Rikki. “She is playing a very challenging role in Hollyoaks which is bringing much needed public attention to the difficulties faced by people with gender identity issues.” The GenderShift Centre is located at 44 Portland Street in Hull will offer services including in-house counselling, social care, education, befriending, advice, advocacy, sexual health support, volunteering, work placements, social events, movie nights, internet cafe, campaigning, training and meeting space.

The centre will be available to everyone, but especially those needing help and support with gender and sexuality issues, including family, friends, employers and other support agencies. "People will be able to drop in or phone our national help line on 08000 193 195," explains Rikki. "We want to make our facilities as accessible as possible."

The Department of Health who funded the scheme, awarded the grant as part of a £25m budget to fund new and innovative approaches to tackling health issues. They were particularly impressed with the idea of creating a single point of access centre which provides support and advice to anyone dealing with gender identity or sexual orientation issues.

Founded in 2001, GenderShift began tackling atypical gender issues when founding director Rikki Arundel, also founder of the Professional Speakers Association, changed her gender and became 'unemployable'. She set up the organisation to deliver trans awareness training aimed primarily at public sector organisations and now has over 100 leading organisations as clients.

As GenderShift has become more widely known, a growing number of trans people and their friends, families and other support agencies have sought advice support. "We realised that as well as changing attitudes we needed to help people to cope with living with gender and sexuality issues," says Michelle Pindar, also a Director at GenderShift. "We do what we can to change attitudes so that we are more accepted, but trans people are often very isolated. Now we can help to tackle the isolation as well."