Another week, yet more news… Will it be good? Or will it be shit? Only way you will find out is by reading through your weekly summary of this week’s news!

Monday: Slovakia moves to ban Legal Gender Recognition. In early May

This is shit, and from what I recall, it’s likely to be against the European Convention of Human Rights: when there was no route for legal gender recognition in the UK, it was challenged on the basis of the ECHR, and that was when the Gender Recognition Act was created in 2004. Hopefully Slovakia’s ban will get challenged effectively.

Tuesday: Ministers consider rule to let single-sex schools bar transgender pupils

Very discouraging news: the government is ‘considering’ allowing single-sex schools to bar transgender students, with Education Secretary Gillian Keegan saying “We can’t mix up sex and gender. We’ve seen what happened in Scotland when it got that round the wrong way.” This is essentially a continuation of what was happening in last week’s news, with the outing of trans kids becoming front and centre.

Wednesday: Arson Attack on LGBT people’s homes

A home belonging to two trans women and a gay man has been set on fire and rendered uninhabitable. The three of them are safe but shocked, and have set up a Gofundme to cover some of their losses. Yet another horrid bit of news. Hate crimes are on the rise and this needs to stop.

Thursday: The UN to come to the UK to see the state of human rights in the UK

Victor Madrigal-Borloz, an expert on violence based on gender identity and sexuality, has come to the UK to review the current state of the UK, in light of rising hate crimes. This shows how bad it has gotten. But in that, it is also a sign of hope. As it may be that they recognise how bad it has gotten and leads to more condemnation from the UN towards the UK government. Though we can only hope…

Friday: EU to condemn Hungary and Poland for anti LGBTQIA stances

The EU resolved to pass this amendment, and is considering a further amendment calling for universal decriminalisation of LGBTQIA identity. The EU isn’t happy and part of me thinks that if the UK was still in the EU, we would be included on that list.

Saturday: Assurances on Wales’ education reform: a long consultation process

The Welsh government promises “extensive consultation with experts, practitioners and the public”. We learned a lot about England’s situation with education last week. But this one looks more promising for Wales. Though the UK is shown not to hesitate when it comes to meddling with devolved matters….

Sunday: Trans people can be gendered correctly in death certificates without GRC

To end things off on a positive note, trans people need no longer be misgendered on their death certificates, even if they have no GRC. This has been strongly advocated for since the case of Brianna Ghey. Hopefully, this will help in future.

Conclusion

Seems there’s a trend in talking about education, and it sounds like this is going to continue over the summer, and probably reach a climax in September. We will have to wait and see.

But with the ray of sunshine from the UN, there’s always some encouragement.

A quieter week, fingers crossed it stays that way. Though we all know it won’t.

A quick thing to note, if you want a more international summary of the week, check out Lee Hurley’s Summary on Trans Writes! (I love that website’s name).