Sunday December 11th 2016

10.00 - 16.00

Central Glasgow

This seminar is open to non-binary people in Scotland who want to help us move forward with our Equal Recognition Campaign.

The day will be split into two parts - the first will bring together non-binary community members and activists with lawyers, academics and other professionasls with knowledge and expertise in this area to start thinking about how non-binary legal gender recognition should and could work in Scotland.

The second will be a chance to share a space with other non-binary people to talk about how we negotiate a binary world, sharing tips and priorities for activism moving forward.

What do we mean by non-binary?

At Scottish Trans, we use non-binary to mean any person:

identifying as either having a gender which is in-between or beyond the two categories ‘man’ and ‘woman’, as fluctuating between ‘man’ and ‘woman’, or as having no gender, either permanently or some of the time.

Can I come to this event if I'm not non-binary, but I'm interested?

The event is just open to non-binary people. There will be lots of ways to keep up to date and be involved with our Equal Recognition Campaign going forward - please check out our new campaign website to know what's happening.

Travel

The conference is taking place at the University of Strathclyde Lord Hope Building in central Glasgow, within 15 minutes walk of Queen Street Station.

Please let us know if the cost of travelling to this event would prevent you from coming, in which case we will provide financial assistance if we are able to. Requests for travel assistance must be made in advance.

Accessibility

The venue is wheelchair accessible. It has lifts from the ground floor to the seminar floor. Once on the seminar floor, all rooms are close together on the same level and wheelchair accessible.

There are accessible toilets on the floors above and below where the seminar is taking place, these can be accessed by lifts.

There will be gender neutral toilets.

All the workshop rooms have induction loops. If you require a BSL interpreter, please tell us when you register.

If you have any access or dietary requirements, please let us know when you register so we can make sure all your requirements are fully provided for.

Conference Programme

10.00 - 10.30 Arrival and Coffee

10:30 - 10:45 Introduction

10:45 - 12:45 Non-binary recognition: Presentations

12:45 - 13:30 Lunch Break

13:30 - 15:30 Non binary activism: Being non-binary in a binary world

15:30 - 16:00 Summary and Close

Non-binary recognition: Presentations (Morning Session)

98 of the 129 MSPs at Holyrood were elected on manifesto pledges to reform the Gender Recognition Act 2004 to introduce the legal recognition of non-binary people, and Nicola Sturgeon also publically made this commitment at the LGBTI Hustings event that we co-hosted with Stonewall Scotland and LGBT Youth Scotland in the run up to the election in May.

We want to gather non-binary people together with other experts to help us ensure that these manifesto pledges result in new gender recognition legislation that works for non-binary people. This is a great opportunity to find out more about what non-binary recognition might look like in practice in Scotland.

There will be a number of short five to ten minute presentations at the beginning of the session grouped around two themes:

- what non-binary people and organisations want legal recognition to look like

- what some of the legal implications of introducing non-binary legal recognition might be

After each round of presentations, there will be a chance to ask questions, and to talk as a group about some of the key things we need to be taking into consideration as we move forward with the Equal Recognition Campaign.

Non-binary activism: Being non-binary in a binary world (Afternoon Session)

In the afternoon, you will have the opportunity to talk about some of the challenges presented by being non-binary when there is currently no legal recognition. This will give you both information and tips on which banks, companies and services are currently friendly towards non-binary people, and how to lobby those who aren’t for additional gender options and gender neutral titles. You will also get a chance to feed back to Scottish Trans on what you would like to see done on a bigger scale in terms of non-binary people’s rights, and talk about what you want to see prioritised in the Equal Recognition campaign in terms of arguing for non-binary legal recognition.

(N.B. some participants will be continuing discussions from the morning presentations in the afternoon session, but this will be arranged in advance).

If you have any questions about the day, please contact Vic Valentine by emailing vic@equality-network.org.uk