Press for Change: The UK's Leading Authority on Transgender Law

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Project Director:

Dr Lewis Turner, PhD, BA

Expert on Hate Crime, Equality and Diversity and the Public Authority Duties in Trans Law. Trainer, Social Scientist, Writer, Researcher.

Lewis Turner’s area of expertise ranges across the broad field of Equality Diversity and Human Rights.


He is a member of the Equality and Human Rights Parliament for Greater Manchester Council for Voluntary Organisations and is also an advisor for the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO). He trains student officers for Lancashire Constabulary on trans issues and is also part of a Hate Crime Scrutiny Panel for the Crown Prosecution Service in Lancashire.

 

In recognition of his work with the police, Lewis

was awarded a Lancashire Criminal Justice Board Justice Award: ’Outstanding Commitment to Diversity’. He also works as Hate Crime and Community Cohesion Officer for Wyre Borough Council, Lancashire.


Lewis has been delivering training and consultancy work on trans issues for a range of sectors including criminal justice, social care, further education and health care - recently for the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

 

Lewis also has academic papers and research reports published on race equality; diversity and governance as well as gender recognition and the law. He has 11 years experience of researching trans issues and his PhD thesis, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council was the first ethnographic study of a transgender group in the UK.

 

His most recent report Transphobic Hate Crime in the European Union (2009) is the first published research on the experiences of transphobic hate crime for trans people in the EU and was commissioned by ILGA Europe.

email: lewis at pfc.org.uk

Chair and Head of Legal Services:

Prof. Stephen Whittle OBE, PhD, MA, LLB

Professor of Equalities Law, Lecturer, Writer, Researcher, Expert on Employment and European Trans Law. Public Speaker. Lobbyist and Trans Activist.

Stephen Whittle has been working on the broader aims of equalities and rights for Trans people for over 35 years.

Born in 1955, he transitioned from female to the male gender in 1975 at the age of 19.

 

His experience of what it was like to be the very bottom of society's scrap heap spurred him to complete 10 years of part time study and a PhD so that he could create change.

 

Stephen's campaign work has taken him around the world, and he has won many awards for his work for trans people's rights, including the 'Liberty/Justice Human Rights' award' the  'IFGE Virginia Prince Life time Achievment' Award, the 'FTM International Pride' award and the 'ICTLEP Transgender Advocate' award.

 

Stephen is now Professor of Equalities Law at the School of Law at Manchester Metropolitan University, and as a lawyer has been involved with almost key trans case to come before the UK's Higher courts and the European Courts.

 

During 2007-08 Stephen has been the Trans Stakeholder Representative to the Government Equalities Office during the development of the propsoed Equalities Act 2010.

 

Stephen has been involved in research, management and training  for PFC including training on trans issues with the Crown Prosecution Service in Greater Manchester and has recently trained the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

 

Stephen writes extensively, not onbly in academic journals but in the press and other media,  and recent publications include the chapters;  

Transsexual people in the Military and The Gender Recognition Act 2004, In J. Barrett ed. (2008) The Practical Management of Adult Disorders of Gender Identity, Oxford: Radcliffe Publishing.

email: stephen at pfc.org.uk

Barrister and Legal Development:

Ben Thom, BVC, PgDipL, Msc, BSc

Barrister, Writer , Researcher, Expert on access to Housing, Goods , and Services, including Health Care Trans Law. Public Speaker. Lobbyist and Trans Activist.

Ben has given trans support at a London local level for many years involved in a wide variety of trans community projects ranging from help line duties for the FTM Network to building a database for Alchemy, International Transgender Film Festival.

 

Ben is very engaged with the Health Care issues of Trans people, and has been the negotiation lead in the successful battle to force Health Care Wales refusal to provide access to gender reassignment services for Trans people Recently, along with Stephen Whittle he co-wrote PFC's Legal Opinion on the  Royal College of Psychiatrist’s draft guidelines for the treatment and care of trans people.  

 

Ben was also a member of the Department of Health's  member of the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Advisory Group as trans stakeholder helping to monitor and contribute to projects that will improve the health care of trans people.

 

As a person who became medically disabled since completing transition he is very keen to educate and encourage a broad spectrum of people to have a greater awareness and understanding of disability issues and equality law. He undertook his Msc in Disabilty Management and Rehabilitation in Work in 2000 at City University having been fortunate enough to have been given a Snowdon Award. His unique case studies of trans men transitioning at work won him the honour of a distinction.

 

In 2002 Ben started his law studies. He was called to the Bar in 2004 and is a member of the Inner Temple. s PgDl Law and being accepted on the Bar Vocational Course. On successfully completing the Bar Course he stayed with the College of Law for a further year attached to the probono unit where he obtained further practical experience of giving legal advice and advocating.

 

His practical legal experience has ranged from dealing with housing possession cases at county court for Greenwich Housing Rights to assisting with NASS Asylum cases, alongside extensive experience on health care law.

email: ben at pfc.org.uk