The Equality Act 2010 defines Gender Reassignment as; ‘when your gender identity is different from the gender assigned to you when you were born’. For example, a person who was born female decides to spend the rest of his life as a man.
In the Equality Act 2010 it is known as gender reassignment. All transsexual people share the common characteristic of gender reassignment. Transsexual is the medical term used in the Equality Act, but the more common and general term used is Transgender or Trans.
To be protected from gender reassignment discrimination, you do not need to have undergone any specific treatment or surgery to change from your birth sex to your preferred gender. This is because changing your physiological or other gender attributes is a personal process rather than a medical one.
For many this is a very personal and often sensitive piece of information about themselves, we do not ask members of staff or members of our communities to disclose this information.
We have a procedure in place to ensure that any staff who may choose to undergo Gender Reassignment receive the appropriate support from the Service throughout the process. We also have an active LGBT+ Fire Pride support network within the Service who are on hand to offer additional peer support.
Through our impact assessment process, we ask staff to consider if there will be any likely impacts on this group. These checks and balances are in place to ensure that this group is not disadvantaged in the processes we have in place or the services we offer.