January 26, 2021

EP. 198 — How Can We Raise The Bar On Trans Rights? with Lui Asquith

In December 2020, the UK High Court determined that trans, non-binary, and gender diverse young people in the UK must have legal approval before they can start puberty blockers—even if these young people, their families, and their doctors advocate for treatment. This week on Getting Curious, Lui Asquith joins Jonathan to break down what hormone blockers are, why this case is so significant, and how it fits into a broader discussion about trans rights in the UK and beyond.

 

Lui Asquith (pronouns they/them) is Director of Legal, Policy and Operations at Mermaids. Lui is a qualified lawyer, with a background in LGBTI activism. They moved to Mermaids over two years ago to focus on improving the lives of trans, non-binary and gender diverse young people on the front line. Founded in 1995, Mermaids is a UK-wide charity working to support thousands of transgender, non-binary and gender diverse children, young people, and their families.

Lui is on Twitter @luiasquith. Mermaids is on Instagram @mermaidsgender, Twitter @Mermaids_Gender, and Facebook @MermaidsGender.

 

Find out what today’s guest and former guests are up to by following us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN.

 

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Jonathan is on Instagram and Twitter @JVN and @Jonathan.Vanness on Facebook.

Transcript

JVN [00:00:00] Welcome to Getting Curious. I’m Jonathan Van Ness and every week I sit down for a 40 minute conversation with a brilliant expert to learn all about something that makes me curious. On today’s very important episode, I’m joined by Lui Asquith, Director of Legal, Policy and Operations at Mermaids, where I ask them: How can we support trans youth in the United Kingdom and abroad–actually, all around the world, honey, yes! Welcome to Getting Curious, this is Jonathan Van Ness, I’m very excited for our guest this week, who is Lui Asquith. You are the Director of Legal, Policy and Operations at Mermaids, a UK charity that has been supporting transgender and gender diverse kids, young people, and their families since 1995. Ah, how are you, Lui? LUI ASQUITH [00:00:47] Hi Jonathan, I’m wonderful. How are you? JVN [00:00:51] Good! So I do want to give our listeners just a little brief background. We first ran across you on this Twitter thread that was discu

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