1. Firstly, the obvious: Public loos for three genders. If you don't look male enough to use the Gents and you don't look female enough to use the Ladies then where on earth do you go to spend a penny? At the moment, many transpeople risk being beaten up or arrested just for giving in to the need to answer the call of nature! Does the phrase 'pissed off' ring true here?

2. Then, how about...Male/Female/Third Gendered or 'Other' tick boxes on application forms etc.

3. Certainly, for example, the choice of not having to declare a gender when applying for a job. (After all; organisations and businesses are always so fond of insisting that they don’t discriminate on the grounds of gender so therefore, an applicant’s gender is a total irrelevance - or is it indeed?) And if a job candidates identity needs to be revealed strictly for 'equal opportunities' purposes then what's the point of providing an Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form when there are only two gender boxes to tick?! Hardly counts as gender diversity in the workplace, does it folks?!

4. Transgendered & Third Gendered representation in the House of Commons. By the way, without it, (as we currently are), we can quite justifiably turn around and protest - ‘No taxation without representation’.

This proposal isn't so far-fetched as it may seem because there is actually an openly transgendered MP in the Italian parliament named Vladimir Luxuria who, whilst not strictly a 3G,  identifies as male-to-female but has never had a gender reassignment operation. 

Meanwhile back at home, the Welsh Assembly, has proudly claimed total gender parity because it has 50 per cent male and 50 per cent female AMs. Good stuff...but I believe that we don't have gender parity yet because the Assembly doesn't have any transgendered AMs. If only a third gender was recognized as a gender I'm sure we'd comprise at least 1 per cent of the population.

At present, in the UK, there is a government Minister for Women and Equality and for decades there have been Women's Officers appointed to Student Union bodies nationwide. In the light of our 1 per cent status, how about a Minister specifically for Transgendered/3G People and Equality and Transgendered/3G Officers at Universities and Colleges? Admittedly though, many Unions do already have GLBT representatives.

5. Safe public transport and greater recognition of Gay, Lesbian, Bi and Transgendered/3G people's particular personal safety difficulties. Many UK universities and colleges provide late night buses for their female students that are women-only. Some university authorities argue that their refusal to provide similar services for male students is that males are not as vulnerable to sexual assault as females. Men can be victims of sexual assault too but since there apparently don't seem to be as many male rape victims then society concludes that women are at greater risk. Furthermore, academic institutions are often run by traditionalist patriarchal male hierarchies to whom the concept of 'male rape' is taboo since such an admission would expose male vulnerability.

Moreover, would a male-to-female transgendered person forced to walk back to campus alone at night be at just as much risk of an attempted sexual assault as a non-transgendered female? Murders of transgendered people often follow the pattern of an attempted rape that ends up as a frenzied beating once the attacker discovers the victim's transgendered status.

Then, of course there's the homophobic element that's so frequently prevalent in street attacks and stranger violence. As we all know, LGBT people are extremely vulnerable to being targeted for verbal and physical violence solely for being GLBT.

How about providing night buses & taxis for BLGT people too, of all genders? For instance, Pink Ladies is a women-only taxi firm that has been set up specifically for women and which guarantees to ensure their personal safety. Why doesn't somebody set up similar services for other groups who are at a heightened risk of assault and who may curtail their life experiences simply because of the fact that they're scared to go out? Remember, pink is a TGLB colour too…let's reclaim pink!

6. End all genderist dress code discrimination. Make it illegal for organisations and companies to have supposedly ‘equal but separate’ dress codes/uniforms for female and male staff. Either that, or make room for a third gender dress code/uniform.

7. Amend HSE male/female health & safety guidelines for manual lifting at work to also include transgendered people.  At present, the Health and Safety Executive provide different recommended guidelines for women and men on the maximum weight that either gender should be expected to be capable of lifting/carrying etc.  Unfortunately, this doesn't take into account transsexuals and transgendered people whose muscular strength could be subject to an increase or decrease dependent on some types of medication.

There is also the psychological health factor to take into consideration of a male-to-female transperson/3G person being told s/he should carry a heavy weight because she's 'a big, strong man' (as happened to Hayley in an episode of Coronation Street?!) or vice versa, an ftm transperson/3G being told that he cannot because he's female.  Psychological and emotional pain can hurt and can frequently lead to physical illness too.

8. Revise genderist airport security arrangements. Airline passengers at UK airports are often divided into male and female lines when going through airport security barriers. So which line does a transgender/3G person join? It‘s not always easy to tell an individual’s gender simply by looking at that person, as recent news events have shown. Currently, airports state that a member of ‘your own gender’ will conduct a ‘pat-down’ search on you, whenever felt necessary. ‘Pat down’ searches may also prove problematic for some transpeople who may not consider a person of either the male or female gender as a person of their own gender. I'm not quite sure what the answer is to this, aside from employing some transgendered/3G security officers who can be available to conduct security searches in addition to other duties? (One thing's for sure; please ditch that two-line thing because quite frankly, it just doesn‘t work.)

9. Why not provide an option to state ‘transgendered/3G’ on Census Forms and also on the proposed controversial ID Cards (which are possibly going to be introduced into the UK in a few years’ time)?

Since UK Census Forms have never included a tick box for ‘transgendered’ then any gender statistics obtained from them are therefore, liable to be inaccurate. Besides, personally speaking, I'm a person, not a statistic available to be manipulated for some opportunistic 'control freak's' ideological, political or commercial benefit! I'm sure many reader's will feel the same way about themselves.

As for the possibly forthcoming UK ID cards; what’s the point of calling them ID Cards when they won't always reflect the identity of the person they purport to describe? Since a third gender, as a category distinct from male or female isn't, to date, legally recognized, then as things stand, there will be no option for an individual to choose to identify oneself as third gender on an official document.

It's been suggested that if the ID card plans go ahead, transgendered people should carry two ID cards - one for male, and one for female. A bit crafty that one, as this means that we would be paying them twice for the 'favour' of being discriminated against. (Hmm…as if taxation without representation wasn’t bad enough?)

10. A law to stop organisations and businesses discriminating against transgendered/3G people in the provision of goods, services and facilities. Transgendered folks are not yet covered by the April 2007 legislation which will hopefully make it unlawful to discriminate in such a way against gay, lesbian and bisexual people.

11. The establishment of a UK Transgendered/3G Rights organisation separate and completely independent from the Equal Opportunities Commission. We need a separate Transgendered/3G Equality body because the EOC only regulates against Sex Discrimination. Although the EOC has done some very admirable work in helping men and women who have been suffered unequal and unfavourable treatment on the grounds of biological sex, it has shown that it can’t even begin to understand any other genders. Throughout it’s history, the EOC has done nothing to end patriarchal gender discrimination but instead has elected to reinforce it through it’s separate, but equal philosophy.

12. Destroy the Power Basis of the Gender Recognition Certificate. I, for one, don’t need an official piece of paper to tell me which gender I officially am!

I know by merely affording serious consideration alone to the notion of more than two genders I may come across as being totally loopy here. But I believe that this only serves to illustrate to an even greater degree the marginalisation of individuals who don't fit into the narrow mould of being exclusively either male or female. We are all so brainwashed into buying into the all-encompassing mutually exclusive male/female dichotomy that anyone who dares challenge it's bi-polar gender absolutism is deemed to be 'mad as a hatter!'