Trans people in the UK currently face widespread prejudice and discrimination, from how they are described in the media to the lack of healthcare support they receive. This institutional bias is illustrated by the tragic case of Synestra de Courcy, who died following neglect and rejection from the NHS, leading her to sex work to fund her transition and dangerous self-medication.
Charting Syn’s life from childhood through to her untimely death aged just 23, Jane Fae exposes the gross institutional and societal discrimination trans people experience on a daily basis and its impact on the lives of trans people young and old. Promoting honest discussion and bringing these hidden issues into the light of day, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in trans rights and NHS accountability.
Charting Syn’s life from childhood through to her untimely death aged just 23, Jane Fae exposes the gross institutional and societal discrimination trans people experience on a daily basis and its impact on the lives of trans people young and old. Promoting honest discussion and bringing these hidden issues into the light of day, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in trans rights and NHS accountability.
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Reviews
Masterful! Fae dissects an individual tragedy with a combination of compassion and surgical accuracy to shine a harsh light on the scandal of systemic neglect towards vulnerable young trans people. In the process she critiques the wider structural discourse in society that allows and even encourages it.
This is an incredibly important book which weaves together the life-story of an individual let down badly by the existing system and the structural and systemic problems that define the system that processes the trans community and societies notion of dysphoria. What Fae does remarkably and sensitively is to humanise all of us, whilst examining waiting lists, costs and numbers, she honours our beautifully vibrant community, who are, time and time again, let down by a system which often view us with suspicion and mistrust. This is a must read.
By bringing together different people's perspectives on an individual life story and combining this with contextual information, Fae has produced a book that is educational yet also dynamic and humane.
Transition Denied is written by a third party from a grieving mother's point of view trying to make sense of her daughter's transgender journey and her tragic early death. Synestra's journey should not go unacknowledged. It is a recommended read for a better understanding of a transgender person and shows the barriers that a transgender person has to negotiate.