Tower Hamlets trans needs: new research calls for action

New community-based research, developed in collaboration with the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and The Love Tank, highlights the on-going and pressing needs of trans communities within the east London borough.

Undertaken using community-based research approaches by The Love Tank, the research spotlights the multiple, intersecting barriers across healthcare, housing, employment and community life faced by trans communities living, working, studying and socialising in Tower Hamlets.

The report calls for the implementation of key recommendations to improve the health and well-being of trans communities by a range of stakeholders. These include the council itself, including its leisure, housing and public health services, and by other authorities and health services locally, regionally, and nationally.

Dr Kylo Thomas, Research Programme Coordinator at The Love Tank who authored the report says:

"The report calls for a genuinely inclusive and equitable Tower Hamlets for trans people. The council, and other authorities, must invest in collaborative long-term strategies to address issues faced by our communities, for a safer and supportive borough, where trans residents can thrive across all areas of life". 

Dr Ben Weil, Head of Research at The Love Tank says:

"This research seeks to seriously listen, with care, to a group currently struggling to get their voices heard, and to platform their needs to better support trans communities to live a full and thriving life in the borough and beyond. Publication acts as a milestone in a broader move to uplift trans communities, which despite making up less than 1% of the UK population has become one of the most at risk groups in the UK."

Dr Will Nutland, Director of The Love Tank says:

"As a Tower Hamlets based organisation we want to see the report's recommendations implemented with haste; there are immediate steps the council can take such as ensuring the survival of key trans-supportive community assets such as Common Press bookshop and Bethnal Green Working Men's Club. However, the findings aren't peculiar to the borough - the recommendations are applicable to any local authority in the UK".

The report is the first London centred trans need assessment undertaken, and builds on previous regional data from Brighton, and on-going national and international trans health research.

The report is available here.