Non-binary people's experiences in Scotland: evidence review

Public Services

The existing evidence suggests that overall non-binary and trans people can experience challenges when accessing and discrimination within public services overall. Generally, services specifically designed for LGBT+ people were more welcoming and accessible to trans and non-binary people.

Scottish Trans’ ‘Non-Binary People’s Experiences in the UK’ 2016, asked non-binary people about their experiences of using services including: LGBT services, Police, GP, sexual health services, mental health services, general NHS services (i.e. hospital appointments), education (i.e. school, college, university), other public services, and charities/voluntary organisations^[47]. Please see section 13 about research specifically on health services.

The most common negative experiences across all services were:

• 80% of respondents felt the need to pass as male or female to be accepted.
• 67% of respondents had the wrong name or pronoun used for them by mistake.
• 49% of respondents had been asked questions about non-binary people that made them feel like they were having to educate someone.
• 42% had terms used to describe gender associated body parts that made them feel uncomfortable.
• 40% had heard that non-binary people were “not normal”.

In the same survey, respondents also reported experiencing harassment or discrimination across services, with 34% having had the wrong name or pronoun used for them on purpose, 34% having experienced silent harassment, and 13% having been made fun of or called names for being non-binary. Only 38% of non-binary young people felt safe on public transport^[48] and 63% of non-binary people reported transphobia on public transport^[49].

The survey also showed that non-binary people felt most comfortable sharing their identities with LGBT services, where 72% of respondents ‘always’ or ‘usually’ felt comfortable sharing this information. The service where people felt the least comfortable being open about being non-binary was with the police, with 69% of respondents saying they ‘never’ felt comfortable sharing their identity^[50]. LGBT Youth Scotland 2022^[51] found that only 11% of non-binary young people in their study felt confident reporting a hate crime to the police. Some responses noted that for access to services their identity wasn’t always relevant, or that they had not publicly disclosed their gender identity so did not feel comfortable notifying the service.

In Scottish Trans’ 2016 study, some people felt it was easier to present as a binary trans person when accessing services, indicating that there is a perception amongst some non-binary people that binary trans identities are better understood, and that binary trans people are treated better by services^[52]. Respondents were asked about inclusion and visibility and 65% felt that services were never inclusive of non-binary people through their use of imagery, language and information. This lack of inclusion meant many were less likely to try to access services, and the vast majority felt their emotional wellbeing was impacted, with 84% feeling their gender identity wasn’t valid, 83% feeling more isolated and excluded, 76% feeling that they had lower self-esteem and 65% feeling they had poorer mental health due to the lack of representation in services^[53]. Similarly, the Scottish Trans’ 2024^[54] report found that 61% of respondents had avoided at least one public service such as parks, transports and toilets, due to fear of being harassed, being read as trans, or being outed.