We are excited to announce that Dr Helen Webberley has been nominated for the National Diversity Awards. Following Dr Webberley’s vindication, this is an incredible win for GenderGP and the trans community!
Dr Helen Webberley and her Journey
It is important to understand Dr Webberley’s background and her passion for taking care of trans people. Dr Helen Webberley is a qualified GP who trained in sexual and psychosexual medicine. She also worked in sexual health, HIV and genitourinary clinics.
By working in this field, she noticed the rampant discrimination the transgender community faced within UK healthcare services. Therefore, she made it her mission to help trans and gender diverse people. What initially started as an information web page led to a global medical service.
In 2015, Dr Helen Webberley founded GenderGP. She wanted to combat the gatekeeping services, damagingly long waiting lists and restricted access to gender affirming healthcare. She began delivering medical care services through an informed consent model of care, giving trans people autonomy over their own gender journey.
However, after several former colleagues made complaints to the General Medical Council (GMC), Dr Helen Webberley was stopped from working as a doctor in 2017. What followed were six years of investigating complaints and attending tribunal hearings.
Nevertheless, on March 31st 2023, after a Medical Performers Tribunal, the UK High Court finally acknowledged Dr Webberley’s expertise as a person at the vanguard of transgender healthcare and ruled in her favour. She was successfully vindicated, cleared of all charges and is now able to work again as a doctor!
If you would like to read Dr Webberley’s full statement about her appeal and the tribunal’s key findings, visit our blog website.
Why was Dr Helen Webberley nominated for this award?
Following her vindication, Dr Helen Webberley has been nominated for the National Diversity Awards! She is nominated for the Positive Role Model Award for LGBT.
Dr Webberley has dedicated her life and career to improving the lives of trans and gender diverse people. She is committed to providing adequate and timely access to gender affirming healthcare in support for transgender individuals.
Helen has put the welfare of trans and non binary children before her own. She’s a true hero and a trailblazer, unafraid to go up against the outdated, harmful practices that currently exist. We need more people like her in this country.
Her passion for helping trans people led to one of the largest providers of gender affirming healthcare in the UK as well as globally. GenderGP now takes care of over 10,000 patients from over 40 countries. All our patients are able to access the life-saving care they need and deserve.
Through Dr Helen Webberley and Susie Green, the former CEO of Mermaids and current Community Director at GenderGP, we have also set up our GenderGP Fund again for trans youth. This will help take over the costs of private healthcare and ensure that people from all backgrounds are able to access gender affirming treatment.
Despite everything she has been through with the trial, Dr Helen Webberley is still here, ready to keep fighting. She is a force to be reckoned with who will never stop advocating for trans rights. Dr Webberley has navigated many challenges. However, she has always retained her core values for an equal and respectful treatment of transgender people within healthcare.
Helen has helped our family immeasurably. We will be forever grateful for the tireless work she does in the face of so much animosity. She deserves this so much!
What does this nomination mean for the trans and gender diverse community?
This nomination is an acknowledgement of the work Dr Helen Webberley and GenderGP do for the trans and gender diverse community. It sends a clear message to those that oppose trans rights and try to restrict access to transgender healthcare that they are on the wrong side of history.
Dr Helen Webberley continues to inspire, drive positive change, save lives and educate the world. She paves the way for gender affirming healthcare and is carving an incredibly bright future for the trans community and their rights to equality. I am in awe of her work and we are really watching history unfold before our eyes as Dr Helen Webberley changes the game in healthcare.
To receive this award would mean that people recognise the importance of transgender rights on a wider scale. This will hopefully shift the focus on prioritising and helping out this marginalised community. Dr Helen Webberley and GenderGP will use this award to highlight the injustices that trans people face on a daily basis.
Moreover, this award will help empower other healthcare professionals around the world when supporting trans people. It will hopefully influence their care for transgender patients, helping them access the gender affirming treatment they need.
Lastly, we want to thank all our supporters for their help, we appreciate every single one of you. We ask all trans allies to vote for Dr Helen Webberley. Voting closes on May 12th 2023.
YOU CAN CAST YOUR VOTE HERE
Note: The GenderGP Fund has been temporarily paused as we review additional methods to better serve the transgender and non-binary community.