Does your Local Authority Equality Policy exclude sex as a protected characteristic?

[bananaistheanswer]

Inspired by Jean Hatchet's posts on twitter, I checked mine and colour me shocked, it's been excluded.

Attached below is the list from the EA2010 with my LA's interpretation alongside - note the wording We believe our responsibility for equality is wider than those areas covered by the Equality Act 2010

So removing sex from the list of protected characteristics widens the scope of the EA2010?

So what's your LA equality policy like?

www.stonewall.org.uk/get-involved/get-involved-education/local-authorities-1

We have sex not gender yay us 😏

Mine replaces sex and gender reassignment with gender as well. So many people think of them as synonyms though. Even on sodding NHS forms. Would anyone be able to offer me advice on how to phrase a complaint?

"Would anyone be able to offer me advice on how to phrase a complaint?"

Just describe how over the past week this has negatively affected you in practice

Mine has replaced sex with gender when they quote the EA.

My local authority's policy still has 'sex' in it.

Good.

Flibberty’s advice is good - complaints are always better when they’re personal and describe an actual rather than hypothetical situation.

In my case, being required to record my ‘gender’ on official forms etc causes some distress, because it’s effectively lying. I am autistic and telling lies does not come naturally to me.

Mine says there are nine protected characteristics?

The Act also introduced nine ‘Protected Characteristics; age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion and belief, sex, sexual orientation.

H'mm, interesting. Mine says sex, but also gender, rather than gender reassignment. I'm going to question that.

This is a good opportunity to open a dialogue.

Mine has sex (and also has both halves of "pregnancy and maternity") so well done North Somerset!

The negative impact is distress, discomfort and being made to made like you don't exist. It is very othering.

I'm going to write anyway and make sure it stays as sex.

Mine has "gender" for county employees, and "sex" for service users. Am struggling to think of why - any ideas?

Now, now gibberty, you’re not suggesting that people who endlessly complain to organisations about their hurty feelz are time wasters are you? Or that their hurty feelz are not valid?

What did you type in to the search bar?

I can't find it on mine

Would anyone be able to offer me advice on how to phrase a complaint?

I just sent a few lines - pointed out that they had mistakenly put 'gender' instead of 'sex', which is not in accordance with the 2010 Equality Act (which clearly states sex).

Mine has sex when it's talking about equality policies (and has a really good bit about the various issues women face), but uses gender when talking about employees discrimination.

Great advice. It's othering and literal violence to have reality erased like this. Womanphobia and all that. Let's get complaining.

Essex basically just states the Equality Act but that is only mention of the word "sex". Nothing really said about gender apart from how there has been legal requests from schools about how to manage trans issues. Then there is the mention of how the rate of suicide in gay and bisexual men is higher than general population.

I was pretty surprised at how there was no mention of women within the "groups that face discrimination" section though! I thought there would at least be discussion about pregnancy or childcare. And again no mention of women within the groups to focus on to tackle inequality.

If you type in equality policy you should get a hit on the LA website.

Ours said gender including gender reassignment. I have emailed them.

twitter.com/camcitco/status/1004781920704782336

Cambridge council'd response is interesting

Assigned THANKYOU. That thread yields this: more proof that transactivists have the Equality Act in their sights and are working in quiet rooms without public conversation to erase its sex provisions.

All clear here, checked county and town - both refer to sex.

Waltham Forest
"Word".