GRA consultation is live. Let's get reading

[Anlaf]

www.gov.uk/government/consultations/reform-of-the-gender-recognition-act-2004

There is a glossary!

Sex: Assigned by medical practitioners at birth based on physical characteristics. Sex can be either male or female.

Single or same sex services exception: These are terms used in relation to the Equality Act 2010, specifically paragraph 28 of Schedule 3. This paragraph allows service providers who are providing a service to men or women only, or providing services separately or differently to men and women, to act in a way that would otherwise be unlawful gender reassignment discrimination, if this is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. This might allow, for example, a domestic violence refuge for women to refuse entry to a trans person, pro vided it is proportionate to do so and the purpose is legitimate

Oh look at that, so you can still exclude people on the basis of their gender reassignment where necessary can you? Who would have thought it. It's not like anybody round here has been bashing their head against that brick wall saying that is it.

Thanks for the link - will read it.

I'm quite interested in the drafting of the consultation doc. It's relatively clear in places and in others seems very partisan.

It even calls the public debate in recent months has been unkind or even discriminatory

From the impact statement with regard to the protected characteristic of sex:

The Equality Act 2010 provides exceptions where what might otherwise be unlawful discrimination against individuals with the protected characteristic of ‘gender reassignment’ is permitted, such as in gender-affected sport, single and separate-sex service provision, employment, communal accommodation, the armed forces, an employment-related insurance services. These exceptions are often intended to allow for privacy and dignity of individuals. These provisions will stay in place after any reform of the GRA; the consultation contains no proposals to amend the Equality Act. The Government is keen to gather further evidence on this point for us to identify any possible impact. The consultation asks questions about how reform of the GRA will affect the operation of the Equality Act exceptions, to enable the Government to gather further evidence of the impact of any reform on women. The consultation also asks about how reform of the GRA might impact on single sex service provision.

See (my) bold. So very important that our responses address the interactions between the GRA and EqA exemptions.

Also important that we address the interaction between privacy for the protected characteristic of gender reassignment and the integrity of single sex protections under EqA (should be some circumstances where asking to see a GRC/finding out if one has been issued is legal).

I'd be less relaxed if I were you Rat

Under aspects of transitioning

Social The trans person makes changes to their social life and environment. For example, they may:  Begin to tell people about their gender identity, such as work colleagues;  Express their gender identity through changes in their clothing or hairstyle;  Ask to be referred to as ‘he’ or ‘they’ rather than ‘she’ or vice versa;  Start using toilets and other single-sex facilities that match their gender identity;  Use a different name;  Change their gender, title and name on documents such as credit cards, bank statements, utility bills, medical records and employment records.  Change their gender, title and name on government-issued forms of identification.

And this example, which I find bizarre, on "separate" sex provision

A service provider can deliver separate services for men and women where providing a combined service would not be as effective. In each case, such provision has to be justified. So, for instance, it would not be unlawful for a charity to set up separate hostels, one for homeless men and one for homeless women, where the hostels provide the same level of service to men and women because the level of need is the same but a unisex hostel would not be as effective.

I assume effective does not mean "is safer for women having conducted an equality impact assessment"

Thanks for posting this. Place-marking, will come back and read it later...

Btw this is 86 pages not including ancillary materials.

Be interesting to know if the length of consultations puts off all but v motivated responses.

A number of groups will put out summary guides to the questions so do not fret, those of you with too little time to wade through

Read the easy read version. None the wiser

Annoyed already and I'm only one paragraph in. I haven't even started on the actual consultation document yet.

Oh, look! Options at the bottom:

Publish my response, including my name
Publish my response in anonymised form only
Do not publish my response

And to think some were suggesting we'd all be named (and shamed, with possible consequences) for daring to complete this consultation!

Well, that's odd. Almost like every other government consultation ever.

This thing has eaten my post but the single sex example above makes sense if you actually read it

I'd read "it would not be unlawful" as it would not be lawful"

Sex: Assigned by medical practitioners

Fuck. If they think medical practitioners go around waving the magical sex assignment wand, this consultation is already biased.

No mention of all woman shortlists!

Place marking for when I've read through the docs

Very good shout Elle, we should use that in responses to the Q on other impacts.

I'm only scanning, but a lot of this seems to be consulting on removing evidence requirements, rather than reforming the panel process IYSWIM. E.g. Questions on removal of

Stat Dec
Evidence of living in acquired gender for a period of time
Diagnosis of gender dysphoria
Report detailing treatment received

As well as consulting on removal of:
Fee
Spousal consent

I thought the whole point was that the Gender Recognition Panel (GRP or "Panel" in the consultation)'s decisions could sometimes be unclear, and additional evidence unhelpfully requested giving delays, and they only meet infrequently etc.

Not that this consultation would consider removal of all evidence requirements (interestingly including the famous nefarious-man-repelling statutory declaration)

Placemarking. I've got RSA from ridiculous MN'ing today!

The really sad thing is that, unlike Scotland, there is no consultation on changing the minimum age.

Whilst I applaud the intention behind the Easy Read version, that is some appalling clip art

Given the attempt at clarity in the main document, the "Easy Read" version is a horrorshow of conflation of sex and gender

www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/721641/gra-consultation-easy-read.pdf

Most people will be quite happy with being the gender that was written down when they were born. Trans people may feel that they are a different gender to the one that was recorded at birth. They may not feel like either a male or a female.

Also I do not think the below is a responsible framing for an easy read consultation:

Being trans is not a mental illness. Trans people face many barriers to taking part in things. Some young trans people take their own life or harm themselves.

^^

Can I ask a really stupid question (it sounds stupid in my head but I really need to ask it) but does that screenshot linked above by @madvixen really state that Gender is written down at birth and is recorded on a birth certificate NOT Sex? Is that from the official government guidance to accompany the consultation document?

If so, how are you supposed to reply to a consultation if the words are incorrect? Or have I read that wrong?

Thoughts on the factsheet so far...

Trans is a general term for people whose gender is different from the gender assigned to them at birth. For example, a trans man is someone that transitioned from woman to man. Trans people do not feel comfortable living as the gender that they were born with. They take serious, life-changing steps to change their gender permanently.

I was under the impression that there was no requirement for a trans person to make the change permanent? What about Gender Fluid people - or am I incorrect in thinking they fall under the Trans umbrella (if so, sincere apologies!)

How many trans people are there?
We don’t know. No robust data on the UK trans population exists. We tentatively estimate that there are approximately 200,000-500,000 trans people in the UK. The Office for National Statistics is researching whether and how to develop a population estimate.
Surely one way to begin to resolve this would be to introduce a new question to the census - "sex recorded at birth" - in addition to the gender noted at the time the census is completed.

Oh my oh my that easy read document is shocking . Noones gender is written on their birth certificate Their observed sex is. It is almost as if the word sex is too explicit to include. If only sex wasnt a

I know it's totally Victorian. It may as well say "sex is a dirty word".

Sorry hit post by mistake If only sex wasn't used as shorthand for the act of sexual activity and only used as the dictionary definition maybe it would be a "rude" word