"Trans extremists are putting equality at risk"

Here:
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0fe1693a-d56f-11e8-926d-96790161a92a?shareToken=dd4b678d298dcbb46ec4b5e0c535eae8

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0fe1693a-d56f-11e8-926d-96790161a92a?shareToken=9c5002f8e0f5729a0f7a617b9a1b5d87

I don’t think it’s the best article, it’s a bit all over the place & talks about gender as a protected characteristic but the central tenant, if you can self ID as a woman, why not somone with a disability or as somone from a different race, is sound. It’s utterly bonkers that only one protected characteristic is deemed unworthy of basically being protected.....

The problem is this: if self-declaration becomes established as a principle for one protected characteristic * gender* * why should it not apply to all of the other eight, including disability or race?*

So does he mean the protected characteristic of "gender reassignment" or is he using gender in place of sex?

I thought it was a new article, just realised it's from 2018.

So close, Trevor, so close. It was a shame he used gender all the way though instead of sex, but he was in the right ballpark. Kind of depressing to see that was published in 2018 and we are still entertaining the notion that self-identifying into another protected group is acceptable.

One sentence explaining sex vs gender would have been helpful.

Glad to see it’s in 2018 - another canary in the coal mine.

He wrote it a couple of years ago - since then he's been suspended from the Labour party. They're still investigating, and have accused him of Islamophobia. Partly because he spoke out on the child grooming scandal.

He was the first chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission. He's presently head of the Index on Censorship.

I agree with most of the article, but this bit made me chuckle:

It is hard to see how the law could resist the claims of a man who, despite all medical advice to the contrary, decides that he is mentally disabled, and therefore should be eligible for disability benefits and time off work. The human and financial costs would be horrendous.

Does he not realise that this is already happening and has been for many years?

A thread on twitter about this article also had this clip of Layla Moran. A good example of someone harming transpeople who respects facts and the needs of women and girls.

How any ‘self respecting’ politician expects anyone with any sense to vote for them I have no idea.

mobile.twitter.com/LBC/status/1285665331877486594

I think it's a good article and interesting from someone who wrote the equality act. I like the fact he uses examples of people identifying as a different race to illustrate the point. Thanks for sharing.