I often get told in twitter exchanges etc that self ID has in fact been legal for "years" under the Equality Act. I am then usually directed to a page about how people cannot be discriminated against on the basis of gender reassignment. I think this is a good thing - no one should lose a job, or be denied access to housing or whatever just because they are undergoing or proposing to undergo gender reassignment. That's my understanding of that particular protected characteristic. I'd really like to know if my understanding of the act, which I'll try and lay out coherently below, is right or not. I always feel a bit shaky on it and don't want to go around making false arguments.
The way I see it is that when people make this argument they are conflating the protected characteristics of "sex" and "gender reassignment". They are usually implying for example that self ID already basically exists because you can't discriminate on the basis of gender reassignment, which therefore means trans people can already have access to single sex spaces because they can't be discriminated against. If that makes sense.
But my understanding is that when a space is single sex, the protected characteristic of sex comes into play. When a rape crisis shelter denies access to a transwomen, they are not discriminating based on gender reassignment, they are discriminating based on sex. The protected characteristic of gender reassignment really doesn't come into it at all, because the shelter is not refusing access because someone has or is planning to undergo gender reassignment, but because their legal sex is male (and the fact that they are just actually bloody men but I'm thinking about legalities here )
If a transwoman does not have a GRC, their legal sex is male and therefore they can be, in this example, discriminated against for a legitimate reason. Once they have a GRC, their legal sex is female and therefore, legally, they could enter that space and if they were refused they could potentially claim discrimination due to gender reassignment? Therefore, legal self ID is bad because bad actors can change legal sex easily and therefore sidestep the Equality Act.
It's like TRAs get things in the wrong order - that a protected characteristic means anyone with that characteristic cannot be told 'no' to anything at all because discrimination. When the nuance is in fact that the Equality Act is about WHY someone is being told no.
Have I gravely misunderstood the whole thing???
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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions
Do I understand the Equality Act correctly?
12 replies
AtalantaRun · 08/06/2021 13:24
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