Honour system

daimbars, the trouble with self ID and the honour system as you see it is how are women supposed to judge between thousands of genuine trans people now allowed to gain access by self IDing and the occasional man trying it on for other reasons nothing to do with being trans.

No gatekeeping means no deterrent to that and so erring on the side of caution by MORE discrimination, not less.

And as no actual transition of any kind is required with self ID (whereas today most transsexuals do physically transition and others with GRAs still have to show evidence of some transition) then how is anyone to judge the threat potential based on biological status of someone self declaring.

It could be anything.

If women make clear they do not accept this then the reality is that the ones who would be no threat will be the ones who care enough to comply and the ones who would not have dared risk it in the past as the gatekeeping deterred them bothering will be the ones emboldened to try it on and cause trouble.

Either way self ID makes a mess of things for decent trans people and puts women in the firing line from the rest.

On both counts this is clearly a bad solution.

I was prepared to be kind but I'm not any more. Note to all the people pushing at women's rights - this is what happens.

This

This is how I understand the honour system.

At the moment under the GRA trans women with a GRC are legally women. This has been the law for 13 years or so and it means trans women are legally allowed to use sex segregated spaces as women. If you tried to tell a trans woman with a GRC to leave a female only space you would be breaking the law as she has the same rights to that space as any other woman.

There are certain exemptions in the Equality Act which differentiate trans women from women. For example it is lawful to ban a trans women from applying for certain jobs such as a rape crisis counsellor. These exemptions are in place to protect women from abuse.

At the moment obtaining a GRC means living as the opposite gender for two years which many trans people find humiliating, so there are proposed changes to make it easier to obtain a GRC. Some think making the process easier will open it up to abuse.

When people talk about the honour system, I take it to mean allowing a trans person to use a female space on the honour that they are genuine. It is unworkable to expect every trans person to carry around their GRC wherever they go.

A trans person could be at any stage in the gender reassignment process and as they are required to live as the opposite gender for two years that could means using female sex segregated spaces before the GRC has been rubber stamped.

So in effect an honour system to me is spotting a trans person using a female space but honouring their right to be there as genuine.

But that was someone I knew and trusted (maybe naively, but there we go). Random male strangers, not so much, for the usual and obvious reasons.

I had zero problem, five years or so ago, with the chap R I'd known for about five years before that, hesitating at the door of the Ladies and asking if we'd have a quick check that it was empty before he nipped in.

I'd liked R before, and I was sympathetic to 'her' (early days of transition, so a bit hard to do the mental re-think needed!), and I knew that s/he had to get through the two-year 'real-life' test and this was part of it.

That was the both-ways honour system working properly.

In retrospect I think insisting that men wishing to transition should use the women's facilities was wrong, and left women's needs and rights out of the equation, but R was handling it as carefully as possible given that framework.

I am very sorry, I am sensitive to the fact this may hurt feelings and it is not my intention to do so. I can't stay silent, I need to exercise free speech.

My feelings have changed about those whom I share intimate spaces with. I now only have interest in sharing with the class that shares my natal biology.

I wish others well in their fight to gain their own spaces and services.

Trans activists want to replace the current honour system (which relies on social behaviour and trust) with the legal right for men to identify as women and enter womens spaces.
What women think about this and how it will affect us is irrelevant to them.

To me, this move feels like an aggressive push.