I had a look at the Equality Act after reading this article. I think it is entirely unclear how the exemptions would work if the change to ‘gender identity’ was made. I am not as sanguine as errol.
If Labour want to make a change in this area, then instead of saying what words they want to change in legislation, they should say what policy objectives they want to achieve- for instance, we want all women’s spaces to be open to men who identify as women, we want to ensure women have to accept personal care from men who identify as women, we want to ensure all protections offered to women are also open to men who identify as women, etc.
They don’t do this for 2 reasons. First, because they know these policy objectives are vote losers. And second, because their thoughts are so incoherent they can’t spell out what their policy really is because they don’t know it themselves. They just mouth platitudes about changing particular words and resist at all costs saying what they think the effect of this will be.
Politicians need to be put under pressure to state their objectives, not just opaquely say what words they want to change in legislation. It is their not being honest about this that is allowing TRAs to threaten women’s rights.