Scottish GRA consultation

Will do nicerainyweather, didn’t realise it was for everyone. Off to do it now....

The consultation is for everyone -Scottish or not. Please fill it in today!

Living in England I didn’t do this but just wanted to mention that Rhona Hotchkiss was on Woman’s Hour this morning. She was very good. Try about 35 minutes in. Glenda Jackson was on before (not on GRA) which was also good

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000gczr

Done! Thanks to everyone for keeping this a live thread. The LGB Alliance website was helpful for ideas, but I really just filled it in from my heart, and simmering rage!

On Questions 4 and 5, I did personal replies followed by a statement that "I fully support the submissions already made by" - then I listed the organisations with the links to their submissions.

Should make it a bit easier for whoever has the task of analysing the responses.

OldCrone - totally agree. The GRA2004 is bad enough without adding to the confusion with further undefined provisions which could land someone with a criminal record.

Although . . . I have my doubts that they have any intention of introducing "a new criminal penalty . . . for making a false declaration". I think it is just a sop to allay concerns.

This is a really important point from the forwomen.scot/ guidance.

Basic terms in the Bill are not defined. It is important to understand what terms like “living in the acquired gender” actually mean, particularly when a new criminal penalty is to be introduced for making a false declaration about it.

Has a law ever been passed before, which is based on making a declaration about a term which is undefined, with a criminal penalty which can be imposed for making a false declaration?

We need a definition from the Scottish Government about exactly how a person is considered to be 'living in their acquired gender'. Without that, the rest of the bill makes no sense at all.

Submitted. Thank you for the reminder.

The site for the consultation on the GRA crashed - please submit as early as you can.

Regarding deadlines - the consultation only says the deadline is today. No time has been specified. Technically you should be able to submit until 23:59 tonight, however, IMO it's better to send your submissions in before close of business hours i.e 17:00.

That's ok, MoleSmokes. There's so much information to reference (which can be a good thing!) so it can be hard to capture all of it.
It will be good that all of our submissions will have a variety of angles and arguments highlighted.

I've been working on my submission for a couple of weeks, but ended up staying up until about 1:30am finishing it all off. I might fall asleep at my office desk later today!!

I used For Women Scotland, Women and Girls Scotland, the SNP women's pledge one. Didn't have time to incorporate LGB Alliance suggestions, but I noted that a number of points they made was similar to ones I already had, so it should be fine.

I think mine ended up being about 14 pages long!! I've tried to proof read it several times. I hope it's coherent enough. My brain was struggling to stay conscious towards the end. 😆

Response submitted - anyone know what time the deadline is today, 17 March? Noon? Midnight?

Anyone who has not already done it - see posts in this thread for links to advice from organisations concerned about the interests of women and girls.

Kicking myself that I somehow missed your very helpful, detailed post above about the Scottish Sentencing Council Nonnymouse1337!

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3788251-Scottish-GRA-consultation?msgid=94336633

I did mention my concerns about the age of eligibility for a GRC and explained in a one-liner why it should be mid 20's but I would have added a link to the document you have linked if I had spotted your post sooner.

Given there is so little time left, if anyone has not completed a response yet I think the best way to do it would be via the suggestions on For Women Scotland and the link to the online response form on their home page: forwomen.scot

There's still time to complete this!

Who’s left?
Calling my fellow procrastinators!

Quick bump - I've also used the forwomen.scot guidelines and got mine in.

there is still time folks.

Done, with the help of WGScotland,
forwomen.scot, LGB Alliance, FPFW, Transgender Trend and MBM - thanks to all of them for their hard work and guidance.

We have submitted our response to the consultation.

Hope it might be helpful to anyone who has not yet submitted theirs although lots of great advice and guidance out there already from forwomen.scot, Women and Girls Scotland and WPUK.

murrayblackburnmackenzie.org/2020/03/16/our-response-to-the-scottish-gra-reform-consultation/

Thanks once again to everyone who has supported us to undertake this work.

Kath, Lucy and Lisa

Done - using W&G Scotland guidance.

Done. I can confirm that the forwomen.scot guidance linked just up the page is very straightforward.

Done using forwomen.scot guidance

Up again

More easy to use guidance here:

lgballiance.org.uk/scotland-consultation/

This guidance gives a list of bulleted points as suggested responses to each question.

More guidance here:
www.transgendertrend.com/scottish-gender-recognition-act-bill-simple-guide/

It's better to rewrite what you feel most strongly about in your own words rather than just copy and paste if you have time to do this.

Consultation closes tomorrow. Does anyone know what time?

.

This is why it is crucial we complete it and have our say; we must not become like Canada:

threadreaderapp.com/thread/1238913102826987520.html

Another bump and shout from me. 36 hours left, everyone.

Here's the link to the guidance from ForWomen. There's guidance from other organisations mentioned and linked to in this thread, some of which will help you make a more detailed response, but this is probably the most straightforward and quickest if you've left it till the last minute and don't have much time.

forwomen.scot/