CALL FOR ACTION Women&Equalities committee calling for evidence on GRA reform - again?!?

Done. Now focussing on the one due 3 Jan. It never stops, this protesting lark, does it? Well done to all who've completed. Looking at the trickle of pro-trans submissions sent in by Miss this and Miss that my heart fell yesterday. Let's hope today there was a deluge of submissions from women.

Bumping this as it contains useful information for anyone else planning to respond today

Ooh I'm quoted in the scrolling quotes on gender dissidents!

Have just sent off my submission so bumping this to remind people Friday 27th deadline.

Have pp seen this brilliant piece by Maya Forstater? It's devastating seeing it all put together like this.

gender-dissidents.net

I kind of want to combine answers to several questions at once.

I did a combined response to two of the questions which I felt were related, about how the GRA and the EA worked and the confusion caused by the language.

I also commented on the fact that the meaning of trans used to be clear when the GRA was created, but that now it wasn’t clear because it had expanded so much. I spoke quite a lot about language really and confusion and related it to the original discussion when the GRA was created, when it was acknowledged that it would have an impact on women’s rights but, I understand, was pushed through on the basis it was only a tiny number.

Bump

I'm working on a personal one - I'm trying to just focus entirely on the language and how it affects women. I'm just not sure which questions to reply to. I kind of want to combine answers to several questions at once.

I think the whole problem is that we have legislation that creates a fictional 'legal sex' for some people which is different to their actual sex. And having done this, the whole common understanding of the word 'woman' has been destroyed.

The questions include references to 'trans people' 'non-binary' and 'gender fluid' people. None of these things are defined. None of them have a legal definition but the average person has to try to apply equality law to 'trans people' that they meet.

It's unworkable because the only way to know a person is trans is by them saying so. There is no objective measure. This is why, in practice, anyone who announces they are the opposite sex is treated as such.

I think I might just list the questions that I am responding to as a group.

I keep putting this off. Glad the thread is alive again. Have notes, so I'm not sure why I haven't done it yet.

Oops!!

Need to do this today.

Done.

I’ve been putting it off, but would kick myself if I didn’t send my response, then women were penalised.

I made a general statement, well informed by the women of this board and inserted a couple of personalised impact assertions. I appreciate the idea of it being a wholly personalised account, but those upon whom the personal impact is low should still submit, in my opinion.

My understanding was that the well informed responses from women to the original consultation had quite an impact. Caring enough to thoroughly research the situation demonstrates that this is an aspect of social justice that really matters to us.

Done...but it was hard to do while saying that the GRA should be repealed and the GRC abolished as all the areas seemed to depend on these being agreed to . Oh well let’s see.

You can add links to other articles etc. As I understand it, the big organisation (Fair Play for Women, WPUK, the Scottish and Welsh groups, Transgender Trend, Safe Schools Alliance, LGB Alliance) will be making the major, legally-orientated submissions. Maya Forstater suggested we submit personal stories to illustrate the reality on the ground for ordinary women. It needs to be short because apparently the members of the committee will try and read all submissions and with a bit of luck there will be thousands. If you can tell a compelling story and keep it short there's more chance they'll read it to the end.

shedbuilder 2000 words seems very short to put in all our stories, reasons. I am also concerned about what “evidence” means if we can’t refer to other published articles or current or pending court cases. Planning to do this over the weekend but it’s hard to know where to start, without ranting with rage !

Bumping. Submissions need to be in be next Friday. Personal accounts of your experiences — having to fight to prevent your workplace loos from being made unisex/ being pressured to provide pronouns at work/ watching your children struggle with their identities/ experiences as a trans widow / experiences as lesbians/ running women-only services that are under attack/ anything else — are welcome. 2000 words max. Tell them your story.

Bumping. Submissions need to be made before 27 November (next Friday)

That Davina Cooper article's a real whiny shocker, isn't it, Escapeplanning? (When you've got a plan let me know, by the way, because I want to escape too). The utter incomprehension at idiot women still, despite all the competing feminisms, insisting that sex matters — when people like Davina have risen above their bodies and know better. She goes on my list of traitors to her own sex. It's getting long.

Also if anyone hasn’t read this yet, another powerful piece of writing:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4069208-late-transitioners-domestic-abuse-and-trans-widows

PSA for everyone responding to this consultation:

TinselAngel has produced a powerful piece of guidance for thinking about when writing submissions: It’s here www.transwidowsvoices.org/news
and see MN discussion thread on it here:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4071101-guidance-for-new-gra-consultation-spousal-exit-clause

Tinsel says of this: Guidance for how to respond to the new consultation on the GRA in respect of Trans Widows and the Spousal Exit Clause can now be viewed on the Trans Widows Voices website.
I hope women find this useful as it can be tricky to understand due to all the previous misinformation.
We are still interested in hearing from trans widows who may have ideas for our own submission to the enquiry.

"334bu

One of the questions asks whether gender dysphoria is necessary to change your legal status. Is there any good peer reviewed research into why anyone would feel the need to identify as a member of a different sex class to their own if they didn't have gender dysphoria?"

I have often said that I would prefer to be in a female prison than a male prison if given the choice (I've worked in prisons)

Always find it interesting that the Equality Act is always misquoted like this in order to exaggerate perceptions of one group's protections while concealing the other group's altogether.

I can think of a few...

Also, as enshrined in the Equality Act 2010, transgender people can access single-sex spaces that align with their gender identity. This includes public toilets and changing rooms.

It does the reverse. It enshrines that where women may reasonably object, spaces such as changing rooms can be single sex, even if a GRC is held, though the threshold if it is becomes higher.

This is a straightforward lie. If it were not a lie, Stonewall et al would not be campaigning to have those single sex exceptions removed.

On second thoughts, I notice that the Commons Liaison committee does say they will look at:

• Matters of public concern: To consider matters of public concern where there is a need for accountability to the public through Parliament, including the actions of organisations or individuals with significant power over the lives of citizens or with wide-reaching public responsibilities.

committees.parliament.uk/committee/103/liaison-committee-commons

That seems to be summing up exactly what is going on here- because it is a culture war, which goes well beyond issues of the GRA.. into threats to free speech, to freedom of expression, into genderist belief being taken as a justification for harassment, for women losing their usual paid work, for NHS and private doctors prescribing by ‘affirmation’ ie children being given experimental treatments with permanent effects that they can’t consent to (by any normal understanding of consent), for specific harms to the lesbian community, for specific harms to detransitioned people, into organisational/regulatory capture where men’s needs are centred and which refuse to recognise the needs of women as service users or staff.. into our national statistics no longer being properly collected about women with long term effects on future policy, into kids being taught genderist beliefs messages in schools as facts and losing access to single sex toilets, into Women prisoners being sexually assaulted in prison, into women’s competitive and/or contact sports being ruined by people with male bodies competing in these, into women and girls overall being less free to participate in normal life because of loss of single sex spaces, into normal standard safeguarding rules being ignored and so on..