Maya and the new EHRC chairwoman in the Times!

The comments section under this article is alight!

mobile.twitter.com/wwwritingclub/status/1393454198524678145

I’m not entirely sure where the quote is from but yes, organisations need to listen to this. CQC, I’m looking at you....

Universities and workplaces should be considering looking at their policies very carefully now

could be many potential cases out there

yesterday I was asked to sign a complaint and I struggled for ages because I know if my very woke employer and colleagues see it my job is in danger. In the end I signed it because I felt it was so important.

power to you @Chrysanthemum5 💐

But we are really talking about facts versus ideology here, not one belief versus another. However perhaps things are really going to change and women such as the student in Scotland will know that there will be backing if she takes action. And Maya’s appeal looking good too. Universities and workplaces should be considering looking at their policies very carefully now

I'm delighted but also pissed off. How did it get to the point where the head of the EHRC doing their job and upholding the law is such a surprise? And I'm tired of being scared - yesterday I was asked to sign a complaint and I struggled for ages because I know if my very woke employer and colleagues see it my job is in danger. In the end I signed it because I felt it was so important.

And if they try to sack me, or my colleagues make my life miserable, I'll sue the bastards

Astonished and delighted.

The 'belief' angle is rather niggling, but it's a clever way to prevent the debate being silenced.

So good to have some good news. A sensible woman in the role who looks like she knows the law and knows the difference between men and women. Bloody marvellous

The 'belief' angle is quite clever, I thought.

Step around the tiresome 'our understanding of biology has changed a lot' tosh and stick to "I believe it to be true'. The same supposedly unchallengeable stance as TWAW.

This way anyone challenging TWAW, saying anything about females, actual biology, cannot be silenced simply for speaking, as is happening right now. The conversation gets to be finished, heard.

Change is happening.

This is the beginning of the end to this madness.

The message is well and truly out there and the majority do not support the damage that TRAs try to inflict. Nor do they think it's possible to change sex.

No longer in the shadows.

About bloody time.

Extraordinary- in a good way!

Oooooo the share token isn't working for me. Does it only let so many people read it?

Too late for ANN Sinnott, but absolutely fantastic news.

I usually enjoy the comments under Times coverage of these issues, they're generally intelligent and considered. There seems to be a lot of silly transphobic guff seeping in under this one which isn't very encouraging.

Most of the comments will have been overnight. They'll be removed.

I noticed that standing for women's account with the merch company was cancelled citing transphobia yesterday.

They could do with reading this article.

This is great and I'm very pleased.

Is anyone else irritated though that it's dressed up as a belief?

It almost says that the opposite view is established scientific fact. Which it isn't.

Common sense, and justice, will prevail!

It's interesting that Baroness Falkner is delicate enough in her language to also call standing up for biological reality a 'belief' rather than fact, but the debate has to start somewhere, I suppose.

I usually enjoy the comments under Times coverage of these issues, they're generally intelligent and considered. There seems to be a lot of silly transphobic guff seeping in under this one which isn't very encouraging.

"at ehrc at the commission it's becoming increasingly clear to us that the most contentious work we have to do is with that critical issue of balancing different rights and as we seek to reduce discrimination and sometimes even hate we don't want to see one group pitted against another but we're clear too that we mustn't shy away from difficult judgments of balance in the name of political correctness or appearing to be in one camp versus another we stand for all the protected characteristics but we also judge every policy issue on its merits and with guidance from the equality acts"
Baroness Kishwer Falkner, EHRC Chair

Well I have learned to be cautious about anything pertaining to be either good or bad news but, from a single reading, that looks as if it could be rather splendid.

So good to hear something positive.

Amazed and delighted to see this in the Times.

Can't find anything about it in the Guardian...

Oh my god, I’m renewing my subscription to The Times so that I can read this exciting news properly!
That’s really, really cheered me up after reading the article about the student in Scotland who was hauled over the coals for stating that women had vaginas, and a depressing statement yesterday from the admin of my local FB ‘women’s forum’ who rushed to peddle the usual ‘anyone who says they’re a woman is a woman, be kind’ spiel. I’m increasingly SICK of people who don’t engage their critical thinking skills about the repercussions of blindly bleating sweeping statements like this. Especially women in positions of power over other women.
(The FB admin woman might not officially be in a position of power but she is nevertheless very influential within the very large group that she runs. She can of course remove anyone from the group if she so wishes so it would be difficult not to toe the party line- as it were).

This is bloody fantastic! Thanks for the share token OP.

Reposting the key points:

Women must be heard on transgender identity, says new equalities chief

New head of equalities watchdog says law has to protect the right to express a belief

Women must have the right to question transgender identity without being abused, stigmatised or risking losing their job, the new head of Britain’s equalities watchdog has warned.

Brilliant.