Thanks for reminding us and posting the link, Knotty.
I must admit, I am confused. On the Sex Matters page, there's this:
It will include a person’s full name, date of birth, nationality and a photo, but not their sex.
Also this:
People should have the option of not having their sex on digital ID. But if they choose to have sex included, it should be accurate.
I don't understand why we want ID cards to include sex as optional for those who want it. Surely, it just opens the whole system up to abuse? I know Sex Matters say that recorded sex should be accurate, but when has that ever stopped anyone from lying about their sex? And who is the government going to employ (i.e. pay money for) to check that every marker on every ID record is "accurate." No one in government or civil service is either competent or available enough to do that!
Feminists have been arguing for more than a decade that we can always tell who is male and who is female. Why should we need to use digital ID to "prove" we are female (to date, use single-sex services, use the gym, etc. )?
Doesn't encouraging a "let's hope this is accurate " marker on an ID just make a mockery of everything we have been saying? And throws caution to the wind in the face of those who will exploit this potential loophole? Won't this potentially reduce "female" to a digital footprint, rather than a biological reality?
Just leave sex off the digital ID. I want people to go back to accepting the reality of their senses, and to be able to challenge those living within their own fantasy bubbles. And, we see things are starting to move in that direction, finally, albeit slowly. Why would we want to set that back?
Allowing the inclusion of sex on a digital ID could be the first step to self-id by the back door.
Or am I missing something here? Happy to be corrected.