Good Law Project to report Sex Matters over 'deviant' remark

And knowing that they could have used other less inflammatory words… but they chose not to which implies an intentional association of trans people with perversion

Men.

The full quote 'There is no legal basis for this instruction, which in effect licenses men to enter women’s facilities and claim that it is inappropriate, possibly unlawful and a breach of their human rights to challenge them.
Telling staff supervising single-sex spaces that they must second-guess themselves when they become aware of a man engaging in the deviant behaviour of accessing a female-only space, or risk breaching data-protection law, will lead to unwanted conduct related to the protected characteristic of sex that is likely to meet the definition of harassment in the Equality Act.'

They are pointing out how ridiculous it is to suggest that someone's sex is 'special category data', that it would make it impossible or illegal to challenge ANY man entering women's single sex spaces.

Why are you repeatedly associating 'trans women' with perversion?

The idea that women's ears don't prick up when they hear the word 'deviant' as an immediate cue for 'pervy' is cute but nevertheless untrue.

It is highly convenient that particularly on these pages where trans women are routinely smeared as perverted that 'deviance' has only its meaning in 'wrong'.

Have a read of the dictionary definitions and, most importantly, do not give the GLP any money.

😂

They haven't cunningly inserted anything. (No jokes please.)
It's a perfectly valid use of the phrase "deviant behaviour" to describe male behaviour of entering women's loos, which pretty much everyone knows is wrong.

Edited to add: to correct myself, SM said female-only space, not women's loos.

Of course I have. However SM cunningly inserted 'deviant' to ensure plausible deniability doesn't change that words have common everyday associations that have implications.

The word women is just fine. No need for cis, thanks.

The new EHRC guidelines excludes trans men as well because it might make cis women 'uncomfortable'.

I'm honestly not being sarky @Baileyonice but have you actually read the article mentioned in the OP?

Equality law, health and safety law possibly. Jolyon Maugham is a tax lawyer (or was). There are lots of different areas of law besides criminal law.

Deviant is commonly used to describe or imply sexual & or other practices deemed abnormal, obsessive, or repulsive.

It's not irrelevant, it's the entire point!

Have a read of the dictionary definitions and, most importantly, do not give the GLP any money.

What law does it break?

SM after all is an activist group whose interests benefit from associating trans people with danger.

They're talking about men in this instance, trans or otherwise.

I don't know why you are so insistent that means trans people?

This is simply not true. Perversion is a small subset of deviance, which on its own has no such connotation.

JM's own statement in the newspaper article quoted in the OP shows that he's misunderstood what Sex Matters wrote and he has clearly twisted the meaning too.

Illegal.

Pp has misunderstood, I think. "Deviant" means unusual or not usually accepted. "Perverted" means something that's been changed.

If you deviate from a path, you're not perverting or altering the course of that path. You're just doing something different.

The fact that people think words meant different things from their actual definitions is irrelevant to what was actually conveyed.

Reminds me of the people who get "substituted with" and "substituted for" the wrong way round!

Whether 'deviant' or 'deviancy' is used is irrelevant. The point is deviance is commonly associated with 'perversion'…& SM would have known that. And knowing that they could have used other less inflammatory words…but they chose not to which implies an intentional association of trans people with perversion.

SM after all is an activist group whose interests benefit from associating trans people with danger.

Why should I 'replace' a word with a different word, in order to change the original meaning and make the sentence offensive?

'the deviant behaviour of accessing a female-only space' is a standalone and perfectly clear statement: the 'deviant behaviour' is accessing a space you [one] are not entitled to access.

What adjective would you have preferred to describe that behaviour?

Deviant is milder synonym of 'illegal' in this context.

They didn't say "deviancy".
But it's interesting you did, though.

They said deviant behaviour. That is, behaviour that deviates from the accepted social norm. I.e. the accepted social norm of men not going into women's toilets.

Well, replace 'deviancy' with its usual social association 'perverted' & it implies its perverted to for trans people to use the lav of the opposite sex. Why is it 'perverted'? And don't give me that vague 'socially unacceptable' fig leaf. The implication is they will do something 'perverted'.

Words have common social associations that more uncommon associations won't save them from.

Just had a look on reddit and yep, there it is! 😄

How did you know...

I don't know how you're getting all that from this:
'the deviant behaviour of accessing a female-only space'

The 'deviance' is defined in the sentence itself: it is a male accessing a female-only space.
Nothing about abnormality, perversion or anything similar.
What is your interpretation based on?