To be terrified about what will happen if the Gender Identity Bill is passed?

[TheWorldAccordingToToads]

I'm a nervous wreck right now

Will it replace sex as a protected characteristic? Does that mean that women will have no legal protection at all?

I'm scared .

Can women identify as men because they "feel" they'd like to??

You can, but you won't be able to inherit land and titles; the peerage has exemptions, apparently. Funny how that works.

Also, rapists will not ask your gender identity before raping you. Which might mean you might perhaps not be so keen on identifying your way into men's prisons.
(Though this could well be soon the safer alternative, after all, there you'd have a decent chance to only be forced to share rooms with a man who's in there for forging paintings or somesuch. If you are lucky, the rapists who want to target adult females have all identified their way into the women's prison.)

A standard proposed new law (although thete is no standard new law) would take about six to nine months.

I don't think the bill will become law either- often they just run out of time during the parliamentary session. However, I think there is a deeper problem which is that people are not challenging the complete idiocy of these ideas and many organisations, including schools and universities, are implementing policies that force people to accept the notion that anyone can say that they are a woman and access women's spaces.

Instead, we'll have to wait for the outrage of 2 hairy, testosterone-fuelled transwomen playing in in the 'women's final' at Wimbledon for people to start wondering what has happened

We already have sporting examples, cycling and boxing, where biological males have been allowed to compete as women and have oddly enough won.

Has anyone considered that the golf club who wouldn't let women in may finally be taken over by MNetters rocking up and identifying as men? (trying to lighten the mood....)

Considering that women apparently cannot identify their way into inheriting stuff that is supposed to go to the eldest son, I would not be much surprised if the golf clubs also managed to get out of having to respect the gender identities of women who feel like men.

If not, then the golf club take over by women might be what wakes people up.

Sorry, OddBoots, I don't know about timescales. I agree with kistanbul, I can't see this becoming law anyway.

Women can self identify as men, but it won't bring us a pay rise

Don't panic just yet everyone. This is only the second reading stage in the Commons. Many bills fail after this stage, and it will not be law if it passes this reading. So you can see what the stages are:

services.parliament.uk/bills/2016-17/genderidentityprotectedcharacteristic.html

It is also a Private Members Bill not a Govt bill - quite often PMBs run out of parliamentary time.

Using an example from another thread..

If i have a male horse who is scared of mice, prefers a cosy wollen rug to a hardewearing canvas one, and likes to hang round with his girl horse mates in the field, can i put a pink ribbon in his mane, identify him as female and put him in the fillies races?

I would make a fortune at the bookies...

Also, what Megatherium and kistanbul said.

The Equality Act 2010 permits service providers not to allow a trans person to access separate-sex or single-sex services—on a case-by-case basis, where exclusion is “a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim”. (Paragraph 28, Schedule 3, Part 7, Equality Act 2010).

If the proposal is merely to replace gender reassignment with gender identity as a protected characteristic, this in itself does nothing to stop these same exceptions continuing to exist. Or is it also proposed to stop permitting service providers to make exceptions on a case-by-case basis?

Ok on the sport, that sucks that it's already started.....

The golf club - I could give that a go, as long as I can also identify as being able to play golf....

The loo queue though....can we start doing that? I know there is a potential safety issue (and yes, not just for women!) but in places that are busy when there's a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge queue for the 'ladies' can we please all start barging in and using the gents. That may at least start making the decent men of the world alert to these issues.

I think the gents loo issue is different because of the urinals being in the open. which is why transgenders are directed to use the women's Loos.

Even if this doesn't become law public sector organisations are changing. Stats are collected by gender and not sex. Transgender boys can join guides. Schools are adopting trans policies. Breastfeeding advisers are being told not to use the word mother. Etc etc.

A previous poster as said self identification is already law in Ireland. No one noticed as it slipped under the radar. Because no one said anything.

This link sets out what it would mean. It is pro women, not anti-trans.

fairplayforwomen.com/women/politics

I have emailed my MP. The definition of sex is biology, not imagination. Anything else is just a sliding scale of confusion, make-believe and madness.

Anyone remember Rachel Dolezal? She was pilloried for identifying as African American when she is Caucasian. So how come biological sex is fair game to be undermined by a notion of self belief? It's fine for people to be who they want but not at the expense of actual biology.

A person with a penis is a biological male. The end. I'd argue XY chromosomes = male too but I think the gender reassignment part of the existing act makes me illegal.

I am really worried. I never knew about this until today on MN.

Sorry if I have made people worried. I feel bad. I shouldn't have started this thread

You absolutely should have started this thread, there are several people on it that didnt know about this until you posted.

I'm grateful to you for starting the thread OP. There needs to be awareness that these things are happening, and that people who object to gender self-identification trumping all else are not transphobic haterz but have genuine and valid concerns for the safety and rights of women.

I saw this link on twitter that is a website by parents questionning the transgender trend.

Sorry TheWorldAccordingToToads - I know you said this is not a trans thread but the issues are pretty closely connected and this website was where I first saw the Gender Identity Bill explained.

www.transgendertrend.com

theworld

You did the right thing by starting the thread

I think that loads of people do not have a problem with transpeople in the slightest

Its just the self identification and its possible ramifications that is a concern

The problem with this bill is Fred. Fred is a rapist. He has been convicted twice of rape and has just been let out. Fred is a man. He sees himself as a man. He has no desire to be a woman.

Fred wakes up one morning and discovers that all he needs to do is download a form from the Internet and he is allowed in the women's changing rooms at the swimming pool.

So off Fred toddles - with his form. And his beard. And his penis. And skips happily into the women's changing rooms and has a jolly lovely time watching women and girls getting undressed. When a woman is alone in the changing room with him he rapes them.

Fred is caught and convicted. During sentencing Fred gets out his form and explains again that he is a woman. Fred is sent to the women's prison where he shares a cell,with an 18 year old who lashed out at her stepfather because he had been sexually abusing her for the last 15 years.

Fred has a very nice time in prison.