To call to all: You have less than a month. Please act now to protect women's rights (Closes 1 March 2018)

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The Scottish Government's consultation on changes to the GRA closes on 1st March 2018.

The rest of the UK will likely follow Scotland's decision, so this is your chance to make your views known.

For those who don't yet understand the risks to women from changes to the Gender Recognition Act, please read this document. It is pretty straightforward

leyaterra.wordpress.com/2018/02/06/gender-the-gra-and-womens-rights/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

Then please complete the Scottish Government's consultation.

You do NOT have to be Scottish or live in Scotland to complete it.

consult.gov.scot/family-law/review-of-the-gender-recognition-act-2004/

The brilliant Dr Nic Williams wrote a guide to the consultation

fairplayforwomen.com/scottish-consultation/

PLEASE complete it and pass to friends/family

@beljan
Oh dear!
We all have individual thoughts and rights to free speech.
You get to have your say, we get to have ours
That’s the point of a consultation

sure, I can appreciate that.

I am struggling to see a link between transgender people gaining further rights and women suffering as a result?

could anyone summarise that?

but thats whats this thread is? The argument is being put forward that women's rights are being affected and so we should sign this campaign?

What further rights are transgender people gaining?
As a transgender person you can declare yourself female and live as one, currently. But if you legally want to become a woman then you need to go through official channel and checks. Is that too much to ask? For you to spend a very small amount of your time genuinely working towards your end goal rather than just being able to do it instantly?
It’s not changing a name, it’s changing your whole identity and that is a serious life changing thing, and I support people who want to make that choice.

But I don’t support self identifying

I don’t self identity! I was born a woman and if I want to be a man it would be life changing.

Anyway, as working it out said. This is not a thread for discussion it’s a thread to show you how you can join a consultation. You don’t have to join it!? Or you could join it with your own view.
I’m sure lots of people who are in favour of self identifying are sending the link to people too!

I can't understand why asking someone to explain the cause for their campaign is something that should be taken to another thread. The thread clearly leads you to believe your rights are at risk, the supporting documents also do, without really outlaying the information.

If you've been recruited to join the campaign or cause without this being properly explained then how can you be sure that you're being recruited for the right reasons? Debating and explaining your stand point is part and parcel of raising awareness, otherwise you're asking people to base their support on blind faith that what you've said is correct with only surface level (and as mentioned sensationalist) claims?

beljan, put very simply, if this goes through any man can say on any day that he is a woman and demand a space in a woman's prison, refuge, hospital ward or sports team, among other things. To ask for "proof" he's a woman would be against the law - and indeed there will be no proof apart from his word. No necessity for hormone treatment or surgery, or even "putting on a dress".

It would mean an end to women's sport for one thing - already boys are competing as girls without question in UK schools. Boys (with fully functioning penises, and many of whom say they are "lesbian" and so attracted to girls) are allowed to camp with girls at guide camp. Boys are allowed to change in girls' school changing rooms and girls are not allowed to object. If self-id goes through, there is no chance of rolling back this change.

You may not care, but lots of us do.

I think the reason is that people don't want the thread derailed and end up as a bunfight . There are many threads in "Feminist Chat" about it, so I suppose it's presumed at this stage that most people know the difficulties that are likely to arise from a law change done with not enough consultation, if that makes sense?

Beljan- there are a host of issues around this, but to name a couple (that I personally feel strongly about):

Women in sport - I’m not just talking about professional sport (how self ID will work is not yet clear) but all sport from primary level upwards. A person who is physically male identifying as a female will out-perform a female in all but a handful of sports. So girls and women will lose places in the sport of their choice to someone against whom they don’t stand a chance.

Women’s “safe spaces” eg women’s refuges. Women escaping male violence will have to share that space with people who are physically male. If you don’t think that’s a problem, then why is there a need for those safe spaces in the first place? Similarly a woman asking for a female GP, or an all-woman shortlist.

Violent and sexual crimes - these are, as I’m sure you are aware, overwhelmingly more likely to be committed by men. If a crime committed by a trans woman is recorded as being committed by a woman, it muddies the water regarding the true perpetrators and victims of violent and sexual crimes.

Thats all i was asking, is to understand where the opinion that women's rights were at risk had come from

Do those answers help?

I think some of us have been arguing this so much for such a long time we sort of forget it's new to some

A year or so ago I would have been very much of the view "what harm can it do, it's just a few people who are unhappy with their bodies, let them do what they want". But recent changes in school guidelines, the IOC position on trans identified males in women's sport, men in women's hospital wards and prisons (and India Willoughby on Big Brother) etc has made me realise there is a heck of a lot more to it.

beljan
To start you off, look at these:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3145470-Break-it-down-for-me

sages.org.uk/publications/sages-factsheet.html

sexandgenderintro.com/

If you have any more question, please can you start a new thread in feminist chat where you will find many posters happy discuss it in detail. This thread is about reminding people to complete the consultation, not debating it. Thanks

Thank you OP for flagging up, I have completed and circulated

Completed!

Beljan- I think the main problem with self ID is that it is open to abuse because, by definition, it removes any necessity to ‘prove’ that you are transgender. So, for example, an adult male who is not actually transgender at all could go into the women’s changing room at a swimming pool and watch the young girls getting changed - and no one would be able to stop him.

Bump

Thank you, done and I’ll be spreading the word.

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19 DAYS LEFT

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