I'm not sure many people understand the background to the GC argument. The original GRA (2004) was passed with no consultation with women's groups, most people didn't know it the law had been passed. I'm such a good little liberal I was celebrating with a friend who had transitioned a few years earlier and why not? People with gender dysphoria are a tiny minority and my friend was no threat to women. I had no idea that women's groups were raising concerns about the legislation. I was a feminist and thought the battle was mostly won.
In the meantime trans groups were already laying the groundwork for self ID, the EA was still fairly new when they began floating the idea of removing sex as a PC and replacing it with gender. The Scottish prison service was the experiment in gaining public acceptance for the erasure of single sex spaces.
By 2015 the lobby groups had been hard at work arguing that the GRA was dated and needed reforming. The Women and Equalities Committee (a cross party group) produced a report which recommended self ID as part of a package of reforms for the GRA. All parties accepted the recommendations of the report, again no women's groups had been consulted. The committee's cavalier attitude towards womens rights is shocking, the report is available on line for anyone to read. They also recommended the EA was updated to remove the single sex exceptions. I repeat, all parties accepted the reports recommendations for self ID.
The lobby groups took this as a green light to start acting as if self ID was already law and organisations such as Stonewall, among others, offered diversity training which misrepresented the PC's in the EA. Their diversity champions scheme was another mechanism by which they changed culture and practice within our public institutions even when it was not aligned with the EA. They have since claimed they were "getting ahead of the law"!
LGBTQ became part of sex and relationship education, with no national curriculum for this type of education schools and teachers took advice from outside organisations which were little more than lobby groups. Many parents were unaware of the sometimes explicit and age inappropriate material being taught to their children.
The Conservatives have been the party of government since the Transgender Equality Report was produced by the Women and Equalities Committee. They thought all the homework had been done and it was simply a matter of putting a bill through parliament. Eventually women's voices were heard and they conducted a public consultation. The debate was already toxic but again most of the general population had no idea what was happening. Women were already being bullied on line, doxxed and reported to their employers. Trans lobbyist created a climate of fear and insisted no debate but women persevered. Eventually the Conservatives started they were not going to introduce self ID.
Since then they have taken a number of steps to begin to repair the damage done. There have been changed at the EHRC, reissued guidance on the EA and protected characteristics, clarification that single sex spaces are lawful and even people with a GRC can be excluded if the action is a "proportionate means to a legitimate aim". Several Conservative MP's have spoken in support of single sex spaces, fairness in sport and the material reality of biological sex; none of them have been threatened with expulsion from their own party or too afraid to go the party conference. There have been a number of related debates in Westminster Hall and the full Cass review on is expected later this year.
To say the Conservatives have done nothing when they realised their mistake is untrue. There is much left to do but they have made a star.
Meanwhile the Labour Party denied the Labour Women's Declaration and FiLia stands at their annual conference claiming they didn't have space, this was a demonstrable lie. I wonder if Rosie Duffield will feel able to go this year?