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Equality Act 2010 and Gender Reassignment Act 2004

6 replies

JustGiveMeTwoMinutes · 23/07/2017 17:42

Calling any lawyers and medics out there....

I am looking for facts not opinions or predictions of what might happen in the future if the GRA 2004 is changed. These scenarios worry me but i want them to be discussed on other threads not this one.

The Equality Act 2010 lists a number of protected characteristics. One is Gender Reassignment and one is Sex. IE they are 2 separate protected characteristics.

Can anyone tell me if there are legal and medical definitions of the terms gender and sex, whether sex and gender are legally and medically defined as interchangeable terms or different concepts, and whether gender reassignment automatically changes your sex for the purposes of interpreting the Equality Act.

Thank you!

OP posts:
Cailleach666 · 23/07/2017 17:49

Op, no idea sorry, but I read this and I am disturbed too. Just posting to help bump.

JustGiveMeTwoMinutes · 23/07/2017 18:05

Thanks :-)

OP posts:
Lucysky2017 · 23/07/2017 18:58

Might be worth your posting this again in Legal as lawyers tend to lurk there.

If you read those acts you quote they probably have a definition section of what the words mean.

JustGiveMeTwoMinutes · 23/07/2017 19:07

Reposted, i will look at the acts again too, but remember looking at the Equality Act before and not finding a definition of male and female so wondered if those words were defined elsewhere...

OP posts:
C13055 · 15/01/2018 10:02

This reply has been deleted

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LauraMipsum · 25/01/2018 14:02

At the moment woman means a woman and by virtue of s.9 GRA 2004 a trans woman who has a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC):

(1)Where a full gender recognition certificate is issued to a person, the person’s gender becomes for all purposes the acquired gender (so that, if the acquired gender is the male gender, the person’s sex becomes that of a man and, if it is the female gender, the person’s sex becomes that of a woman).
(2)Subsection (1) does not affect things done, or events occurring, before the certificate is issued; but it does operate for the interpretation of enactments passed, and instruments and other documents made, before the certificate is issued (as well as those passed or made afterwards).

The Equality Act 2010 provides that nobody must discriminate against, harass, or victimise anybody on the basis of either their sex or their gender reassignment.

s.212(1) of the EA 2010 defines a man as a male of any age and a woman as a female of any age.

Gender is not defined, although gender reassignment is.

So the answers to your questions are

Can anyone tell me if there are legal and medical definitions of the terms gender and sex
Legal ones, yes: s.212(1) EA 2010 defines man and woman as male and female, and s.11 EA 2010 defines sex as a man or a woman. No definition of gender is given.

whether sex and gender are legally and medically defined as interchangeable terms or different concepts
Interchangeable terms in the GRA 2004; it's horribly badly drafted.

and whether gender reassignment automatically changes your sex for the purposes of interpreting the Equality Act.
Yes, but only if you acquire a GRC.

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