newstraightteeth · Today 20:20
Have you seen the update on it? The government have responded basically saying further clarification isn't necessary. What happens now?
Sex-Matters who set up the petition said the Government has not answered the question.
The lawyer Sarah Phillimore came on here a couple of weeks ago and wrote:
It is going to be very difficult to restore 'sex' to its proper place and meaning and I think now cannot be achieved without new legislation. The Lady Haldane judgment confirmed what I had always thought - that the GRA changes your legal sex, unless the exceptions apply. Those exceptions have now been muddled and obfuscated over decades leaving everyone very confused about when they are allowed to insist on single biological sex spaces or providers.
Then if you look at this recent parliamentary committee meeting with Dr Michael Foran (law) about the Gender Recognition Act and the Equality Act, the way they interact is not necessarily smooth as someone with a Gender Recognition Certificate could bring a legal challenge for discrimination. It
is worth reading it all through.
Here is a re-post from a section I copied and pasted yesterday with an excerpt from
the
^Women and Equalities Committee
Oral evidence: Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill and Equality Act 2010, HC 1098^
^Tuesday 31 January 2023
Ordered by the House of Commons to be published on 31 January 2023^.
committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/12639/pdf/
Members present: Caroline Nokes (Chair); Elliot Colburn; Caroline Dinenage; Rachel Maclean; Kate Osborne; Ms Anum Qaisar.
Witnesses
I: Naomi Cunningham, Barrister, Outer Temple Chambers; Lord Falconer of Thoroton, KC; Dr Michael Foran, Lecturer in Public Law, University of Glasgow; and Robin Moira White, Barrister, Old Square Chambers.
Excerpt:
Chair: ^Can I just finish with Lord Falconer? This could be a yes or no:
would it be helpful if there were a definition of sex in the Equality Act?^
Dr Foran: There already is one.
Chair: There is an understanding of it. There is not a specific definition.
Dr Foran: Sex is if you are a man or a woman, and then the definition of man is a male of any age, and the definition of a woman is a female of any age. They have the definition. What they do not have is clarity. (My bold.)
Chair: The Haldane judgment interpreted that differently.
Dr Foran: Yes, it did. The Haldane—
Chair: Following the Haldane judgment, would it be helpful if that were revisited?
Dr Foran: Absolutely.
Re: What the legal expert Dr Michael Foran said to the Parliamentary Committee,
what they do not have is clarity
Please consider signing and sharing the petition to Parliament to update the Equality Act to make clear the characteristic ‘sex ‘ is biological sex,
To sign and share
⬇️
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/623243