Petition to Update the Equality Act / Thread 3

[ScrollingLeaves]

This is an important official petition to Parliament started by Sex Matters.
Privacy is guaranteed.

If you already know about it and would like to sign and share it,
⬇️
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/623243

Update the Equality Act to make clear the characteristic “sex” is biological sex

The Government must exercise its power under s.23 of the Gender Recognition Act to modify the operation of the Equality Act 2010 by specifying the terms sex, male, female, man & woman, in the operation of that law, mean biological sex and not "sex as modified by a Gender Recognition Certificate"

The Equality Act 2010 covers nine separate protected characteristics, including “Sex” & “Gender Reassignment”. This protects people against sex discrimination and discrimination because a person is transgender.

There has been much confusion about how the Equality Act and GRA interact. This has caused uncertainty and conflict for women, transgender people, and service providers. The GRA includes a provision to amend other laws to make it clear whether a GRC changes the definition of sex for that law.

With 100,000 signatures the Government
will consider a debate in Parliament. 14000 more signatures are needed by the cut-off date 20th April.

Here is the Sex Matters Campaign
Make the Equality Act Clear
sex-matters.org/take-action/make-the-equality-act-clear/

To show how lawyers recognise the need for more clarity, these are links to House of Commons oral evidence given 23rd January and 10th:

^Women and Equalities Committee
Oral evidence: Gender Recognition Reform^
(Scotland) Bill and Equality Act 2010, HC 1098%^
Tuesday 31 January 2023
committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/12639/pdf/

Women and Equalities Committee
Oral evidence: Reform of the GenderRecognition Act, HC 884
Wednesday 10 February 2021
committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/1693/html/

About Lady Haldane’s recent judgement in Scotland:
FWS’s claim was dismissed by Lady Haldane in a judgment published on 13 December 2022. Lady Haldane stated that the meaning of the word ‘sex’ for the purpose of the EqA 2010 ‘is not limited to biological or birth sex, but includes those in possession of a GRC’.
didlaw.com/equality-act-case-study

N.B The Government has given its response following the first 10,000 signatures which should be ignored
The response does not address the question asked. It does not matter that sex based spaces are allowed as exceptions in the Act: lack of clarity is giving rise to litigation and the fear of it. There is a chilling effect.
Sex Matters wrote:
sex-matters.org/posts/updates/sex-in-the-equality-act/

Here again is the link to sign and share the petition:
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/623243

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105,461 signatures
💚🤍💜

105,481 signatures nearly at the palindrome!

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/623243

105501 signatures

If you still haven't signed there is still time. Go to petition.parliament.uk/petitions/623243

Then click on
sex-matters.org/take-action/write-to-your-mp-about-the-petition/
To let your MP know you've signed.

🤩

Happy Pi day everyone 😀

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105,651 signatures
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To sign the petition
⬇️
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/623243

✨Then you could write to your MP to let them know you have signed:
sex-matters.org/take-action/write-to-your-mp-about-the-petition/

I like this one

Nice number you caught there Cake! Now on 105,719 signatures

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/623243

Magic, unlike the ear worm 🤣 (I'm suffering you must all suffer too!)

105,729 signatures
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If you think women's changing rooms, hospital wards, rape counselling & prisons should be for women please
Sign here!

Then share & write to your MP

And if they don't come onside, send them the Steps video!

That is a step!!!! too far!.

No one, whatever their crime, deserves that!

105,743 signatures

🤣

Scroll up to get away from steps for information!
105,761 signatures
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The Government says sex based exceptions are protected under the Equality Act.

But, in practice, “sex” no longer clearly means a biological state of being, and can be trumped in a legal challenge by someone of the opposite sex who has a Gender Recognition Certificate.

Lawyers speaking about this giving oral evidence in the House of Commons earlier this year have pointed this out.

So this petition is to update the Equality Act to make clear the characteristic ‘sex’ is biological, not sex as modified by a GRC.

There is a good explanation here,
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mps-to-debate-gender-petition-backed-by-jk-rowling-qh0h0bctk
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/4534821c-bf89-11ed-b52d-512231a0c9aa?shareToken=a2be6368ec3ec1a7a1e413545f54b9d9

To sign,
⬇️
www.mumsnet.com/talk/petitions_noticeboard/4758082-petition-to-update-the-equality-act-thread-3

Then to write to your MP
sex-matters.org/take-action/write-to-your-mp-about-the-petition/

Apologies... Better Best Forgotten!

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105,801 signatures
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And so to bed. As it's certainly not going to hit the next palindrome tonight! But it's knocked off three hundred towards the next one since earlier yesterday, so it will arrive sooner or later!

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/623243

Night night

Good morning!

105,861

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/623243

And a good morning to you!

105,874 signatures, a new thousand marker is not far off now, only another 126 to go!

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/623243

Then tell your MP you've signed by clicking the link below

sex-matters.org/take-action/write-to-your-mp-about-the-petition/

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105,961 signatures
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I'm saying good afternoon as my morning post doesn't seem to have posted 🤨
Good afternoon all!

Dog ate your homework did it?

This is agonising slow but I daren't look away in case a quick rush of signing happens!

105964 signatures.

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/623243

This petition will soon have 106,000 signatures.

To sign,
⬇️
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/623243

To let your MP know you have signed, or to help you write your own letter:
sex-matters.org/take-action/write-to-your-mp-about-the-petition/

To understand more about the issues:
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mps-to-debate-gender-petition-backed-by-jk-rowling-qh0h0bctk
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/4534821c-bf89-11ed-b52d-512231a0c9aa?shareToken=a2be6368ec3ec1a7a1e413545f54b9d9

Hello, @Boiledbeetle @IcakethereforeIam @EndlessTea et al
We seem to be back to this not appearing on ‘Active’.

This is what Mumsnet eventually wrote back about this happening on the last thread. Can you work out why this one might be disappearing?:

How would having people put it on their ‘follow list’ let new people notice it?

…………………………………

Hello ScrollingLeaves,

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you. Our settings for Active are designed so that the newest threads appear first. We've done it this way so that fewer threads will go unanswered. This does, of course, mean that longer threads don't get preference and so to mitigate that we're changing the limit for threads in trending from newer than 30 days to 60 days.

We'd also encourage you to tell people to add the topic to their follow list - this means it will appear at the top of the topics page - and add the thread to their watch list.

We hope that explains things. The threads are nevertheless proving popular as we can see #3 is nearly full.

Best wishes,

Becky

MNHQ

Huh? This thread is 8 days old! And already it's aged out and on the scrapheap! Good job us lot do it because were addicted!!

105,976 signatures

106,000 signatures

if you haven't already you've still got time to sign. Go to 👇

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/623243

And then click on 👇

sex-matters.org/take-action/write-to-your-mp-about-the-petition/

To inform your MP that you've signed the petition.