I've spent a bit of time digging and trying to work out exactly what this bill is about, or likely to be about, given we don't have the wording yet. This will probably be a bit long and dry, but might be useful to some. I needed to get my thoughts in order.
Info post
This bill proposes to change the 2010 Equality Act. Mariah Miller is Chair of the Women & Equalities Committee and the MP bringing this bill.
All we have so far is:
A Bill to make gender identity a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010 in place of gender reassignment and to make associated provision for transgender and other persons; and for connected purposes.
The Women & Equalities Committee report on trans equality is here. There is a section in the report about changing 'transgender reassignment' to 'transgender identity' in the EA here.
According to this report:
- the term 'gender reassignment' is 'outdated and confusing'.
- It fails to protect trans people who are not proposing to have anything to do with the medical profession.
- it fails to protect 'broader kinds of trans identities' such as non-binary people.
The proposed solution is to change the wording in the EA from 'gender reassignment' to 'gender identity'. The report suggests adopting the Yogyakarta Principles, in which 'gender identity' is defined as:
each person’s deeply felt internal and individual experience of gender, which may or may not correspond with the sex assigned at birth, including the personal sense of the body (which may involve, if freely chosen, modification of bodily appearance or function by medical, surgical or other means) and other expressions of gender, including dress, speech and mannerisms.
A lawyer has been engaged to turn this into workable legislation. Claire McCann was quoted in the report as saying:
Clearly, in my view, the addition of “gender identity”—if defined as referring to each person’s internal and individual experience of gender, which may or may not correspond with the sex assigned at birth—will widen the protected characteristic within s.7 of [the Equality Act] to include elements of the “transgender” community more widely.
She had a lot more to say than that, you can read her full report here.
If 'gender reassignment' is changed to 'gender identity' in the EA, McCann proposes that:
a legislative amendment might look as follows:
“Gender identity refers to each person’s internal and individual experience of gender, which may or may not correspond with the sex assigned to that person at birth, including the personal sense of the body (which may involve, if freely chosen, modification of bodily appearance or functions by medical, surgical or other means) and other expressions of gender, including name, dress, speech and mannerisms36. It includes references to a person who is proposing to undergo, is undergoing or has undergone a process (or part of a process) for the purpose of reassigning the person’s sex by changing physiological or other attributes of sex”.
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The further aims of this bill could be anything:
to make associated provision for transgender and other persons; and for connected purposes.
The other thing Miller could go after connected with the EA is the exemption for female sex-segregated spaces, services etc. to exclude transwomen. This is where toilets, prisons, shelters, crisis services, changing rooms, sports etc. etc. come in. Women's orgs, services etc. already have to show they have a legitimate reason for excluding transwomen and that they are doing their best to provide for transwomen via alternative arrangements if they cannot accommodate them in their mainstream services. I need to check this but my understanding is that the report recommends removing this exemption for anyone who has a GRC - i.e. anybody who has a GRC will be allowed in all female spaces and categories.
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This is not a 'self-identification' bill - that would require a change to the gender recognition act. The report recommends that too though so keep watching!
The combination of this bill (which is unlikely to pass this time) plus a change to the gender recognition act would spell the end of sex segregated spaces and services.