Is it time to repeal the Gender Recognition Act?

[PikesPeaked]

Surely it is time to recognise and accept that sex is genetically fixed and unchangeable?

That girl/woman and boy/man refer to specific sexes at specific states in their development.

That it is not possible to change from one to the other, but that it is possible and permissible to present yourself as either.

That nobody can be obliged to behave in a particular gendered manner. Men and women should, for example, be permitted to wear the uniform of the opposite sex (as long as it does not interfere with them carrying out their jobs).

That insisting that you are a woman with XY chromosomes, or a man with XX chromosomes, is Gender Dysphoria, a mental illness on a par with any other body dysphorias, and deserves compassionate treatment.

That appropriate treatment should be available for GD, but that hormonal or surgical treatment should be forbidden before the age of 18. This would include puberty blocking.

That there should be no more stigma to having GD than to having any other mental illness, such as depression or anorexia. And people with GD should not be discriminated against because of their condition.

That the only time 'gender' can be changed retrospectively should be in the case of proven Intersex conditions, when suitably qualified medical professionals agree that it would be in the individual's best interest.

And all forms that currently ask people to state their gender should be reworded to ask them to state their sex.

This.

And what Myunicorn said about the Equality Act.

In addition to this someone needs to go through all legislation and do a find replace with gender to sex...

Yes

I agree. The GRA 2004 is a bad law; it legislates a verifiable untruth. And combined with the Equality Act it creates a paradox by allowing men to join the protected characteristic of women - when they are the ones that women need the legal protection from.

As had been said before, same-sex marriage and pension equality has has rendered the need for the GRA obsolete. The only possible remaining benefit is to support the delusions of transsexual people, which is probably not personally useful in the long-term and certainly not the purpose of any law.

It confuses me when I keep reading that most women here don't generally have a problem with the old-school transsexuals, as they understand they are not really a woman. And many (all?) of the transwomen on this board acknowledge their male biology. So it seems the people the GRA was designed to help are not really getting anything out of it either.

If only we could bloomin well talk about this properly! Instead, we keep compounding the problem by adding more bad laws, altering facts on official records, possibly creating a registry for non-binary people, etc. We are now at the point of criminalising people for hate speech for refusing to say a lie. We need to start from scratch, identify the group of people who need legal protection, talk about what they need, and then incorporate something suitable (possibly gender non-conformity) in the Equality Act.

How does one actually go about repealing an act?

Yes ItsAllGoingToBeFine. It really doesn't help when our laws use sex and gender interchangeably.

Does gender mean:
(a) sex
(b) a hierarchy of sexist stereotypes
(c) an innate (or fluid) sense of being a man or a woman?

Can make conversations complicated sometimes!

Dunno Patodp, but there might be a fund somewhere...

Yes I agree entirely xx

Yes. The act was put in place as a work-around because gay marriage wasn't legal at the time, and is obsolete now that it is.

I agree.

This should be a request of the trans community also?

Absolutely

yes!

It will take a sea change in society attitudes, not legislation to work. I had a discussion with a transwoman who thinks if she was able to do feminine things with dress/behaviour/toys and hobbies etc. as a boy and young man without judgement she may not have transitioned. I know my views aren't popular on this subject but its a serious point. We now have children assuming that being trans is the only way out of the stereotypes of their assigned gender.

Would it also mean the old-school-transsexuals should revert to their birth gender and the consequences it would bring?

Actually, mummy, I think most gender critical women would agree that if gender roles were less strict and it was OK for boys to be feminine and girls not to be then a lot of people wouldn't have felt the need to transition. We've been saying so for a long time.

Yes.
The act is bad law.
I think it was knowingly passed as bad law on the false premise that the impact was statistically so miniscule that harm to society was tolerably acceptable. An acceptable wrong.

The premise was false, the harm is inconceivably huge, and we need to get rid and start over with law that reflects reality.

Sometimes I dare to hope that the UK will be the first country to take this course of action. We seem to be the only one forcing the debate to happen. Even if we fail, it will not be a permanent state of affairs, I believe.

I'm incredibly proud to be in the virtual company of you all and the many women who are relentlessly Not Letting This Go.

I agree, but I think we are a long long way from this being an acceptable thing for any politician to propose.

I think so, yes. It has done far more harm than good.

Agree with you completely OP.
But I sadly also agree with a PP who said it is harder to repeal exisiting legislation [GRC] than it is to block new legislation from coming in to existance [Self ID].

And also agree with Owt that we are a long way from any politician or political party believing this is a plattform on which they could stand and fight.

Following on from Mummybear and Angrykittens,
Alongside a campaign to repeal the act there should be a huge national campaign to promote gender non-conformity in children without the label "trans"

Like a boy wearing pike playing with a dolls house and a girl playing with toy trucks (or whatever) with a message that we love you the way you are. My gender non conforming girl is perfect the way she is. No need for pronoun change.

I wonder if feminists could get together and do something like this. Make a bunch of YouTube videos and circulate them... Get a Channel4 film made.

Boy wearing pike? PINK

Protesting some of this feels impossible for some folk afraid of the backlash.

But a campaign to abandon gender stereotypes (ie abandon the notion of gender) aimed at inclusivity and young people. Who could object to that.

Especially if the message is positive, trying to avoid "trans is bad" but embrace
"gender non conformity is wonderful and a freedom for males and females who should feel beautiful just the way they are"