Kesstrel, thank you, and I agree that this is a war for common sense that will be won by showing restraint and let others over react.
People not polarised towards one view or the other - who are in the majority - will respond to that far better than trying to judge who has the biggest rant.
More importantly, politicians will decide how to vote based on how millions of ordinary women (and some men) might vote for or against them based on what they say and do.
Not on how many Feminists or trans activists are arguing on line.
Havoc, is there any evidence in real life over the past 50 years or up to the past three years or so when this push by trans activists has got underway that there were issues in women's spaces?
I do not recall reading press stories every day about 'men' undressing in swimming baths on days set aside for women. Or public fights, because transsexuals have never been very litigious.
Yes, things have changed recently and this now is a mess.
But they have not changed because of the GRA and the few thousand it covers. They have changed because hundreds of thousands of others want access to that but presently cannot.
So two things really have to happen.
Firstly, we do not let the changes to the GRA utterly redefine the world around us. Because the only ones who want that badly are the ones wanting it because they cannot do so under current rules.
Secondly, we have to get someone to legally clarify the exemptions and allowances of the GRA versus the Equality Act. We need clear advice to then be issued to everywhere - from stores and swimming pools, the Guides to schools and courts of law and train stations.
Right now places were just assuming that the GRA covers all those who self identify when it does not. It assumes GRCs are common when they are not. There seems a lot of no saying going on to prevent sensible requests for affirmation of status. Such as you cannot ask to see a GRC. Or you must presume gender of choice at all times so just accept self declaration.
The way that the London train system over reacted last year shows this. When a trans woman was accidentally misgendered by a station staff member, rather than just advise staff not to presume gender if at all unsure and use a neutral term to be safe - which would be proportionate and upset nobody. They instead changed all the announcement recordings to remove reference to 'Ladies and Gentlemen' in case it offended trans people who were neither or might think it was calling them the wrong thing.
On the one hand this is just plain stupid and amusing but it is actually very symptomatic of a far greater problem that more and more places are following. If in doubt assume the trans community will claim a crime and so act first, change anything out of fear and avoid bad press.
This, in my view, is ridiculous and needs to stop as it helps nobody.
No sensible, genuine trans person is going to over react at a mistake. No sensible, genuine trans person is going to expect the world to alter everything to suit them.
And if they do then they need disabusing of that idea of privilege because the world does not work like that.
So we should be pressing politicians and lawyers to issue a clear statement of how the GRA and the Equality Act interact and exactly what rights under UK law currently exist.
The GRA should not be subsumed under the Equality Act's more fuzzy wording. It is leading to the false belief that self ID has happened.
I think that there are some broader rights that can be granted within the remit of the Equality Act without any change of law.
But I also believe that there are rights and spaces and exclusions that have to apply outside of the GRA, as that should always be a more onerous standard set for inclusion. It should be something a trans person has to work to achieve and to prove suitability for wider acceptance by society.
So clarify what those rights are and the difference between having a GRA and just what is covered by the Equality Act. As right now I don't think anybody knows. So everyone is just assuming the worst.
Also make a register of who has a GRA accessible to all under reasonable grounds. Ditto with regards altered birth certificates as already happens to cover situations of need to know.
This way disputes can be settled. Want to be on an All Woman's Short List? Fine, apply. But you have to be on the GRA list to do so. That fact does not have to be declared but it is easily checked by the person running the AWSL.
Common sense is needed to chart a path out of this mess and right now not a lot of it is happening out there.
But it needs to start with a clear understanding of what the GRA and the EA say about sex and gender and what they each allow and disallow. That can be done quite simply by a working party.
Surely that has to happen before any sensible debate about allowing self ID and wholesale changes to the GRA are even on the table?