Does your Local Authority Equality Policy exclude sex as a protected characteristic?

[bananaistheanswer]

Inspired by Jean Hatchet's posts on twitter, I checked mine and colour me shocked, it's been excluded.

Attached below is the list from the EA2010 with my LA's interpretation alongside - note the wording We believe our responsibility for equality is wider than those areas covered by the Equality Act 2010

So removing sex from the list of protected characteristics widens the scope of the EA2010?

So what's your LA equality policy like?

Essex County Council Twitter fobbed me off with telling me to write to my local councillor. Well I've done that at least, wrote to all of them haha

That twitter thread is shocking.

So a Trans councillor in Cambridge, actually persuaded the council, to change the wording of a law,

and they did it specifically so that it was not SEX that mattered with anything that was sex specific (jobs etc) in the council, but GENDER, they specifically made this change to the LAW in order to allow TW access to women only stuff.

And this was years ago.

And they are totally upfront about this and can't see why changing the wording of a LAW in this way is a really iffy thing to do

I want it, so I'm going to simply get the wording of the law written incorrectly on the documents here, so I can have it.

Anyone who believes the recent posts etc saying there is no interest in changing the EA needs to take a look at this.

Can you please link to the Twitter thread?

Is there anyway of creating a full list?

twitter.com/Docstockk/status/1004864074285551616

creating a list

What is known about the Cambridge councillor, what party do they represent?

@ROwantrees Do you want to list each CC that is breaching the EA on sex?

good call R0wantrees

Link to the significant thread re Cambridge CC started by Jean Hatchet with comments by Sarah Brown:

twitter.com/FeministRoar/status/1004787029492797441

Jean's twitter is @ JeanHatchet

OneHourTwentyFourMinutes
There is a list started by Kathleen Stock, see Twitter link above. Might be good if at some point any list here and there could be combined.

Brighton by anychance bananas?? My nhs trust fortunately still use the word sex in their privacy and dignity policy - thus as women or men we have the right to request and be treated by someone of the same sex wherever possible.

So mine says Sex (gender)

They really don't understand the difference do they?

So mine says Sex (gender)

Mine too. It does go on to separate the two in a paragraph further down (in to sex and gender reassignment). I think the fact they put sex (gender) is enough to warrant a compliant as they’ve changed the legal wording

Sarah Brown? Is this a LD Transwoman who asks women to do things to their genitals, and who has an interesting home life? Was Sarah Brown defended by a Labour transwoman - women's officer, who reported a long term female labour councillor and DV expert, because they beat a transwoman and were protecting children by promoting NHS Tavistock gender unit aproved,Transgender trend document?

I think Sarah Brown is also involved in that embarrassing Lib Dem twitter account. I don't think SB is actually a councillor anymore though? Ran in the last local election but lost I think.

Would it be worth compiling a comprehensive list of all the councils and whether they use sex or gender, or both.

I guess what I'm really asking is, does it make a material difference whether a council uses sex or gender as a protected characteristic?
Obviously it does in the case of Cambridge where a transgender activist has personally targeted exemptions made in the EA2010, but how about in councils where there isn't a push to remove the exemptions?

If it didn't matter why are transactivists doing it?

They want to erase the legal declaration that SEX is the reason for discrimination.

Because our sex is the reason that females are discriminated against/abused/have specific medical procedures etc., not gender. Gender doesn’t exist except as a social construct, so the wording is vital because it recognises that there are sex specific reasons for some facilities, not gender. If gender is used, any Tom, Dick or Harry can roll up to a provision meant for females and demand entry

The Scottish Government"Equalties Research Team" also seems to have created their own list of protected characteristics...

www.gov.scot/Topics/Research/by-topic/equalities

I personally do not have a gender, therefore the wording using gender wouldn’t cover me in a case where I am disadvantaged due to being a woman. My sex, however, is immutable, so using sex not gender is vital

Not sure how to do a properly linky to HerFemaleness, there is a list on Women's Place Twitter thread.

Most people don't have a gender, they have a sex that was observed at birth. I am sure using the incorrect term gender instead of sex may be about IT blocking porn, this has to stop.

A small number of people identify with identity issues, they can be related to sex, disability race and so forth. The Labour party allows white able bodied middle-class males to identify into various protected characteristic roles within the party.

Has anybody looked to see if trans activists are dismantling other protected groups in the same ways as they are sex?

Yes, I suppose even if the motivating factor behind the use of gender instead of sex was squeamishness over the word sex, and the policy is using gender as a synonym for sex, it paves the way to the removal of sex based rights for women.

Liverpool city council says sex(gender). It includes gender reassignment but also includes gender identity.
liverpool.gov.uk/council/strategies-plans-and-policies/equality-diversity-and-cohesion/policy-statement/

I'm actually in Sefton the old policy looked correct but there has just been a consultation to update it so we will have to wait for that one.

Not sure how to do a properly linky to HerFemaleness, there is a list on Women's Place Twitter thread.

Is it a list list, or is it people just popping up in the thread to say whether their local council says sex or gender? I'm seeing the latter but nothing like the former.

The North Yorks county council one is worded differently to the LA one

The Equality Act 2010 says that we must not treat people unfairly because of age, disability, sex (gender), gender reassignment, sexual orientation, race, religion or belief, pregnancy or maternity, marriage or civil partnership. These are called “protected characteristics”.

I shall suggest that the word in brackets ie (gender) needs to be removed for legal clarity