Does the government consultation re changes to the GRA start this week? Janice Turner thinks so

[R0wantrees]

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/this-gender-battle-is-harder-to-solve-than-brexit-0jc0pn867
Janice Turner The Times:

(extract)
If Brexit is the most divisive issue in British politics, requiring a talent for squaring ideological circles and cajoling compromises from bitter enemies, reform of the 2004 Gender Recognition Act (GRA) runs it a close second. The consultation, long-delayed while three successive ministers for women and equalities scratched their heads, is finally launched on Tuesday.

Although even that isn’t official. Bizarrely the government wouldn’t confirm (or deny) the date. But I’ve seen emails: groups will give evidence in late July, a sleepy summer recess slot calculated, perhaps, to contain the GRA firestorm. Some chance.

Opposing forces are drilled for battle. On one side the trans lobby, including Stonewall and Gendered Intelligence, who claim changes to the process by which a trans person acquires a gender recognition certificate (GRC) are merely a tiny administrative tweak. On the other, feminist activists who fear that a legal redefinition of “woman” from biological sex to the nebulous, inner feeling of “gender identity” threatens female safety and privacy....

Most controversially she sought to replace the GRC process whereby a person must live in their new gender for two years and have a diagnosis of “gender dysphoria” (a mental disorder whereby a person feels their identity is opposed to their biological sex). Instead Mrs Miller proposed “self-identify”, ie a man could simply declare himself a woman with no requirement to transition physically.

The report caused a furore. Without hearing evidence from a single women’s group, Mrs Miller also proposed abolishing exemptions to the 2010 Equality Act which allow domestic violence refuges or hostels to admit only biological women. Interviewing Mrs Miller last year, I was flabbergasted by how little she had thought this through. She saw no conflict of rights at all: women, she said, must learn to accept without challenge male-bodied people using their changing rooms."
(continues)

Link to previous thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3269463-Government-response-to-the-petition

I wonder what this week’s threat/goading theme will be?

I found it

'Mean feminists are ignoring trans teenagers by worrying about women's safe spaces'

So it's the 'vulnerable kids' but with a new twist - the claim that actually talking about women's safety has a negative impact on teenage mental health.

Never forget transactivist Rebecca Root's awful quote on Victoria Derbyshire: 'The suicide statistics are in our favour'.

Mean feminists are ignoring trans teenagers by worrying about women's safe spaces

Of course, mean feminists have never spoken about children's best interests. Of course they haven't.

What nonsense.

Never forget transactivist Rebecca Root's awful quote on Victoria Derbyshire: 'The suicide statistics are in our favour'.

This was the first time that I heard the 'argument' that as some women had hystectomies trans women were similarly women because they didn't have uteruses, also made by Rebecca Root

There were also appalling demands made of a woman who was speaking about her experience of needing to use refuge following domestic violence.

Can no-one else see the overlap between the need to protect vulnerable teens (including those who are struggling with trans issues) and the need to retain women only spaces?

yes!

It feels like there is a lot of wilful blindness when it comes to this issue.

Will there be a public announcement, do you reckon, when the consultation opens or will I have to trawl the website?!

This is the line they will be pushing. Victoria D could not have signalled it more clearly: place trans kids in direct opposition to women's and girls' safeguarding.

It must be challenged hard with the studies that show suicide rates remain high after transition: and that suicide ideation is the same in all other children who have mental health issues. ROGD will also be incredibly important, as will detransitioners.

From the extended interview with Nick Robinson, Paris Lees made it explicitly clear that in any debate she wanted the focus to be on children and young people.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3270344-Paris-Lees-interviewed-by-Nick-Robinson-on-Radio-4-now-on

From significant article in The Guardian 2013:
'Voices from the trans community: 'There will always be prejudice'

(extract)
"Part of Burchill's critique of trans campaigners was to suggest they are a small, educated minority who punch well above their weight. Whittle admits trans people tend to be well educated but says this is a legacy of them having no jobs to go to. Whittle, Lees and Burns all came from humble beginnings and are now smart, networked individuals.

In 25 years, Barrett has seen trans people become "a networked bunch" – more so than other people, he thinks – thanks to the internet. Lees, who also works for Trans Media Action, says social media is the "essential catalyst" for the transformation of trans people in society. "Society is in transition and we've woken up from the operation and there's no going back. We can't pretend that trans people don't exist any more," she says. "People have been taking the piss out of trans people for 60 years. The narrative on trans issues has been controlled by people who have no understanding of them. Social media is about us grabbing the narrative back and telling our own stories – this is our reality, this is what we go through and this is what matters to us. We're here, we're in your face, we definitely exist. That's the most important thing – realising we exist." (continues)

www.theguardian.com/society/2013/jan/22/voices-from-trans-community-prejudice

What's it like to be LGBT in the UK today? That's the question on tomorrows You & Yours phone in - a Radio 4 consumer affairs show (12.15 - 13.00)

I think this is a warm up to the GRA consultation being launched this week. Basically, I think it will be the TRA show - a chance for the BBC to do some more GRA propaganda. I think that gender critical lesbian, gay and bi-sexual voices should get an airing.

They want submissions for tomorrows show. This is a brilliant programme - and they have some of the best producers working in the British media right now. Let's write in and tell them what we think.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qps9/contact

Fairplay For Women press release in response to the Govt announcement tomorrow:
fairplayforwomen.com/press_consult/

Request on twitter to share to media outlets.