I wrote an email complaining the her statement theta the debate starts with "Transwomen are women" was not an open one and have had a reply... I am still pondering some of the less than clear areas!
I am writing on behalf of the Minister for Women and Equalities to thank you for your email of 3 July regarding the Government’s consultation on reforming the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) 2004. May I first apologise for the delay in responding to you.
Ministers are always grateful when people take the time and trouble to write on important issues such as those detailed in your email.
In your email, you commented on the statement made by the Minister in a recent interview, that trans women are women. Having witnessed the unhelpful and potentially damaging tone of the recent debate surrounding trans issues, the Minister felt it was important to emphasise publicly that people should be respected in the gender with which they identify and live in. The Minister believes that respecting the right of others to make choices about their own identities is an important part of living harmoniously together in a diverse society. Indeed, it is a right that is protected under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and it is the basis upon which the system for gender recognition was originally established back in 2004.
With regard to the GRA consultation, the Government wishes to emphasise that this is an open consultation – we are not putting forward any specific proposals for how we want the system to change, beyond saying that we want to make the application process less bureaucratic and intrusive for trans people. Only after we have gathered all the evidence and listened to all the views expressed during the consultation process will we make a decision on what the new gender recognition system will look like.
The Government wishes to make clear that this consultation is in no way a fait accompli – it is a genuinely open process, during which we want to hear the views and concerns of all interested parties, and no decision has yet been taken about the future of the GRA. We know that many have expressed concerns about the potential wider impact of any changes to the GRA; during the consultation process, the Government wishes to ensure that it deals appropriately with all the concerns that have been raised, from all sides of the debate.
From our extensive pre-consultation engagement work, we know that there are many people who have concerns about the potential knock-on effects of any changes to the GRA on the rights of women. We have heard, in particular, about the potential impacts on the right to operate women’s-only spaces such as domestic violence refuges. We understand this point of view and we know that many of those who express it are doing so from a place of sincere concern for the safety of vulnerable women. Indeed, we absolutely agree that maintaining access to single-sex spaces in some circumstances is important and helps to keep vulnerable women in particular safe.
That is why we have consistently made it clear that the Equality Act 2010, and its exceptions for single- and separate-sex services, will not change as a result of this consultation. The Equality Act allows service providers to provide single- or separate-sex services for women and men, or provide services differently to women and men, in certain circumstances. An example of such a circumstance may be the restriction of access to a domestic violence refuge to women only. A provider of such services is expected to treat transgender people according to the gender role in which they present. However, the Act permits the service provider, in certain circumstances, to provide a different service or exclude a person who they think has the protected characteristic of gender reassignment from the service, whether or not that person has a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC). This means that the current exceptions will continue to operate in the same way as before following any changes to the process of applying for a GRC. Trans women may therefore, in certain circumstances, still be prevented from accessing single-sex spaces under the Equality Act. However, this can only be determined on a case-by-case basis – service providers who make use of the exceptions must be able to convincingly demonstrate that doing so is a proportionate means of meeting a legitimate aim. It is up to service providers to interpret the law depending on the individual circumstances of the case.
We think that this approach, which has been in operation since 2010, strikes the right balance between upholding the rights of trans people, ensuring that the availability of women-only spaces is maintained, and entrusting the people on the front-line – the service providers – to take decisions about what is right for their service users.
The Government is actively considering the impact on the wider population of any changes to the GRA, and our consultation provides an opportunity for people to share their thoughts on such issues. In all our work on this issue, we are mindful of everyone’s concerns and we are seeking to find the most judicious balance of the various different rights that are in play here. However, we also remain convinced of the need to act in order to address the stigma and discrimination that trans people face in society on account of their transgender status. In pursuit of this goal, we will not undermine the hard-won rights of women but, equally, we are not prepared to take any course of action that risks marginalising further another historically marginalised group