Complaints about the literacy level required to respond to the GRA

[theOtherPamAyres]

I am getting feedback that, despite guidelines and helpful notes, people are finding it impossible to fill in the GRA consultation.

I am going to raise the matter with my MP and I would urge anyone else to draw attention to this insurmountable barrier to participation.

It's almost as if the government only want to hear from "the right sort" of person and organisation.

around question 17 i just wanted it to end

My husband really struggled and he was using the FPFW guide to fill it in.

It took me hours.

We're both degree educated and English is our first language. It was highly confusing.

I am hoping to get it done this weekend. I’m about as well informed as I can be about the issues, but the consultation looks daunting to complete. I’m not the most educated or eloquent of people but I’ll give it my best shot. DP wants to do it too, but written communication is not her strongest suit, so I’m thinking the Word document method might be the best, then we can just cut-and-paste into both submissions.

I used to work in Government policy and I struggled!

Basically they need:

-Do you think humans can change sex Yes/no

-Do you think male-bodied people should be let into women only spaces? Yes/no

Should people be allowed to be officially recognised as the opposite sex because they say they are? Yes/no

I think that pretty much covers it.

I also think it's worth giving examples where you can, e.g. of men in women's prisons, male athletes running in women's races, men in women's refuges etc. It doesn't take long to find cases - just google them or hunt around this board.

hackmum - I suggested on another thread that it might be useful to have a list of examples that we can include for the questions.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3371667-The-consultation

I think some of the RL meetings scheduled before the submission date are targeted at persuading women to fill in forms and express personal perspectives.

A lot of these gov consultations are formatted like this. I firmly believe it is a strategy to limit the number of complete and coherent responses.

Putting the consultation online excludes a lot of people, but what we really need is for the government committee to pay proper attention this time to representation from women's expertise in child protection, frontline refuges, rape crisis, prisons, sport and so on

I've done 5 of these now (supporting family members).

My first one took 2 hrs

We relied on the Fairplay and WPUK (though there's one question where the orgs give opposite answers. Think its one abt 'living as a woman') There's no way friends and family who might be newish to this could complete.

I always pre prepare answers in Word
I always complete the GRA in one go. If you have a Word doc it takes 10 mins
If you cut and paste note that URL links (which I include linking to sources/press coverage) won't transfer across as URL links

I always struggle with the armed forces and insurance quesions

Putting the consultation online excludes a lot of people, but what we really need is for the government committee to pay proper attention this time to representation from women's expertise in child protection, frontline refuges, rape crisis, prisons, sport and so on

YY. But I suspect they will use Miller's bullshit report for that part. As if nothing has changed.

What I'd really like to know is which people had a hand in drawing up this 'consultation'.

TBF the government recognised that this is a complex issue and also produced the simple guide to it. Unfortunately that is so simple - and patronising and clipart-tastic - that it misses the point in a number of places, and I worry about people only reading that and not understanding what the issues actually are

I raised this with my MP.

I also put it into the context of deliberate sabotage to interfere with the democratic process during the consultation process by:

• bodies like Leeds City Council

• Maria Miller, Penny Mordaunt setting the tone of the debate (by declaring that there should be no debate around TWAW and that dissent would not be entertained). This stance encouraged extremists to sabotage meetings and label women's groups as hate groups.

*A failure of local authorities to carry out their public sector equality duty to facilitate discussion between people sharing protected characteristics.

I will also mention the barriers to participation in the consultation thingy itself.

Hello - lurker here!
I completed it last night and it took much longer than I had expected, despite using the FairPlay for women guidance.
It felt as though the government did not want the views of non-trans people and the wording of the questions was unnecessarily complicated. If I was not very motivated, or not well educated, or didn’t speak English as a first language I would probably have given up.

I know a FPFW leafler spoke to a homeless woman who was concerned about the changes but had no access to a computer to fill in the consultation.

I know a FPFW leafler spoke to a homeless woman who was concerned about the changes but had no access to a computer to fill in the consultation.

There is often talk about Refuges but homeless projects also have single sex spaces etc and the single women who are homeless are very vulnerable.

If anyone is speaking to MPs etc about literacyy, do have a look at the easy read guidance.
'Easy read' has standards for language, font, images etc to make the text accessible for specific groups eg learning disabilities, low levels of literacy, young people, foreign language speakers etc

The content is also important though and there are some serious issues with the guide (which are especially concerning given the target audience)
(extract)
The Government is wanting to
improve the way that people can
lawfully change their gender in
England and Wales.

This document explains the proposals.

The Government wants to know what
you think about these proposals. (cont)

Gender
When we are born, our parents say
that we are either male or female.

This is recorded on our birth
certificate.

As we grow up we start to understand
more about gender.

Most people will be quite happy with
being the gender that was written
down when they were born.

Trans people may feel that they are a
different gender to the one that was
recorded at birth.

They may not feel like either a male or
a female.

Trans people
Being trans is not a mental illness.

Trans people face many barriers to
taking part in things.

Some young trans people take their
own life or harm themselves.

Trans people face discrimination and
bullying. (continues)

If you want more information please
contact:
Post:
Government Equalities Office
(Department for Education)
Sanctuary Buildings
Great Smith Street
London SW1 P 3
Email: [email protected]

consult.education.gov.uk/government-equalities-office/reform-of-the-gender-recognition-act/user_uploads/final-gra-consultation-easy-read-lo-res_v3.pdf

That's so true. How are homeless women supposed to get a voice in this? Or people with a different language, culture, background? Most people just don't have the time to spend worrying about the definition of "woman" because it's so obvious who a woman is. The trans activist concepts are incomprehensible even for fluent English speakers with a higher education.
It's quite elitist, actually.

It seems that the process has been designed to exclude as many people as possible, from the wording of the survey itself to the fact that it's basically been hidden in the attic in a box marked "Nothing to see here" to the fact that it requires a decent internet connection and a lot of time to complete to the fact that it's worded as if self-ID is the assumed outcome and this is just meant to rubber stamp it.

If they genuinely wanted to know what the public thinks this isn't how they'd be going about that.

How are homeless women supposed to get a voice in this? Or people with a different language, culture, background? Most people just don't have the time to spend worrying about the definition of "woman" because it's so obvious who a woman is. The trans activist concepts are incomprehensible even for fluent English speakers with a higher education.
It's quite elitist, actually.

Similar issues with the survey monkey questionaire created by Edward Lord for City of London Corporation:
threads:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3380245-The-City-of-London-consultation-didn-t-go-quite-as-they-hoped

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3320557-City-of-Londons-sneaky-Consultation-to-end-its-Single-Sex-Spaces-in-Sunday-Times

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3317922-City-of-London-Corporation-consultation-is-out-this-covers-Hampstead-Ponds

I'd completely agree. I have no issues with writing but absolutely hated filling this in.

If they genuinely wanted to know what the public thinks this isn't how they'd be going about that.
Well exactly AAK. It seems they don't want the public's opinion.

It took me 3 days to fill the blasted thing in. I kept having to stop from sheer anger (and DD wanted to use the computer).
Some of the questions were about how transpeople would be affected. There were no questions about how women would be affected. I did point this out when I answered the question about how transpeople are affected by the change in law to self ID as regards to refuges. They did not want to know how women would be affected if self ID came in. Considering it's women who use women's refuges (as an escape from men) it seems that whomever wrote these questions do not consider women to have any right to talk about their experiences. The whole consultation stinks.

Have written and saved, so far; BUT:
filling in this fucking consultation is an exercise giving rise to despair and fear regarding the way the questions are framed - the exact wording of the questions and the official government written guidance. Fucking hell. It is so utterly biased against human females.

It's so confusing. I filled in most of it doing the yes/no questions and leaving the essay questions for later and then read FFW's advice and found some of the questions meant the exact opposite of what I had thought - arrrrggggh!

I have tried to fill it in and am RAGING. It's in what I call "CouncilSpeak"; impenetrable and incoherent. And yes, biased.
It should be a fairly straightforward form, also available in hard copy with freepost to post it back.
Homeless women absolutely need to be able to fill it in, as do female prisoners, prostitutes who got little education due to leaving care early, speakers of other languages, schoolgirls, cleaners and just fucking any woman. Every woman
As it is its aimed at trans people NOT women and is really off putting and long winded.
This issue affects us all, but the MOST vulnerable women-incarcerated, or bound by religious tenets and without the language, they are the ones most grievously affected by self id.
I will finish it, and some of the women I know are doing it, but it pisses me off how the powers that be use opaque language to strangle democracy.