Council motion

[Couragetocourage]

I had a previous thread on this but I’ve decided I’m definitely going to go for it in the wake of Liverpool and Leeds. Meeting is in November so the consultation in past tense. Does this sound okay? Anything I should add/remove?

Council believes that:

The current criteria which has to be met in order to get a Gender Recognition Certificate, including

1. having lived as your intended gender for the previous two years, and 2. intending to live as that gender for the rest of your life

strikes the right balance between trans and women’s rights. Also that the consultation carried out regarding changes to this criteria was badly publicised with most of the public unaware of it, conducted wholly online and so disenfranchising swathes of people, imposed no minimum age upon who could complete the consultation, didn’t actually consult women about their concerns, and could not be discussed freely with women’s voices shouted down and meetings shut down.

This Council resolves to
-recognise that the proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act to enable anyone to self identify, by law, without fulfilling any of the above criteria, as the opposite gender would have a detrimental impact upon the hard won rights of women.
-acknowledge that women are entitled to sex-based protections under the Equality Act 2010 which the principle of self-identification would undermine.
-affirm that the proposed changes would leave self-identification open to abuse, threatening the safety, privacy, and dignity of women.
-state that the proposed changes would render the gathering of sex based data impossible, including with regards to crime statistics and political representation.

This Council calls upon the Government
-to conduct an openly publicised, and respectfully debated, consultation for women so that they can voice their concerns without intimidation.
-to consult with women’s organisations on how self-declaration would impact upon women-only services and spaces.
-to carry out a review of how the exemptions in the Equality Act which allow for single sex services or requirements that only a woman can apply for a job (such as in a domestic violence refuge) are being applied in practice.
-to consult on how self-declaration will impact upon data gathering – such as crime, employment, pay and health statistics – and monitoring of sex-based discrimination such as the gender pay gap.

I would change
'strikes the right balance between trans and women’s rights'

to
'strikes the right balance between the rights of transgender people and women.'

Best of luck!

Thank you! Will do.

That's brilliant OP.

This is fantastic. Thank you for taking a stand.

Good luck! Thank-you for speaking up for women.

Thank you! There aren’t any glaring errors, are they?

Do you also want to mention the current requirement to have a diagnosis of gender dysphoria?

I think you can respond off-line to the consultation (although I think anyone who isn't online is even less likely to have heard about the consultation than the rest of the public).

Looks really good to me.

If the council is responsible for any Leisure Services and facilities, I would consider adding something about women's sport, maybe? Actually, it looks a bit odd in the point below. I'm just thinking out loud.

-to consult with women’s organisations on how self-declaration would impact upon women-only services, sports and spaces.

I think you can respond off-line to the consultation (although I think anyone who isn't online is even less likely to have heard about the consultation than the rest of the public). You’re right, I’ve checked and there’s a ‘write to’ address. I’m not sure about how anyone not online would get that address though?

Good shout about adding sports in, I’ll do that.

I actually did have gender dyphoria in the initial draft. Perhaps I should add it back in.

*dysphoria

Perhaps you could mention that not one person on the planet has "changed sex"?

I’ve got to get it through the Council though, Infidel, and I don’t know how many of the other councillors are fully aware of the issues. I find that it’s a hard path to not be accused of bigotry the first time I bring it up with people who have never discussed it and are supportive of transgender people, thinking of them as the ones we’ve been sharing facilities with for years.