Important - The Equality Act guidance has just changed

[WatchThePotatoesBoil]

I've just this minute been told by the EHRC that the Equality Act guidance has been changed, and the new version was published on Friday as promised to Fair Play for Woman.

It no longer states:

Where someone has a gender recognition certificate they should be treated in their acquired gender for all purposes and therefore should not be excluded from single sex services.

It now states:

Transsexual people should not be routinely asked to produce their Gender Recognition Certificate (if they have one) as evidence of their legal sex. If a business requires proof of a person’s legal sex, then their birth certificate should be sufficient confirmation.

There will of course, now be a new Twitter war on what this actually means.

www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/what-equality-law-means-for-your-business-2018.pdf

The above messages from me in this thread represent the full extent of the changes that I personally was able to detect in the updated document.

Nothings about dysphoria in there, then. Just that you are issued one if you seek it.

I'll have to read it properly. Does it say against the whom the less favourable treatment is measured? i.e. Is it comparing males or females when considering MTF or FTM?

I don't think the changes are anything to celebrate. I am still baffled by the lack of consideration of other parties in this whole area of legislation and practice. Has the effect on others been considered and discounted or just not considered at all?

Thank you Potatoes for all these posts.

gender recognition certificate - A certificate issued under the Gender Recognition Act to a transsexual person who seeks such a certificate

ALL THE FOLLOWInG removed . ( and has, or has had, gender dysphoria, has lived in the acquired gender throughout the preceding two years, and intends to continue to live in the acquired gender until death)

Looks like they are planning to get rid of GRC altogether. No conditions except to seek one.
No-one can "routinely" see it. Think Mordaunt will just recommend self ID and straight to birth certificate change . No questions asked. Questions are transphobic don't ya know?

So the definition of gender reassignment now explicitly states changing from one sex to another? It used to say one gender to another. That's interesting.

I don’t see anything positive there at all

We need to be actively campaigning to repeal.

In short, ask for a birth certificate for proof of sex. Don't ask to see a GRC.

Fat lot of use that is.

When you've arrested someone and they claim to be a woman, but look like a man, and they don't have their birth certificate on them, what are you going to do? Who carries their birth certificate on them? (Answer: possibly transexuals but no-one else)

The detainee has to be searched and either put in a male or female cell (ie a different wing of the building, supervised by a female). An instant decision is called for - will a male or female officer perform the search and care for the detainee?

What are you supposed to do? Take the detainee's word that they are female? Go ahead and search them using a male officer - and open yourself up to a civil action? Put them in a female cell with another woman, with all the attendant risks - and possibly a civil action brought by the woman?

Come on, EHRC. This isn't guidance. This isn't even helpful.

Exclusion of male-bodied transwomen needs to be the default position. (Even with a female birth certificate and a GRC)

Gender reassignment - The process of changing or transitioning from one sex to another. See also transsexual person.

I think that's quite significant. The pretence that this is about 'gender' is gone. It highlights the conflict between the GRA and the Equality Act. The GRA needs to go.

Those definitions....
Gender reassignment is the process of changing from one sex to another?!
That's not actually physically possible, dear UK government!

Could this be a candidate for judicial review? The guidance interprets the acts for the public, but has it been drawn up with consideration for how this interpretation of the law for one group impacts on other groups and makes it practically impossible to use the exemptions?

And in the context of what looks like a shift to remove sex from the law, this really isn't a drill is it.

Did someone after the EA came in go "oh fuck, this doesn't work. Better keep trying to fudge it and see who wins when it all kicks off"?

you are right pencils, if someone can get a new Birth Cert, and the only thing services are allowed to ask for is bc then it makes no difference.

Really the EA and GRA are very badly written law. I don't think they should re issue new bc, its not needed now, as pensions and marriage are no longer a problem.

God i feel fucking sick of this tonight. This is a men's problem that we have been lumbered with and our rights have been fucked. feeling ranty.

I think it’s a step forward

Getting rid of the gender dysphoria provision means self id.

Agree with the repeal sentiment.
I think it’s helpful to state as much in GRA consultation responses.

Given that everyone knows that people can’t really change sex and these days, there aren’t any other rights that you can’t get as a transitioning person any more - cause the Equality Act ensures that people are protected - I can’t see what protections would be removed if the GRA was repealed. It’s not necessary now and the push for self ID GRC is being used to undermine safeguarding and women’s rights.

(Would be saying something but yet again fear and self-preservation stop me)

I’m off to bed now, but if anyone has a link to the self ID petition handy could they share it, please? Id like to check the government’s response and what promises were made regarding single sex spaces. Thanks

Really interesting thread. Thank you for all the info.

I agree the GRA should be repealed.

Who has made the decision to revise it? Who advised them?

Wait - they are changing the definition so that "gender reassignment" now means the ability to CHANGE SEX?

Big thanks are due to Fair Play For Women for getting two paragraphs removed that have caused so much tension in these discussions:

Specifically...

(1) DELETED - "Where someone has a gender recognition certificate they should be treated in their acquired gender for all purposes and therefore should not be excluded from single sex services."

(2) DELETED - "[A pub cannot refuse] them access to the toilets appropriate to the sex in which they present."

Personally I do believe that these are both significant changes which will influence the decisions that service providers make around single-sex spaces.

Of course, this in no way reduces the importance of getting as many people as possible to complete the GRA Consultation Survey as described here: fairplayforwomen.com/how-to/

I think this gives service providers more wiggle-room, whilst at the same time highlighting that really, the whole thing needs an overhaul.

So, we’re not really allowed to ask for a birth cert, although the birth cert is lies anyway, because to get a lying birth cert they only need to seek a GRC?

Just fuck off!

I think that falls down to a legal bun-fight over whether "sex recorded at birth" means birth certificate.

Surely "birth certificate" means "birth certificate", not "recorded at birth"?

Otherwise, why refer to it as "recorded at birth"?

Please correct me if I am wrong, but I thought that (at the moment) having a gender recognition certificate would not allow you to get a new/amended birth certificate. I thought a birth certificate remained unchanged?

My source is Wikipedia (yes, I know) so please point me in the right direction if that information is wrong.

I guess what I'm saying, is I hope it means 'natal sex' but I'm in no position to make that assertion...