Because I think they've got it spot on in terms of finding a sensible way forward for everyone. I don't actually agree with them that there should be a presumption that a female's gender is woman until she signs a declaration otherwise (I'd prefer that no-one has a gender until they expressly choose one), but ultimately that's a side-issue, and I think they are spot on in saying that people should be able to change a gender categorization if they so want, but that for a number of purposes this won't change their existing sex categorization.
www.theguardian.com/society/2018/oct/19/gender-recognition-act-reforms-six-legal-views-transgender-debate
Freedman and Auchmuty's contribution is:
"Sex and gender are different, and the law treats them as categories distinct from one another. Sex is a protected characteristic in law, whereas gender identity currently is not. Although trans advocates conflate sex and gender or use them interchangeably, we insist that only by maintaining them as separate categories will we be able to reconcile the concerns of both those who identify as transgender and those who are women as defined and protected by the Equality Act.
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Self-identification would remove the pathologisation of transgender – in line with the World Health Organization view – and the long, demoralising process of obtaining a GRC. Our proposal is that the self-identification process should be a sworn affidavit in which a person declares whether they identify their gender as male, female or non-binary, with the affidavit leading to a certificate explaining why your gender is different to the sex on your birth certificate. Such a process would be similar to naturalisation.
It should meet the concerns of all transgender individuals including the sizeable and growing group of people who do not want to be labelled as either gender, by creating an X gender as they have done in the Netherlands.
The effect of this process would be to allow people to choose what gender they are legally recognised as, while also maintaining sex as a separate category protected by law. That would ensure the protection of (biological) women’s rights in relation to sex-segregated spaces and services, as protected by the Equality Act where necessary and proportionate. We set out some areas where it is crucial to maintain sex-segregation, many of which already exist as exemptions in the Equalities Act, but where a conflation of gender identity and biological sex is already undermining their existence in reality.
Medical treatment and research is concerned with biology, and there are some treatments that are sex-specific. Sex-segregated spaces would also remain where women need protection from male bodies, such as in prisons, refuges and rape crisis centres, regardless of a person’s gender identity.
Statistics gathered would ask about both sex and gender, enabling the data to continue to be useful for the purposes of planning and understanding populations and demographics. To enable women to continue to participate in competitive sports, sex-segregation would be maintained. Protections would continue for religion, a protected characteristic under the Equality Act, taking into account the needs of religious people to have sex-segregated spaces.
Maintaining the legal distinction between gender identity and sex will also ensure that women-only spaces – women’s centres, the Girl Guides, ladies’ swimming ponds – that were set up to compensate for women’s longstanding political, social and economic disadvantage are sex-segregated. Those spaces also include women-only shortlists, schemes to boost women’s representation on company boards and as directors, and woman of the year awards in business and Stem (science, technology engineering and maths) sectors overwhelmingly dominated by men.
Reforms to the process of obtaining legal recognition must take into account the needs of all people affected and ensure that rights are protected for all concerned. We propose that maintaining the distinction between sex and gender in law will allow for self-identification while also protecting women’s rights."