Mumsnet is breaching section 26 of the Equality Act 2010 (harassment) by hosting feminist forums that discuss gender-critical issues - legal case?

[MsJeminaPuddleduck]

Lady Justice 👩‍⚖️ (@RadFemLawyer)
09/11/2018, 08:16
Have just seen this. Argument is Mumsnet is breaching section 26 of the Equality Act 2010 (harassment) by hosting feminist forums that discuss gender-critical issues. pic.twitter.com/WVkBMxZeqv

Privileged white dudes just love the Equality Act since all extremely hard won equality legislation by genuinely oppressed groups was helpfully 'streamlined and simplified' into one Act with the help Sarah Brown etc in 2010.

Yes, rushed through to get something/anything on the statute because Labour knew it was likely to lose the upcoming general election and thus has a) more holes than a fishing net and b) process was taken advantage of by certain lobby groups.

The EA was the first appearance of 'gender reassignment'. So the politicians lied to us when they said it was just 'simplifying and streamlining' - in actual fact they were sticking new incomprehensible, illogical bullshit in without debate or proper democratic process. Just like the fucking GRA. Sneaking bullshit ideology into law under the wire with no one 'kicking up a fuss in the press'.
Notice that the GRA wasn't scrapped at the same time as the Sex Discrimination Act to make way for the EA.

I'd love to know a bit more about who was lobbying the (labour) govt to 'streamline' the different acts to protect the different groups into the EA. I remember it seemed to come from no where - i'd never heard any concerns raised about the workability of the SDA and the politicians assured us we'd lose nothing. However I think the requirements for employers to provide single sex toilets/washing was quietly written out wasn't it?

And all this bullshit about 'Women and Equalities' is totally watering down women's issues and representation. It's obvious it is a strategic stepping stone to become 'Equalities' isn't it?

It's so hard to represent and advocate for different groups simultaneously. Rights compete over and over again.

I know people get annoyed with the rules imposed on here, but you can see why. HQ are trying to stem the tide of litigation that I'm sure they are constantly exposed to.

And yes. It's a completely own goal. The more they try and shut mumsnet up, the more mainstream media pick the story up.

You go from a few hundred thousand women on here, to the entire country hearing about it.

And I'm sure there is a fair amount of conflict in the trans community itself.

Smarter people will realise what constitutes an own goal. Because relentlessly drawing attention to mumsnet is an own goal. Shutting mumsnet down or FWR, would also be an own goal. But there are enough people who don't care, whose narcissistic rage knows no bounds, that they are prepared to cut their nose off, to spite their face.

Bring it on.

Notice that the GRA wasn't scrapped at the same time as the Sex Discrimination Act to make way for the EA.

Indeed!

However I think the requirements for employers to provide single sex toilets/washing was quietly written out wasn't it?

That's in a different piece of legislation. I think it's the Health and Safety at Work Act.

It’s the one bit they missed.

waves to Step and Adrian

Nice try.

Good grief. Don’t let the UK go down the US path of vexatious litigation. [yawns]

Privileged white dudes just love the Equality Act since all extremely hard won equality legislation by genuinely oppressed groups was helpfully 'streamlined and simplified' into one Act with the help Sarah Brown etc in 2010.

My observation is that one impact has been on those suppliying services to the children of affluent London lawyers. Not much talked about but I hear that the EA is regularly used as a basis to appeal when a child does not get a place at a selective private school, and in a couple of anecdotes was used when a child was not placed in a high enough maths set, and when it was felt that a child was not treated "equally" by a volunteer-run sports club.

The thing about this type of law is that those with means can become more equal than those without.

Well, any litigation or attempted/actual shutdown would be all over the papers, so even more people will see what's going on. Not to mention linking it to all the other vexatious litigation we've seen. Bring it on. You're doing our publicity for us.

Hilarious. Yet more brave and stunning own goaling. Keep it up.

*And all this bullshit about 'Women and Equalities' is totally watering down women's issues and representation. It's obvious it is a strategic stepping stone to become 'Equalities' isn't it?

It's so hard to represent and advocate for different groups simultaneously. Rights compete over and over again.*

This is so true Likedust

We really need to argue for a separation of women and equalities / trans (on the basis that majority of those pushing/ benefitting from the changes are men) at govt level doesn't downwards.

I do admire Justine Roberts - obviously I think she's right to allow the debate to continue but I'm not the one with my head on the block.

And, if they do manage to shut it down (which I doubt), where will it end? The closing down of the Spectator? The exile of Kirkup? The banishment of Bindel?

I'm quite certain that similar legal action has been filed against 4Chan, Reddit, KiwiFarms, PistonHeads and all the other bits of the net that can veer into the transphobic. Otherwise it just looks awfully like trying to shut women up, and surely no feminist would want to do that?

Ahhh... the evil of freethinking women, eh? Been reading from the malleus maleficarum have we?

BowlofBabelfish, when this all started to kick off & I relayed the insanity to DH earlier this year, his first reaction was to pull a copy of that down off the shelf (yes, he actually has one!), wave it and say ‘This is what we’re heading back to, isn’t it?’

Reminder of TransMedia Watch's submission to Home Affairs Committee earlier this year which specifically mentions Mumsnet.
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3238618-Trans-Media-Watch-has-written-to-parliament-saying-trans-identified-male-can-be-considered-as-hate-speech-and-that-Mumsnet-users-referring-to-penises-are-being-transphobic

& from 2016:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/2783139-Trans-media-watch-are-lobbying-mnhq

Helen Belcher (of TMW) accusation:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3393577-Janice-Turner-accused-of-causing-trans-suicides
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3402078-R4-World-at-One-Janice-Turner-and-Helen-Belcher

Keynote Speaker at forthcoming enei conference hosted by IBM:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3415779-Are-your-employers-at-this-trans-equality-event

the obsession with Mumsnet is most strange. I have ventured over to Kiwifarms and had to leave because the transphobia made me extremely uncomfortable. I just don't want to spend my evenings talking to people who think that way.

but it just doesn't seem to attract the same degree of interest from these people does it?

DataLounge seems not to get much interest either funnily enough.
see recent thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3410716-Transman-kicked-out-of-gay-sauna

The more I think about it the more I realise how much the previous Labour government fucked up this country at quite fundamental levels.

tbh I could draw parallels with a man throwing a tantrum when a woman gets promoted ahead of him. Its just male entitlement and the right to silence women. Sorry blokes, the party is over.

nora it’s certainly what all this has made me think of. I watched a documentary about witch trials a while ago and it was so depressing - one individual case of a man propositioning a young woman repeatedly and her refusing because she was ‘upright and godly’ and him then accusing her and tortured her himself to get her to confess.

The same pattern of entitlement and rage when denied.

Same shit, different century.

Same motives - jealousy, rage, and greed and accumulation of power and wealth. When women start to accumulate resources men slap them back down. Back to the kitchen, back to the whorehouse.

We are headed somewhere very dark, I think. I want to be able to say that I did as much as I could to stop it.

I have many leads on the claimant, they're on PiP for memory loss...

They go after MN from misogynistic contempt, yes, but also because Datalounge, Kiwi farms and all the other places that are actually full of unchecked anti-trans sentiment are just online forums for fairly niche markets.

The reason MN is such a big target for these attempted shut downs is because we have an enormously effective platform here. Politicians don't do webchats with Datalounge as far as I know. Threads from here get mined for news stories all the time, the women here are from a very wide cross section of society, many in reasonably well placed professions to be able to point out the flaws and mendaciousness in the activist's efforts. Women's rights activism has a very powerful jumping off point here.

Basically, it's not just because we're women. It's because we're loud, articulate, clever women who organize and what we do here is a real danger to the backroom shady shenanigans that have been the mainstay of the AWAs for quite some time.

They need to shut us up. Because they know we have every chance of winning.

I watched a documentary about witch trials a while ago and it was so depressing - one individual case of a man propositioning a young woman repeatedly and her refusing because she was ‘upright and godly’ and him then accusing her and tortured her himself to get her to confess.

Yes I remember that. Horrible.