Council confusion over sex and gender ‘could put women at risk’

[Igneococcus]

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/council-confusion-over-sex-and-gender-could-put-women-at-risk-tckzqfmcq?shareToken=742ba73babe3c4cd66f86c33ceec02fb

"A representative of the Scottish government said in an email to a member of MBM that it was working to reduce and remove the social and economic barriers faced by women, men and non-binary people in Scotland, and added: “Although the Equality Act 2010 lists ‘sex’ as a protected characteristic, the Scottish government believes that gender equality should take prominence in its policy making.”"

Time to write (again) to our MSPs although ours would never ever go against anything Nicola Sturgeon decrees.

Ofgs. Read the below - are they so stupid
Sex, a person’s biological categorisation as male or female, is a protected characteristic under the act, whereas gender identity, a person’s social role and sense of self, has no definition in law. Gender reassignment is a separate protected characteristic.

In one example of the confusion, Linda Gilliland, team leader of corporate policy and community planning at Falkirk council, wrote in an email to a member of the public: “It is usually not possible to determine sex until after puberty and sexual maturity.

“Gender is a social construct and very often people express gender before they have reached sexual maturity and the terms boy and girl are usually used to describe people before they reach sexual maturity.”

It is usually not possible to determine sex until after puberty and sexual maturity.

This. Is. Madness.

I assume Linda Gilliland has never given birth or been present when a child is born or at an antenatal scan. Sex is almost always obvious at birth, and often long, long before.

“It is usually not possible to determine sex until after puberty and sexual maturity"

There is no way Linda Gilliland believes this. She is just spouting nonsense.

do you think these people realise what they're saying? how can a functional person spout such nonsense

the problem is, it's impossible for these people to climb down (looking at the Sally Hines type academics here too), because then they have to admit to the world and themselves that they've been a total wally.

Imagine the scene. After hours of labour mum asks "Is my baby a bit or a girl?". Midwife looks at baby, who has a penis, "sorry, no idea, come back in 14 years..."

Boy not bit

A lot of trans work in IT so ‘bit’ might be appropriate.

I can Linda Gilliland some basic biology lessons if she wants. I'm a biologist and I can make it to Falkirk in about 1.5 hours (depending on potholes and tourists), I'd do it for free.

I can't get my head round her putting that in an email to a member of the public. This isn't a woke intern who got hold of the Twitter account. Linda Gilliland is a team leader. I imagine that means she monitors other staff. She may conduct their appraisals and organise their training. She may have an input into council policy. And presumably she went through a competitve selection process before her appointment.

Wake up Falkirk.

Id join you Igneococcus Im nearer than you and have kept a copy of her email to me.

Ooops potentially outing. Better name change.

It does sound a bit like Shirley-Anne Somerville and Joan McAlpine get it though. Shirley-Anne is my MSP, I might write to her thanking her for the clarification but I have no idea what to actually say.

Shirley Anne Somerville is close to NS, I wouldn’t be surprised if they had the same opinion on this.

Is Linda saying she didn’t know her own sex until puberty? That it was a complete surprise when she got a period as opposed to getting a deeper voice and body hair? That it had been a 50/50 chance of either until then?

The problem is, as the quoted email demonstrates, council members in the UK tend to be of a very low calibre, at least where I live. There’s basically no standards for being one and some of them are extremely young. It’s seen as a completely unimportant job, yet they’re in charge of crucial policy decisions at a local level. So things like this keep happening.

The problem is, as the quoted email demonstrates, council members in the UK tend to be of a very low calibre, at least where I live.

It also shows how willing they are to lie when it suits them.

Legislation in Scotland last year that defined both woman and female to include some males:
fairplayforwomen.com/scottish_stole_woman/

Is she a council member or an employee? I took 'team leader' to mean employee which (I assume) involved competing for the job.

Indeed, Zutt . But in this case I wouldn’t even assume she’s consciously lying. There’s as big a chance that she’s just absorbed some right-on mishmash of ideas about gender and sex being socially constructed and is attempting (failing though, obviously) to parrot them without pausing to think, “Wait, did I know my sex before puberty? What actually is sex?”

Never underestimate how little thought some people give to opinions they’re quite happy to put their name to...

You just can’t argue with stupid of that level. You’ll go mad trying.

You’re right, sounds like she is an employee! So yes, she must have applied and been deemed best for the job. She’s the creme de la creme. Even scarier.

"Although the Equality Act 2010 lists ‘sex’ as a protected characteristic, the Scottish government believes that gender equality should take prominence in its policy making."

Oh fuck.

So the scottish government confims that they have no interest in sex related issues / discrimination etc and genuinely want to bin it.

That's bananas.

So what about all the cunty people who are eg more likely to be in poverty than dicky people and more likely to be looking after children so children in poverty
This is no longer an issue that is predominantly faced by women
By by people who may have any gender identity and we don't know until we ask them individually
And many dont' have internal lady-feels
So there is literally no way of measuring describing this

And scottish government have stated that this is CORRECT they are no longer interested in stats around sex.

Well fuck me sideways those utter utter bastards.

They literally state above that they are no longer / less interested in anything to do with women.

Side issue > works both ways > means things that effect men are no longer of interest to them either e,g, suicide, higher rates of alcohol & drug abuse, unreported mental health issues, prostate etc

Scots govt say nope not interested. Sex is not of interest. We are changign sex to gender identity, which has no stable definition, we don't believe that issues based in biology and social aspects of male / female are of any interest any more.

I'm flabbergasted TBH.

Shirley-Anne Somerville sounds like a good egg.

How is she coping with the reaction? I assume there is a strong one.

Linda Gilliard is an employee in the councils policy department

“It is usually not possible to determine sex until after puberty and sexual maturity"

My goodness. Then why on earth are so many health systems (not just the NHS) wasting all this money on scans, partly to determine sex, particularly when sex can be relevant to considering developmental variations or sex-specific conditions.

LG should issue FOIs concerning this waste of public money. Unless she has a gnawing suspicion that she doesn't mean what she says...