Liz Truss criticised for saying she wants to protect "single-sex spaces and vulnerable women" re GRA in House of Commons

[stumbledin]

I found these quotes in an article about making IWD a public holiday and haven't had time tocheck in They Work For You / Hansard.

She seems to be more willing to make needing to protect women that Dawn Butler and Christine Jardine who are all about how horrible it is for trans people that GRA has not been passed.

Shadow women and equalities secretary Dawn Butler told MPs the government has been "kicking the can down the road" over reform of the Gender Recognition Act.

She said violence against transgender people has increased, and that more needs to be done to help.

Speaking in the Commons, Ms Butler said: "This reform of the Gender Recognition Act was promised in 2016.

"The minister doesn't need to look at it carefully, the minister just needs to expose what came out of the consultation and amend the Act, as promised.

"And the minister needs to stop kicking the can down the road. There has been a 37% increase in hate crime against transgender people.

"The minister is just exacerbating the pain and the hurt in the LGBT+ community."

Ms Truss replied: "I completely condemn the violence against trans people, and the Home Office and my colleague, the minister, is doing a lot of work to combat this."

Ms Truss said the new rules need to be worked out carefully to make sure everyone gets proper protection.

She said: "I won't be rushed into it. I'm very keen that we protect single-sex spaces and vulnerable women, and we don't rush into reform before we've had the full, proper discussion."

Liberal Democrat equalities spokeswoman Christine Jardine said trans people are facing abuse and violence for simply being who they are.

She accused the government of being the "most right-wing government in decades", and called for more rapid progress on the Gender Recognition Act.

www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/barry-sheerman-calls-extra-bank-17105742

Well Connie almost half of transwomen in jail are there for sexual offences. Why do you think that they don't retain male criminality patterns and are safe to be treated as women in all circumstances?

"None of the other political parties are our allies in this either though."

As a traditional Labour voter, I cannot find anything which will make me vote for them at the next general election.

Not sure why posting a point of information has somehow been taken to be about which political party anyone supports.

I posted it because despite any number of groups, individuals and mumsnetters have been campaigning and lobbying re the impact of sex based rights and services of the GRA.

The fact that any politician in light of the current on message atmposphere would even use a phrase that refers to taking account of women is note worthy. At the moment women journalist cant write that, BBC broadcasters cant say that.

I dont know if she is speaking for herself or the Tory Cabinet. I suspect it hasn't been on the agenda for them. I just hope she doesn't get taken to one side by someone.

Who knows what Dominic Cummings demented strategy is about this issue!

Of course she isn't an ally. But she is currently the minister with responsibility for the GRA.

Any other campaign group or activist would be discussing how to build on that slight admisions that women might have rights.

eg when the tories make some gesture towards helping women survivors of domestic violence Women's Aid would say something.

Sometimes the only motive posters seem to have is to find fault with the way any thread has been set up.

Hopefully WPUK or some of the others groups will make positive use of it to keep up the pressure.

stumbled in

I noted yesterday that the EHRC also published a refusal to write a statutory code of practice to become legislation in favour of "guidleines". We all know how they work out.

This was in response to the inquiry that ran this year into enforcing the equality act. So the equalities office want a code but EHRC are refusing.

The two reports are here in reverse order: The latest pulished yesterday by EHRC is a response to the July 30th recommendations.

www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/women-and-equalities-committee/inquiries/parliament-2017/enforcing-the-equality-act-17-19/publications/

I copied the refusal paragraphs here on this thread.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3720961-Enforcing-the-Equality-Act-the-law-and-role-of-the-Equality-and-Human-Rights-Commission-Equality-and-Human-Rights-Commission-Response-to-the-Committee-s-Tenth-Report-of-Session-2017-19

Just in case Connie comes back:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/up-to-half-of-trans-inmates-may-be-sex-offenders-26rz2crhs

I won’t be told who l can and can’t vote for. I won’t be shamed for voting to support women. I am still clinging on to my Labour membership in order to have a vote in the next Leadership election

I hear ya sister, this is exactly my position

It feels so weird to be a member of a party that I wouldn’t vote for

But I believe in the labour movement, and I believe political representation for working people is essential. So I keep paying my dues in the hope that one day the grownups will be in charge again

And how astonishing that Connie flounced when pushed to justify their views eh?

What a surprise that was

PP who are thinking that they might have to vote Tory: I never in my life thought I might have to consider doing just that.

BernardBlacks and bd67th. It’s mind blowing isn’t it. I believe in the Labour movement too. I am a transplanted Northerner whose entire family is Labour back through the generations. I have been discussing this with them, and they love discussing politics! I have to say whether it’s this issue or Brexit ( remainers) there a quite a few family voters either abstaining or going to the Lib Dem’s.
I dread to think what they’d say about voting Tory purely on this issue but they may surprise me. Once you talk to people about Self ID and they start to see Piers Morgan and other mainstream media reporting disbelief turns to outrage at the injustice pretty quickly. Labour have got this wrong.

I think women need the safety net of the welfare system much more than men do. Without that it is even harder for a woman with children to get away from an abusive husband, for a start. The question is, if Labour is so utterly misogynist at the moment as it appears to be, would it be interested in improving the welfare system? Especially when it is so keen to remove the few rights we have.

And the thing is, Labour are meant to understand class analysis so they have even less excuse than the other parties for getting it wrong.

Lib Dem’s are just as bad if not worse

Blimey, just returned to this thread and seen that Connie's dramatic flounce post was directed at me.

Spending your Saturday bitching at anyone who threatens 'woman' (etymology, by the way, is 'wife of man', which then evolved into woman - man therefore came first) on a website seems rather pointless

Not sure whether she means individual women or the concept of womanhood in general here, but I won't apologise for "bitching" at people who threaten either, or agree that challenging that threat is pointless.