Help me respond to this Equalities/Diversity training

[Walkingtheplank]

Just taken a diversity/equality training module at work.
It asked whether the following items were protected characteristics e.g. Race, Height, Gender Re-assignment.
I got the Gender Re-assignment part wrong and deceived the following response

"Wrong, discrimination based on this is illegal. Gender reassignment is proposing to undergo, undergoing or previously undergone a process for the purpose of re-assigning an individual’s sex by changing their physiological or other attributes of their sex.
This often includes (but is not exclusive of) changing names, pronouns, dressing differently and living in their self-identified gender.

Gender identity
Existing legislation about gender reassignment is limited in its framework and terminology. A person’s ‘gender identity’ (an individual’s innate sense of their gender, which may or may not correspond to their sex assigned at birth) is not currently protected under the law. Some organisations go beyond existing legislation by protecting from discrimination those employees who identify as non-binary and those who do not wish to obtain a Gender Recognition Certificate. A Gender Recognition Certificate allows someone's acquired gender to be recognised legally in the UK."

Wise owls, help me pick this apart so I can ask that this be changed if this is incorrect, particularly first paragraph. I am so confused. I have responded in the 'other comments' free form box but am in a position to take this further if necessary.

I don't think it's technically wrong, it's just that it's not quite as simple as that in practice, in that people interpret it as you have to treat TW / TM as their "chosen gender", whereas that's not the case without a GRC and even then there are exemptions (in theory, which organisations are too scared or misled to implement).

www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/7

Looks like "This often includes (but is not exclusive of) changing names, pronouns, dressing differently and living in their self-identified gender." they have made up.

You don't explain what your answer was, so its impossible to say if you answer was incorrect or not; but not every instance of excluding people from a space or service is discrimination.

The Equality Act defines the protected characteristics,
Then the situations which are counted as discrimination,
and finally the situations in which treating that group differently is not considered discrimination.

In the case of single sex facilities, if you would expect privacy (for example you need to undress or wash) then you can expect a single sex service.
In this instance, a man who does not have a GRC has the protected characteristic of gender reassignment so cannot be sacked for having time off work to attend appointments; but does not have the right to use a women's shower at the gym, and is is not being discriminated against.
Women's facilities are for women, and the protected characteristic they have is that of sex.

A man who acquired a GRC does not have the automatic right to enter spaces or services for women, as in some cases sex is the dominant protected characteristic.
The GRA is very clear, for example that sports remain single sex and having a GRC and amended birth certificate does not entitle a person to compete in women's sports.

Their comments about non binary people and what companies do ahead of the law are irrelevant.

Thelnebriati:
The question was whether Gender Re-assignment as a characteristic is protected under the law in the UK. I answered that this was False.

Other characteristics that I had to say True/False to were things such as race, height, sex, red hair.

The question is correct. "Gender reassignment" is a protected characteristic (1 of 9) under the Equality Act 2010.

Single sex exemptions in the Equality Act to maintain safety privacy and dignity still apply irrespective of gender reassignment - toilets, changing rooms etc are still able to be single sex, it’s just thanks to Stonewall etc, organisations think that single sex provision is not allowed and is discriminatory within the Equality Act.

To the extent of just changing your clothes or name?

That was aimed at Ereshkigalangcleg

The question was whether Gender Re-assignment as a characteristic is protected under the law in the UK. I answered that this was False.

Gender reassignment is a protected characteristic under The Equality Act 2010

There are 9, sex is another
(gender/gender identity/transgender are not)

The online training at my uni, I had to point out that it was SEX (not gender) was a protected characteristic, and that trans was NOT a sexual orientation...............

Hence I was a bit miffed that as a lesbian, they had TWO of my protected characteristics WRONG.

Got the usual bloody annoying we are sorry to have offended you nonsense. My OFFENSE was not the issue, their inability to get the FACTS straight was. It is rather vexing, and we just have to keep plugging away that it MATTERS that they train people based on what the law actually SAYS, not what someone else wishes it said, and that they don't just miss out the bits they don't like..................

It's all a bit vague and open to interpretation.

From the EA:

7 Gender reassignment

(1)A person has the protected characteristic of gender reassignment if the person is proposing to undergo, is undergoing or has undergone a process (or part of a process) for the purpose of reassigning the person's sex by changing physiological or other attributes of sex.

The answer you got back looks to me like the person who wrote the training document was trying to give examples of what someone 'proposing to undergo a process or part of a process' might do to change gender presentation. That person would therefore fall under the protected characteristic of gender reassignment if I understand correctly.

"reassigning the person's sex by changing physiological or other attributes of sex."
Not a lawyer, but this reads to me as if the reassignment would be through either hormone treatment or surgery (that would be the changing physiological or other attributes of sex). And that clothing/presentation would not be an attribute of sex, instead to perhaps be read as an indication that they were planning to have such treatment...........
So, you could then have a chap wearing a dress ('cos he just likes dresses), and if someone else took that to mean they were a transwoman, and treated them less favourably on that account, then that would be grounds for them having the protected characteristic of gender reassignment, whether they were or not. Just as, as I understand it, if someone treats someone less favourably because they think they are gay, it's not necessary to show that they are gay, just that someone else thought they were...................