Women & Girls in Scotland GRA Consultation Guidance

[GRAconsultationGuidance]

Link Here

Please have a read 🙏

Good reminder that I need to crack on and complete my response!

Just submitted my response - seemed the thing to do on International Women's Day. I also used the guidance from Murray Blackburn & Mackenzie, Women & Girls Scotland, For Women Scotland and the SNP Women's Pledge. It's pretty straightforward and not nearly as intimidating as I expected.

Bumping as this needs done by 17th March!!!

Also a question, as I'm just working on mine - what did you use from Murray Blackburn & Mackenzie to help you answer? I looked on their website but so far found lots of very detailed analysis of the proposals overall, but couldn't find a specific set of guidance on answering the questions - am I missing something and if so, can anyone give the link pretty please? (I've already dug out various of the other guidance docs eg FWS etc, but just wanted to have a look at theirs too if possible!).

I'm in the middle of writing up my submission as well.

The MBM paper I will be using is this one -
murrayblackburnmackenzie.org/2020/01/27/mbm-assessment-of-the-gender-recognition-reform-scotland-bill/

There is a link to a PDF on that page which outlines their assessment. It's not a guideline for others, but there's comprehensive info in there that will be useful when writing up our submission.

I have about 7 different groups to reference! 😅

Thanks for the link @NonnyMouse1337

Another wee bump here and an appeal to women, wherever you are, in any part of the globe. Please think about making a submission to this consultation. We know there's policy capture in so many places as well as laws that allow self ID too, and whenever this has happened, women aren't consulted or asked how they feel,about it, what impact this'll have, and whether male inclusion in female only provision will affect them/their decisions etc.

If you can think about this as an opportunity to voice your views/experiences/feelings on the impact of policy capture/self ID laws and how it impacts your day to day life & decisions, where any aspect of your life requires privacy, dignity, safety, recovery from trauma or the need for barrier free participation in public life, use this consultation to get your views/opinions/experiences recorded. Using the WGiS guide headings will allow all these responses to be drawn out and used to form an evidence base that can be used anywhere that women want to & need to challenge the relentless movement that's trying to erase the needs of women and girls for female only provision.

If all you do is answer * Please consider the following as evidence of the impact these (or similar proposals that have been adopted where you are) proposals would have on me: and include all the ways in which you have been impacted by the loss of female-only provision already, as well as the ways you would be in particular circumstances - this is the type of evidence that's been missing wherever policy capture/slofie ID laws have been implemented.

Please ensure that you PUBLISH YOUR RESPONSES even if it's anonymously.

Consultation Link Here

Bumpity bump

This is all so helpful @GRAconsultationGuidance

Glad to help

Finally finished. The trickiest thing is that you can answer it with brief to the point answers or you can write a dissertation- it is hard to know where to stop.
Make sure you write your basic opinion of the bill in simple language before answering in more detail. I thought it was easy to get involved in the detail and forget to say ‘I fundamentally disagree’.
Proud to say my daughters filled it in too.

Good point Sillydoggy.

I've finally sat down to start responding and I just feel so sad and angry. I looked at "sex" in the impact assessment and there, bulletpointed in black and white , were all our concerns re safe spaces, sports , statistics etc. But there'll be "no impact" because there are available exceptions under the Equality Act, oh, and the Scottish Government is committed to free speech. The bloody GALL to cite these , whilst knowingly allowing government, police , schools and other organisations to succumb to the misinformation from Stonewall-type organisations . It's just so cynical, they don't give a fuck about women and girls.

Sorry for the inarticulate rant.

I filled it in yesterday, wish I’d seen this thread first as it has so much more I could have added! Still, at least mine is one more in the “no thanks” pile.

If you did it online, it is possible to retract and redo your response. Simply call the family law team on 0300 244 4000, or email them at [email protected], and they will retract your initial response.

If you think you have more to add, it's still possible to re-do. You might want to sit down & gather up the additional bits you want to add & then ask for the previous submission to be retracted?

How can you do it anonymously? It asks for your name?

Also, I know I may sound stupid here but as I'm reading the governments info on it all, to me it feels like they are wanting to shorten the times etc so they can keep a better eye on trans people? Keep track of them all? Not that it bothers me, just seems like that!

The thing I'm most upset about is that I already won't use women's loos anymore, usually use the disabled one and don't use changing rooms at all. I'd like to swim but would never go now because I don't want a male near me in a changing room. I'm actually limiting my own life an awful lot just because there is a slight increased risk in a predatory male attacking me in women only spaces. Can I type that or will they just ignore me? It's actually incredibly detrimental to my life.

Oh and I personally don't think anyone should be able to change their sex on a birth certificate etc at all, can I say that?

You have to give your name but you can ask that it is 'published' without it.

Yes, it's publish anonymously we mean. Any submission needs to be genuine & from a person that can be verified if need be, but the published responses are what we can review & analyse. We are looking at not only the response & evidence of impact on women & girls for the draft bill, but other aspects of the policy roll out that's coming up in the next few months. There's the revised school guide as well as the EHRC school guidance. The evidence base we are looking to build from the submissions in this consultation can hopefully be utilised in as many scenarios as required - we know there's either policy capture or actual law across many countries & jurisdictions so the aim is to have the evidence & testimony from this consultation reach far beyond just this specific piece of draft legislation.

We all know that any areas where policy capture or actual laws don't ever ask women what they think or how they feel about the erosion of female only provision - this is the chance for women anywhere to have their say.

Ok, thanks. I just hope they will listen as this already makes me avoid certain places which I wouldn't normally have done.. until I found out that adult males are allowed into all our spaces.

Thanks, gra, I’ll try to do that.

This thread is such a great resource. Thanks for all the hard work put into this by all the different groups, especially Women and Girls Scotland.
I've been reading through the comprehensive answers provided by WGS and I'm very impressed by how clear and detailed it is. Will be including it in my submission.

As I understand it, the GRC in its current form absolutely conflicts with and infringes upon women's rights and protections in the EQA, especially if the EHRC code is used.
Therefore any subsequent reform that removes a diagnosis of gender dysphoria as a criteria for obtaining a GRC will only serve to expand the numbers and will cause further erosion of women's rights and protections under the EQA.

Is there a possibility of some sort of Human Rights case being brought against the UK and/or Scottish governments on behalf of British women due to this blatant conflict and undermining of our rights? Would we start with the UK and/or Scottish courts and then keep moving up to the European Court of Human Rights?

I guess the evidence base gathered from this consultation would prove a good starting point...

I think a lot depends on the final outcome of this process & whether we end up with a bill that's blatantly discriminatory against women/girls. Judicial review is likely the way to challenge if it does go through but IANAL & it'll take significant funding & the right legal expertise - neither of which I possess!

This consultation is a unique opportunity to build the evidence needed should legal challenge be necessary so this is a good opportunity to remind people to respond & PUBLISH YOUR RESPONSE even if anonymously.

Done.

I’ve just finished final read through tomorrow before posting.

Bumping to remind you that ReSisters are spending all of today encouraging people to fill this in. They will be available on social media between 10am and 10pm posting useful links and answering questions (well, mostly pointing people at the fantastic guidance documents published by so many groups).
Don't let perfection be the enemy of good; just tell the government what you think! Please encourage everyone you know to respond.