Government expected to indefinitely delay reforms to GRA

[stumbledin]

Gender Recognition Act reforms have been kicked into the long grass as ministers fear trans laws are too divisive, i understands.

Those involved in drawing up reforms to the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) no longer expect them to be enacted, following a backlash from Conservative MPs and activists. ...

A Government source said that the consultation into the GRA commissioned by Mrs May, which closed 18 months ago, was unlikely to result in the planned reforms going ahead. “Boris Johnson just doesn’t want that fight,” the source said. “We just won’t talk about it." The delay is not related to the coronavirus epidemic.

Source: inews.co.uk/news/gender-recognition-act-indefinite-delay-plans-change-gender-2504335

But Nicola Williams of Fair Play for Women welcomed the delay, saying: "Women quite rightly said no to this bad law and we are thankful this Government has listened and understood. Women's rights matter and they are not the Government's to give away."

Quite.

Mirror reporting that story too

It is good news but it does it quash the debate and allows corporations and government agencies to sneak measures through the back door.

When the debates have broken out, we have been winning.

I thought it had already been kicked into the long grass.

The main motivation for Boris is that Labour will still be slitting each others throats over this. There are opposing views in the Tory camp but both are more prepared to let it lie.

Well said Nicola

Every day casts a little more sunlight on this agenda.

Even now, TRAs are complaining bitterly that the scheduling of gender reassignment surgery is under threat because of Covid-19.

Douglas Murray comments in the Spectator (behind a paywall but you can see the start)
www.spectator.co.uk/article/The-Guardian-s-trans-rights-civil-war-rumbles-on

It may well not get any attention from this government . However, it turned out to be a major labour discussion point so hopefully that discussion will continue to let the sunshine in over the coming years until next general election.

Plus, there is still some major court cases to bring more light.

And the women’s sport issue. State after US state will debate this issue if they haven’t already. Plus the rugby decision. And finally the Olympics.

So much opportunity to debate in the near future. And if the government has shelved it the reforms and declared there is cause for concern about under 18s, I think there is even more opportunity to pressure schools to remove the ideology from their education and their processes.

Sadly, I don’t think stonewall will change its tactics throughout these next few months.

In the meantime, Stephen Whittle and Press for Change will be working to get Labour elected.

How's that working out for you and the Labour Party, Stephen?

A view from the other side.

And if the government has shelved it the reforms and declared there is cause for concern about under 18s, I think there is even more opportunity to pressure schools to remove the ideology from their education and their processes.

Exactly. The urgent issue now is to stop it being promoted to children from primary school age. Likewise the drag queen story time nonsense to toddlers.

Michelle has a very deep voice for a lady.

I stopped listening when Michelle started talking about the suffragettes. Women seeking emancipation.

That message strangerthantruth is interesting. Do they see themselves as Suffragettes then? Really? The presenter admitted it was a poor analogy but it seemed to me to be a concept that they find is open and available to them to use.

The suffragette nonsense the narrator came out was topped off with a ludicrous whine about white feminism.

Lots of our laws get lost in the long grass and fall into disuse. There is talk of reforming the Treason Act which currently makes it a capital offence to imagine harm coming to the monarch, but there are so many arguments about where free speech ends, it will probably stay as it is. Ooops, just imagined something...

All our words are up for grabs: woman, suffragette, female, vagina.

Pleased and relieved to hear this. Stonewall and co will of course switch tactics - and probably did so as soon as the election results were announced - but at least they can no longer claim their advice is about staying ahead of the law.

We must be very careful about letting up the pressure. With schools closing and concentration on the coronavirus it would be easy for the issue to disappear from debate.
Stone wall and other so called 'trainers' and their messages need to be challenged.
I want to be optimistic but until we see a clear reversal of the creep of self ID by the back door I'm still on alert.

Indeed Imnobody4 we mustn’t drop our guard, about GRA or surrogacy consultation or other issues. I am concerned that some people will be beavering away whilst working at home, on the principle of good times to bury stuff.

And Scotland - it seems that Coronavirus has overtaken the reforms for now and presumably NIcola Sturgeon won’t want to be made to look a numpty like Jo Swinson and Lisa Nandy during next years elections. But what happens in Scotland is important for E&W too.

I’m just reading that article and I agree that we can’t let our guard down just because the focus is on this emergency we are in. I’m sure once it all subsides, the lobbyists will be back out in force.

IMO the covid crisis has brought home the importance of scientifically accurate, meaningful language in public health communication, particularly as this virus seems to be affecting men (XY) worse. When the dust settles, we need to push back on the front hole/pregnant person/cervix haver BS hard.

I think our focus should be on Stonewall’s fabricated version of the law and the utterly erroneous guidance they are giving and getting paid for giving.

Getting Stonewall and other lobby groups out of schools is critical. They are currently using the new Sex Relationships Education guidelines as an opportunity to offer materials to schools having self identified as "experts" in child development, child psychology and sex education for children - when nothing could be further from the truth.
When the schools reopen the educational, psychological and emotional needs of children will be paramount and hopefully there'll be no place for adult groups cynically using children to push their own views

"A placard in one hand and dictaphone in the other"

Not just me that found that inadvertently funny?