If women had been involved in every stage of the consultation this fair compromise could have been reached years ago. Instead we had lobby groups secretly infiltrating and influencing all layers of society in an attempt to remove women's sex based human rights, working behind closed doors, with the stated intention that the general population would have no idea of what was going on until it was too late, and the laws had already been changed.
If you think that sounds like an insane conspiracy theory, you need to read this article, and download your own copy of the guidance and recommendations "for activists" written by staff from the major law firm Dentons, in conjunction with Thomson Reuters Foundation and LGBT pressure group IGLYO,
www.rollonfriday.com/news-content/dentons-campaigns-kids-switch-gender-without-parental-approval
They recommend working secretively, that lobbyists "avoid excessive press coverage and exposure", because the "general public is not well informed about trans issues, and therefore misinterpretation can arise". It describes how activists in Ireland "have directly lobbied individual politicians and tried to keep press coverage to a minimum in order to avoid this issue”. Chances of success are increased if activists “target youth politicians" who in successful campaigns elsewhere in Europe 'brought up the issue at every meeting of any sort - even ones which were not directly relevant, to ensure the issue was at the forefront of everyone’s minds."
If existing equality laws, and rules concerning proper impact assessments had been followed, we would never have reached the point where women are loosing their jobs and having their lives and families threatened for standing up in defence of our legal right to single sex spaces. People in Scotland wouldn't have had the meaning of the word woman redefined to include males who 'identify' as women, or be living under the current threat of having their understanding of basic human biology legally reclassified to constitute a hate crime.
We've been very badly let down by the people we trusted to protect our rights and interests. Government ministers, MPs, decision makers in major companies, the NHS, even women's charities have all thrown women and children under the bus with varying degrees of glee, enthusiasm or cowardly regret.
This concerted attack on women's sex based rights has opened the eyes of many women who'd complacently assumed the battle for equality had been more or less won, at least in developed countries.
It's deeply distressing to find out how undervalued women are and how easily ignored or dismissed their experiences, feelings, voices and considered opinions still are today. To become aware of how deeply some men hate women, and to realise that their aggression and hared is allowed to flourish without consequences comes as a shock. The only good thing about it is that it has inspired a resurgence of genuine feminism, with women of all ages, classes and political affiliations joining together, forming grassroots organisations to thwart the attack and protect vulnerable children.
I hope that once the legal battles have been won, and both women and transgender people have had their rights clearly defined and protected, that women will continue to work together to ensure this situation can never happen again. We need to fight to ensure that at least 50% of the people involved in making decisions are women (the cunty kind, women of all ages and social classes, not a bevvy of university educated empowerified lasses sorely lacking in life experience, and motivated by a desperate desire to ingratiate themselves with the blokes holding the real power.), and that women's health, maternity, child care and social care are properly funded and protected.