This is a massive turnaround. I remember in 2016 self ID was being treated as inevitable - there wasn’t even going to be a consultation on it. I know people are disappointed in the government’s tone, and wanted more, but we got everything we wanted. Self ID is gone. There isn’t even a compromise position (like self ID for over 21s only). It’s just been scrapped. The government has doubled down on the GRC process which is entirely premised on the medical model of transness - you must have gender dysphoria, must be treated by doctors , must be “trapped in the wrong body”. This, of course, has not been mainstream trans activist thinking for many years - trans has nothing to do with dysphoria now. But they didn’t actively and openly campaign on this basis because they know it’s a very hard sell (hence “no debate.”)
Trans rights activists will be forced to start again from scratch. They will have to openly ditch the medical model and start explaining what they really want - which is a world where a male can say he is a woman because he feels like it. They are going to have to explain to a confused public that males who don’t have dysphoria , who don’t want surgery or hormones , who actually don’t want to even change their appearance, are nevertheless women. The public by and large have the view that trans women are like Hayley from coronation street, and associate it with a horrible distressing medical condition that needs treatment. The public will now have to be convinced of a postmodernist queer theory perspective which doesn’t really make much sense outside a gender studies seminar.
I’m just reflecting on how hopeless everything seemed a couple of years ago. This u turn was unthinkable back then. I also want to see further reforms and more protection for women. But I think we need to recognise as well just how far we have come.