URGENT Call for evidence GRA

[TalkingtoLangClegintheDark]

Note to self: the deadline for submissions to the Women and Equalities Committee is this FRIDAY.

I know there are other threads about this but I just want to remind myself and anyone else who hasn’t got round to doing it yet that time is fast running out.

I can’t say I’m looking forward to it because from the headings they’ve chosen, it doesn’t look like they’re really interested in hearing from women, or considering any of it from women’s perspective at all. There still isn’t a real acknowledgment of the impact all these decisions have on women’s and girls’ lives; they seem to be coming at it overwhelmingly from the perspective of exclusively trans people, and it looks to me like they are looking for a way to shoo in self ID regardless of Truss’s statement.

Even the (one) bit about single sex exemptions feels to me worrying like they’re looking for reasons to get rid of them.

But I do hope I’m being paranoid here.

Anyway.

To arms, sisters! I’m looking forward to it like I look forward to doing tax returns, with a side order of existential misery, but I’m girding my loins thinking of the greater good. And I’m going to try not to post on any other threads till I’ve actually done it.

Priorities.

Any encouragement gratefully received!

Women Uniting thread on submissions:

twitter.com/womenunitinguk/status/1349388784568315905?s=21

2000 submissions! They've published 177 so far. It'll be a while.

I guess they have to read each submission before they publish? Seems a bit slow going.

RosaFreedman1983 shared this on one of the other threads:

"Anecdotally, they had circa 2000 written submissions and (unusually) had no specialist advisers assigned to assist the committee or clerk. Given that each submission needs to be read before being published, and given the recent Parliamentary recess, I imagine it will take some time before all (or all that they quality assure, which is usual practice for select committees) are published. I'm not taking a position about this state of affairs, and I have no more information than what I have written here, but just thought this information might help MN posters to understand the delay."

Just to say that I wrote to my MP about the bias in the committee against Prof Stock, Freedman and Sullivan, and had a letter back from Kemi Badenoch noting the concerns and the importance of the committee needing to be "grounded in facts". I'm really impressed with my MP for feeding the issue back to the committee.

Mumofgirls - good for her - but also good that you wrote to her!

See all the submissions from the political parties that responded are all predictably pro-throw women under the bus. Especially the Lib Dem one. Looks like somebody decided to write a dissertation on this

In case anyone keeps losing the link (I know I do....)
440 published so far.

committees.parliament.uk/work/658/reform-of-the-gender-recognition-act/publications/written-evidence/?page=1

committees.parliament.uk/work/658/reform-of-the-gender-recognition-act/publications/written-evidence/?page=3

a new batch of responses has been published. So far it is the turn of the Nursing and Midwifery Council to throw women under the bus. None of the nurses I have known throughout my life would have stood for this - I wonder if any members were asked for their opinion?

Do we have any members of the NMC on mumsnet?

committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/16949/pdf/

Newnham College, Cambridge - a Women's College thinks that self id is essential.

As a JCR, we would like to
state firmly that comprehensive trans inclusion is necessary to ensure that Newnham adheres to its ethos. We have found that limitations in the Gender Recognition Act as it stands have confused and frustrated our ability to run as a women’s college. Rather than protecting singlesex spaces, in our experience, policies which exclude trans people, and in particular trans women, are damaging to all women.
committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/16843/pdf/

The Newnham position makes absolutely no sense. It's ridiculous.

They choose not to do their admission to the single sex college based on self Id - instead they require identitity documents that show the person is female.

Presumably they hope this proves that the student either is female (in the usual sense), or is grabs and has gone to some bother of changing their id documents. To change your passport without a grc, they say, requires support from your doctor. So that is some medical gatekeeping, and Newnham choose this for their admissions process.

If they really think this is unfair they could base their admissions policy purely on self Id. And yet they choose not to. Yet they are asking the government to change the gra so that under 18s can change their legal sex and birth certificate based purely on self Id. And then they will use that in their admissions process instead!

I can't imagine it's very common for students to use birth certificate as Id - as it's not photo Id. So the whole difficulty in not being able to use the trans student's birth certificate is a non story.

*trans not grabs!

Perfect, they've only managed to get the submissions mixed up.
twitter.com/CforWomenUK/status/1357273200258936835?s=19
We were pleased to see our written evidence to the @Commonswomequ had been uploaded yesterday, however they appear to have uploaded the evidence of someone entirely unrelated to us. We are sure this is a simple error on their part and we have emailed them 1/2

Trans Widows Voices have been invited to the GRA oral evidence session - hooray!

They've posted it on twitter so out in public but not yet listed on the WESC website - Leaf mentioned something on a recent thread but I can't remember which one.

Just checked - worrying that as the WESC can't protect TWVs identities, they can't give oral evidence.

Does the WESC have no clue about the risks women face? Shocking that they can't arrange a closed private session to give TWV the opportunity to express their important views & experiences.

@IDontOnlyLikeJazzFunk

Trans Widows Voices have been invited to the GRA oral evidence session - hooray!

They've posted it on twitter so out in public but not yet listed on the WESC website - Leaf mentioned something on a recent thread but I can't remember which one.

This is great news, thanks for flagging.

The other mention is here:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4213742-Gender-Recognition-Certificate-for-a-fiver

The other speakers will be announced on Tuesday, with the hearing on 21st.

No doubt there’ll be a new thread for that session.

@IDontOnlyLikeJazzFunk

Trans Widows Voices have been invited to the GRA oral evidence session - hooray!

They've posted it on twitter so out in public but not yet listed on the WESC website - Leaf mentioned something on a recent thread but I can't remember which one.

Who else is contributing to the session will be announced next week. I don't know if they'll put us in the announcements or not as we can't do the session but I've asked for it to be mentioned by the Chair.

This is fantastic and so well deserved, Tinsel. Congratulations.

Anyone else not seeing their submission?

That’s great news. It’s so important your experiences and views are heard.

Anyone else not seeing their submission?

I’m still waiting to see mine, Thecatonthemat. They’ve published 769 in the four and a half months since the consultation closed, nowhere near halfway through the 2000-plus they’ve received. It seems a bit leisurely.

There's been another release of submissions today most notibly is one from Mermaids that accuses JKRowling of transphobia. I do hope JKR will finally start to sue those who smear her.

@Quadzilla

There's been another release of submissions today most notibly is one from Mermaids that accuses JKRowling of transphobia. I do hope JKR will finally start to sue those who smear her.

That would be fabulous.

I would take a day off work to go to court if that happened. Imagine the lawyer she could get! It would be really something.

I don’t understand why Mermaids would do something so unprofessional and risky legally. Mind you, there’s not a lot of their lobby work I do understand.