Women & Equalities Commitee live today at 2.30

[ArabellaScott]

'The Women & Equalities Committee will hear from witnesses tomorrow 9/12 on Reform of The GRA at 2.30 pm. Witnesses include @Docstockk
@ProfAliceS
@GoonerProf
& Prof. Stephen Whittle, Alex Sharpe.'

(from Allison Bailey's twitter feed)

www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/dfc9f53e-2ac4-4c30-8712-e3df47938fd7

But did one of the respondents on the first panel actually say it doesn’t matter what info a form asks for, because trans people will just fill it in however they feel?

Yes.

Yes, I noticed that. Never mind what the authorities feel they need to know on the census, the respondent knows better. Nothing to see here.

Except for non-binaries who, apparently, don't know what to answer if asked for their sex.

Thanks to everyone who posted during the debate. It all sounds so depressing that the MPs seem to be TWAW and no matter how brilliantly the 3 GC professors answered the questions, it's feeling like it's a bit pointless.

I thought Committees were made up of those eager to influence certain areas, but it looks like the Chairs are no elected by secret ballot. And I suppose then each party asks for volunteers to make up the actual committees.

I have seen it said that some people now feel that Committees are now the democracy that the HoC is meant to be. And of course could be said to attract those who want to be on tv as they often show clips on tv news, particularly if there is a gotcha moment. I wonder how much of this committee will make it onto the main tv news!

I didn't read all of this as I was put off by the picture, probably accurate showing mainly men sitting round a table!
www.parliament.uk/about/how/committees/select/

Yes, I noticed that. Never mind what the authorities feel they need to know on the census, the respondent knows better. Nothing to see here.

Yet the exact same group of people complain that the government doesn’t provide enough specialist services for them?

Face palms round.

[quote stumbledin]I thought Committees were made up of those eager to influence certain areas, but it looks like the Chairs are no elected by secret ballot. And I suppose then each party asks for volunteers to make up the actual committees.

I have seen it said that some people now feel that Committees are now the democracy that the HoC is meant to be. And of course could be said to attract those who want to be on tv as they often show clips on tv news, particularly if there is a gotcha moment. I wonder how much of this committee will make it onto the main tv news!

I didn't read all of this as I was put off by the picture, probably accurate showing mainly men sitting round a table!
www.parliament.uk/about/how/committees/select/[/quote]
The Chair of the committee made her view very clear in October:

"It's time to end the delays over trans equality"

It ends "Five years on from the first committee’s inquiry, it is hoped that the coming recommendations will improve equalities and rights for trans people everywhere, and that the government will act on them."

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/it-is-time-to-end-the-delays-over-trans-equality-cx2zsh0tw

Well, that was enlightening. And I thought all the MPs asked good questions and came across as open-minded and really listening, bar one who stood out like a very irritating and petulant sore thumb.

Thanks, stumbledin.

Still wading through it but my goddess, Professors Stock and Freedman are kicking arse.

(If I can properly title them, why can’t this government committee? )

Thank you to the great women quoted here and the write ups here. Just watching it a bit late.

Finished, finally!
Professor Sullivan was also excellent, but at the time of my last comment hadn’t been given much opportunity to contribute.

Her points about data collection are of course, incredibly important, because if the data had been collected accurately in the past, many of the gender identity ideologist v feminist arguments would be immediately resolved, and we wouldn’t have ended up in the contentious climate of that spilled into the public consciousness due to the GRA consultation (ie, we’d know exactly how the offending rates of transwomen compared to those of other males, in this country, in the 15 plus years since the original GRA was passed).

I do not appreciate those MPs who seemed to posit that this fraught climate is the fault of women defending our rights to such basic things as a female health care professional to conduct our intimate examinations.

If any of those three women ran for MP I would vote for them in an instant. So much knowledge and insight compared to the rest. I don’t think that most members of the committee were listening to what was being Sid. Minds already made up. [Wine] and to these wonderful women.

Well done Professors. There are so many of us who appreciate your calm and reasoned contributions, based on logic, historical fact, and evidence. Professor Sharpe's reason for changing the process seems simply to be that we'll be left out by the popular kids and no-one will play with us in the world playground anymore.

I saw Sally Hines’ stupid posturing thread on Twitter, asking ‘cis women’ to retweet if they had no issue sharing spaces with males. People I used to respect have retweeted. God it’s exhausting.

And, sorry, I should clarify. Sally’s tweet related directly to this hearing so I wasn’t trying to derail the thread.

Maybe I’m getting old but there seems to be an influx of MPs in their mid 20s these days, in both parties. One of them was the woman who refused to listen to Rosa on stats. I think maturity and ability to think critically is somewhat lacking here and for others too. I’m not sure how helpful they are to those who elected them. For instance, I’ve heard that Nadia Whittome is pretty useless in helping her actual constituents and prefers to claim woke points in social and print media.

@RealityNotEssentialism

I saw Sally Hines’ stupid posturing thread on Twitter, asking ‘cis women’ to retweet if they had no issue sharing spaces with males. People I used to respect have retweeted. God it’s exhausting.

One day they, Sal and all the other TRA's, will learn that Twitter doesn't reflect real life.

Yea, they are so desperate to push the point that only a tiny minority of people are gender critical. Really? I seem to remember the same people making similar confident claims that Jeremy Corbyn would sweep to victory. Basically, most of the people who say nothing on the issue of gender-identity think it’s a load of crap but don’t want to voice this because of the backlash. My work colleagues probably think I’m fully on board the woo-woo train (I’m an academic). I’m most definitely not but I have accepted that if I do speak out, I will just be harming my own career and I’m not prepared to make that sacrifice at the moment. So I just bitch about it to people outside academia and post anonymously online. I think there are many in my position and GC women in the field have reported that they receive a large amount of anonymous/silent support.

Just watched the whole thing. Rosa, Kathleen and Alice were incredible. I found it almost hypnotically soothing to hear such intelligent and reasoned responses concentrated in one virtual space. Thank you!

The extra questions that came at the very end, jarred in their tone I thought. Who was the female politician who was literally having a go at Rosa for not providing the statistics to back up the claims about Male pattern violence? I hope they watch themselves back and see how they came across. I agree with Rosa that there was something very accusatory about the questioning.

Also the Male politician with the glasses (who reminded me of someone familiar to these boards who’s name I’m not going to mention) seemed to be keen to drum home that even with all the extra access to politicians that the transgender lobby groups had had, they still hadn’t gained any ‘advantage’ in the outcome (so that’s alright then?!)

I thought I’d link to a FPFW thread reader on the aforementioned Swedish Study because I obviously wanted to see the stats myself.

threader.app/thread/1336716326220476417

The female MP you're referring to Scolds is Nicola Richards the Conservative MP for West Bromwich East and the male MP is is Peter Gibson, Conservative MP for Darlington.

I found Nicola Richards' questions really inappropriate for a committee meeting - presumably the profs were invited as expert witnesses to give their informed opinions and knowledge - why on earth would an MP then try to bully and harangue them like this?

I missed the first half, but I am going to guess that none of the first three expert witnesses were challenged - am I right?

It appeared that she had decided "they have no evidence" and approached the questions as an opportunity to prove they had no evidence, rather than as an inquiry. I would have thought a committee member should at least attempt to treat it as a fact finding exercise, rather than an exercise in confirmation bias.

Yes, exactly. Looks more like a witch trial to me than an evidence-gathering session.

@RealityNotEssentialism

I saw Sally Hines’ stupid posturing thread on Twitter, asking ‘cis women’ to retweet if they had no issue sharing spaces with males. People I used to respect have retweeted. God it’s exhausting.

I see she got a whole 500 retweets there - that's clearly the majority of the cis women of the world affirming Sally's bold and brave assertion.

Maybe a poll would be more informative, Sally? Not a Twitter poll, a proper poll.

Oh, wait, that's been done:

wingsoverscotland.com/abolishing-women/