The Lawyers oral evidence session on GRA reform 10th Feb

[gardenbird48]

A date for the diary.

This sounds interesting - Naomi Cunningham of Legal Feminist and Karen Monaghan (she was mentioned on a thread recently- anyone know her stance?

committees.parliament.uk/event/3670/formal-meeting-oral-evidence-session/

Looks interesting will try and watch.
Naomi Cunningham's blog post
legalfeminist.org.uk/2020/07/25/my-body-my-choice-privacy-and-consent-in-personal-care/

Interesting and well argued article. Very glad Naomi's evidence will be part of this.

Anything that requires a female person to confirm a belief they do not hold by providing access to their body - whether to be present in the room to sleep alongside, to toilet or undress alongside, to accept intimate touch in the form of care provided - is unacceptable subordination of one person's rights and bodily autonomy to another. It's sex based discrimination. Some females will hold this belief and happily consent to this. Others do not. To compel them to do so is indefensible.

Karen Monaghan wrote a piece about why she thinks the Forstater decision won't stand at appeal.

https://ukhumanrightsblog.com/2020/02/27/the-forstater-employment-tribunal-judgment-a-critical-appraisal-in-light-of-miller-karon-monaghan-qc/amp/

It is somewhat surprising – and bold – for an ET to conclude that a “view” held by the senior courts and reflected in judgments spanning 40 years are not worthy of respect in a democratic society, not compatible with human dignity and conflicted with the fundamental rights of others. There are many holdings of the senior courts which could be stigmatised as such but it would be brave for an Employment Tribunal to say so and more so to come to a conclusion in contradiction to them. It is even more surprising to hold that such a view fails criterion (v) of the Grainger test. This would require the dismissal of the views of serious commentators and scholars. There are many feminist academics who are “gender critical”, and who like C, consider that sex and gender are quite distinct, and that women are adult-human females (that is, as biologically determined). The philosopher Professor Kathleen Stock (@Docstockk) is one such example. Many disagree vehemently with the views of Professor Stock but her contribution to the debate can barely be said to be anything other than scholarly and widely respected.