My University using an unusual definition of 'Sex'

[JustCleaningtheBBQ]

I work for a University and they have recently introduced an Equality Impact form to asses the impact of any policies or procedures that we introduce on the 9 protected characteristics in the EA. In the form they state that "The Equality Act 2010 is the source of our definitions".

Their definition for 'sex' was interesting:
Sex
This is defined as a person’s legal sex, in the UK this is recognised as either being a man or a woman. Sex is more commonly referred to as gender identity, which is the internal sense of being male, female, a combination of male and female, or neither male or female

I have had a look and I can't see any of what they have stated in the second sentence above in the EA? This is not right at all is it?

Oh and "gender identity" appears zero times in the Equality Act 2010 and once in the Explanatory Notes on page 10, Section 7: Gender Reassignment in "Gender Identity Clinic".

So if they're aim to refer to the Equality Act 2010 for their definitions, they need to drop "gender identity".

It's brazen though. Normally gender identity is (wrongly) used to replace the protected characteristic of gender reassignment. Using it to replace sex is not for the casual believer in the ideology.

@JustCleaningtheBBQ

Thanks all. I currently composing a reply from all of the points you have helpfully made. I have it all in my head, but find it hared to condense it in a well-worded response.

I know I will need to be careful in how I word it as there will not be a sympathetic response. I just emailed the person that send this document out for a link to the feedback form and her out of office states she is currently working on our Stonewall submission so may be slow to respond.

I somehow don't think I'm going to get anywhere, but worth a shot.

Don't give up. I got my council to change their list of protected characteristics, even though the member of staff dealing with me is fully sold on the ideology. They told me to speak to the EHRC. I did. The EHRC confirmed that no one is entitled to change the list of protected characteristics and no one is entitled to change the definition of the protected characteristics. Only an Act of Parliament can do so. So I informed my council and they grudgingly changed it back to what it should have been.

If you're worried about how they'll receive this, you could suggest that they are entitled to include additional characteristics in their non-discrimination policies, so they could separately list gender identity if they wish, but the protected characteristics take precedence over any additionally chosen ones.

When you respond make sure you cc her line manager

The EHRC confirmed that no one is entitled to change the list of protected characteristics and no one is entitled to change the definition of the protected characteristics.

would love to see a copy of this. A perfect resource 🙂

Maybe ask if it's the organisation's official stance that sex and gender identity are the same thing?

Because if that isn't "erasing trans people" I don't know what is. Insisting everyone's sex is indistinguishable from their gender identity.

@FindTheTruth

The EHRC confirmed that no one is entitled to change the list of protected characteristics and no one is entitled to change the definition of the protected characteristics.

would love to see a copy of this. A perfect resource 🙂

Sadly I don't have that in writing. But it's simply the truth that only an Act of Parliament can amend an Act of Parliament.

Which is what Maria Miller and Angela Crawley tried to do in 2016, when they brought a Motion in the UK Parliament to create a new protected characteristic of gender identity.

You can read a record of the debate here: www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2016-12-01c.1692.2

Thanks to Theresa May dissolving parliament in 2017 it came to nothing. By the time that business could be resumed, enough people knew that this might impact on women's rights.

I somehow don't think I'm going to get anywhere, but worth a shot.

Does Sex Matters have any useful pointers or a pro-forma that is helpful for you?

This might be useful:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/environmentalaccounts/articles/whatisthedifferencebetweensexandgender/2019-02-21

And of course conflating sex with gender identity means they will be unable to assess whether trans employees would be adversely affected by any policies as they wouldn't be able to differentiate between trans and non-trans using their definition.

Maybe point out how transphobic they're being...

I filled in the enrollment form for university the other day.

The question was:

What is your gender identity:

Male
Female
Non binary
(There was possibly agender as well)

Next question: what was the gender identity assigned to you at birth?

www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/equality-act/equality-act-faqs

@quiteathome

I filled in the enrollment form for university the other day.

The question was:

What is your gender identity:

Male
Female
Non binary
(There was possibly agender as well)

Next question: what was the gender identity assigned to you at birth?

It's the same at my University on every form and there's never any option to make a comment? I thought things had started to get better with some of the recent cases, but I'm really shocked at how awful this is. Instead of sensibly considering what information they put out there, they are getting worse and don't even appear to have considered whether being affiliated with Stonewall may not be such a good thing.

I have written a reply based on many of the sentences and info you all have shared. I'd like to share, but think it may be too outing. I'll let you know what response I get. Thanks

💐OP

They already ARE impacting on the protected characteristic of sex by pretending it means 'gender identity'.

Nope. They've pulled that definition out of .... somewhere undisclosed.

An arse identifying as an elbow?

'More commonly'?

Funny how quite small things in this issue can make you boil with anger. We're told so often that we're weirdo paranoid mums who think that people are trying to erase sex, har har Karen. And they say this while constantly trying to erase sex as a definable concept.