GRA REFORM OR REPEAL?

[AnnieBarbour]

I have a question, and I would love to know what you think.

I want those who experience gender dysphoria and those who identify as transgender to live lives free of harassment, stigma and prejudice. I have a transgender grandchild, so I know how difficult it can be to identify as trans. I think as a society we can do better, indeed we must do better. Some of that ‘doing better’ is about societal acceptance and education out of prejudice, while some of it is about legislation, and it’s on legislation where I’d like your input.

It has seemed to me for some time that some of the mess we are in now is down to mistakes that were made with the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) in 2004. Some of the impetus for that Act came from the need to protect the rights of transgender people in marriage – a need that no longer exists since we have had same sex marriage. Some of it came from a need to protect transgender people from harassment and discrimination in the workplace. Sadly, the good intentions behind the Act did not have entirely the best outcomes. It led to an understanding that it is possible to actually change sex, something we all know (although not everyone admits) is impossible. And that understanding has led to considerable conflict with other group who are have protected characteristics under the Equality Act.

So, I want to make a bold suggestion. I suggest we do reform the GRA, but not by just simplifying the process of gaining a Gender Recognition Certificate. I suggest we completely reform it, making it more fit for purpose. I suggest we may find we can repeal it because we don’t need it after all.

To do so, I suggest we ask:

1. Where does recording someone’s sex actually matter? My suggestion is it is no longer necessary on passports, driving licences its; especially now we have iris recognition etc, but that it IS necessary for data collection.
2. Are there any areas where the harassment, stigmatisation, and discrimination of transgender people is not already covered by existing legislation?
3. Is the current trend of conflating sex with gender really helpful to transgender people?

Looking forward to hearing your views!

I’d much rather have a passport stating that I’m female and therefore entitled to be searched by female police in female facilities than have my treatment me up to whatever the (almost always male) duty guard decides.

Exactly.

Biology matters. Sex matters. Language matters.

OP the whole area of protection for trans people has been completely hijacked by a very small (but very rich) aggressive group of biologically-male activists who, for psychological reasons of their own, want all men to have unfettered access to all women’s safe spaces.

It was okay when just a few men wanted unfettered access to all women's(and girls) spaces? The problem is the number of men?

The idea that I'd be happy if only a select few men get to undress with my daughter, but not when it becomes too many?

How many men should be allowed to hide their sex on legal documents?

Repeal. It has been dangerous and if Labour/Lib Dem/Greens get anywhere near power, the GRA will be strengthened to take away ALL women's rights. There will no longer be equality, the word will be meaningless

Basically it lets a trans person have their preferred sex recorded on a marriage certificate or a death certificate.

And that basically is why the whole thing was arrant nonsense from the start, no-one has or should be entitled to claim a preferred sex, mandating it is a lie a legal one but still a lie it should never have been enacted into law.

"No significant factors of public interest". No consideration at all for women.

None whatsoever. As if we didn’t even exist. Invisible women as usual.

Repeal, repeal, REPEAL

Transgenderism for the most part is no different to any other faith position. Faith and lack of faith are protected in law, and what must be sufficient for those who believe in an immortal soul must also be sufficient for those who believe in a gendered soul.

Imposing gender ideology upon the general population is no different to theocracy.

Excellent post Jellysaurus

I’m with repeal as well.

If people wish to change their appearance to look more like the opposite sex, then they should be allowed to do so.

It needs to become more acceptable that some people prefer to live their lives that way, and less remarkable to discover that, in rare cases, someone is not the sex they appear to be.

The logical campaign pushing people to accept this has been abandoned for a much less logical campaign to accept that these people must be treated as the opposite sex.

That illogical premise has become so widespread that even those who influence human rights laws have been influenced. How can it possibly be a human right to be seen as something you’re not? It can’t, and yet that’s where we are.

Until this illogical premise is removed, and replaced with something rational, we will be unable to move forward on this issue. Indeed, as has been observed in other spheres, this is resulting in various other rights being eroded or removed. Tolerance is decreasing. Until this issue is correctly reframed, we will continue to go backwards.

Yes. I see so many trans people saying they were just quietly getting on with their lives until the legal fallacy appeared. Now there is a focus on them they never wanted.
Who benefits, if not trans people? I suggest:
Predatory men
Misogynistic men
Private health ‘care’ performing surgery
Big pharma
Conspiracy theorists

Yes. I see so many trans people saying they were just quietly getting on with their lives until the legal fallacy appeared. Now there is a focus on them they never wanted.

You're forgetting that it was trans people who pushed for the original GRA. Christine Burns, Stephen Whittle and the rest of the Beaumont society (whose members were transsexuals and transvestites). And of course Christine Goodwin who wanted to marry a man and went to the European Court, which eventually resulted in the GRA.

Repeal. If a system is needed it should be more like adoption or deed-polling, and it must be separate from sex.

The fact of the matter is that it harms women if men are allowed to say they're women politically and practically, and it harms trans people in the most serious of situations (eg. medical) if their sex is hidden.

www.cps.gov.uk/crime-info/hate-crime

“Hate crime
The law recognises five types of hate crime on the basis of:

Race
Religion
Disability
Sexual orientation
Transgender identity
Any crime can be prosecuted as a hate crime if the offender has either:

demonstrated hostility based on race, religion, disability, sexual orientation or transgender identity
Or

been motivated by hostility based on race, religion, disability, sexual orientation or transgender identity“

The omission of sex as a category given the inclusion of ‘Transgender identity’ is quite extraordinary and beggars belief.

@PearPickingPorky

We would never allow someone to conceal their age on State records or identification documents, no matter what age they looked, or believed themselves to be. The idea is absurd.

Doing it with sex is orders of magnitude more absurd.

The GRA should never have allowed a fictitious sex to be recorded on documents. We should never have allowed men to pretend to be women (and vice versa), and the fact it was done to let some homophobes sleep easier with allowing other people to get married is a great shame on us.

It's Repeal for me.

Agreed, and if we are not successful in repealing the GRA then I probably alone 🤷‍♀️ will campaign for an whatever age you feel you are on any given day law. So I will be able to claim my state pension and free bus pass/winter fuel allowance/whatever is on offer to other pensioners , and also everything I do now as a middle aged woman.and then too I will identify as a child who requires child benefits whatever form they may take.