Bristol City Council consulting on new trans policy

[severnboring]

www.ask.bristol.gov.uk/trans-inclusion-and-gender-diversity-policy-consultation

Following on from passing a 'TWAW TMAM' motion of which the former council Head of Legal said 'I have never seen such a manifestly unlawful motion', Bristol City Council are now consulting on their new 'Trans Inclusion and Gender Identity' policy.

Good thread here: twitter.com/nicjholland/status/1563290810665562112

Consultation open til Oct. It's comforting to know that as an economic crisis hits, at least the council tax money is being well spent by enlightened folx voting to put sani bins in the men's.

Bristol council is an alliance of Labour & Green. We all know what Bristol university is like. I expect the majority of Bristolians won’t have a clue about this while the city’s LGBTQ + networks will have a concerted campaign of completion

Hmm the site is unable to show the trans policy or the equality impact assessment as the links just bring up an error message funny that 🤔

www.ask.bristol.gov.uk/trans-inclusion-and-gender-diversity-policy-consultation

Very bizarre that you have to email them for copies.

I wonder if you have to give a name and address for the information to be sent….

It's the Denton's model of forcing through change without democratic accountability - plus knowing that you're trying to push through change that will actively remove the rights of others so disenfranchising opposition is essential.

That's weird, downloaded fine earlier.

It's the usual stuff, no definitions, most marginalised etc... basically it would get rid of single sex services. Interestingly they have been forced to add through gritted teeth that there is another perspective and mention Forstater etc

I've completed it. I wasn't very articulate as it makes me emotional but I tried to be measured. I work for BCC but don't live there, it accepted my registering just with my personal email and didn't ask for proof of any connection to Bristol so it looks to me like anyone in the country could complete it??

I have just completed it too. Only have to give an email address to complete.

I can’t download it and so I don’t know if they mention (the dreaded) toilets. However, if anyone can complete it, can you mention that mixed sexed (gender neutral) toilets are being built with full height doors and this will adversely affect the safety of certain groups of people.

This is dangerous for epileptics and other people who fall ill, many of which may already be classed as disabled. It is much safer, and indeed a reason that doors have gaps at the bottom, that you can see if someone if they have collapsed. Indeed, many people found dead in public toilets (heart attacks/strokes) have been behind full height doors. And where do you go if you feel ill in public?

Gaps in toilet doors reduce the privacy for drug taking and sex. And for checking rooms quickly for evacuations. And the other reason is for hygiene (mopping and dispersal of smells).

It’s an elephant in the room why mix sexed toilets are usually built with full floor to ceiling doors. Everyone knows why but then ignores the obvious. It needs to be stated and risk assessments done.

I have just filled it in.

I highly recommend everyone with a spare 15 mins does so - it's like the Forstater /Bailey cases never happened!!

Here is how I filled in the first section :

'There has been extensive debate both in Parliament, and more broadly, on how the inclusion of trans people impacts upon sex based rights, especially those of women, and the rights of same sex attracted people.

Prominent court cases such as the Forstater ET and the Allison Bailey ET have not only highlighted and scrutinised these impacts in a practical way, but shown how women objecting to the erosion of their sex based rights have been targeted and discriminated against. It has been proven that these objections are not bigoted or transphobic, and therefore must be considered in policy making. To fail to do so would be sex discrimination,and further, discrimination against anyone holding gender critical beliefs.

It has also been highlighted that making policies in line with advice from agencies such as Stonewall leaves employers and local authorities open to discrimination claims.'

It did not get much better either because yes, they have drafted it to say that people should chose facilities their gender aligns with and they also noted that they considered excluding trans women from women's facilities but decided there wasn't a good enough reason.

Completed.

When you put in your email do they send a message to check? I've got a Gmail I could use but I've totally forgotten the password.

Yes, they send a link to your email to verify your email address.

They've been sneaky...

The pull quote for the section on single sex services:

“If you are accessing a service provided for men-only or women-only, the organisation providing it should treat you

according to your gender identity. In very restricted circumstances it is lawful for an organisation to provide a

different service or to refuse the service to someone who is undergoing, intends to undergo or has undergone

gender reassignment” Equality and Human Rights Commission8"

The quote is from the EHRC's webpage on gender reassignment discrimination, last updated 22/12/21 (www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/advice-and-guidance/gender-reassignment-discrimination)

(as an aside the EHRC need to update!!)

They do not quote from the 4/4/22 EHRC page on sex and gender reassginment discrim - www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/our-work/news/protecting-people-sex-and-gender-reassignment-discrimination

which says:

"In the Equality Act 2010 the protected characteristic of sex protects people from being discriminated against because of being a man or a woman (Equality Act 2010, Section 11) – defined as a male or female of any age (Equality Act 2010, Section 212 (1)). ‘Sex’ is understood as binary – being male or female – with a person’s legal sex being determined by what is recorded on their birth certificate, based on biological sex.....
Exceptions in the Act set out circumstances in which it is permissible to treat someone less favourably because of their sex or gender reassignment, for reasons of public policy or to protect the rights of others. The sex exceptions operate on the basis of legal sex. The gender reassignment exceptions are not determined by whether or not an individual has a Gender Recognition Certificate (the one exception to this relates to the solemnisation of marriage through religious ceremony – Equality Act 2010, Schedule 3, paragraph 24). The use of such exceptions generally needs to be justified as being a proportionate way to achieve a legitimate objective."

or the subsequent 27/4/22 new single sex spaces guidance from EHRC:

www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/advice-and-guidance/separate-and-single-sex-service-providers-guide-equality-act-sex-and-gender

I see they still don't have their policy and EQIA available except by email.

They've been sneaky...

I would maybe point this out in the response.

Do you think that they think nobody will begin a response if they make it difficult to see the policy? For anybody who wishes to complete survey the policy is quoted before the comment boxes and it makes chilling reading. As for the EQIA maybe the dog ate it just like the Welsh one sometime ago.

I know, bizarre.

I think it's worth carefully looking at all the footnotes. They link to a document on 'Supporting Trans People of Faith' authored by Shaan Knan, the Stonewall trans advisory group member who described Allison Bailey as 'the terfy barrister' when complaining to Bailey's chambers.

Guess what, that doc is also unavailable: www.sayit.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Roadmap-to-Inclusion-Supporting-Trans-People-of-Faith-Shaan-Knan.pdf

Just looking at the EIA - Stonewall Stonewall Stonewall...

In 'Background and Previous Engagment' it says:

Some of the content in our proposed policy approach (for both policies) is taken from existing Council guidance that was based on material originally drafted by a working group in 2018 led by local charities SARI and Diversity Trust to develop a "Road Map for Trans Inclusive Feminism and Women’s Services in Bristol" with representatives from various LGBTQ+ groups, women’s rights organisations, and public bodies (including BCC and police). In drafting this guidance we also had feedback from local academics at the University of Bristol Law School, and Sociology Dept. UWE Bristol. We circulated a draft version of the guidance document and invited comments from our Bristol City Council LGBT+ staff led group, Stonewall UK, and local women’s rights stakeholders. This feedback was used to inform the final version of the guidance document, which was approved by Corporate Leadership Board in April 2021.

This was an Edward Lord-style fake exercise in consultation:

medium.com/@elsaegret/stitch-up-bristol-fashion-f1eb298e28da

The council are taking women's tax money to spend on advice from males who call us an 'infestation' and want to get rid of our spaces and services.

The framing around 'not feeling safe sharing with trans people' is so dishonest - no geniuses, it's about WOMEN not feeling safe sharing with MEN. Or just not wanting to, which should be the end of the conversation.

I wonder if the input from the Bristol University Law Department came from Dr Peter Dunne of the infamous paper used in the Scottish Government's EQIA on the Reform to the GRA proposals. A paper where he said that having a male bodied person in a female changing area was no more uncomfortable for female service users than sharing the area with women who had had breast cancer surgery.

www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/5149172/snp-breast-cancer-patients-id-row-mastectomies/

One reason we moved from Bristol to Bath- couldn't get a decent transport system in , stop everywhere reeking if weed or keep streets remotely clean but were so woke it was untrue when it came to anything like this - and I'm not a Tory!!! I found it an incredibly annoying place , but then I'm 60 now and was 53 at the time

334 I'm sure that's exactly who it came from, well remembered!