In my experience people are horrified that any government would retain such a sexist, poorly drafted, shockingly misogynistic outdated law. It was obviously thoughtlessly set up to help a tiny number of midlife mainly MtF transitioners (so no provision for GRA holders to go through pregnancy and birth etc) That is ridiculous in a legal status that is granted for a lifetime irrevocably. Also ridiculous that you can’t get out of having a GRA certification unless you say it was fraudulently acquired and you basically lied to get it in the first place. GRA fails every test of basic consent.
All this was done in the early 00s, in a homophobic age before same sex marriage and civil partnerships were legal, when women had lower pension ages, and before there was an Equality Act. Back then having a GRA may have seemed like the only way to allow people to marry who couldn’t otherwise do so, (apart from the boring old lesbians and gays of course-they didn’t matter) because it allowed people to legally change sex. The GRA didn’t trouble itself with complicated things like definitions of what any of this transition or detransition stuff really means or how rights for people who want to transition could be ensured without negatively affecting other groups.
So now just twenty years later, with this shoddy law in place, GRA is being used as a justification to let men into women’s spaces and is massively misinterpreted due to biased incorrect lobby group trainings etc. That has already had a destructive chilling effect on so many related areas, like toilet provisions in public places or workplaces, or on the reliability of correct sex-based data collection and the provision of single-sex services.
The GRA is so poorly understood that it feels dangerous to keep it going- it has such draconian penalties for information-sharing that it probably puts GRC holders’ healthcare at risk. Some staff will be so terrified to say or write anything that acknowledges the biological truth in notes, that inappropriate treatment could be offered if the patient isn’t seen in person.
Without the GRA, the 2010 Equality Act protections would still remain in force for everyone, so it’s not about removing protections from discrimination. GRA should be removed leaving current holders their existing GRA status if they want it plus the provision to revert back to birth sex any time if they want that, which could be confirmed in another Act. Then GRA should be revoked to stop any more legal sex change certifications from being offered.
I honestly think that when most people see all that they will feel it’s a very concerning legal mess and will want Parliament to sort it out. Has anyone with a massive social media following tweeted the petition link yet?