31 Jan 15:15 Women & Equalities Committee - Scottish GRR Bill

[GreenUp]

Tomorrow 31st Jan at 15:15 the UK Government's Women and Equalities Committee are holding an evidence gathering session in relation to the Scottish GRR Bill. We can watch on Parliament TV live.

The witnesses are:
Naomi Cunningham Barrister and member of legal feminist
Dr Michael Foran, Public Law lecturer at Glasgow University.
Lord Charlie Falconer Barrister
Robin White Barrister

committees.parliament.uk/event/17258/formal-meeting-oral-evidence-session/

The GRA does not make data collection and long term follow up illegal. That would be daft, and is a pathetic excuse from the Tavistock.

Firstly, the long term follow up of medical outcomes relates to people who have had medical treatment - whether or not they have a GRC. And we know that many transitioners don't have or want the certificate.

Secondly, the GRC (and parts of the GRC process that are not necessarily an actual part of the Act, and ways in which various organisations handle gender changes in general - regardless of holding a GRC and completely separately from the act) does introduce difficulties in retrospective and population-level studies. But these are practical rather than legal ones, and would not affect prospective studies run by the clinics actually providing the treatment.

Perhaps ...?

Obviously name changing can make paper trailing difficult. And I remember in a gov evidence session that (I think the same woman?) said children are getting sex markers changed on medical Records.

That must actually make data collection very hard.

Trans people have often commented that they're let down by the medical system not realising what their sex actually is and thus missing out on sex specific care. I remember a piece in the Guardian a few years ago. (So sex does matter....)

Ah sorry cross post Bin

I have a feeling Bernadette Wren or another women specifically said on record that sex markers were being changed for children.

Unless there's another marker indicating transgender then coupled with a name change could that cause issues tracking and data collection?

For health records they issue a completely new NHS number and then copy and paste over notes with the references to sex redacted (which seems utterly stupid to me, but here we are!)

The law change Bernadette Wren talks about is briefly mentioned here:

amp.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/24/sajid-javid-plans-review-of-impact-of-gender-dysphoria-treatment

I suspect GIDS could’ve found a legally compliant way to track the data anyway, but the GRA gave them a convenient excuse not to think about it

And here is the written statement that Sajid Javid submitted to Parliament

questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2022-06-30/hcws170