Welsh Government barging ahead Scottish style LGBTQ+ plan

[Chersfrozenface]

I see the stupid Welsh Government (Welsh Labour+ Plaid Cymru) has announced its LBGTQ+ Action Plan.

Welsh Government announcement
www.gov.wales/wales-sets-out-ambitious-plan-hope-its-heart-reach-goal-becoming-most-lgbtq-friendly-nation-europe

Interestingly, the WG announcement doesn't mention changing gender, but the BBC News website story makes that the headline
www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-64548844

The only version of the action plan I can find is the one consulted on in 2021
www.gov.wales/sites/default/files/consultations/2021-07/lgbtq%2B-action-plan.pdf

It seems to me that the BBC has noticed what is happening in Scotland and smells a story in Wales. It also seems to me that the WG, which must have noticed, has decided it can barge ahead with this. Why? Because there are no women's prisons in Wales and the pesky rapist scenario won't arise? Do they think that's the only potential problem?

I sadly feel the same. I had been grateful to not be in Scotland, but Wales seems to be following on. Amazingly, given all the negative publicity Nicola Sturgeon has been getting .

This may be a good point to publicise an event being held here in Swansea on 8 March, International Women's Day. It's being held at the Taliesin Arts centre, part of Swansea University and it feels like a first for Wales.

Silencing Women: Academic Freedom and Unthinkable Thoughts
Jo Phoenix, Alice Sullivan and Judith Suissa, will be talking about their fight to maintain sex-based research and the loss of freedom of speech in academia.
Joan Smith, who's on the advisory panel of Sex Matters, will chair.

This has been organised by a small group of GC women in the area and will be a great opportunity for women in Wales to come and meet and network with like-minded people. If you're a GC woman within hitting distance of Swansea, do please come along.

The best way of booking a ticket is here:
taliesinartscentre.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/873643473

I've been trying to post the flyer but it's either too big or not in the right format.

I've had to take a screen shot of the flyer, so now the Click Here bit doesn't work, but you get the gist:

Please forward it on to everyone you can think of who might be interested.

Saw this

And this

I will see if I can come to this. (I am quite far away).

The Penis News article on this talks about the (child rapist) drag queen who was found dead in Cardiff recently (someone is getting done for manslaughter) as a reason this should go ahead.

SirVixofVixHall. I totally agree. Don't know what Drakeford could be thinking. Perhaps he doesn't think!

You all know Gordon Brown is the invisible puppet master of Sturgeon and Drakeford right??

Go back to covid news

Really? I didn't know that.

He certainly doesn't talk to women. He agreed, in front of a crowded room at public event, to set up a meeting with women's groups. That was six months ago and the women's groups are still waiting for a response to their request for an appointment.

You'd think Gordon Brown would have more sense.

pattihews . Perhaps he's scared of women. I will never, ever vote for the Labour party. Everyone in my family, knows the no-one can change sex. (That's 3 people, 2 grandchildren and a daughter whose a nurse, without the 2 men).

The documents are now up on the website.
www.gov.wales/equality

LGBTQ Action Plan
www.gov.wales/lgbtq-action-plan-wales

Impact Assessment
www.gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2023-02/lgbtq-action-plan-for-wales-integrated-impact-assessment.pdf

Consultation responses
www.gov.wales/lgbtq-action-plan

The impact assessment document says: "A full equality Impact Assessment has been carried out as part of this Integrated Impact Assessment and has not found any evidence for negative impacts on those with other protected characteristics"

The Equality Impact Assessment doesn't seem to be included in that document, or anywhere else in the documents released today, as far as I can see.

The BBC's article has changed:

twitter.com/mediaguido/status/1622973541858828292?s=46&t=k9NkEucL7yHMU_u6HavJag

I think the bits about making gender recognition easier/ Self ID are easy virtue-signalling by the Welsh government since they don't currently have power to do this, and can already see that the (current) Westminster government would be prepared to stop it due to cross-border effects on the rest of the UK.

If you're interested in what's going on in Wales in relation to gender - the Vale of
Glamorgan Council have released a consultation on new trans inclusion guidance for schools. (With apologies for slight thread hijack.)

It's better than the old guidance, which could be summarised as 'If a child says they're trans, do whatever they want and don't tell their parents. Anyone who objects must be reeducated.', but still plenty to worry about.

As far as I know, no other councils in Wales have guidance in place since all the others using the same Allsorts template have long since withdrawn it when they realised the legal problems. The Welsh government has been saying for ages that it will release new guidance for consultation. I think influencing this one could make a difference to what happens nationally. You don't need to live in the Vale of Glamorgan to submit a response.

If you're interested in contributing the consultation is here: participate.valeofglamorgan.gov.uk/draft-transgender-inclusion-toolkit/

Consultation runs until 17 March. (Extended from the original closing date since the council somehow neglected to put it on their website for two weeks. Or tell anyone it was there.)

They have form on this, don't they? Do you remember a previous equality Impact Assessment that was completely lost: no trace of it anywhere on the system, not in English, not in Welsh...

So we need to see it, don't we? I'll email my MS and ask for a copy. Perhaps others in Wales can do the same.

What a load of bs

In November 2020, the Welsh Government established an LGBTQ+ External Reference Group to provide advice and guidance to the Welsh Government supporting the work of the LGBTQ+ policy team. Membership of this group included individuals and representatives from:

They go on to list Pride and Stonewall and all the tiny half-defunct groups that are run by a single volunteer — and they didn't invite LGB Cymru, who have been trying to get a meeting for years. Nor did they invite Gay Men's Network or long-established lesbian groups. This is not democratic. This is authoritarian Labour.

I've just skimmed through the Impact Assessment document to see what they say about the effect on women and girls (if anything).

They say: "In respect of trans-inclusion limiting access to women’s safe spaces, there is a lack of any evidence around the actual experienced impacts of trans-inclusion in services." The paper cited is this one by Peter Dunne: Dunne, P. (2017). (Trans)forming single gender services and communal accommodations. Social and Legal Studies, 26(5), 537- 561

In it, Dunne compares women who have had mastectomies with males (with penises) who identify as women.

It would be unthinkable that general discomfort could prevent a cisgender woman from using segregated showering facilities after she had a double mastectomy. In reality, UK law tolerates a considerable amount of bodily diversity when cisgender and intersex persons use single-gender spaces. Why are trans persons treated differently? Levasseur suggests that trans bodies are ‘placed in a separate category for display and legal assessment, using sex stereotyping as a compass’ (2014: 1001). If cisgender and intersex persons can use women-only and men-only services, even when they have non-normative bodies, concerns about bodily diversity do not justify the current legal position under the 2010 Act.

I had a look at this paper because I recognised the name Peter Dunne who has been discussed on here before.

www.mumsnet.com/search/advanced?allTopics=false&query=peter+dunne&topics[0]=Feminism%3A+Sex+%26+gender+discussions

Hmm. From that thread:
Peter Dunne is a co convenor for health on the Trans Legal Equality Initiative, along with Tara Hewitt. from his bio "In 2015, Peter was invited to provide evidence to the UK Parliamentary Inquiry on Transgender Equality (conducted by the House of Commons Select Committee on Women and Equalities). His research was extensively referenced by the Committee in its 2016 Report, Transgender Equality." He is a law lecturer at Bristol. He is very involved with gender identity law.

That was from 2017/2018 —another world. I love Wales but it's run like a tinpot dictatorship. A new 2022 risk assessment might not look so great for women and children? Then let's find a document that backs up what we think, even if it's five years old and written by a man who thinks that because women who'd had double mastectomies are allowed to use women's changing rooms and showers there should be no problem accommodating men and their chests.

One does have to wonder whether anyone in WG read it or whether it's just a case of an intern saying 'This'll do.'

They knew this would be scrutinised and they still couldn't be arsed to do it properly. It's shameful, just shameful. They are making Wales a mockery in the eyes of the world.