Equality Act - what next?

[ArabellaScott]

The petition to look at this seems sadly to have virtually ground to a halt:

www.mumsnet.com/talk/petitions_noticeboard/4722618-petition-to-update-the-equality-act-thread-2

Government have responded with a dismissive:

'providers are already able to restrict the use of spaces/services on the basis of sex and/or gender reassignment where justified. Further clarification is not necessary.'

What next?

We know that providers, while technically able to exclude males, just do not and will not. Nobody seems to agree on or understand the law fully. Legal experts get in huge tangles arguing about it.

The current situation means women are excluded from many women's spaces, there is no provision for single sex services apart from Beira's Place in Scotland, there are still males in women's prisons, and in hospitals.

What do we do if the government and EHRC won't listen? Whatever the law says, this situation is untenable.

Wild. Absolutely wild.

So. Our plan for next steps, then? To return to the OP!

1. Hit 100k
2. Write to MPs

What form would this debate be likely to take? I'd want to make sure there were plenty of MPs in the house for it. So we'd need to let MPs know the strength of feeling.

And could we get experts in law and the EA to give evidence, somehow?

I'm envisaging something like the WESC, but on a bigger scale, does it work like that?

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/623243

And still it rises

90,646 signatures

Plan:

• Hit 100k
• Write to MPs, ask them to attend

• Ask MPs to ask the Cabinet Office why this petition was shut down without the core substance being addressed, and who signed that decision off
• send our MPs our evidence of where the blurring of sex and gender has impacted us eg Brownies and Guides, as that shows a severing of women's places down the generations and cuts our daughters off from what their mothers would like to have passed down
• ask MPs to ask those who spoke in the GRA arguments, if they intended the outcomes we are living with. I'd like to hear from Tebbit somehow. He's no longer an MP but he was practically the Cassandra of the GRA. Or the Cassandra of Sex, take your pick

Definitely pick out things you want the debate to cover when writing to your MP

It’s going like a train! Keep signing ladies (and gents)

It’s putting on almost a thousand an hour. Will we hit 96k today? Of course 100k would be amazing but I’m trying not to get too excited….

JKR for the win!

When you come for the Queen, you best not miss...

Eee

I had been wondering why JKR hadn't tweeted about this before. She was waiting for IWD, wasn't she?

@EndlessTea you're on 🔥

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/623243

Aragorn, with his sweaty hair and a pointy sword, is no longer my hero. JK is.

Thanks. Hopefully Sex Matters will produce guidance and maybe form letters, too.

The palindrome was too fast for me but I got the spinny!

Nice

91,457 signatures

5000 SIGNATURES TODAY!!!

8500 LEFT

Most definitely.

Smooth move Joanne!

What is IWD please?

👇

Bugger it's 🖕for gifs

In loving the new feature.

Thank you mnhq
91,597 signatures

92000 8000 left

Fucking hell.

42 days to go. 8k.

190 a day.

92457 6000 signatures TODAY

Oh God that woman is amazing!!

Isn't she!

92,573 signatures

And in case anyone missed it