100,000 signatures on the Equality Act - What next

[MForstater]

Thank you everyone for your amazing work promoting the petition. It all got quite exciting!

What next?

It will stay open till April 20th and its good to keep getting more people to sign. We will try to get some more press coverage of it.

The main thing now is to write to MPs and encourage them to show interest and for them to write to the Petitions Committee and to Kemi. (257 people have already today!)

We have a webinar planned for the end of March on how we think the Equality Act and the GRA interact and why and how the law needs to be clarified.

Happy to answer questions on here too.

sex-matters.org/take-action/write-to-your-mp-about-the-petition/

Personally emailed my MP using Sex Matters' excellent template as a first draft and adapting to suit.

This is Sex-Matters template for guidance.

sex-matters.org/take-action/write-to-your-mp-about-the-petition/

For writing to MPs, there are also some useful links to the problems with the lack of clarity about the characteristic “sex” in the Equality Act here as expressed by lawyers at the House of Commons giving oral evidence
www.mumsnet.com/talk/petitions_noticeboard/4758082-petition-to-update-the-equality-act-thread-3

This is Sex Matters’ template
sex-matters.org/take-action/write-to-your-mp-about-the-petition/

Anyone here from Battersea with MP Marsha de Cordova?

She seems as though she would listen (and also happens to be on the debate committee, but perhaps don’t allude to that as you are writing as her constituent.)

There were a lot of signatures in her constituency.

Any one here from Gower with Tonia Antoniazzi? She may be helpful.

Maya, thank you for that easy email form, sadly only 217 signatures from my constituency. To a TWAW MP grrrrr

The main thing now is to write to MPs and encourage them to show interest and for them to write to the Petitions Committee and to Kemi.

Hi Maya, you've done an excellent job with this and I'm pleased to have signed it, along with all the others. A bit later, I'll have a good think what to put in a letter.

The maps shows that only 202 (0.1999%) in my constituency have signed the petition.

Would just add, please don't be discouraged by the low numbers voting in your constituency.

Mine was very low, but I understand, people are struggling with what are to them more basic and necessary life matters and many are disillusioned and politically disengaged.

We're kind of pioneering on this, think canaries in the coalmine.....but numbers will grow exponentially once the reality kicks in of how compromised women's rights and services are.

I emailed my MP, Keir Starmer. I just sent the generic email but may also send a personal one.

I echo the comments above about Sex Matters' sterling work - I submitted my views to the IPSO consultation just before the deadline earlier today and SM's own response was invaluable in helping me to organise and express my thoughts. Thanks so much for all that you and your colleagues do, Maya!

I'll write to my MP this weekend. I've never voted for him (like many here, I'm politically homeless these days) but he is willing to engage and has been prepared to defy his party and take unpopular stances on other issues. We also happen to share a birthday, which I have been known to capitalise on in the past...

Either way, you'll get a generic response.

We have just registered, Damien Green so not hopeful.
Does anyone have a link to JK Rowling approving that isn't the DM or telegraph?
I'd like to link the info but is there a source that isn't the Daily Mail or behind a paywall?

Thank to all those who are signing and sharing

@2MinuteRice there's a tweet from JKR

103,825 signatures

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/623243

Then click

sex-matters.org/take-action/write-to-your-mp-about-the-petition/

And there's a prepared letter to send to your MP

Then reward yourself with this

twitter.com/MForstater/status/1634319757787779072?s=19

There's a video in the tweet if you click through

And before I go to bed. The petition gained another 1566 signatures yesterday.
(Start 102259, finish 103825)

Currently at 103,864 signatures

They are actually in alphabetical order by surname, but it's interesting that it's not that obvious - I had to look twice too. I wonder whether alphabetical by first name would be better?

Thanking you Baroness Sarah Ludford.

The rest of the map is turning a lovely shade of simmering orange. I think someone's turned the heat up! We'll all be as boiling as Scotland soon!

104401

Be aware that they change the grade boundaries as more people sign so the map may revert to being yellower as the number for each colour band gets larger (yesterday 1-90 was the lightest colour)

That's not fair!!!😖

Yep just checked and the grade boundaries are 100 now.

My constituency has regressed in colour.

I feel like having a toddler tantrum....bastards.

104,446 signatures

Petition covered in The Times

MPs to consider gender petition backed by JK Rowling

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/4534821c-bf89-11ed-b52d-512231a0c9aa?shareToken=a2be6368ec3ec1a7a1e413545f54b9d9

The group Sex Matters, in a briefing note, said: “Transgender people are protected from being discriminated against because they are transgender (through the protected characteristic of gender reassignment). This does not give them the right to override other people’s consent when it comes to their privacy, dignity and autonomy about sharing spaces with the opposite sex.”

After detailing the amendment, it added: “Making this clear would resolve the uncertainty for women, transgender people, employers, schools and service providers. It would make it much easier to provide clear guidance and written policies that everyone understands.”

Baroness Ludford, the Liberal Democrat peer, speaking during the International Women’s Day debate in the House of Lords, said that she supported the reform “so that the protected characteristic of sex is clarified as meaning biological sex”.

I was going to say but I've forgotten what it was now. It will come back to me at some point.

Excellent, thanks Resister!