I think parliament will have one debate for both petitions.
I don’t think the GRC is necessarily defunct because when the EA was written the intention was clearly that sex meant biological sex.
A lot of the wailing and nashing of teeth is because Stonewall, Mermaids etc. thought their push to get sex to mean gender identity was going so well and then the pesky women put a spanner in the works. It also undermines the spin they put on what the law means. For example I have seen Lady Haldane’s judgement interpreted as meaning anyone who has gone through gender reassignment is included in legal sex rather than the accurate, people with a GRC are included in legal sex - a very big difference. Getting sex confirmed as biological sex really undermines their aims.
As I’ve said before, I expect the clarification to the EA to be quick to do but longer term gender or gender identity will become a protected characteristic. There will be some re-writing of legislation e.g. I expect the gender pay gap to be renamed the sex pay gap, which is what it is just named at a time when sex and gender often meant the same thing.
What staggers me is the underlying sexism of the responses, I have yet to see a Stonewall, Mermaids, TRA etc. say, yes the EHRC are right Transmen with a GRC are not currently legally entitled to mat leave, mat pay and the pregnancy & maternity pc and this needs to be addressed. It has really reinforced that this is about entitled misogynistic males wanting to get into women’s spaces and sport. Transmen are there to be thrown under the bus to get what we want.
I did have one slightly bitchy thought, acting/media is one profession where male and female actors are often not paid the same but it’s hard to bring an equal pay case. If sex is clarified as being biological then poor Susy Izzard would have to get used to being paid less when wearing heels to negotiate their contract as they couldn’t use a male actor as a comparator, unless they put their flat shoes😂