Equality Act: waiting for a debate date. Anyone know how it works?

3 replies

BonfireLady · 11/04/2023 11:06

I have seen (and signed) the petition for a debate in parliament on clarifying the definition of "sex" in the Equality Act:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/623243

I've now also seen the counter petition to not clarify it:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/627984?fbclid=IwAR0jMmrGz6S5F9Y0CICfeacdJg82hjPSjFIjBe9r6dM1plJHbkqEsguuURw

Aside from the different wording in the published government responses from 26th and 25th January in each one respectively, it struck me as odd that a) the first petition closes on 20th April and is waiting 33 days for a debate date and b) the second petition closes on 15th May and is only waiting 4 days for a debate date.

Does anyone know how this works? Has the second petition (which sadly has more votes) ended up being fast tracked because it's reached a particular threshold? Surely it's the same debate anyway, but I'm curious as to how this could impact the debate(s).

Petition: Commit to not amending the Equality Act's definition of sex

It has been reported that the Government may amend the Equality Act to "make it clear that sex means biological sex rather than gender." The Government has previously committed to not remove legal protections for trans people, an already marginalised g...

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/627984?fbclid=IwAR0jMmrGz6S5F9Y0CICfeacdJg82hjPSjFIjBe9r6dM1plJHbkqEsguuURw

OP posts:

howdoesatoastermaketoast · 11/04/2023 11:22

I think the waiting 4 days thing is just how many days it has been (so far) since it crossed the 100,000 mark

Original poster

BonfireLady · 11/04/2023 11:37

Ah, that makes sense. Thank you.

OP posts:

quantumbutterfly · 11/04/2023 21:59

The maps are interesting to compare.

Flip