2004 Lords Debate on GRA

[NitroNine]

Was having a wee read of Hansard this morning - you know, as one does - & this particular rabbit-hole (specifically, my relative’s work) led me to the third reading of the Gender Recognition Bill (as it then was) in the Lords, when Baroness O’Cathain’s amendment to try to protect faith groups from having to accept transgender people as being their assumed sex was narrowly defeated. (My relative voted on the side of sanity, am relieved to say).

It’s a fascinating read over 20 years on - the “most vulnerable” narrative was firmly entrenched; the C of E had senior figures ready to jump all in; & people were all too willing to ignore the massive red flags & clanging alarm bells of threats being made to litigate & the father of three who wanted in on women’s prayer meeting so badly he sued. Plus the fact it had attracted people’s attention & they were expressing their concerns: one of the peers says they’ve only had more letters about the ban on fox hunting. You have to wonder how many letters were desperate women warning, Cassandra-like, of the situation we now find ourselves in.

I feel despairing amounts of empathy for Cassandra - she embodies the experience of a lot of women when it comes to interacting with men.

Doesn’t she just Utopia - & Helen is reduced to a piece of property, a prize, her only worth her looks; while Andromache is abducted & repeatedly raped by (“becomes the concubine of” 😡🤬) the man who flung her wee son off the walls of her city.

You make an excellent point; the Trojan war from a woman’s POV is certainly not a tale of heroic and brave men.

As to your original point, a few months ago I read some of Baroness O’Cathain’s very persuasive and forward thinking arguments made during debates on GRA and, like quite a few members of HoL, her well-reasoned concerns were not unfounded. But the Labour Govt. of the time was very much not listening….bit like Labour today really.

It’s incredible reading, isn’t it - there are a few of them, Baroness O’Cathain being a real standout, who absolutely Get. It. & then there are far FAR too many who insist that the safeguards are unnecessary. That it’s sheer bigotry even to propose them. We’d have been utterly stuffed if we’d not a bicameral legislature of the model we have.

That debate was extraordinarily perspicacious in many ways (agreed about Baroness O’Cathain). And effectively 'resolved' by telling the Lords that their desperate scenarios would never be allowed to come to pass.

And yet, in what feels like a moment, those scenarios did happen. And then there was the Maria Miller leadership of the Women and Equalities Select Committee Inquiry into Gender Recognition Reform. And the obeisance of the EHRC.

fairplayforwomen.com/women-and-equalities-select-committee-report-on-gender-recognition-reform/