Well I am hacked off.
SG was asked about the impact of Transwomen (TWs) on lesbian associations. After much prevarication, and an extended lunch break, the best they could offer was (wait for it, you'll laugh):
Lesbian associations of more than 25 people must accept TWs who hold GRCs if they say they are lesbians.
But lesbian associations can't ask to see GRCs.
TWs who do not hold GRCs but identify as lesbians are deemed heterosexual males under current UK Law (as it should be imo).
But lesbian associations can't ask to see GRCs.
So the judges asked the SG, what are lesbian associations supposed to do if we/they can't ask whether or not an applicant holds a GRC and thereby to determine if the applicant is legally female (a section 9 woman) or instead legally a heterosexual male?
The SG suggested we can't ask for GRCs (because menz feelings will be hurt/indirect discrimination) but we CAN ask to see birth certificates which will say Female for both natal females who do not have GRCs stating their legal sex is male, and will say Female for natal males who have legal (Section 9) sex of female.
In pragmatic terms, we will therefore have to ask all applicants to see their birth certificates so that membership policies do not indirectly discriminate against natal males. Never mind that not everybody has a birth certificate to hand.
Here's the laughable bit:
To legitimately keep TWs out of lesbian associations, the SG proposes that if the lesbian reconstituted as both a lesbian association and an association that is for lesbians holding the protected characteristic of a philosophical belief in gender critical belief I.e. that sex is immutable, then we could theoretically keep TWs with GRCs out.
What the SG did not explain is why lesbians would want any GRC-holding man 'lesbians' in our associations; why the Protected Characteristic of Philosophical Belief is now required to prop up the Protected Characteristic of Sexual Orientation (apparently some PCs under the EqA now have greater status than other PCs); and what we should do if a TW with a GRC says they are a lesbian and that they also hold a Philosophical Belief that sex is real and immutable. Which smh of course they will say that* because they will have a legal sex as female and why wouldn't they just say that?
How will lesbians be able to counter that? Say 'oh we don't believe you', or 'TWs can't legally hold a belief that sex is immutable'??
The Scottish Government has a lot to answer for and their barristers neither understood what they were arguing for, nor were able to logically articulate it, but they were nonetheless quite au fait with throwing lesbians under the bus.
This appeal had better succeed otherwise both the GRA and the EqA will be completely unworkable, and meanwhile lesbian lives and women's single-sex spaces will be over-run with autogynephiles, pornsick incels, male supremacists, mentally ill males, garden variety sexual predators, misogynists all with the power to define what lesbians are, unlike actual lesbians.
I am so aggravated.