The Equality Act: 15 years old today! Sex Matters article

[IwantToRetire]

The Equality Act was not intended to make it difficult to provide single-sex services, accommodation, charities or women’s sports. It did not legislate for legal “gender self-id”, nor did it require that men and women were always treated the same or prohibit “misgendering”. ...

It started out well. The first draft of the service provider's code, published in January 2010 for consultation, stuck tightly to the act. It said that single-sex and separate-sex services are lawful if they meet one of several conditions and are a proportionate means to a legitimate aim. It also said that the prohibition against gender-reassignment discrimination does not apply as long the treatment is a proportionate means to a legitimate aim. ...

https://sex-matters.org/posts/updates/the-equality-act-15-years-old-today/

Interesting read, though (IMO) ultimately depressing.

A useful reminder that “Stonewall Law” actually began with the EHRC and Government Equalities Office. Stonewall then came in and amplified and strengthened these claims which were not grounded in law.

Well, that was an upsetting read. The authors of the 2011 statutory guidance fulminate against ignorance and prejudice and yet......

are wilfully ignorant of why it is essential to know people's sex, and sometimes treat them differently because of it (for fairness, safety and decency), and....

prejudiced against anyone who mentions the fact. Especially the most vulnerable.

With such a low starting point, and so many powerful people still prey to magical thinking, I feel as though we'll be forever on the back foot.

I think this is an example (reminder) of just how sucessful the trans activists had been in infiltrating organisations with power. Not just political ones but the media.

The laid the groundwork that made so many not speak up for women's rights. ie they had transed institutions.

I've said this before, but the best example is the Single Sex Exemptions. ie this says that the majority group (women) should take second place to the needs (demands) of a tiny minority.

ie logically, without needing to be "political", the EA should have allowed or let continue the social norm of women only meaning based on biology. And then create an exemption for when, very occassionally someone with a GRC, would be accepted as being the opposite sex to the one they actually are.

Effectively this was and is social engineering.

And could only have happened because so many people in decision making positions had already been lobbied.

The then young woman (educated in a Scottish university!!) who was delegated by Labour to help with the wording of the EA, has boasted on TV that the SSE she helped draft are of course fair and just because it does allow women (very occassionally) to have the right to meet up or receive services from other women (women = biological sex).

So it shows that 15 years ago this mind set was not only common, but held by those with positions of power.

An independently minded older woman at the time would never that thought to demote the majority in this way.

Who was this “then young woman” who threw away our rights please?

I am so hopeless at names that am wary of posting the one that comes to mind so will try and fact check before naming.

She has gone from being a Labour wonk into the House of Lords.

I only mentioned her, not because it was her lone effort, but as an example of how even then the university educated graduates of the time had all been totally stonewalled.

Ayesha Hazarika - and apologies to Scottish Universities. She may have gone to school in Scotland but went to an English University.

So just to stress, I am not saying she is individually responsible, but that Labour thought it okay to have someone with a particular politics contribute to updating a law that would impact everybody, when not everybody subscribed to those politics.

So it is more about using the law to impose one set of (minority) values on the entire population.

FFS she was a stand-up comedian! Never heard of her before.

Baroness Hazarika: Lord Speaker’s Corner | House of Lords | Episode 25
3 Jan 2025

From politics to comedy to campaigning against anti-social behaviour, broadcaster Ayesha Hazarika is the latest guest on Lord Speaker’s Corner.

Baroness Hazarika grew up in Coatbridge, Scotland and is the first person of Indian Assamese heritage to join the House of Lords. She rose to become a senior adviser to Labour figures including Harriet Harman and Ed Miliband, playing a crucial role preparing them for PMQs:

‘I think Prime Minister's Questions gets a very bad rap, because it does often become quite Punch and Judy, but I think it's a really important function of our democracy. There are not many democracies around the world where the principal politician in the land is called to the same spot week in, week out, and faces questions on any topic from any Member of Parliament across the country.’

In this episode, Baroness Hazarika talks about her unlikely career path from politics to stand-up comedy and broadcasting, and back to politics. She also explains to Lord McFall how she will use her new political platform to campaign against anti-social behaviour and crime:

‘I don't like calling this low-level crime, because I don't think it's low-level crime. But I think this stuff is not easy, but the more we talk about it and the more we press government ministers, that puts the pressure on them to keep on keeping this a priority.’

Finally, Baroness Hazarika tells Lord McFall about receiving the phone call to offer her a place in the Lords, explaining ‘I really couldn't believe it, because if you're somebody like me from my background and you've loved politics your whole life, it's a real honour to be asked to join the House of Lords for the party that you have served and the party you love.’

She shares that this wasn’t the first thought that went through her head though, saying ‘The person said, “I'm calling on behalf of Keir Starmer. This is really serious. Are you by yourself? I think you better sit down.” And the first thing I thought was, "Oh my goodness, what have I been saying on my social media? Am I about to get cancelled, or am I about to get suspended from the Labour Party? Have I said something terrible?’
---

She seems to know what a woman is when it suits her rhetoric.

International Women’s Day
Volume 844: debated on Thursday 6 March 2025

My Lords—and Ladies; come on, it is International Women’s Day—it is my great pleasure to follow my noble friend Lady Alexander and welcome her to this House along with so many other great women, including the noble Baronesses, Lady Bousted, Lady Hunter and Lady Rafferty, who are also making their maiden speeches today. I do not want to forget the noble Lord, Lord Jones, even though he is a man. He is taking part in the International Women’s Day debate, so he is now an honorary member of the sisterhood. In the rather alarming era of the global strong man, it is heartening to see the arrival of so many strong women to this Chamber, and I look forward to them all standing up, questing for change, causing a wee bit of trouble and speaking much sense.

As a fellow Scot, I am a long-time admirer of my noble friend Lady Alexander. She played a key role in the Scottish Parliament from its creation in 1999 until 2011, and she is a woman who gets things done. Her achievements include the first social justice report, tackling homelessness, fighting the pernicious Section 28 and announcing the first Scotland-wide fund to tackle violence against women. She also helped shape a more modern and more equal Scottish Labour Party when she was an adviser to Donald Dewar, and she was instrumental in making it more inclusive of women and less of a boys’ club. It is fitting that she went on to become the party’s first female leader in Scotland and paved the way for so many others. I look forward to the rich contributions she will make to this House and wish her well.

I also warmly congratulate my noble friend Lady Smith on her new role as Minister for Women and Equalities. Podcasting and Iain Dale’s loss—he is still bereft—is very much our gain. I know that she cares deeply about these subjects and will do an excellent job for the many.

This is such an important debate. Technology has shaped so many aspects of our lives for the better, but as the noble Baroness, Lady Lane-Fox, said, we have to be honest: there are winners and losers. The winners seem to be the very rich, powerful tech bros, now some of the most important people on the planet, and women often seem to be the losers. Women and girls are often at the mercy of a savage, rapacious thirst for online pornography, which is getting ever more violent, dark and dangerous. The online world is becoming a harder place and making our tech bro friends a lot of money, but I think we are all losing out. Young women are being told to just be cool with a bit of sexual violence such as strangulation or choking during sex. Young men are being taught that what they see on their phones is normal and necessary to be a man. It is not, and it is harming them too. We are numbing a generation. I pay great tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Bertin, for her review into online pornography, and to the noble Baroness, Lady Owen, for her important work on deepfakes. I hope the Government can work with them to make the online space a wee bit safer for women and girls.

What happens online is not abstract; it shapes what happens in real life. Violence against women and girls is at a terrifying level. It is just four years since the murder of Sarah Everard. Do we honestly think that things have changed that much? The landmark Femicide report delves into the epidemic of violence against women. The latest report, just out, has found that it is not just young women who are the victims of male violence. One in eight women killed by men in the last 15 years was over the age of 70. Can the Minister update us on what is being done to better protect older women, often ignored in the media and wider society?

I used to feel very optimistic about International Women’s Day. I used to look forward to all the celebrations, parties and gatherings, but like many women right now I feel pretty depressed about how things are going. Things are going backwards, with a rise in misogyny here and all around the world, the anti-abortion laws in America, women being erased in Afghanistan, and the effects of war on women and girls all over the world. It feels as if there is very little female representation in the room when these new global powers meet.

We have to be honest: the power structures in the world right now are once again very male, and technology is playing a huge role. So I make this plea to the Minister: we understand that technology and AI are here to stay, and that they are important to growth and the evolution of society. However, as we heard so eloquently from the noble Baroness, Lady Lane-Fox, this is a sector dominated by men, from the new global overlords who can make or break Presidents and leaders, right down to the engineers and the coders. So, yes, let us harness the power of this exciting technical revolution, but please let us not worship at the altar of the tech bros at the expense of women and girls. We must not be the sacrificial lambs at this pivotal moment.

https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2025-03-06/debates/2822AAFD-CE98-447B-B6C0-747FE154B034/details#contribution-5BD559FC-E5EF-41A8-B549-DBDA95B4DBD9