Good Law Project to report Sex Matters over 'deviant' remark

[IwantToRetire]

In its assessment of the EHRC guidance, Sex Matters took issue with the following phrase: "It is unlikely to be either practical or appropriate to approach any particular individual to make enquiries about their sex in relation to facilities, such as toilets, which are incidental to the primary service.”

The sex-based rights group responded in a publication entitled <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.is/o/lLjDq/sex-matters.org/posts/updates/sex-is-not-special-category-data/?ref=ed_latest" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">"Sex is not a 'special category' data", saying: "There is no legal basis for this instruction, which in effect licenses men to enter women’s facilities and claim that it is inappropriate, possibly unlawful and a breach of their human rights to challenge them."

The group further stated: "Telling staff supervising single-sex spaces that they must second-guess themselves when they become aware of a man engaging in the deviant behaviour of accessing a female-only space, or risk breaching data-protection law, will lead to unwanted conduct related to the protected characteristic of sex that is likely to meet the definition of harassment in the Equality Act. It 'violates a person’s dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating, or offensive environment'."

From article at https://www.thenational.scot/news/26143769.good-law-project-report-sex-matters-deviant-remark/
and at https://archive.is/lLjDq

Illegal.

JM's own statement in the newspaper article quoted in the OP shows that he's misunderstood what Sex Matters wrote and he has clearly twisted the meaning too.

This is simply not true. Perversion is a small subset of deviance, which on its own has no such connotation.

SM after all is an activist group whose interests benefit from associating trans people with danger.

They're talking about men in this instance, trans or otherwise.

I don't know why you are so insistent that means trans people?

What law does it break?

It's not irrelevant, it's the entire point!

Have a read of the dictionary definitions and, most importantly, do not give the GLP any money.

Deviant is commonly used to describe or imply sexual & or other practices deemed abnormal, obsessive, or repulsive.

Equality law, health and safety law possibly. Jolyon Maugham is a tax lawyer (or was). There are lots of different areas of law besides criminal law.

I'm honestly not being sarky @Baileyonice but have you actually read the article mentioned in the OP?

The new EHRC guidelines excludes trans men as well because it might make cis women 'uncomfortable'.

The word women is just fine. No need for cis, thanks.

Of course I have. However SM cunningly inserted 'deviant' to ensure plausible deniability doesn't change that words have common everyday associations that have implications.

They haven't cunningly inserted anything. (No jokes please.)
It's a perfectly valid use of the phrase "deviant behaviour" to describe male behaviour of entering women's loos, which pretty much everyone knows is wrong.

Edited to add: to correct myself, SM said female-only space, not women's loos.

Have a read of the dictionary definitions and, most importantly, do not give the GLP any money.

😂

The idea that women's ears don't prick up when they hear the word 'deviant' as an immediate cue for 'pervy' is cute but nevertheless untrue.

It is highly convenient that particularly on these pages where trans women are routinely smeared as perverted that 'deviance' has only its meaning in 'wrong'.

Why are you repeatedly associating 'trans women' with perversion?

And knowing that they could have used other less inflammatory words… but they chose not to which implies an intentional association of trans people with perversion

Men.

The full quote 'There is no legal basis for this instruction, which in effect licenses men to enter women’s facilities and claim that it is inappropriate, possibly unlawful and a breach of their human rights to challenge them.
Telling staff supervising single-sex spaces that they must second-guess themselves when they become aware of a man engaging in the deviant behaviour of accessing a female-only space, or risk breaching data-protection law, will lead to unwanted conduct related to the protected characteristic of sex that is likely to meet the definition of harassment in the Equality Act.'

They are pointing out how ridiculous it is to suggest that someone's sex is 'special category data', that it would make it impossible or illegal to challenge ANY man entering women's single sex spaces.

But the GLP is presumably run by literate people. They have no such excuse for misunderstanding a perfectly straightforward and unambiguous statement. Unless perhaps they want to mislead the less sophisticated.

Speak for yourself!
You seem determined to make a pervy connection.
My ears remain unpricked by the word "deviant".

If you have an issue with the genuine meaning of the word, take it up with The English Language.

The more you say things like that, the more revealing it is, Baileyonice:
insisting that 'deviant' implies 'sexual & or other practices deemed abnormal, obsessive, or repulsive' is a very specific piece of word association.

'Deviant' means deviating from a norm - you are ascribing the 'sexual/obsessive/repulsive' subtexts to Sex Matters' use of the word.

'the deviant behaviour of accessing a female-only space'
is a perfectly clear use of the word 'deviant' to describe... what it says in the next 6 words! It doesn't demand much close textual analysis, it's all there in the same sentence.

You keep trying to attach subtexts to it and make it all about sex and repulsiveness and transpeople, when it's clearly about men, however they identify, accessing women-only spaces,

yawn. Who cares what these losers do? they never get anywhere.

Just leaving this ^ here for anyone who might have missed it, even though it was only one page ago.

AI Overview:

Deviant behavior refers to actions or beliefs that violate established social norms and cultural expectations. It is subjective, context-dependent, and can range from minor informal infractions (e.g., unconventional clothing) to serious formal offenses like violent crime. It is not inherently good or bad.

My ears also remain unpricked by the word 'deviant'.
It made me think of Joe Orton

Whose behaviour definitely was deviant.