1/ I went to Parliament to watch the Women and Equalities Committee. The chair of the EHRC Mary-Ann Stephenson (MAS) and CEO John Kirkpatrick were giving evidence, the other adults in the room were Rosie Duffield and Rebecca Paul MP. Other than that it was the slow kid's table.
2/ This is the committee chair Sarah Owen MP, she is EXTREMELY fair unless you're Rosie or Sarah when she'll look at Nadia Whittome and mutter. She also thinks intersex means people are neither male or female and didn't like it much when the chair of the EHRC corrected that.
3/ So the committee kicks off with about half an hour of the kids table saying it is COMPLETELY IMPOSSIBLE to ever tell if a bloke is a bloke if he puts a dress on. MAS has to patiently explain people have eyes and seem to be able to work it out. MPs think this is genocide.
4/ So this bloke is up first. He is INDIGNANT that women sometimes bring male children/babies into the ladies and implies this shows the Law Lords are a bunch of idiots. MAS is too polite to explain that babies do not represent the same threat level as massive hairy transvestites
5/ Then get a GENUIS intervention from Sarah Owen. She says blokes who want to get into the ladies will now claim they are "trans men" (and therefore female in law). This obviously happens all the time and no one has eyes able to correctly sex people so it's a real gotcha.
6/ Sensing a killer point, Nadia Whittome questions whether a minister was right to say that people have eyes and will use commons sense to ask blokes to leave the ladies. She says this enforces stereotypes and comes down with a massive case of RAPID ONSET BUTCH LESBIAN CONCERN
7/ MAS sneaks in a remark about women and women's rights. This is considered absolutely fucking outrageous by the kid's table at the Women and Equalities Select Committee who quickly return the discussion to sad transvestites and their theory that no one has eyes.
8/ This professional Naomi Cunningham impersonator then speaks. She says the fact that women didn't have the vote was once considered common sense and therefore that means no one can ever exercise common sense or use their eyeballs to ask Dave to get the hell out the ladies.
9/ So then this weird little gremlin bloke tries his hand at some amateur hour article 8 point. MAS patiently explains the High Court, Supreme Court have considered this and it's a no goer for his side. She also dares to say other people (women) have article 8 rights.
10/ This bloke then pipes up saying it's impossible to ever enforce single sex spaces in medicine. Later on in the hearing he complains that the written code of practice is "just words" which is a fair analysis of a written document and a powerful point lol.
11/ We then get a comedy interlude from Rachel Taylor who reads out an email from a transvestite truck driver who is worried about showers and is now going to seek a new life in Ireland. This email is MOVING and EMOTIONAL and a fair reason why women should lose all their rights
12/ It's a committee of all the talents this one, so who better than Kim "reaper" Leadbetter to moan about the fact the women's institute and girl guiding now, horrifically, do not cater for transvestites. Women have been mentioned about 3 times if that by this point.
13/ Rosie Duffield MP then completely kills the vibe and says maybe the Women's and Equality Ctte should consider women. This is outrageous. She doesn't ask a single question focused on the needs of transvestites and appears to suggest the EHRC should educate the kids table.
14/ Also ruining the vibe is Rebecca Paul MP, she disgracefully says there are massive blokes in female prisons and then even invites the EHRC to take an interest in it! That Kirkpatrick guy acts like he's only just heard of it but says they will take a look maybe.
15/ Then some low energy lib dem says wouldn't it be great if we had associations for two protected characteristics so girlguiding now becomes girls and transvestite guiding. Women barely get a mention as is the tradition of this committee.
16/ There's then an assortment of back and forth on various subjects but MAS has warmed to her task and is casually batting off stupid stuff about "policing toilets" and sad transvestites in the fashion of a slightly exhausted by very patient infant school teacher.
17/ Overall MAS did a good job and joined Rosie and Rebecca as an adult in the room. She did say something a bit dodgy about the EHRC supporting conversation legislation but basically only if it complies with Cass. We'll be watching that development but overall a good show by her
18/ My abiding impression was that I leave Parliament with many more LOLs in my heart but many more fears about the standard of our MPs. This was silly student politics but it had a half hearted feel. They know they've lost this one and are now whinging on the kid's table.
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