Thread by @LGBTLD

Once again, there seems to be lots of confusion about the Gender Recognition Act, the Equality Act and so-called “Self ID”. It’s time for another Lib Dem primer. Best put the kettle on and settle in.

Here we go.

The government has, for some months now, said it wants to consult on updating the Gender Recognition Act (GRA). Our last primer explained what this did.

Tl;dr: It was introduced to allow trans people to get married in their identified gender.

You have to live two years in that identified gender, then send two doctors notes, a gas bill & 140 quid to the Gender Recognition Panel who look at your gas bill and decide if you’re allowed to have a new birth certificate.

If they say yes, you show the new birth certificate to the registry office and get married. Job done. If they say no you have no right of appeal. Better hope your gas bill has The I’s dotted and the T’s crossed!

Anyway, the GRA needs updating. It predates the Same Sex Marriage Act and other countries have passed better versions of it, and it is no longer fit for purpose.

The most likely update is to get rid of the Panel, and replace it with what people call “SelfID”. This is misleading terminology. It basically means you sign a statutory declaration that you intend to live as your acquired sex forever and then you get your birth certificate.

Now there’s another piece of legislation called the Equality Act. This was an attempt to collate existing equalities legislation under one banner in 2010.

Amongst lots of other things, the Equality Act lets you do things like All Women Shortlists and single sex services.

All the noise in the papers, all the silly “Man Friday” stunts, all the stuff you’ve read about “men SelfIDing as women to enter refuges”, that’s all Equality Act stuff.

Equality Act - single sex services (& loads of other stuff)

Gender Recognition Act - birth certificates (and that’s basically it)

2 different laws. Got it? OK 👌

The GENDER RECOGNITION ACT is due for an update, which may or may not be along Self ID lines.

The EQUALITY ACT is NOT due for an update.

Nobody is updating the Equality Act.

Which means NO CHANGES TO STUFF LIKE SINGLE SEX SERVICES.

“But if the law about single sex services isn’t changing, why are transphobes protesting about what they’re calling proposed changes to it?”, we hear you ask.

“Am I missing something?”

No, you are not missing something. They are protesting about changes which literally nobody in government has proposed or hinted at, and which the government has said they have no plans to make (although see later - there’s an irony here).

Equality Act - single sex spaces and stuff - NO CHANGES PLANNED.

Gender Recognition Act - literally just birth certificates - CHANGES PLANNED

The best we can work out is that the people doing the protests seem to think that the Gender Recognition Act has some provision that changes how the Equality Act sees you.

But it doesn’t. It really, really doesn’t. They made that up.

In particular, they seem to think that “sex” and “gender” are different and defined things in law.

Only they’re not. To the extent they are used in law, they’re largely interchangeable.

But this is why you see them say stuff like “legal SEX protection for FEMALES”.

If you’ve seen “Sovereign Citizen” videos on YouTube, it’s sort of like that - these transphobes think the law is written in a magic language that they have unique insight into.

Only it’s not, and they don’t.

Both groups also get hung up on birth certificates. Go figure.

Now here’s the bit you may appreciate if you like dark humour (and we do):

When it comes to trans people, THE EQUALITY ACT ALREADY WORKS ON THE BASIS OF SELF ID.

The stuff they’re protesting about? The stuff the say they’re worried might become law?

It’s been law for the last 8 years.

They’re protesting changes to an entirely different bit of legislation because they don’t want the Equality Act, which isn’t being updated anyway, to operate on the basis of SelfID, which it already does.

We speculate that this is because transphobes are a bit thick.

Phew, that’s a monster thread! Tl;dr version: the proposed changes to trans law are about birth certificates. The stuff the transphobes are protesting about to stop becoming law has already been law for 8 years.

And it would be hilarious but for this: the onslaught is hurting trans people. Section 28 type stuff sent to schools, hate articles in the papers every week, trans people online deluged in abuse.

All over birth certificates. Because that’s the only proposed change.

ENDS