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You remember last year the @cityoflondon launched a consultation on “gender identity” to help decide who should be able to use single-sex facilities (including Hampstead Ponds, toilets and changing rooms at running track, facilities at the Barbican etc... ) 
You remember the leading questions, all focused on gender "assigned at birth", not sex. The survey was initially circulated by being tweeted out by @edwardlord who subscribes to 'terf' block lists camdennewjournal.com/article/heath-…
The results are in (and the policy has been adopted) ..... Some observations:
(1) Almost 50% of responses were rejected because they "did not address any of the Qs on gender identity" (what was going on here? did a lot of people find the way the Qs were written unanswerable?)
(1) Almost 50% of responses were rejected because they "did not address any of the Qs on gender identity" (what was going on here? did a lot of people find the way the Qs were written unanswerable?)
Of those responses accepted around a quarter disagreed with the proposal to allow people to self-ID by gender into formerly single sex spaces.
Those who disagreed tended to give reasons in the text, whereas those who agreed just ticked the box
The 'independent' consultants report rejects some comments as being incompatible with the Equality Act 2010 (the ones asterisked here) -- these including restricting access to women only services based on biological sex.
Its not clear what legal analysis the consultants did, or whether they are just reporting what their clients told them here. For example here they say that comments about the way the survey conflated sex and gender was inconsistent with the EA2010 were rejected 'by the city'
The City still seem confused about what the protected characteristic of "gender reassignment" means. Here they get it right
Here they say it is about having a "gender identity" different from that "assigned at birth".
They also add in gender queer, non binary and gender fluid.
They misread the Equality Act, saying that people with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment must not be discriminated against in the provision of single sex services. Having the protected characteristic of gender reassignment does not change a persons sex.
They have done an equality impact assessment brushes aside concerns raised in relation to sex discrimination....
And discrimination based on religion .....
They say this discharges their Public Sector Equality Duty under the Equality Act 2010 with respect to only one protected characteristic.
Now it is up to staff to implement this policy, and explain to service users what this sign means. Clear as mud. And totally safe and inclusive. Nothing to worry about.
Also worth noting, the independent consultants were brought in to analyse the results after the survey was carried out. While they report on the many issues raised about the survey they don't seem to have been asked to judge if it was robust in design democracy.cityoflondon.gov.uk/documents/s113…
The independent consultants smart-consukt.co.uk have a website heavy on generic stock photos and light on details of expertise. It seems like they were contracted to crunch the data, not assess the robustness of survey process or know about EA2010
Oops smart-consult.co.uk
Here is the original Mumsnet thread on the consultation design mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_ri…
