Thread by @MForstater

This, in the House of Commons Library Briefing is shocking.

"Legal commentators have expressed concern" ...

That the Equality Act is being interpreted as allowing males to be simply excluded from group counselling for female victims of sexual assault

commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-brief…

They think women who have been traumatised by male violence should have their boundaries pushed before they can get help.

They think the professionals meant to help them should be forced to first ask them if they could be inclusive of a vulnerable male ...

How on earth did this get written and signed off? (by how many people?) Who are these legal commentators?

That part of the briefing is written by @dougpyper - he is a researcher with knowledge of employment law.

He turned to Blackstone's Guide to the Equality Act

Blackstone's Guides are standard references on many different laws.

This one is written by 4 senior equality and human rights lawyers, John, Anthony, David & Susie:

@JohnWadham @ECUDavid_CEO onlinebld.com/lawyer_of_the_…
pressrecognitionpanel.org.uk/the-prp-execut…

all with roots in @EHRC

They state that it would be "inadequate to assume" that traumatised women would want a straightforward assurance that group counselling is female only

Instead they should be "canvassed" to see if they would allow in a "trans-woman"

Furthermore, they say, that if a male who identifies as a woman has a government piece of paper then this means their rights are being interfered with if women are allowed to talk, about them about their most traumatic experience as females.

Did they consider for a minute what this would mean in practice for women?

Did they talk to any women who have had to use these services?

There is no sign that they did - here is what they would have been told

fovas.wordpress.com/response-to-st…

kareningalasmith.com/2020/07/08/tra…

(One thing to note -- whenever we have expressed concern about opening up GRCs to "self ID" we are told it would have no impact on single sex services .

Here are four senior human rights lawyers saying a GRC is/ should be a ticket into women's services)

Where did they get the idea of "canvassing" traumatised women and removing any possibility of women-only counselling groups?

The four Blackstone's authors reference the evidence given by barrister @clairemccann72 to the @Commonswomequ.

Claire McCann specialises in "transgender equality". I have never read anything that she has written on the subject which give's any weight to women's rights and interests.

cloisters.com/cloisters-colu…

In practice, if you talk to service providers they say they would find a way provide help to a transwoman, but not by undermining women-only services.

They don't talk about this publicly because they are afraid for funding, and of things like this

feministcurrent.com/2019/08/27/wha…

Allowing males into women's group rape counselling is utterly inappropriate

And forcing individual traumatised women to reassert their boundaries to prevent this is cruel inhumane

The chain of educated officials that could not see this is like this...

bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-…

It is a system failure.

This is not just about the chain of official group think that signed this off

But also the organisations effectively silenced from raising the alarm @fawcettsociety @womensaid @RefugeCharity

And the those that silenced them.

Here in Oct 2018 is one bit: a public letter stating that the Equality Act does not protect single sex spaces & condemning the media for giving space to those who disagree
pinknews.co.uk/2018/10/17/cam…

Signed by barristers: Michelle Brewer (Garden Court Chambers) and Claire McCann

MPs: Layla Moran, Cat Smith, Caroline Spelman, Jo Swinson , Sarah Champion, Kate Green

Lords: Brian Paddick, Baroness Barker, Baroness Brinton, Baroness Burt, Lord Carlile of Berriew, Michael Cashman

Helen Belcher (LGBT Consortium), Meg John Barker, Christine Burns, Jane Fae, Fox & Owl, Susie Green (Mermaids), Adrian Harrop, Nik Noone (Galop) Tris Reid-Smith (Gay Star News), Linda Riley (DIVA Magazine),Jay Stewart (Gendered Intelligence), Peter Tatchell, Ben Vincent (GIRES)

Academics: Prof Sally Hines, Prof Brian Cathcart,
Dr Louise Chambers, Prof Surya Munro , Prof Julian Petley
Dr Damian Tambini, Dr Paul Wragg, Dr Tray Yeadon-Lee

From above [ if women are allowed to talk, *about* them about their most traumatic experience as females.]

Typo - this should say "without them"