The right private life is the basis of "trans rights" - it is a limited right.

Sometimes govt can require info from people to fulfil a necessary function in a democratic society.

Collecting info on sex is on of those

If you can't ask trans ppl their sex you can't ask anyone
The right to privacy is basically the right to say "none of your business" in answer to Qs -

eg. What is your sex? age? sexual orientation? what is in that email? what is your religion? who are your children? how much money do you earn? are you pregnant?
It includes not just the right not to answer a question, but the right not to have that information recorded in a database where the information can be processed.

Or- where it is necessary to be recorded it shld be controlled & kept secure

(hence we have GDPR -data protection)
But it is a limited right - the govt demands information all the time - in order to work out how much tax you owe, in pursuit of crimes, in the healthcare system, in the census, in recording births, in child protection...
And there are situations where the right to say 'none of your business' is the right to walk away.

You don't have tell yr age at the supermarket, but you can't buy alcohol if you don't

You don't have to tell an employer yr full history, but u do if the job requires CRB check
This was an interesting case from 2015 about the right to privacy of trans people

A transwoman claimed that the information asked in a GRC application was a breach of privacy

thinkinglegally.wordpress.com/2015/03/03/gen…
The High Court rejected the claim on the basis that it in order to do its of certifying whether a person meets the criteria of the GRA job the panel has to know the details of a person's transition.

bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/…
There are many situations where govt, employers or others need to ask, record or recognise people's sex.

Sometimes the right to privacy can mean 'prefer not to say' is an acceptable answer, sometimes they really need to know for everyone.
Sometimes 'preferring not to say' means that a service is not available.

If you prefer not to say about surgery you cant apply for a GRC

If you prefer not to say about yr sex you cant use a services that uses a sex based rule (i.e. single sex service)
In order to do its job in undertaking the census, the govt has to ask people their sex.

That this makes a minority of people uncomfortable can not be a reason to break the whole system.

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More from @MForstater

10 Dec
Kate Scottow has won her appeal and her conviction under s.127 of the Communications Act is quashed

On valentines day last year she was convicted for a dozen tweets of using a public communications network to “cause annoyance, inconvenience and anxiety”

spectator.co.uk/article/i-stan…
You can only imagine the "annoyance, inconvenience and anxiety" for this mother and student being arrested, locked in a police cell for 7 hours, having her computer and phone impounded for months, then being tried, convicted and fined.

dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7…
This is how the whole thing started...



From here the criminal justice system was used to harass and terrorise a woman for mildly annoying tweets.
Read 6 tweets
8 Dec
So what is going on with the Good Law Project crowdfunder?

Remember the initial launch was about a 14 year old transboy suing the NHS for delays - it raised about about £20K in the first days but has had a big boost since the Keira Bell judgment

dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8… Image
This original case sounds quite similar to child S whose statement was included as evidence for the Tavistock in the Keira Bell case Image
Good Law Project Director Jolyon Maugham has argued that the justice system engineered to exclude the voices of trans children, and particularly Child S Image
Read 21 tweets
8 Dec
This is extraordinary

Changing the word "gender" to "sex" makes it absolutely clear that when a woman does not consent to a person of the opposite sex putting their fingers inside her, that means no.

If @rapecrisisscot think this doesn't matter they are not fit for purpose.
When the GRA -conflating sex & gender- was going thru parliament no one thought that it would be used for this. They did not think it thru.

People who argue for this on the basis of "be kind" did not think this thru.

At some point you have to say no.

a-question-of-consent.net/2020/09/16/doc…
I thought that that point might be when @stonewalluk was telling schools they should allow boys to identify into girls showers.

I thought it might be when @rcgp was giving out a prize celebrating male doctor for intimately examining women without consent.
Read 4 tweets
4 Dec
Well this is interesting Maria Munir says they is trans lead for @AmnestyUK_LGBTI and worked on the joint statement with Liberty.
Does Maria work for Amnesty.... no they doesn't, they works for ...

.....Stonewall

stonewall.org.uk/people/maria-m…
Maria is 'famous' for coming out as non-binary to President Obama saying “In the UK we don’t recognise NB people under the equality act, so we literally have no rights." 🙄

yorkmix.com/video-york-stu…
Read 4 tweets
3 Dec
What expertise do @AmnestyUK and @libertyhq in medicine?
What evidence do they have that GIDS didn't

This is what the court said
Read 6 tweets
3 Dec
"The myth of toxic media coverage"

IPSO report on media coverage of transgender issues in the UK is interesting.

They looked at 12,000 articles in the 10 year period up to May 2019

The report is 132 pages. The word 'toxic' does not appear once.

ipso.co.uk/media/1986/med…
What it notes is that over time there has been a shift from disrespectful stories about 'gender benders' to human interest to policy focused stories.
Driven in particular by stories about key policy issues - prisons, self ID and the transitioning of children
Read 7 tweets

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