Thread by @fairplaywomen

THREAD: Read our response to the WESC report on Gender Recognition Reform. /1

fairplayforwomen.com/women-and-equa…

"WESC are once again recommending that any adult male should be free, on his say so alone, to change his birth certificate to say he had been born the female sex, and for it to be a criminal offence for officials to reveal that he had in fact been born the male sex" /2

"this second WESC inquiry hasn’t even grasped the basics on why sex self-ID presents problems for women and girls. The 2015 WESC inquiry didn’t bother to invite feminists to explain their concerns, this time they did invite us to speak, but they clearly didn’t listen" /3

Read the transcript of the interview on @BBCr4today when @Marthakearney asked @carolinenokes about the problem of not knowing what sex someone was born she said:

"Why on earth would we want to" /4
fairplayforwomen.com/women-and-equa…

@carolinenokes knows, or at least should know, the answer to “Why on earth would we want to” know the sex someone was born. It was explained in hundred of written submissions, given in oral evidence, and the answer from Fair Play For Women was quoted in her own WESC report /5

If one law is based on knowing birth sex & another law allows people to hide birth sex, there is a clear & obvious clash. This is at the heart of the sex vs gender debate. What was the point of her inquiry if it didn’t result in her understanding the very basics of the issue? /6

Not everyone at WESC agreed with the recommendations. Notably, @JackieDP (a recent addition to the WESC) proposed that the recommendation to support sex-self ID was removed. The majority voted for it to remain /7

@JackieDP Draft recommendations said “additional legal tests” should be added to improve safeguards such as refusing or revoking a GRC to males convicted of violent or sexual offences. @KimJohnsonMP proposed these safeguards are removed. The majority agreed except @JackieDP /8

@JackieDP @KimJohnsonMP One concession that remained in the WESC recommendations was that “male prisoners with a record of sexual assault or domestic violence, who self-identify as a woman, should not be transferred to a woman’s prison”. /9

@JackieDP @KimJohnsonMP Fair Play For Women had set out in both oral and written evidence how making it easier to get a GRC would inevitably lead to a rise in male prisoners moving into female prisons. /10

@JackieDP @KimJohnsonMP WESC also touched on language, data and women's sport. Each time WESC recommending closer working with trans rights groups.

The first step to solving this issue is to acknowledge that the views of more than one group matter on this issue. WESC failed to grasp even this /11

@JackieDP @KimJohnsonMP This inquiry has been little more than a platform for a small group of MPs to once again promote their view of “trans rights”. /12

@JackieDP @KimJohnsonMP Women engaged with the inquiry in good faith with the hope that this would be a serious and fair assessment of the conflict of rights. Thousands of hours have been dedicated to providing evidence. Our concerns have not been listened to – but that’s no surprise. /13

@JackieDP @KimJohnsonMP What matters is that our collective concerns are now on the parliamentary record. We now have an incredible resource and next time someone says “But why on earth would we want to?” you’ll have the answers at your finger tips.

#Nodebate is over /14

fairplayforwomen.com/women-and-equa…