Thread by @fairplaywomen

THREAD: It's a big day for us tomorrow. We're taking Scottish Ministers to court over their unlawful definition of sex in the Scottish Census. The remote hearing starts a 10am. We'll be live tweeting proceedings /1 #scottishcensus #fairplayforwomen

The Census is important so needs to be done right. It only happens once a decade & costs Scottish taxpayers £140 million.

But it delivers the most comprehensive dataset there is, used by policy makers, public bodies & academics.

The @scotgov can't be allowed to mess it up /2

@scotgov Next month everyone in Scotland must answer a series of questions. One is "What is your sex". A simple question with a simple answer.

But @scotgov have decided to tell people they can put any answer they feel like /3

@scotgov This is because @scotgov believes that "sex" in Scotland is about inner feeling and personal identities rather than it being about the sex you were born or the body you have /4

@scotgov We say muddling up sex and gender identity like this messes up the data on sex.

What the @scotgov is doing is both UNLAWFUL and UNNECESSARY /5

@scotgov Its UNLAWFUL because the mean of sex is a matter of law, its what's on your birth certificate.

Sex is NOT something you can self-identity as.

Sex is NOT a matter on which the Scottish Ministers can just 'decide'. They are over-reaching their powers here /6

@scotgov Its UNNECESSARY because there is a new question in the Census this year specifically about gender identity.

Trans people CAN record their identity in the census.

So it doesn't make sense to answer BOTH questions with gender identity and lose data on sex /7

@scotgov We say don't muddle up these 2 questions - let's get good data on sex AND trans identity

But trans lobby groups got greedy - they want both questions to be about gender identity.

Sex matters too - particularly for women and girls - and we need good data - simple as that /8

@scotgov Scottish ministers have stubbornly ploughed on regardless with their sex self-ID policy.

They have ignored concerns of woman
They have ignored concerns academics
They have ignored concerns of @EHRC
But they won't be able to ignore the Scottish Court. /9

@scotgov @EHRC It's a scandal that @scotgov are risking hundreds of thousands of pounds of Scottish taxpayers money to defend a nonsense policy and an unwinnable case in court /10

@scotgov @EHRC Not only that, a government-funded trans lobby group is using even more taxpayers money to support the @scotgov in court tomorrow /11

@scotgov @EHRC Meanwhile it has been left to ordinary women like us - using money we've raised from crowdfunders - to uphold the law.

Something has gone very wrong in Scottish politics. Some very serious questions will need to be asked after this /12