Trans Apartheid!

If you have any trans people in your life, please check in on them, as they are highly likely to not be OK at the moment.

As for me?

Well, I feel totally numb and it’s taken a little while to gather my thoughts together.  Here’s why…

A 342-page document was published this week, which will adversely effect the lives of women, as well as trans and non-binary people.  It was the updated Equality and Human Rights Commission Code of Practice, which if enough MPs don’t object to it, will automatically become law after the next 40 days.  It comes in response to the devastating Supreme Court ruling in April last year, on the meaning of sex, woman and man, within the Equality Act 2010.

While the Supreme Court judges were ruling on a technicality, regarding women’s representation on panels and committees etc., their verdict has been vastly overreached by the EHRC’s code of practice and it contravenes so many other laws too.

Basically, the new code says that service providers should provide single-sex services based purely on the sex a person was assigned at birth.  That means that trans women like me would have to use male or separate facilities and trans men would have to use female or separate facilities.  Can you imagine what danger I would be in if I used the gents loo and how threatened women would feel if trans men started using women’s facilities?

As for using separate spaces?  Often the only separate loos are the disabled ones and it would be totally unfair to use them, as there are often not enough disabled loos for their needs anyway.

Also, if trans people are forced to use third spaces after years of not doing so, that change of behaviour will be noticeable to those around them, so they would be forcibly outed against their will.

It’s nothing short of trans apartheid.

If you follow my posts, you will know that I completed my 7.5-year transition in July last year, when I had my lower gender confirmation surgery and I couldn’t be happier with my new designer vagina!

While my passport and driving licence have had female gender markers for the last 8 years, I only got around to applying for my Gender Recognition Certificate in January this year, so it should arrive within a few months, along with my new birth certificate, showing my sex as female.   

When I applied for my GRC, I had to sign a statutory declaration stating that I will live as female for the rest of my life, as to do otherwise would be a criminal offence.  That’s not exactly compatible with having to use the gents loos, is it?!!

The Supreme Court ruling clashes with the Gender Recognition Act 2004’s “for all purposes” rule for Gender Recognition Certificate holders, undermining Parliament’s clear intentions and creating a two‑tier legal status where GRC holders are recognised in their acquired sex for some purposes but not for equality law.  Lawyers will have a field day with this!

Also, this 2-tier “intermediate zone” legal status is incompatible with Article 8 of the European Convention on Human rights, following the Goodwin v United Kingdom case which forced the UK to create the Gender Recognition Act 2004 in the first place.  You may have guessed that they didn’t do it willingly!

Enforcing a “biological‑sex‑only” standard in equality law is incompatible with the Human Rights Act 1998: In particular, Section 3 (to interpret legislation compatibly with Convention rights where possible) and Section 6 (for courts and other public authorities not to act incompatibly with those rights).

Applying a biological‑sex‑only standard in practice creates enquiries into who holds a GRC, which is a privacy offence under Section 22 of the GRA 2004, which assumes GRC holders will ordinarily be treated as their acquired sex.

However, can you guess who the biggest losers of this new code would be?  You guessed it: WOMEN who are not trans.  Any woman who is a bit taller or a bit broader than average, any woman who has a deeper voice than average, any woman who has shorter hair than average, any woman who has a squarer jaw than average or any woman who prefers to wear more masculine clothes will now regularly be challenged when using female-only spaces.  This is a massive consequence, as there are far more masculine-looking cisgender women than there are transgender women!

Think about it.

How would you prove that you are a woman?

You can’t!

There is no way of proving it.

I have female genitalia and female gender markers on all my ID.  Very soon my new birth certificate will add to that too.  You can’t aways tell just by their appearance and many women who have smoked for years have deeper voices than mine.

Perhaps proponents of this new code would prefer all women to dress like Stepford Wives now, to make it easier for them to tell that they are not trans!

The present legal mess can only be resolved in one of two ways:

Either Parliament clarifies that Gender Recognition certificate holders are to be recognised in their acquired sex under the Equality Act 2010,

or the courts are asked to declare the Supreme Court Ruling in For Women Scotland v Scottish Ministers is incompatible with other UK and European laws.

This proposed EHRC code of practice is not yet UK law and there are only 40 days to stop it.  I implore you to please write to your MP and ask them to vote it down before it’s too late.

As you may imagine, this new code is causing so much anxiety for trans and non-binary people.  So much so, that many of my trans+ friends are making plans to escape this trans-hostile nation to countries of safety, such as the Republic of Ireland, Spain or Malta.

Sadly, I can’t join them, as I don’t want to leave my daughter behind and I wouldn’t want to split her up from my ex-wife either.  Also, I have so many lovely friends and neighbours here who totally accept me as the woman I am, so why should I be forced to flee the country?

As for me?

Well, I will just carry on using the ladies loo as I have done for the last 8 years, without any issues at all.  After all, the cubicles protect everyone’s privacy and dignity.  I would never use communal changing rooms though, as I have always hated them and I value my own privacy too much for that.

I’ll just have to take my chances, but I can’t say I’m not frightened.

Please be assured that trans people are not a threat to anyone.  We are just ordinary people who want to be happy.

Stay safe and don’t forget to check-in on your trans and non-binary friends.

#TransApartheid  #trans #transgender #TransLivesMatter #TransWomenAreWomen #TransMenAreMen #NonBinaryIsValid #EHRC