Please don't forget to respond to the other inquiry into the Equality Act 2010, which closes tomorrow.
If you can highlight one thing, let it be that ambiguity in the terms male, female, man, woman, gender reassignment, and so on must be reviewed: #EA2010 parliament.uk/business/commi…
The key question is this:
“How easy it is for people to understand and enforce their rights under the Equality Act?”
I think it is really important that non-lawyers answer this. Is the Equality Act accessible to you? Would you know how to make a claim that your rights had been infringed? Would you know how to access funding to bring a claim? Are the costs of bringing a claim a barrier?
"How effective and accessible tribunals and other legal means of redress under the Equality Act are, and what changes would improve those processes?"
An important question in the context of grave cuts to our justice system. Very few discrim cases receive legal aid to go to court
This has crept in to interpretations of the Equality Act, relating to single-sex services. It misrepresents the test.
If you are providing a service you can provide it for women only under para 27 of Schedule 3 of the Equality Act.
If the targeted provision is a proportionate (not over the top) means of meeting a legitimate aim (a good reason) and meets one of the conditions in 27(2-7) (e.g. need) it is it lawful to provide it to women only.
(1) How easy it is for people to understand and enforce their rights under the Equality Act?
@NameofWoman@MaryDal78252417 (2) How well enforcement action under the Equality Act works as a mechanism for achieving widescale change?
@NameofWoman@MaryDal78252417 (3) How effective and accessible tribunals and other legal means of redress under the Equality Act are, and what changes would improve those processes?
“Any criminal offence which is perceived by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice, based on a ...”
“...person's disability or perceived disability; race or perceived race; or religion or perceived religion; or sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation or transgender identity or perceived transgender identity."
The Gender Recognition Act Consultation is now open:
"We want to be absolutely clear – we are not proposing to amend the existing
equality exceptions relating to single- and separate- sex services in the Equality
Act."
It starts with this, which is repeated throughout the documentation:
"The consultation focuses on the Gender Recognition Act 2004.
We are not proposing any amendments to the Equality Act 2010."
It goes on, quite forcefully to say:
"This consultation does not consider the question of whether trans people exist, whether they have the right to legally change their gender, or whether it is right for a person of any age to identify with another gender, or with no gender."
On the other sides of this multifaceted debate are rational groups like @ManFRIDAY_@Womans_Place_UK and @fairplaywomen who seek, as a minimum, preservation of the rights of women and girls. Worth following.