Equality Act 2010

Labour rejects Conservative plans to rewrite the Equality Act, choosing not to redefine “sex” as biological. The Act remains unchanged, protecting all groups equally.

On Monday 12 June, MPs met in Westminster Hall for a three hour debate on the definition of sex in the Equality Act 2010. Last week we covered the debate in a general sense but left out the unbecoming behaviour that caused an uproar on social media as we felt it deserved its own article. Moss writes;

On Monday 12 June, MPs met in Westminster Hall for a three hour debate on the definition of sex in the Equality Act 2010. A contentious debate that had been bubbling up for several months. Moss writes;

The point of this misunderstanding is entirely to set up the legal backing for the idea that it would be lawful to exclude transgender women from women’s spaces. If you have to actually be legally registered as female to be protected from discrimination on the basis of sex and therefore misogyny then automatically the vast majority of trans women are locked out. Not to mention every transgender child given that the GRA is only for 18+.

According to its ‘about us’ section, Survivor’s Network was founded in 1990 by a group of female survivors of childhood sexual abuse to provide services that would support other female survivors. They were the first organisation in Brighton and Hove specifically focused on sexual abuse in childhood and the network has “grown considerably, while staying true to their activist roots”.

Women’s Aid, founded in 1996, are a sadly vital and much needed resource and refuge for women across the UK. Domestic and sexual violence are a scourge that primarily affects women with low income women in particular not having the resources or ability to escape as easily. So its extremely disheartening to see their recent statement deciding that women like me are just less deserving of sanctuary or escape.