The Beaumont Society is most disappointed at the UK Government’s decision to block the Scottish Parliament’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill. The GRR Bill does not affect equalities legislation as opponents of the Bill have claimed. Trans people do not need a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) to be protected by the Equality Act (2010). A GRC entitles an individual to have a birth certificate, a marriage certificate (if they are married) and, eventually, a death certificate in their acquired gender. Nothing else. When the Gender Recognition Act was first introduced in 2004, it could affect retirements ages and pensions, but these are now the same for men and women, so nothing else is affected. Unfortunately, the vocal opponents of these reforms are confusing the GRR Bill with the Equality Act, which it would seem that they wish to reform into an Inequality Act.
As Helen Belcher has pointed out, it is likely that this situation will “generate a case brought by the Scottish Government/Parliament, which will cost the taxpayer money. The UK Government is likely to lose the case as there is no basis for their decision.” Whether this is just to annoy the Scots and give trans people a kicking, or a ‘dead cat’ strategy to distract attention from their other failings, we do not know.
We had hoped that the Scottish reforms to the GRA would nudge the UK Government to follow the examples of countries like Ireland, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Luxemburg, Malta, Iceland, Spain and Germany which have already introduced self-declaration for gender identity. Argentina has had self-declaration of gender for over ten years with no significant issues. What is particularly upsetting is that nervous cis women are being frightened into changing their everyday behaviour because of the scaremongering misinformation spread by the gender critical movement – not because of the actions of trans people.
If you would like to know more about the issues involved, please email: enquiries@beaumontsociety.org.uk