Write for us!Equality law
Breaking News – Sir Simon Hughes Issues Statement
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Following the court admission that the Liberal Democrats discriminated against former Sutton and Cheam parliamentary candidate David Campanale, former Liberal Democrat Federal President Sir Simon Hughes said, “Having reviewed all the evidence and been present at all proceedings and appeals from September 2022 until the court case, I am clear that there was manifest discrimination in 2022 against David”. He explained: “In 2022, very shortly after David Campanale was selected as our party’s prospective candidate for Sutton and Cheam, some Sutton local party members campaigned to have him deselected – for reasons including his long-held personal and traditional Christian beliefs.…
Identity Is a Human Right
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Let’s stop dancing around the issue: yes, we have a vestigial biology, but what actually defines us is language. We live in a world created by language and it is in that world we must find our authentic selves. It’s the key thing that is essential for living a full, normal life. Gender Identity is what our true selves are – something we need to get in touch with because what matters is the recognition that it gives us in society. Luke Easley, of Center for Global Development (CDC), hit the nail on the head when he said, “Identity is…
The New EHRC Code Demonstrates Why Sex‑Based Laws Need a Root‑and‑Branch Review
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Ed Davey, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, and Marie Goldman, the Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Women and Equalities, have recently written to Bridget Phillipson protesting the publication of the EHRC’s new Code of Practice for the Equality Act 2010 and declaring it not fit for purpose. Quite how balanced the evidence base was in reaching this conclusion is unclear. Nevertheless, their letter calls for the need for post-legislative scrutiny of the Gender Recognition Act and the Equality Act by a cross-party committee, “Taking evidence from all communities who have been impacted.” It suggests that the purpose of this is to…
Clarity: Not Erasure
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What has actually happened The Supreme Court did not remove rights from trans people. It clarified which legal characteristic protects which interest. The Equality Act 2010 contains nine protected characteristics. Two of them are relevant here: sex and gender reassignment. For years, ambiguity existed about how these interacted – particularly whether a trans woman (i.e. a man) with a Gender Recognition Certificate should be treated as a woman for every purpose under the Act, including access to single-sex services. The Supreme Court, unanimously, said no: for the purposes of the Act, “sex” means biological sex. A GRC does not alter that…
Thought‑Terminating Clichés Are the New Normal
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Over the past week I have spent some time on Blue Sky. Partly because this is where a lot of Lib Dem MPs are now posting and I wanted to read their reactions to the EHRC guidance (in summary they have been largely silent except for the Women and Equalities spokesperson who condemned it as a huge step back for human rights – which I disagree with). However, I ended up in several conversations with trans activists on the app who are making the same kind of arguments that failed on Twitter (X) three years ago. One of the key…
It’s Time to Clean the Augean Stables
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Natalie Bird was vilified for wearing a T-shirt with a slogan bearing the dictionary definition of ‘woman’. She was banned from standing as a candidate and suspended from the party. She took the party to court and won. John Tilley is the former leader of Kingston Council. He was subjected to an internal party discipline hearing for objecting to a proposal that conference attendees should be required to wear badges stating their preferred pronouns. He wrote that there were more important matters that required our attention. He was sentenced to a ten year ban on holding party office or standing…
Access Denied: How the Liberal Democrat Leadership is Sidelining Women
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Last week saw another interview with Ed Davey telling a Lib Dem trans activist that he had been listening to trans people in the Party after the Supreme Court ruling on the meaning of woman in the Equality Act. Yet another illustration of the leadership jumping straight to placation mode when something upsets the trans lobby… Part of a pattern The 2022 changes to the unlawful Lib Dem Definition of Transphobia are another case in point. The Party held a special meeting with trans people just prior to amending the Definition. Several were invited to the House of Commons to…
Has the Party Become Too Libertarian for Its Own Good?
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Our membership and, in particular, our activists, are overwhelmingly middle-class men. Quite what the ratio is between men and women is unclear because the Party no longer collects data on the sex of members, but apparently the ratio in the Lib Dems is worse even than in the Reform Party. Is this impacting on our policies and Party culture? Are we steadily approving policies, at our regular state Party and federal Conferences, that might well suit a lot of men, but are a disaster for women and girls? Sex work is a questionable freedom Take our policy on prostitution, for…
Sex, Equality and the Law: Cutting Through the Noise – Explaining the Supreme Court Ruling and What’s Next
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The fringe meeting offered by the LD group Liberal Voice for Women at York Novotel on Friday evening 13 March at 8:00 pm, looks set to enliven the whole weekend. The panel members are stellar names in feminist politics: Susan Smith is one of the successful appellants in the ‘For Women Scotland’ case against the bumbling SNP ministers. They had tried unlawfully to include transwomen (holders of a separate protected characteristic) in a positive action measure intended to appoint more female members to public boards in Scotland. Susan will recount her experiences of combatting injustice before, during and since that…
