Hello! I'm Nic Williams from "Fair Play for Women" and I'm here to remind everyone that we've only got 2 days left now
to fill in the Scottish Consultation questionaire to voice our position to the proposed changes to gender recognition laws in Scotland.
We've only got until 5 PM on Thursday this week [March 1, 2018].
Now, you don't have to be Scottish to fill this in.
This potentially affects everyone in the UK.
If someone if able to change their legal sex status in Scotland, it's likely that this will be recognised throughout the whole of the UK.
And of course, the UK government will be watching the outcome of this Scottish consultation.
We've set out plans to reform the Gender Recognition Act.
Streamlining and de-medicalising the process.
And if they don't see any major opposition at this point, it's likely that they will also bring these proposals forward and it will be rolled out throughout the whole of the UK.
So let's not waste this opportunity.
Now to help you fill in the questionaire, I produced a step-by-step guide, covering all the key issues around the different proposals that Scotland have made.
If you haven't got time to get into it in detail, I've also produced a single-page fact sheet with all the key facts that are out.
Now, if you've only got 10 minutes to do this, you don't need to fill in the whole of the questionaire.
Just pick one or two key issues that you feel strongly about, and voice your opposition.
Register your opposition in this document, so that it's counted.
One of the possibilities is that children as young as 12 might be allowed to change their birth certificates without parental consent.
This means that children may be able to change their legal sex status before they've even been through puberty.
And puberty is a time when we know that gender issues are often naturally resolved.
So this law is not needed for children, and we should not use children to validate trans ideology on the behalf of adults.
We need to let the children go through puberty - (India): No no no, I'm sorry -
(India): I think that's absolutely incorrect, you're [inauduble] from the 1950's. (Woman): - let children go through puberty to be able to understand what they actually are.
It's now 2017.
The other proposal is to make the process of legal gender change an administrative process.
No more than just filling in a form.
Okay, this will be easier for transgender people.
But those checks and balances are there for a reason.
And in society, it's normal practice to require some kind of proof if we're asking society to give us some benefits or rights.
So, disabled people, for example, have to actually prove they're disabled
if they want disability benefits.
Unemployed people have to prove that they're actually out of work if they want unemployment benefits.
So why should it be any different to transgender people?
Because what the transgender community is actually asking for is effectively that anyone
would be able to change their birth certificate, from the sex they were born to the opposite sex.
So, Eddy Mann in Scotland will be able to change his birth certificate to female, whether he's transgender or not.
And this will have major implications.
Particularly in places like prisons.
So it would mean that a male prisoner could fill in a form, change his legal sex status on paper,
and then be free to live in a women's prison with women prisoners.
So this could set up a ridiculous situation were a man who has been convicted of sexual or violent offenses against women,
will actually be able to live with some of the most abused and vulnerable women in society.
And it's not good enough for the prison authorities to say there will be risk assessments put in place,
there have already been examples were male-born prisoners have been moved into women's prisons and have sexually assaulted the women there.
A transgender rapist who was moved to a women-only jail, despite still having male genitalia,
was segregated after making unwanted sexual advances on female inmates.
We have "male transgender prisoner guilty of brutal murder moved from a women's jail because he kept having intercourse with female inmates",
There are, it seems, examples of where people are being moved and then [posing a threat]. (Exactly). To the women in prison.
So this is not being taken seriously enough.
The risks weren't even mentioned in the Scottish Consultation Document.
It's glaringly obvious that this is bad law, and we must oppose it. It's common sense.
That this law has to be opposed.
Now, opposing these changes does not mean that you're against transgender rights.
Everybody, including transgender people, must be allowed to live safely and free from discrimination.
And transgender people already have these rights enshrined in equality law and hate crime legislation.
They also have the ability to change their birth certificate from the one that they were born to the opposite sex, if they can prove that they have gender dysphoria
and that they have lived as their new prefered sex for atleast 2 years.
So they have that ability.
It's the extra rights that they're now asking for that is a step too far.
And it's not considering the wider impact on society.
So we do have a right to oppose this, we have a right to oppose this for ourselves as women,
and we also have a right to oppose this on the behalf of our children.
So, fill in the form. Go to fairplayforwomen.com/scotland, you'll find everything you need there
all the links in one place.
Don't leave this up to Scottish women.
Don't let them divide our voices.
This is our opportunity to speak, and we must use this opportunity.
