MPs to debate JK Rowling-backed petition on legal definition of woman

Campaigners have urged the Government to clarify that references to ‘woman’ in the UK-wide Equality Act 2010 are restricted to biological sex.

Over 100,000 people have signed Sex Matters’ petition.  The Parliament website notes that petitions which reach this threshold “are almost always debated”.

The group is asking the Government to rule out the possibility of a gender recognition certificate ‘changing’ a person’s sex for the purposes of the Act, which would “resolve the uncertainty for women” and make it easier to “provide clear guidance and written policies”.

Single-sex spaces

JK Rowling tweeted: “If you’re concerned about the erosion of women’s rights in the UK — the right to single-sex spaces like domestic violence refuges, rape crisis centres and prisons — sign the Sex Matters petition to make the Equality Act clear.”

Earlier this week, the Harry Potter author spoke about her opposition to radical gender ideology on the podcast The Witch Trials Of JK Rowling.

She told host Megan Phelps-Roper: “I believe, absolutely, that there is something dangerous about this movement, and it must be challenged.”

Biological sex is real

Speaking in the House of Lords on International Women’s Day, Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Ludford also supported calls “for reform of the Equality Act so that the protected characteristic of sex is clarified as meaning biological sex”.

Baroness Barran, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Education, added: “The Government is clear: biological sex is a fact, it exists and it clearly matters.”

The Government previously responded to Sex Matters’ petition, saying: “Under the Equality Act 2010, providers are already able to restrict the use of spaces/services on the basis of sex and/or gender reassignment where justified. Further clarification is not necessary.”

Safeguard

In East Yorkshire, the Prospect Shopping Centre has come under fire after removing a “ladies only” toilet sign following complaints from trans activists.

Pro-LGBT group Hull Pledge claimed the sign would encourage people to challenge those entering the facilities which would put those who identify as the opposite sex “in danger”.

But one woman said: “This is just another example of people, businesses and organisations panicking in the face of criticism from a very small but very loud and militant community.

“The sign was there to ensure women using the women’s toilets were not made to feel unsafe or uncomfortable by men coming into the loos. Yet one person complains as a political point and that safeguard is removed.”