Single sex services • Page 2
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It’s time to act
Following the judgment in the For Women Scotland appeal, it is time for the government to act.
2nd November 2023
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Court rules that GRC changes sex for the Equality Act
For Women Scotland’s appeal against the Haldane judgment that a GRC changes a person’s sex in relation to the Equality Act has been rejected. In the case of For Women Scotland v The Scottish Ministers CSIH 37 the Court of Session has handed down a judgment that: “a person...
1st November 2023
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Sex Matters at FiLiA
The Sex Matters team had a fantastic time at the FiLiA conference in Glasgow from 13th to 15th October. Over 1,400 delegates from all over the world gathered to talk about women’s rights. Hundreds came to talk to us about the next stage of our campaign to clarify the...
17th October 2023
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Sex Matters to intervene in For Women Scotland case
Sex Matters has been given permission, as a human-rights organisation, to intervene in the For Women Scotland case being heard by the Court of Session Inner House in Edinburgh on Wednesday 4th October. Our submission will urge the court to consider whether Lady Haldane’s interpretation of the meaning of...
2nd October 2023
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Making the Equality Act clear – the story so far
This is the story so far, but it is just the beginning. The next stage in the campaign is to get the government to take action before the election, and get more people to stand up and say “I support single-sex services”. Will you be part of it?
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Campaign update and appeal
Sex Matters is campaigning for the government to make a one-line change to the law to make clear that the protected characteristic of “sex” in the Equality Act means sex. This would make it easier to protect single-sex services, sports and associations. Read about the story so far, from...
22nd September 2023
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Stonewall chair speaks (and then recants)
Iain Anderson, chair of trustees for Stonewall, has given an extended interview to Sky News’s Beth Rigby. It is well worth watching the whole thing. In the interview Anderson seemed to be trying to distance the organisation from the extreme position it has taken, saying that he recognises that...
22nd July 2023
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Reality vs. Trans Ideology | Helen Joyce & Peter Boghossian
Peter and Helen discuss the definition of sex, why trans men should be allowed in women’s spaces, the tragedy of the commons, fa’afafine, evolution, the “thought-terminating cliché,” the tribal fear of rejection, the cultivation of mental illness, why institutions are losing their North Stars, and much more.
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Westminster Hall debate on our petition to make the Equality Act clear
Monday 12th June 2023 For the full official transcription of the debate, see Hansard. In the Chair, Judith Cummins began by reminding everyone that the petitions being debated indirectly related to two ongoing legal cases in the Scottish courts, but that reference to those would be allowed. Tonia Antoniazzi (Gower)...
13th June 2023
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Make the Equality Act clear: resources for MPs
Links to the Westminster Hall debate on 12th June 2023, a single-sheet briefing for MPs, and other resources summarising the issues and answering frequently asked questions.
12th June 2023
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How did NHS body get the law so badly wrong over its rules on same-sex care?
Sonia Sodha for The Guardian
Sex Matters’ chair Naomi Cunningham as quoted as a barrister specialising in discrimination law. -
The Equality Act and human rights
This is the sixth in a series of blog posts in the run up to the debate on 12th June about clarifying the Equality Act. The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s letter to the government on our proposal to clarify the Equality Act points out that if the Equality...
7th June 2023
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Campaigners reveal in new poll majority of Britons want trans ban in female spaces
Sarah O’Grady, Social Affairs Editor for the Daily Express
Feature on Sex Matters’ poll results, released on 5th June 2023. -
Less than third of Britons want transwomen allowed in female-only spaces
James Beal, Social Affairs Editor for The Times
Feature on Sex Matters’ poll results, released on 5th June 2023. -
Fewer than a third of Brits think trans women should be allowed to use female changing rooms and three-quarters want them excluded from women’s sport
Ryan Hooper for the Daily Mail
Feature on Sex Matters’ poll results, released on 5th June 2023. -
Less than a third of Brits say transwomen should be allowed in female-only spaces and sports
Sex Matters has today released the findings from a representative national poll. It finds that less than one in three Britons believe that transwomen – men who identify as women – should be allowed in women’s sports, changing rooms and toilets, or to provide ‘female-only’ intimate care. The lack...
5th June 2023
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Sex Matters poll results as graphics (for printing)
A six-page graphical summary of the figures from our poll: a nationally representative sample of over-18s, polled online on 15th May 2023 by PeoplePolling. Optimised for printing.
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Sex Matters poll results as graphics (for screen)
A six-page graphical summary of the figures from our poll: a nationally representative sample of over-18s, polled online on 15th May 2023 by PeoplePolling.
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Why sex must mean sex across the Equality Act
This is the third in a series of blog posts in the run up to the debate on 12th June about clarifying the Equality Act. Many people who have written to their MPs about the proposal have had a response that says something like this: “The current guidance from...
1st June 2023
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Why we don’t want “biological” added before “sex” in the law
This is the first of a series of blog posts in the run up to the debate on 12th June about clarifying the Equality Act. The word “sex” appears 268 times in the Equality Act 2010; “same sex” appears 48 times, “opposite sex” 28 times. Our petition says: Update...
30th May 2023
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We call on GANHRI to protect civic space
On 3rd May 2023 Stonewall and a group of organisations wrote to the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) accusing Britain’s equalities watchdog, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, of being a “failed institution” which is “actively harming trans people”. This is the third time Stonewall has...
16th May 2023
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Response to Victor Madrigal-Borloz’s report on the UK
The UN Independent Expert Victor Madrigal-Borloz has issued an extraordinary report at the end of his ten-day mission to the UK. The thrust of it is the familiar claim that speaking clearly about the material reality of the two sexes amounts to “hate”, alongside the equally familiar dismissal of...
12th May 2023
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Answers to questions on sex, gender, biology and identity
Sex Matters has written a set of frequently asked questions which seeks to provide answers in everyday language about the material reality of sex, and the idea of gender identity. The aim is to provide clear starting points for debate and discussion, for anyone trying to understand the competing...
28th April 2023
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Protection for single-sex spaces should not be a political battle, says Maya Forstater
Maya Forstater for the Express
Rosie Duffield and Miriam Cates stand up for women's protection during gender rights debate. -
When we are at our most vulnerable – the sickening extent of rapes and sexual assaults in hospitals
More than 6500 rapes and sexual assaults - some against children under 13 - have been committed in hospitals in England and Wales over nearly four years.
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Thank you, Kishwer Falkner
We have written to Baroness Kishwer Falkner, Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission: Dear Kishwer Falkner Thank you for publishing your letter to the Minister for Women and Equalities setting out, with careful reasoning, why you support revisiting and clarifying the meaning of “sex” as a protected...
11th April 2023
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Two weeks to go!
Last October, Sex Matters launched a petition asking the government to amend the Equality Act 2010 in order to make clear what the protected characteristic of sex actually means. We think it should mean biological sex – male or female; the personal characteristic that is recorded on newborns’ birth...
6th April 2023
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Law change could aid single-sex spaces – watchdog
Lauren Moss and Josh Parry for BBC News
Ministers will consider advice from the human rights watchdog about amending a legal definition of sex - which would make it easier to exclude transgender people from some groups or services.
Sex Matters is quoted. -
EHRC publishes letter on clarifying sex in the Equality Act
Sex Matters’ press statement Sex Matters welcomes the letter from Kishwer Falkner, Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, to Kemi Badenoch, the Minister for Women and Equalities, responding to her request for advice on clarifying the definition of the protected characteristic of sex in the Equality Act...
4th April 2023
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Webinar: Sex Matters in the Equality Act
Helen Joyce talked with our chair, Naomi Cunningham, and our executive director, Maya Forstater, about the Sex Matters proposal to amend the Equality Act to clarify that the protected characteristic of sex refers to biological sex, and not “sex as modified by a gender-recognition certificate”.
Thursday 30th March... -
Sex Matters in the Equality Act webinar
Helen Joyce talked with our chair, Naomi Cunningham, and our executive director, Maya Forstater, on Thursday 30th March 2023 about the Sex Matters proposal to amend the Equality Act to clarify that the protected characteristic of sex refers to biological sex, and not “sex as modified by a gender-recognition...
20th March 2023
