Sex is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act (EqA) 2010 but not in today’s Green Party where advocating for “sex-based rights” can be seen as transphobic.
A 2021 Green Party Executive paper titled ‘Delivering on the Equality Act 2010’ contained a footnote stating that “sex-based rights” can be seen as a route of querying and questioning trans people’s rights to exist and access resources. The Green Party has explicitly made clear its approach to these issues through the policy contained at RR530.”
RR530 states that “Trans men are men, trans women are women and non-binary identities exist and are valid.” Taken literally this means that advocating for women’s sex-based rights is deemed to be transphobic and several people have been suspended or expelled from the Party for doing so.
So what are women’s sex-based rights and why do they matter?
Our sex is determined by our biology; our chromosomes, hormones, gametes. Women as a sex class have been oppressed and discriminated against because of their biology, not their gender identity. The deliberate conflation of sex and gender attempts to deny the very existence of sex and make gender identity the only relevant category.
In general, men are physically stronger than women and this matters from competitive sports to sexual assaults. Women’s reproductive biology makes them subject to discrimination in the workplace. The EqA provides protections for women against such unfairness and discrimination but this is undermined by policies such as RR530, which purists insist means that males who identify as women are entitled to the same protections.
As the Green Women’s Declaration states:
“Women and girls have the right to maintain their sex-based protections as set out in the Equality Act (2010), including female only spaces such as changing rooms, hospital wards, sanitary and sleeping accommodation, refuges, hostels and prisons. Women have the right to refuse consent to males being in these female-only spaces or males delivering intimate services to females such as washing, dressing or counselling.”
If men could self-identify as women, as is Green Party policy, these protections risk becoming meaningless and this matters.
Women have a right to protection
The Green Party had a proud history of encouraging the involvement of women, recognising the limitations placed on many by childcare responsibilities and the lack of the confidence instilled in boys from a young age. Places for women were reserved in many internal elections and they were encouraged to stand. The results were good with several strong and inspiring women holding important positions in the Party. But all that is now threatened. Positions previously reserved for women are now open to not only transwomen but also non-binary people. It is now possible that the supposedly gender-balanced co-leadership posts could be held by two biological males. Green Party Women, the voice of women in the Party, recently had a co-Chair who is a biological male. The other co-chair (Emma Bateman) was suspended for refusing to accept that he is female.
The footnote to that GPEx paper was there for a reason and that was to prevent any acknowledgement of women as females. To do so would be to pull the rug from under the fallacy that anyone can become a woman just by saying so. The footnote correctly stated that talking about sex-based rights does mean querying and questioning transpeople’s rights to access resources. Female only resources that is. Some women are indeed TERFs – Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists – who want to exclude those who are not female from female only spaces. Transpeople are entitled to rights & protections but not at the expense of women’s hard won rights. Sex Matters!