The Tories have promised to rewrite the Equality Act 2010 so that protections it enshrines on the basis of a person’s sex apply only to their biological sex.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the ‘safety of women and girls’ meant the ‘current confusion around definitions of sex and gender’ cannot be allowed to continue.
The Conservatives say their election pledge will make it simpler for service providers for women and girls, such as those running sessions for domestic abuse victims, to stop biological males from taking part.
However, one might well ask why they have taken 14 years and the advent of an election to propose these changes? And what responsibility do they bear for the Act itself?
Most importantly, what does the Bible say about all this?
How The Equality Act happened
The Equality Act was passed into law in the dying days of Gordon Brown’s premiership, in Spring 2010. But under its S216 (3) its provisions waited for a minister of the crown to approve them.
David Cameron became Prime Minister on 11th May 2010. It was on his watch that the Equality Act came into force on 1st October 2010. It was a minister whom he appointed who made the orders, entirely dependent on them, to inflict its provisions on Great Britain. And who was that minister? Step forward, Home Secretary and Minister for Women and Equality, The Rt Hon. Theresa May MP.
The measures included mandating every public authority, from central government down to NHS Trusts, State schools, our armed forces, the police and fire brigades, to promote its ‘protected characteristics’ which include ‘gender reassignment’ and ‘sexual orientation’.
We are not making a party-political point, merely calling for honesty from politicians, and suggesting politicians might admit their responsibility for legislation they now criticise. The Bible says:
Prov 10:9 He that walketh uprightly walketh surely: but he that perverteth his ways shall be known.
Prov 19:1 Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity, than he that is perverse in his lips, and is a fool.
Matt 5:37 But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
Heb 13:18 Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly.
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‘Trans men’ to compete with fellow men
Minister for Women and Equalities Kemi Badenoch has said, ‘Transgender’ athletes may have to compete alongside their biological sex under the Conservatives’ plans to clarify equality laws.
In an interview with Sky News she said: ‘My party is “not giving instructions” to different sporting bodies, but rather “making it very clear what the law is, that there is a difference between identifying as a different gender and what your biological sex is’.
Asked what the law would mean in practice for transgender athletes, Ms Badenoch said it would not bar them from competing but in some cases they ‘may have to compete with their biological sex’.
Categories ‘there for a reason’
Mrs Badenoch went on: ‘We believe that sports is something where there are sex categories for a specific reason.
‘People compete in women’s sports because they’re biological women, not because they identify as women. It is for sporting bodies to be able to manage that’.
The Bible says in the King James Version:
Psa 82:3 Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.
The Hebrew word ‘dal’ translated ‘poor’ actually means ‘weak’. Women are physically weaker than men. That is why they have their own sports categories. For additional reasons of modesty and safety, they also have their own spaces, toilets, prisons and so on.
When the Bible sys: Isa 47:3 Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen:
It is spoken as a judgment, and the theme persists in the writings of the prophets. Men are expected to protect and defend women, not take their sports medals and invade their private spaces:
Neh 4:14b remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.
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‘Equality Act change not needed’
Labour’s shadow defence secretary John Healey told BBC Radio 5 Live the change was not needed, adding that it was ‘an election distraction from the really core issues that matter to people’.
That is of course the sort of thing politicians say. They are human, they do ‘spin’.
Mr Healey said the Equality Act ‘already protects single sex spaces for biological women’ but acknowledged there was a need for “clearer guidance”, something he said Labour would produce.
The Tory proposals would also see UK government decisions on ‘gender reassignment’ applied across the UK, including Scotland.
‘Outright threat to devolution’
Scottish National Party leader John Swinney accused the Conservatives of being ‘on the war path against the Scottish Parliament and the devolved government in Scotland’.
The first minister said Conservative proposals to make gender reassignment a reserved issue for the UK government are “an explicit, outright threat” to devolution,
John Swinney told BBC Scotland News that the Tory election pledge to rewrite the Equality Act would ‘erode the powers’ of the Scottish Parliament in the process.
Again, this is only what we should expect him to say. It will be a welcome change when politicians of all parties are honest with the public and generous with their opponents.
The Scottish government’s gender recognition bill was blocked last year by the UK government, who said the draft law would conflict with equality protections that apply across the home nations.
A legal challenge to the veto was then rejected at the Court of Session in Edinburgh in December.
Read our related articles here:
NHS asks patients ‘are you a demiboy’→
Paedophile changes gender before court case →
Single-sex toilets to be mandatory in non-residential buildings in England →
Mutilation ruins girl’s life
→
Read and pray
READ: READ: Deut 04:29-31; Isa 52:7, 61:1; Eccl 03:01-08; Jonah 3:2; Prov 15:22; Prov 24:05; Matt 4:17, 10:7; Mark 6:12, 16:15; Luke 4:18-19, 9:2, 9:60; Acts 5:28-29.
PRAY: for the repeal of woke laws in the UK.
Pray for the wisdom of God upon our leaders.
Pray that God will choose himself a leader that will lead in wisdom and might.
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