On Wednesday 3 cis women gave evidence to the @Commonswomequ select committee on #GRA reform. These panellists spent the majority of their allocated time arguing that proposed reform has the potential to harm cis women due to the presence of trans women in ‘women’s’ spaces
Yet anyone who has knowledge about the issues at stake knows that changes proposed to the GRA would have absolutely no impact here. There is no connection as the Equality Act, by recognising trans women as women, ensures their right to women’s spaces such as toilets
The arguments presented at @Commonswomequ by these panellists were thus completely irrelevant- they might as well have been arguing that changes to the GRA would lead to a rise in the price of bread - and should have been told so by the committee Chair.
Moreover, they presented no evidence in support of their (irrelevant) claims. When pushed, one study from Sweden was cited. Anyone who knows this study, however, knows that it does not do what was claimed - indeed the author has explicitly asked for it not to be used in this way.
Their evidence therefore is based on the views of supporters of trans hostile organisations such as WPUK who all 3 panellists have some involvement with. In light of this, I also did some quick and dirty research.