Along with a number of other trans and LGTBQ organisations, TransActual was invited to attend a Q & A session with the EHRC on Monday 16 June.
Based on the length and agenda for this meeting, as well as the loathsome and intolerant views expressed by EHRC Chair, Baroness Falkner, before a meeting of Parliament’s Women & Equalities Committee last week, we concluded – along with several other major trans organisations – that this was not a serious attempt at consultation.
Rather, it was a tick box exercise; a figleaf designed to cover up a lack of genuine consultation on the part of the EHRC. Attendance would have allowed the EHRC to claim to have consulted with the people whose rights they are stripping away; and unless they are required to publish their consultation responses and meeting transcripts – all of them! – they would no doubt spin our words to fit their own agenda.
As such, we decided not to attend.