Clause 4
Equality Bill
1:45 pm
Lynne Featherstone (Hornsey and Wood Green, Liberal Democrat)
I thank the Minister for that information, but:
“A person has the protected characteristic of gender reassignment if the person is proposing to undergo, is undergoing or has undergone a process (or part of a process) for the purpose of reassigning the person’s sex by changing physiological or other attributes of sex”—
that sounds pretty much as if it is an end-game decision and process to a complete reassignment. “Medical” might be the absolute end but before that is a total reassignment of gender, whereas I am arguing that gender identity is more complex than an absolute switch. There are stages in which people do not change physically at all, but they do change, and they need to be protected at whatever point they are at. That is the point that I am trying to make.