Part of Equality Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 11:15 am on 16 June 2009.
Lynne Featherstone
Shadow Minister (Children, Schools and Families), Liberal Democrat Spokeperson (Children, Schools and Families)
11:15,
16 June 2009
I will not hold up the Committee for long as we discussed the issue the other day. I am grateful to the hon. Member for Daventry for tabling the Amendment, which goes part way to where I was trying to reach, but not the whole way. It is important to introduce the idea of uncertainty and confusion, which populates the transgender world to a far greater extent than the world in which people are settled in their decision to live in one gender or the other. I felt that we had not touched on that complexity or allowed for that confusion, although the amendment goes some way towards that. Paragraph 56 of the explanatory notes states:
“The Clause also explains that a reference to people who have or share the common characteristic of gender reassignment is a reference to all transsexual people. A woman transitioning to being a man and a man transitioning to being a woman both share the characteristic of gender reassignment, as does a person who has only just started out on the process of changing his or her sex and a person who has completed the process.”
The amendment still does not capture those who are not considering a change—those who are confused, but not considering living in or transitioning to another gender—but who may still experience discrimination because they are not physically identifiable as either a man or a woman, whatever their latent state. I think that the amendment still leaves that area somewhat unexplored, but it is certainly better than where we were. I will also be happy if the Minister considers bringing that into the Bill in some form that gives a voice to those who are not covered by reassignment.
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A parliamentary bill is divided into sections called clauses.
Printed in the margin next to each clause is a brief explanatory `side-note' giving details of what the effect of the clause will be.
During the committee stage of a bill, MPs examine these clauses in detail and may introduce new clauses of their own or table amendments to the existing clauses.
When a bill becomes an Act of Parliament, clauses become known as sections.
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