Last year, the equalities minister Liz Truss set aside laws which would have allowed people to self-identity as the legal gender of their choice. For those worried about the effect self-ID could have on women-only spaces, Truss’ move was a welcome relief.
But campaigners for women’s rights should not be too complacent. As recent developments across the world in New Zealand show, it only takes a general election to trigger a massive move in policy in a matter of months.
Two years ago, the New Zealand campaign group Speak Up for Women thought that self-ID had been taken off the table when Tracey Martin, the New Zealand minister for internal affairs, announced that the Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Bill was to be deferred. At the time, Martin said that:
‘Significant changes were made to the Bill by the select committee around gender self-identification and this occurred without adequate public consultation.
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