Folk may not realise this but in 2018 the UK Tory government consulted on plans to reform the GRA to demedicalise the process in line with international best practice - i.e. exactly what the GRR Bill does. They issued guidance on the impact reform would have on the Equality Act:
Today the UK Tory government takes a very different view on the impact of gender recognition reform on the Equality Act. The main thing that has changed since 2018 is the emergence of a huge anti-trans moral panic in the UK that has shifted public opinion against trans rights.
At the very least I hope this gives pause to those who have claimed that the 2023 Tory government position opposing the GRR Bill is an unassailable and dispassionate assessment of the legal position. The shift since 2018 demonstrates that it is a purely political position.
I have linked the 2018 UK Tory government GRA reform consultation document below. It is well worth a read by those many opponents of the Scottish GRR Bill who have dismissed that Bill in outraged terms. It sets out convincingly why reform is needed. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/721725/GRA-Consultation-document.pdf
Quite striking that the UK Tory government less than five years ago published this paragraph, which sets out an unimpeachable case for gender recognition reform along the lines that the Scottish Parliament just passed, yet today stands apparently implacably opposed to it.
Given the mess the UK passport office has become, getting a passport or driving license is getting very difficult or at least time consuming for people.
Perhaps this is the reason they object to this bill, if a person changes their gender and need a new passport this would put extra pressure on what is already a system that is cracking up at the seems due to mostly incompetence or the lack of will to ORDER staff to get back in the office and sort the mess out ( I am under the impression work from home is a major factor in delays, so happy to be corrected).
Would make sense even if that reason is totally pathetic and probably easy to solve.
@zleap Interesting theory but in fact you can change the gender on your passport and driving licence without a GRC.