FFS Friday: WDI UK

And the campaign to repeal the GRA

December 6, 2024

FFS (Female Free Speech) Friday honors women and girls who are speaking out about the harms that “gender identity” poses to women and girls as a sex class. FFS Friday posts are free and shareable. If you would like access to content that delves deeper into the movement to protect the sex-based rights of women and girls and to stop the abolition of sex, please consider a paid subscription.

Today’s FFS Friday honors the women of Women’s Declaration International UK (WDI UK) and the campaign to repeal the Gender Recognition Act of 2004 (GRA).

I generally do my best to avoid commenting on matters occurring outside my country because I do not generally opine on things about which I am ignorant. So to my UK sisters, please forgive me if I get any of this wrong. I am reasonably confident I’ve got this one right.

For years, debates have raged about whether it is desirable, or even possible, to repeal the UK’s GRA. This pernicious law from 2004 calls itself “An Act to make provision for and in connection with change of gender.” It allows a person “of either gender” who is at least 18 to obtain a “gender recognition certificate” (GRC) on the basis of “living in the other gender” or “having changed gender under the law of a country or territory” outside the UK under certain circumstances. It makes frequent references to “acquired gender” and to “living in a gender.”

It creates a mechanism for people to be considered the opposite sex, legally. The idea that people “live in a gender” is an obvious affront to anyone (women, especially) who understands that sex is real, material, and immutable. The legal scholar Alessandra Asteriti explained the case for repeal in 2023 and again earlier this year. She notes, “The debate on repealing the GRA goes on. There are those who wish to retain the GRA because they think changing sex is possible. Those who do not care about retaining the GRA even if they believe changing sex is possible. Those who wish to retain the GRA even if they believe changing sex is not possible. And those who wish to repeal the GRA because they think changing sex is not possible.”

Over the years, I have watched this debate play out from across the pond, and it’s an intense one. Feminist Jean Hatchet posted a very fun (and profanity-laden) explanation of why she has had it with the so-called “feminists” who oppose repeal earlier today.

This week, the UK chapter of Women’s Declaration International announced that it has issued a briefing document calling for repeal. It states, “Women’s Declaration International UK is calling on the UK Government to restore the safeguarding of women, children and other vulnerable groups by ending sex falsification. This would involve removing the concepts of ‘gender reassignment’ and ‘gender identity’ from all law, policy and practice.” The briefing document is available here. Feminist Maureen O’Hara, one of the initial authors of the Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights, sent the document to Prime Minister Keir Starmer and several ministers on behalf of WDI UK.

WDI is a group of volunteer women from across the globe dedicated to protecting women's sex-based rights. Our volunteers include academics, writers, organizers, activists, and health practitioners, and aim to represent the total breadth of the human female experience. The Declaration on Women's Sex Based Rights was created by the founders of WDI to build international sisterhood and to urge nations to maintain language protecting women and girls on the basis of sex rather than "gender" or "gender identity". I am proud to have served as the president of the US chapter from 2021 until July 2024.

This campaign to repeal the GRA is an exciting step toward the liberation of women and girls from the sexist (and nonsensical) concepts of “gender recognition” and “gender identity.” To the women of WDI UK, today’s FFS Friday is for you.