Today’s story in The Times (right) is under the byline of the Deputy Political Editor. The previous ST front page “exclusive” in June (left) was under the byline of the Political Editor. Both stories are unattributed briefings. June’s story was also wrong on multiple counts.

Make of this what you will. The involvement of the political team rather than the usual suspects in “opinion” make this a briefed story rather than an anti-trans one. The fact the ST were favoured to receive both “off the record” briefs reflects the role the paper has established

..as the regime’s court circular. But both have the problem that you can’t tell how sound or accurate the briefings are. That means you must credit the possibility that the stories come from people at the edge rather than the centre of policy.

Personally, I’m sanguine about this nonsense. I’ve said before that this regime is the very last kind of government to be trusted with GRA reform because, even if they wanted to implement a process change to eliminate medical evidence you can be pretty sure they’d do it badly.

Merely reducing the application cost (which they can do without amending legislation at all) would actually be the best outcome for now. You will still have the GRA 2004 process and you can decide whether you want to avail yourself of that or not.

Remember that, prior to 2004, people got by. There were significant issues for some — there’s a full list at the front of Vol 2 of Pressing Matters — but time has erased many of them. There’s hardly anyone left to be affected by differences in state pension ages, Equal Marriage..

..has largely eliminated the issue of whether people could marry. But, with trans people able to change other documents (eg Driving License and Passport) for over fifty years, and the EA2010 underwriting what trans people had done for generations using appropriate toilets, the..

..lack of an updated birth certificate only really affects privacy in the diminishing circumstances where you’re obliged to produce it. You have to make the decision personally whether you can deal with those circumstances when they arise (eg signing up for a pension scheme or ..

..applying for certain jobs). Personally I think trans people’s attitudes to the potential risks and indignity have changed since those circumstances led us to press for legal recognition. The loser here is the state, since if trans people become less likely to apply to correct..

..their documents then officials have to face having lots of people with meaningless birth certificates. And in the future, when the pendulum swings back against right wing populism, you can put the topic back on the agenda. Meanwhile there are several far more pressing issues..

..to attend to. GRA reform was never a top priority before the Tories decided it was. It’s not a priority for trans people now. Walk away. Nothing to see here, except GCs struggling to keep their hate groups angry and on-side if the thing that supposedly motivated them has gone.