My name is Andrew Dickens.  I’m 55 years old and I’m a woman. I’m a woman because I’ve self-determined that.  I made my mind up when I woke up this morning and so it is so. I’m a woman.  Say it loud and say it proud.

This is obviously not true and easily proved to be fake news. And it is also fair to call it a cheap shot against a proposed piece of legislation that will be voted on in February.

We are considering law changes to the Births, Deaths, Marriages and Relationships Registration Act, that would allow transgender people to self-identify their sex rather than going to court to change their sex on birth certificates, passports and driver licences.

The new law would allow trans people to 'declare' they are female or male without any robust checks. The current law is a long process requires approval from the Family Court.

Understandably this has freaked out people who believe that folk will be self-identifying all over the shop and our public toilets will be invaded by all sorts of freaks from the other genders.

That’s hilarious when you think about it, because most gender-segregated spaces already rely on self-identification. That’s why no one has ever demanded that you verify your gender – whatever that might entail – before you use a public toilet.

And before we go any further let me roll out the cliché.  Some of my good friends are trans gender and some of my friends children are going through the long and difficult journey to transition so I’m no dinosaur. And I am fully aware that trans people are probably the most discriminated against of all the so called minorities.

But I think this legislation has not been debated enough and it needs to be if only to aid in the a national understanding.

This is not whether men can sneak into women’s toilets or compete in women’s sports and vice versa.  

There are many human rights that are linked to sex.  Access to single sex schools, for instance.  Access to refuges after sexual violence. Where to be housed if you’re in prison. There’s access to various quotas, scholarships and awards based on sex.  So there’s a lot involved.

Then there’s the opponents which include women like the TERFS we’ve heard about.  The Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists who don’t like men transitioning and stealing all the feminists hard won gains.  Which is a strange counter intuitive argument when you think about it but it’s the way they feel.

To be honest, I’m also leery about such an important part of human existence to be at the whim of an individual’s emotion of the time.  For me, there is a burden of proof to be presented as with all things and while I understand jumping through hoops can be difficult and even traumatic I believe that it’s part of the journey that no-one ever said would be easy.

So there are important issues that need to be debated, as it was in the UK where they opened the proposed law changes up to a 12 week public consultation. A call for this sort of consultation was made yesterday by  a women’s rights group called  Speak Up For Women.  They  want the government to put the proposed bill on hold until it can clarify how the changes will affect the Human Rights Act 1993.

The bill comes up for its second reading in February and the Minister in Charge Tracey Martin is not talking about it as yet and there’s no public consultation.  That needs to change, Minister.