James Morton is the manager of the Scottish Trans Alliance, which leads the Equal Recognition campaign for Gender Recognition Act reform in Scotland

As a trans person, I’m used to people mocking my identity and trivialising my experiences. I know what it’s like to be fearful in a bathroom and to be subjected to violence and abuse. Trans people are only around 0.6% of the population, and we don’t create the problems of gender stereotypes and inequality – we’re just muddling through a harshly gendered world, trying our best to survive.

Just as the Labour party publicly affirmed that trans women are still allowed to stand on all-women shortlists, it was with an unsurprised and weary sigh that I heard an anti-trans campaigner was already trying to exploit this small positive step towards trans equality. David Lewis decided to stand as a candidate to be Basingstoke Labour party’s women’s officer, claiming that he was “a woman on Wednesdays”. However, these stunts by anti-trans campaigners won’t derail the much-needed improvement of the Gender Recognition Act, because they are fundamentally misstating the self-declaration process proposed by the reform.

Self-declaration is not a frivolous process. Making a false statutory declaration is a serious crime of perjury. Evidence of malicious intent, whether it be to invade women’s safe spaces or to try to make a mockery of the very real struggles that trans people face to live their lives as who they are, could rightfully lead to severe penalties including up to two years in prison. Read more via the Guardian