Lib Dems Resolve that #SexMatters in the Constitution

Lib Dem conference overwhelmingly passed a Constitutional Amendment on 13th March 2022, which added the word “sex” to the list of Protected Characteristics in the relevant part of the party’s Constitution.

Lib Dem member, Vikki Lax, spoke in favour of the amendment during the debate. Vikki said,

“I am delighted that this Amendment passed, and whilst it has been upsetting to be silenced, called a bigot and a transphobe today, I’m pleased to have given this speech.”

Vikki took the opportunity to highlight the ways in which the EA2010 Protected Characteristic of sex has been neglected by the party at an administrative level, including in the recent members’ demographics survey.

You can watch Vikki in action here.

Our original amendment, which said

‘In Clause 3.1.A of the Constitution, after ‘disability,’ insert ‘sex,’

was “composited” by Federal Conference Committee, so instead of just adding “sex,” the final amendment added a number of additional words from the Preamble as well. 

Ultimately, it would of course be preferable, and more coherent, for the list of characteristics to simply reflect the 9 covered by the Equality Act, as this part of the Constitution is a technical one that concerns the party’s legal responsibilities to its members. It would therefore make sense for it to be tied in to the law. But the “compositing” process took it out of our hands, and ultimately we achieved our objective of the inclusion of ‘sex’ in Article 3.1.

LVW member, Vikki Lax, spoke up in favour of the amendment. Her brilliant speech can be viewed here. 

Sadly, but not unpredictably, Vikki’s words attracted a considerable amount of hostility and vitriol in the chat box, and from subsequent speakers. There was also an issue with extremely biased moderation of the chat during the debate, which we are raising with conference organisers and party leadership.

Our announcement about the amendment generated a huge amount of positive attention on Twittter, and was welcomed by hundreds of former Lib Dem voters and members alike, who viewed this move as an important first step towards the undoing the damage done by the erasure of the concept of sex within the party.

The full text of Vikki’s speech follows here:

I welcome this move to bring the Liberal Democrat Constitution closer in line with equality law.

I particularly welcome the unequivocal statement this constitutional amendment makes to acknowledge that sex is real and sex matters, as much in political parties, which have a responsibility for policy-making, as anywhere else.

I note that we still have some way to go in our internal processes. For example, in a recent members' survey, which set out to map the demographic characteristics of our members, there was no question about 'sex'. Instead there were two questions about gender identity, a concept that does not feature in the Equality Act and has no definition in law. 

While one of those two questions asked about 'gender', the answers offered were 'male', 'female', 'non-binary' and 'gender-fluid', thereby conflating sex with gender identity and fundamentally undermining the purpose of the survey.

If we want to have a constitutional commitment to not discriminating against people who believe they have a gender identity, then there is no problem with that. But we also need to make sure we have the basics covered. Sex is a key demographic variable and a protected characteristic under the Equality Act. The fact that the Lib Dem Constitution as it stands technically allows sex discrimination is cause for concern.  

I would like to therefore support this Constitutional Amendment and at the same time I would like to take the opportunity to recommend that the party undertake an urgent review of all its internal forms and processes which currently refer to gender instead of sex. 

Last year a document called the Political Erasure of Sex, by Dr Jane Clare Jones and researched by Lisa Mackenzie of MBM Policy Analysis, and funded by Oxford University, was published and circulated among parliamentarians. It describes itself as: "an overarching project which aims to document the process of policy capture in our public institutions, and how it is impacting the recognition and recording of biological sex in public policy, law, language, and data-collection." 

In subsequent debates in the House of Lords, one of our Peers referred to this robust academic work as the stuff of conspiracy theories. Such a claim might have credibility if our party could demonstrate that we were not in fact complicit in the process.

Please vote for this Constitutional Amendment, to uphold the Equality Act within the party, and to acknowledge the established legal concept of sex.