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.

Anti-trans campaigners who treat this process as if they can just wake up one morning and say they are a woman or a man and change nothing else about their lives are mocking not only trans people but the concept of identity itself. Identity is not some random feeling we have just on Wednesdays or Fridays, but our deeply held sense of ourselves and how we fit into the world.

Like most trans men and women, starting my transition was the most terrifying but crucial moment of my life. This wasn’t about gender stereotypes. I transitioned because, for some unknown reason, ever since early childhood I have consistently and profoundly seen myself as male despite being born with a female body. I had no ability to choose my sense of myself, and it was much more than some vague feeling.

I tried to “cure” myself by embracing radical feminism in my teens but my gender identity remained persistently male. I came out as a trans man back in 2001 and started using male pronouns for all purposes. I then changed all my identity documents, except my birth certificate, by self-declaring I was living permanently in my male gender identity and intended to continue to do so until death. That is not remotely the same as someone who chooses to call themselves a man or woman just on Fridays or Wednesdays as an anti-trans campaign stunt.

It has never been unlawful for women to enter male toilets or men to enter female toilets; many toilet cleaners and women avoiding queues during theatre intervals would end up arrested if it were. However, voyeuristic or exhibitionist behaviour is a serious crime, no matter what your legal sex or trans status.

Reform of the Gender Recognition Act will not change the existing Equality Act rules, which allow single-sex service providers to make proportionate adjustments to resolve complex situations. Nor will it affect the existing ability of service providers to exclude any potential service user, trans or not, that they believe is seeking to be disruptive or abusive.

The anti-trans campaigner who has put himself forward for a local women’s officer election despite making no attempt to live as a woman will not succeed in reversing trans women’s inclusion in Labour party all-women shortlists. The Labour party is not required to indulge his silly attempt to subvert the legitimate intention of its trans policy through wordplay, and has already excluded him. It’s just a shame that this flagrant attempt to court publicity, which runs counter to any version of self-recognition that anyone is asking for, was allowed to get so far and garner so much publicity.

There is always space for constructive discussion around any legislative change. Puerile stunts, deliberate misgendering and hateful comparisons to parasites and paedophiles is not constructive discussion. Mutually respectful dialogue between trans organisations and mainstream women’s organisations has been taking place for decades and the Scottish Trans Alliance is proud to be part of that.

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