A friend of mine kindly shared her email to her local (Tory) MP. I thought it was too good not to share.
Feel free to use some of it to write to your MPs too. There is so much at stake as we head into a Labour administration.
p.s. Also pleased to see that Sex Matters became a Charity today. Well done!
Dear MP
I believe this issue is an existential crisis. “Gender identity” is not a protected characteristic and has no meaning in law. Gender identity is a concept in which some people believe but many do not. It is not a crime to ‘mis-gender’, and individuals cannot be compelled to refer to people with their ‘preferred pronoun’.
Thank you for meeting with me, I think we’re on the same page, but I make no apologies in trying to highlight many of my concerns to you. I’m not sure how any of this current trend towards ‘affirmation’ of transgendering children can be part of your campaigning, but I do hope some of this has raised your awareness, at least for the sake of your own girls who are probably in quite a high ‘at risk’ group.
The Cass review mentioned that ‘social transition is not a neutral act’, the full report is due to be published, and the interim report is here https://cass.independent-review.uk/publications/interim-report/ .
It is known that puberty blockers damage the natural development of children, there’s no such thing as ‘pausing puberty’, it’s not just a facial hair issue, it is permanent stopping of neurological development, and other physical development including bone density, and permanent infertility. Hormone treatment on children is experimental and dangerous. This includes puberty blockers, which have been used as chemical castration for sex-offenders, there are also cross-sex hormones. Whilst the NHS have stopped prescribing puberty blockers they will still prescribe ‘gender affirming hormones’ which also cause irreversible physical damage, please read this publication https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/clinical-commissioning-policy-prescribing-of-gender-affirming-hormones.pdf
I am in no way transphobic, I just care about schools and medical services not harming children, providing informed safeguarding, understanding the Equality law, and following government guidance. The guidance is being misrepresented, though, please read this Daily Telegraph article https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/04/primary-schools-equality-trans-policies-government-guidance/#:~:text=Schools%20defy%20ministers%20to%20let%20children%20change%20gender%20behind%20their%20parents'%20backs,-Analysis%20of%20more&text=Primary%20school%20teachers%20are%20being,survey%20of%20its%20kind%20shows.
Puberty and adolescence are understandably a time of great change, emotionally, physically and socially. It’s normal to feel unsure, self-aware, and awkward, but it’s our role as adults to guide and safeguard children through this maelstrom. The prevalence of children who present with co-morbidities such as autism and ADHD is significant and worrying, because these underlying mental health matters are not being addressed in the first instance. The medical and education establishments are just ‘affirming’ what children, or their parents, desire. Adolescent girls on the autism spectrum may well be socially more like boys, as autistic children tend to be ‘thing-oriented’, as opposed to a majority of girls who will be more emotionally, or ‘people-oriented’. They may be led to understand that they are more like boys in these cases, and then be led to believe that they should transition. This is why children should receive correct psychological counselling, because this condition is neither new or wrong, it’s the mis-treatment and mis-diagnosis which is new. There appears to be a fashion towards children ‘choosing’ rather than experiencing gender dysphoria, and this exponential growth, especially in adolescent girls, must cause concern that this is some sort of social influence, or social contagion similar to that seen with bulimia and anorexia in young girls, and statistically white middle-class girls. These phenomena are well known, but if social media ‘influencers’, corporations, general media are leading to permanent irreversible harm in children, then we have a duty to stand up and protect these children. Children are not able to conceive or consent in a meaningful way to hormone treatments and it is abhorrent that children are subject to adult affirmation and mutilation which is as bad as FGM. Phrases such as ‘born in the wrong body’ should be criminalised, it’s outrageous child-abuse to even suggest this. The majority of children presenting with this current phenomenon of gender dysphoria it is suggested will grow into adults who are gay. Hence, the drive to ‘trans’ them is not only abuse, but homophobic. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-13263725/trans-kids-change-sex-adults-study.html
Protection of single-sex spaces, which includes male toilets and changing rooms, especially within schools and on school trips, is essential. Men and women are different, and just because a ‘transwoman’ (male) wants to don a dress does not make them a woman, and this should never change. Every cell in your body has an XY chromosome, this can never change. Biological sex, therefore, is immutable and a fact. This is also important in sports, as you have previously spoken on, men are physically bigger and stronger, higher levels of testosterone elicits different behaviour and their inclusion in women’s sports just serves to exclude women whose team places have been supplanted. The physical strength and behaviour of men in women’s sport presents a real physical danger to women, too.
‘Transwomen’ (males) are also taking places which you would have thought should be roles for women. A rape crisis centre in Edinburgh run by run by Mridul Wadhwa, a ‘transwoman’ ‘hid sex of its counsellors’ . Does that sound safe or appropriate for women who are victims of male-on-women sexual violence? https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0f806bee-14f0-4cac-8d1e-0c26b3b122ae?shareToken=f2814ac7bb59d3a3df9e1f5faab9aa74
How about a ‘transwoman’ (male) being appointed as CEO of a charity Endometriosis South Coast, clearly a condition which only effects women https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/13/anger-endometriosis-charity-steph-richards-transwoman-boss/
The Equality law on gender critical beliefs was tested and proved in 2022, ‘Maya Forstater wins gender critical belief claim’ - Following last year’s ruling by the Employment Appeal Tribunal that her “gender critical” beliefs were protected under the Equality Act, Maya Forstater has won her discrimination claim. This follows on from the precedent-setting judgment of the Employment Appeal Tribunal in June 2021, which found that the “gender critical” belief “that biological sex is real, important, immutable and not to be conflated with gender identity” is covered by the protected characteristic of religion and belief in the Equality Act 2010 https://sex-matters.org/posts/freedom-of-speech/what-does-forstater-mean-for-employers/. Part of this case included:
Highlighting the risks that men pose to women. The tribunal considered tweets that point out that men pose a threat to women, and that women can feel threatened or humiliated by the unexpected and unwanted presence of someone male. For example, it considered an exchange that concluded with the words: “Think for a second about the difference between ‘I met a woman’ and ‘I met a man’… followed by another tweet which began: ‘… in a dark alley, on a blind date, at a conference, giving me a lift etc.’? Women take different precautions. Now social convention is telling women, even when you know someone is male you must ignore that, they pose no additional risk than any other woman.”
Making the case for clear single-sex spaces. It also considered arguments for women-only spaces, including a tweet: “The majority of transwomen are intact males (i.e. social not surgical transition). Being forced to share sleeping accommodation, showers, changing etc. … or be subject to intimate searches by a transwom[a]n will be just as humiliating and scary as if it was any other man”, as well as a pamphlet from campaigning group Fair Play For Women that stated: “Women and girls are uniquely vulnerable when undressed or asleep. It’s common sense and perfectly lawful to exclude male-born people from sleeping in accommodation for women. It’s what we all expect and take for granted.”
If you, or your staff, have any concerns as to what they can say or advise constituents, this is a good reliable resource https://safeschoolsallianceuk.net/schools-resources-and-policies/ However, literature which promotes inaccurate information on Equality law should be removed from the educational environment.
A few last thoughts, don’t forget, the ‘+’ stands for some perversion that they can’t currently define.
Crimes committed by ‘transwomen’ (males) should be recorded accurately as male crimes. How else can we carry out crime prevention if the evidence is recorded incorrectly?
Finally, if you thought the compensation from Windrush, or the Post Office or the infected blood scandal were significant, can you imagine the devastating wave of court cases from de-transitioners is going to look like? With the Tavistock facing a lawsuit from 1,000 families, the impending and unbearable financial cost will be borne by the taxpayer. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tavistock-gender-clinic-to-be-sued-by-1-000-families-lbsw6k8zd