Debbie Hayton Debbie Hayton

Why does Penny Mordaunt think ‘trans men are men’?

(Getty images)

Something dramatic happened in the House of Commons yesterday: Penny Mordaunt told MPs that ‘transmen are men and transwomen are women’. This mantra – for that is what it is – has been said so often in recent years that it might now be an unremarkable way in which to wind up a debate. But it is a worrying sign to see it repeated so unthinkingly in parliament.

Mordaunt is wrong: transwomen are male, and women are female. Male people are not female people, and therefore transwomen are not women. As a transwoman I should know: I fathered three children – I am definitely male. Their mother was a female person. She is a woman, not me.

The context of Mordaunt’s remark was the Ministerial and other Maternity Allowances Bill: a bill that allows the Prime Minister to designate a Minister on maternity leave as a ‘Minister on Leave’. Once upon a time, such legislation would naturally have talked about pregnant women. But this is 2021. Only after a lengthy debate in the House of Lords last week was the bill amended to replace pregnant people with expectant mothers.

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It is appalling that the class of people formerly known as women – the sex that gives birth – can no longer always be described by that word. The policy capture by transgender activists has been insidious; now it appears to be complete. These were not off-the cuff remarks from the back benches. Mordaunt was speaking from the despatch box in her role as paymaster general. These were the words of the government itself, and recorded in Hansard as she referred to the changes made by the Lords:

‘The amendments we are accepting today are legitimate and understandable, and critically they are also legally sound, but let me say in supporting them from this Dispatch Box that trans men are men and trans women are women, and great care has been taken in the drafting and accepting of these amendments to ensure that that message has got across.

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