Debbie Hayton Debbie Hayton

The difficulties of questioning the transgender dogma

While Westminster understandably has its mind on other things, the transgender debate – which you might have expected to calm down after last year’s consultation on the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) – rumbles on with its trademark ferocity. And as two stories have this week have shown, its proponents continue to take no prisoners.

It started with a motion at Gateshead Council, put forward by Leigh Kirton – a Labour councillor – stating that ‘marginalised groups’ should be ‘fully protected in ways which ensure freedom of self-expression and protection from harassment’. The underlying issue, once again, was the GRA debate, and the concern that women’s groups were being targeted for expressing their views (including by having their meeting venues cancelled). The motion affirmed that groups affected by GRA reform had the right to discuss the issue and that ‘any request for use of public buildings for such purposes will be allowed.’

Quite right! That should not even be controversial in our democratic society. I suspect the average Gateshead resident would wonder why a statement so prosaic even needed to be debated in the first place. Although, if they’d witnessed the response from the transgender thought police, they’d have realised exactly why that was so.

Joining the resulting outcry were LGBT Labour who issued a statement condemning the motion, which they insisted was ‘damaging to the trans community’. ‘We have written to the Councillors who have proposed the motion asking them to withdraw it and meet with us’, they clarified in a tweet.

In the second case of activists seeking to silence women, the rector of Edinburgh University, Ann Henderson, faced calls for her sacking after she dared to retweet a message from the feminist group Woman’s Place UK – a grassroots body which campaigns to protect single sex spaces.

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Written by
Debbie Hayton

Debbie Hayton is a teacher and journalist. Her book, Transsexual Apostate – My Journey Back to Reality is published by Forum

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