James Kirkup James Kirkup

What MPs are still getting wrong about the trans debate | 25 February 2019

I am a little late in coming to the recent report on community cohesion by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Hate Crime. It was published earlier this month but drew little attention at Westminster: yet another example of Brexit smothering the domestic policy agenda, I suppose.

The report has lots to say about lots of different types of nasty behaviour.  Among the topics it covers is the gender debate, the discussion of trans rights and their potential impact on the rights of others.

One one level, this is a good thing.  It is the job of MPs to debate and discuss matters of contention and controversy. This is one such issue, yet it has not been fully debated in Parliament, not least because a lot of MPs are too scared to enter an arena where passions run very high indeed.  In that context, well done to the APPG and especially its chair, Labour’s Paula Sheriff.  The group did something all too rare by asking for, and then considering and publishing, some actual evidence about this particular debate.

Well done, too, for not ducking the fact that women who question the orthodoxies of trans rights (for instance, “trans women are women” and thus entitled to all the same rights as “cis” women) are often faced with abuse, intimidation and violence from people who don’t want such things to be questioned.

Here, it’s worth quoting the report at some length.  (I’ve bolded some key terms and phrases.)

“Some women have raised concerns over people who identify as female but are still to some extent ‘biologically’ male being allowed to use women-only spaces such as female changing rooms or toilets. They object that the terms sex and gender are being used interchangeably and the idea that gender identity is being used to erode sex-based rights and protections. This is argued as being a form of misogyny.

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