Trans rights

Tuesday

Debbie Hayton

The SNP’s transphobia muddle

For a party so devoted to trans rights, it seems strange that the SNP is less than forthcoming over its new definition of transphobia that their National Executive Committee adopted in recent days. The mind boggles over what they may be hiding. Despite the twin pressures of Brexit and Covid-19, not to mention a key Scottish election three months away and the ongoing Alex Salmond affair, it seems that the party is prioritising the gender debate. As a trans person, even I am getting exasperated by this relentless focus.  Let’s be clear: transphobic hate crime exists but it is nowhere near as commonplace as the transgender lobby would like us to

Tuesday

Debbie Hayton

Does the SNP really want to copy Norway’s gender revolution?

Five years ago, in June 2016, Norway allowed anyone to change their legal gender. Legislative Decree 71 was everything that the gender identity brigade would like to introduce in the UK: no diagnosis, no medical reports, pure self-identification. The age limit was set at six years old, providing the child has at least one parent’s consent. This matters to the UK. Self-identification may be off the table at Westminster but it remains a live issue at Holyrood where Nicola Sturgeon’s government seems determined to force it through. Defending their draft bill on reform to the Gender Recognition Act, the Scottish government explained that ‘This proposal is in line with the

Monday

Stephen Daisley

Sturgeon’s purge: why Joanna Cherry had to go

Joanna Cherry is out as the SNP’s Home Office spokeswoman at Westminster. The QC, who also shadowed the Justice Secretary, announced on Twitter that she had been ‘sacked’ from the nationalist frontbench. Her departure comes as part of a rejigging of what the party terms ‘the real opposition’. There is some established talent there (Alison Thewliss at Treasury, Alyn Smith at foreign affairs, Stewart McDonald at defence) and some fresh blood in the form of 2019-intake MP Stephen Flynn, bumped up from junior Treasury spokesman to ‘Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’. (The SNP refers to all its frontbenchers as shadow secretaries of state, which is

Katy Balls Katy Balls

SNP sacking exposes party infighting

The turmoil in the SNP has taken a new turn this lunchtime with the sacking of Joanna Cherry QC as shadow spokesperson on justice and home affairs in the House of Commons. The party’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford embarked on a reshuffle this morning — using a press release to welcome four MPs to the front bench. However, he failed to find any space to mention the departure of Cherry. Instead the influential SNP politician broke the news herself on social media: Cherry goes on to say that ‘Westminster is increasingly irrelevant to Scotland’s constitutional future’ and urge the SNP to ‘radically re-think our strategy’.  So, what’s going on? Cherry’s sacking comes after weeks

Thursday

Debbie Hayton

Biden’s trans rights agenda is bad news for women and girls

Joe Biden has wasted little time grabbing rights from women and girls across America. On day one, he signed an Executive Order on ‘Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation’. This is being hailed as a pivotal moment for transgender rights. But it’s nothing of the sort.  The mention of ‘Gender Identity’ alone is enough to raise the alarm about the consequences of this proposal. Gender identity might be a popular concept right now, but it isn’t even clear what it means. Put simply, it’s a concept which refers to a person’s individual experience of gender, which may or may not correspond with the sex assigned at birth. All too

Thursday

Nina Power

‘We’re all members of the Stasi now’: Irvine Welsh interviewed

The history of the word ‘offend’, from the Latin offendere, to hit, attack, injure, is a revealing one. From its starting point in physical violence to transgression against God in the Middle Ages, today ‘offence’, understood as displeasure or upset, is seemingly everywhere. The word may no longer refer to direct physical harm, but culture of all kinds, from artworks to comedy to literature to music, seems to have an upsetting quality to some. Words, we are told, are ‘violence’, images are hurtful, differing opinions are dangerous and must be suppressed. Even silence is ‘violence’, as this year’s Black Lives Matter protests reminded us. Social media has undoubtedly encouraged this

Friday

Debbie Hayton

It’s time to pause the transgender debate

As the United Kingdom plunges into an unprecedented crisis, the time has surely come to halt the reforms to self-identification of gender. Schools are closing; London could be locked down; even The Archers has an uncertain future – this really is a crisis. At such times, we can no longer afford the luxury of devoting time and resources to the foolish idea that biology matters less than feelings, when we divide humanity into male and female. Self-identification has already been paused in Westminster with Boris Johnson’s government content to say as little as possible on the subject, while the opposition parties tear themselves apart. Whether it is Dawn Butler claiming that