It's easy to dismiss conversations around sex and gender as being nothing more than frivolous culture war issues that are exclusively the preserve of activists that spend far too much time on Twitter. As David Cameron reportedly once said, too many tweets make a... well, I won't finish that sentence on the Lord's Day.
But you get the point, far too often conversations around a tiny minority of people in our country (and an even smaller very vocal minority of that group), that identify as transgender are dismissed as being unimportant to the majority. The demands for the right to self determine your gender and change the sex on your birth certificate, the right to enter a women's bathroom, the right to play, as a biological male, in women's sports. These things are dismissed as Twitter topics that don't impact millions of women.
Not true.
James Manning
Take the NHS for example. Only this week we heard from the Daily Mail that official NHS advice about ovarian, womb and cervix cancers have removed the word 'women' from their website, changing three sections explaining these cancers, that are exclusively found in biological women. Using resources to target messaging and services at men might make some feel "included", but ultimately harm biological women.
Good news, then, that The Telegraph reports today that the Government is expected to announce that it is rewriting guidance on drafting legislation to make clear that gender-neutral language should not replace terms such as "woman" and "mother". But how did laws drafted in this way--such as the Ministerial and Other Maternity Allowances Bill last year--get through in the first place?
And why is the Ministry of Justice recording female sex offending statistics that include crimes by people born male, as well as exclusively male types of sexual crime such as rape (penetration with a penis). Historically, men have committed 99% of sex offences. How on earth can we protect women from these crimes when we don't even know how many male sex offenders are "identifying" as women?
We also have gender politics wreaking havoc in the education system, with both staff and pupils terrified to express a view. This weekend, the Times reports on a private school sixth form pupil who says she was hounded out of her school and treated 'like a heretic' for questioning gender ideology.
James Manning
There has been an increase of several thousands percent in girls being referred for life-changing transitioning treatment in the past decade. Referrals often occur in "clusters", at certain schools, and we must make sure that women are free to speak out and raise the alarm if children are in danger.
Despite the threat, demonization, and abuse, some cultural titans like J.K. Rowling and a number of brave female sporting champions have risked it all to speak up. They have lost friends, lucrative deals, and fashionable accolades. But why would they bother if this was just a storm in Twitter tea cup?
This government is obsessed with protecting oppressed groups--but gender critical women and girls who are fighting for the well-being of their sex are now facing real oppression, and the government has been slow to act.
A Conservative Government with an 80 seat majority should strip activism out of education, the NHS and elsewhere. Make clear in your instruction to civil servants and elsewhere that to suggest sex and gender are different is not a transphobic notion. Teachers and pupils ought not to be bullied out of school because you watched a video suggesting Arthur can be Martha at the click of his fingers. The fish rots from the head, it's time for the Government to get a grip.