The Office for National Statistics may have “hugely overestimated” the size of the trans population in the UK. It’s a claim that has significant implications for public policy, but it’s also a warning about what happens when the language of gender ideology is allowed to skew data collection. Reliable statistics about trans people are close to non-existent, leading to implausible claims about such matters as levels of suicide among trans-identified youth. So the failure of the ONS to get it right is particularly egregious.

The question of how many people are transgender or non-binary has long been controversial. Organisations like Stonewall have a vested interest in suggesting it’s as large as possible, once claiming it might be as high as 1% of the population. That could be 670,000 people, but data released earlier this year by the ONS, based on the 2021 census, put it at 260,000. Even that figure is now in doubt. ...  Continue reading

The conflict over gender reform between Westminster and the Scottish Government ramps up today. The Court of Session in Edinburgh will begin hearing a challenge to the UK Government’s use of a Section 35 order to prevent its controversial Gender Recognition Reform Act becoming law. The Scottish Secretary, Alister Jack, blocked the bill on the grounds that it would have a detrimental effect on the 2010 Equality Act, which allows organisations to provide single-sex spaces in limited circumstances. 

The SNP will be hoping to frame the court battle as a principled fight against “interference” by Westminster in Scotland’s affairs. But it has a problem — several in fact. Voters who thought they were opting for independence didn’t imagine that they would get something quite different, namely male sex offenders being housed in women’s prisons.  ...  Continue reading

Newspapers employ many more women than they used to. Several national titles, including the Financial Times and the Guardian, have female editors. But they’re still read by more men than women, raising questions about whether news values reflect the assumptions of a bygone age.

There’s a new hazard, too, in the shape of editors uncritically accepting the claims of men who identify as women. In 2018, the FT included a “gender fluid” man in its list of the top 100 women in business. Philip Bunce, a senior director at Credit Suisse, was said to spend half his time as his female alter ego, Pips. He took the opportunity to tweet an attack on “sad TERFS”. Women were furious — and many said as much. ...  Continue reading

Is anyone prepared to stand up against the spread of trans ideology in schools? Rishi Sunak said as much, but now he appears to be backing away from it. 

Long-delayed guidance on how to deal with pupils who claim to have changed sex still hasn’t been published, and now it looks as though the Prime Minister is having second thoughts about bringing in a law to enforce strict new rules.  

If reports from “Whitehall sources” are accurate, it would represent another climbdown by politicians who have repeatedly buckled rather than face the wrath of trans activists. Sunak was told in July by the Attorney General, Victoria Prentis, that legislation is needed to prevent “social transitioning”, where pupils who claim to be trans demand to use new names, pronouns and the uniform of the opposite sex. ...  Continue reading

If you have to visit a hospital, you will probably have lots of questions. Are the results of those tests as scary as you fear? Who will look after the kids if you’re admitted to a ward? What you won’t be asking, I can pretty much guarantee, is “are the staff LGBT+ allies?”

If you’re visiting the Royal Free, a teaching hospital in north London, however, it seems to be assumed that this is your biggest worry. According to research carried out by the Policy Exchange think tank, a banner in the entrance suggests that members of staff wearing an “LGBTQ+ ally” badge are “safe” for LGBTQ+ patients to speak to. ...  Continue reading

How did the Greens become so focused on trans rights that they’ve ended up in court? The question is at the heart of a landmark action brought by the party’s former deputy leader, Dr Shahrar Ali, which is being heard this week. In what is believed to be the first civil case of its kind, he is claiming he suffered discrimination, hostility and victimisation because of his belief in biological sex. 

Ali was sacked last year as the Greens’ spokesman on policing and domestic safety after he was accused of breaking the party’s code of conduct. He was told that his “decision to champion a highly controversial position in the trans rights debate” was incompatible with the role. His offence? Arguing that sex is immutable, an opinion shared by most human beings who have ever lived.  ...  Continue reading

Scotland’s First Minister, Humza Yousaf, wants to make the world safer for women. He’s said so in a hand-wringing opinion piece this week for the Guardian. He’s horrified by reports of women being stalked, abused, raped and murdered, and he’s going to do something about it. “Men cannot be passive bystanders when it is our actions that are causing such pain, suffering and misery,” he declares.

The pain of being punched in the face for supporting women’s rights, for instance? The suffering that comes from being locked up in a women’s prison with a convicted rapist? Or the misery of being forced to refer to the man who attacked you as “she” in court because he “identifies” as a woman? ...  Continue reading

Does the SNP approve of abusing women? Opponents of the party’s extreme views on transgender rights have long highlighted the poor quality of debate in Scotland, but remarks by a leading SNP politician provide dramatic evidence of a hostile climate towards outspoken women. Mhairi Black, Deputy Leader of the party at Westminster, has dismissed women who disagree with her views on transgender rights as “50-year-old Karens”. 

Speaking at the Edinburgh Fringe, she compared feminists who oppose gender ideology to “white supremacists”, also repeating the slur that opposition to the demands of trans activists is financed by the religious Right. “When you start tracing it back, the money always links back to fundamental Christian groups in America, Baptist groups, anti-abortion organisations,” she claimed.  ...  Continue reading