Civitas Report: The Corrosive Impact of Transgender Ideology

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

www.civitas.org.uk/publications/the-corrosive-impact-of-transgender-ideology/

The blurb:

In less than two decades ‘transgender’ has gone from a term representing individuals and little used outside of specialist communities, to signifying a powerful political ideology driving significant social change. At the level of the individual, this shift has occurred through the separation of gender from sex, before reclaiming biology through an innate sense of ‘gender-identity’.

In this report, Joanna Williams argues that this return to biology allows for the formation of a distinct identity group, one that can stake a claim to being persecuted, and depends upon continual validation and confirmation from an external audience. All critical discussion is a threat to this public validation and is often effectively curtailed.

This ideology has meant that in 2019, the number of 11- and 13-year-olds referred to NHS specialist medical help with transitioning rose by 28 and 30 per cent, respectively, over the previous year. The youngest patients have been just three years old. Arrests and prosecutions have been made for ‘deliberately misgendering’ through the use of male pronouns. Transgender pupils have been free to use the toilets and changing rooms that match their gender identity, previously intended only for members of the opposite sex. Reports of the attacks on women in prisons carried out by transgender inmates suggest that the feelings of transgender women are being placed above the safety of females. But why has this been allowed to happen?

Joanna Williams suggests that the move of transgenderism from niche to mainstream tells us more about the rest of society than it does about transgender individuals. People in positions of power within the realms of media, education, academia, police, social work, medicine, law, and local and national government have been prepared to coalesce behind the demands of a tiny transgender community. Previously authoritative institutions now lack confidence in their own ability to lead and look to the transgender community as a victimised group that can act as a source of moral authority. However, this, in turn, has not only eroded sex-based rights but undermined crucial areas of child protection.

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

Recommendations

1. Both the UK Government and the Scottish Parliament should announce a moratorium on all reform of the Gender Recognition Act for at least the duration of this parliament.

1. The Government should clarify the distinction between sex-based and gender-based protections as set out in the Equalities Act 2010. The Act’s permission for sex-based

discrimination to preserve female-only services should be reiterated.

1. The prescribing of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to anyone under the age of 18 should be immediately prohibited.

1. No child should be permitted to ‘socially transition’ at school (i.e. change name, pronouns, uniform or use the changing rooms and toilets intended for members of the

opposite sex) without the permission of their parents.

1. Schools should be encouraged to separate out the teaching of lesbian, gay and bi-sexual relationships from teaching about transgender as part of the Relationships and Sex Education curriculum. Teaching on transgender

should not contradict the content of the science/biology curriculum.

[CountessFrog]

Seems really sensible, I hope they listen.

[wrongsideofhistorymyarse]

Brilliant.

[Babdoc]

All of this should have been so blindingly obvious as to not need saying. It’s a horrific measure of how far the trans cult have captured the media, that we now have to spell this out.

[midgebabe]

4b.

Children should not be permitted t9 use the toilets of the opposite sex or share dorms with the opposite sex without the agreement of all children already using that facility and their parents also

[OldCrone]

4. No child should be permitted to ‘socially transition’ at school (i.e. change name, pronouns, uniform or use the changing rooms and toilets intended for members of the opposite sex) without the permission of their parents.

I'd change this one to:

4 a. No child should be permitted to ‘socially transition’ at school (i.e. change name, pronouns, uniform) without the permission of their parents.

4 b. No child should be permitted to use the changing rooms and toilets intended for members of the opposite sex.

There is absolutely no reason why a child who wants to change their 'gender' should be permitted to use the changing rooms or toilets intended for members of the opposite sex.

[VickyEadieofThigh]

There is absolutely no reason why a child who wants to change their 'gender' should be permitted to use the changing rooms or toilets intended for members of the opposite sex.

I agree. Too many wokerati involved in running schools these days would coerce acceptance by girls.

[littlbrowndog]

💪💪💪💪

[RoyalCorgi]

Very interesting. Joanna Williams is part of Spiked and has written about the trans stuff before. I don't know much about Civitas and wondered if it was a front organisation for Spiked (they have a few) but having looked at their website it seems to be independent. So this is really good to see.

The recommendations are excellent. Clear, simple and to-the-point.

[Abitofalark]

I was going to start a thread, having been alerted to the book by an article by Joanna Williams on Spiked: "How trans ideology took over"
"A tiny movement of trans activists has influenced nearly all of our institutions"
www.spiked-online.com/2020/06/19/how-trans-ideology-took-over/

The article is short and makes some key points. The book itself, published by Civitas, an educational charity, is a survey of the origins, thinking, the characters and the landscape that is all too familiar to the women of mumsnet and an explanation of how we got here. It is available to read online, is not too long and Williams is a lucid writer. I've skimmed some of it and will read the whole as it's informative on the development and thinking behind the trans ideology and an easy and quick read.

[OldCrone]

The recommendations are excellent.

Apart from point 4. No child should be allowed to use opposite sex changing rooms or toilets just because their parents agree they should. I'm surprised that people are agreeing with this recommendation.

[BaronessSnippyPantsofCroneArmy]

Well worth reading the full report. You can download the full pdf from the Civitas links above.

[Frenchfancy]

It may not be perfect but it is brilliant to see some sensible recommendations, particularly when it comes to child protection.

[transdimensional]

As I understand it, Civitas is fairly influential in Conservative circles so this could reinforce the party's move away from its flirtation with self-id.

[Thinkingabout1t]

I have downloaded the whole book, free of charge, from civitas.org.uk/content/files/2454-A-The-Corrosive-Impact-of-TI-ppi-110-WEB.pdf

Joanna Williams writes clearly, makes sense and does proper research, so this is proving an informative read. I've just read about the recent invention of 'transgender children' -- necessary to support the adults' claim that trangenderism is natural and has always existed.

She quotes the wonderful children's author and special-needs teacher Rachel Rooney, who says "I don’t think there’s such a thing as a transgender child; there’s just a child with a mind that’s not yet fully developed."

Rooney also says "I don’t really understand how a four year old boy can have more of an understanding of gender than I do, because I do not know what it is to feel like a woman."

Nor do I! I don't believe anyone does, you just feel like yourself.

Back to the JW's book now.

[OldCrone]

Thanks for the link to the book Thinkingabout1t.

[endofthelinefinally]

Is it possible to buy an actual book? So I can leave it casually around the house?
That would be so much easier than trying to persuade my family member to read something I have downloaded.
Even printing it out wouldn't be taken seriously, not to mention the amount of ink and paper.

[wellbehavedwomen]

Teaching on transgender should not contradict the content of the science/biology curriculum.

This is the part that blows my mind. We know men and women are fundamentally different, right down to a cellular level. We know sex is binary - nobody goes, "Oh, I want a baby - how do I know which sort of human could create one with me?!" You need a man and a woman to create the egg and sperm - as a gay couple, you need a donor for one side. There's no third bloody option because sex is not a spectrum. (And there is also no overlap between people with Disorders of Sexual Development, and trans people, so that red herring is pointless.)

How on earth can schools allow something as unscientific as Mermaids's gender theories through the doors? It contradicts all their science teaching, and it's sexist and regressive in an extraordinary degree. How did this happen? Why was it allowed, far less encouraged and sanctioned?

Most shockingly of all, why didn't anyone ask parents, when planning to indoctrinate their kids into a dogmatic belief system based on faith alone?

[wellbehavedwomen]

@endofthelinefinally you could call them, and ask?

[Thinkingabout1t]

You can buy the paper book through Amazon! via the Civitas site:
www.civitas.org.uk/

but I never use Amazon so I was pleased to get the download. Would have bought the book otherwise. (I’ll buy from Amazon when they start paying proper tax, and stop undermining bookshops, which probably = never.)

Leaving it around should spark some interesting debates!

[Thinkingabout1t]

why didn't anyone ask parents, when planning to indoctrinate their kids into a dogmatic belief system based on faith alone?

I enjoy fantasy and science fiction. But if someone had written a novel about the worldwide spread and acceptance of transgenderism I wouldn’t have bought it. I’d have thought “No - it’s got to be at least slightly plausible.”

[Pigeonfaces]

It’s a really good resource.

But I think any suggestion that children at a school can use the facilities of the opposite sex subject to the consent of parents &/or other children is completely impractical. Apart from the obvious questions of coercion, pressure to ‘be kind’ etc, a school cohort is in constant flux with new children joining each year & throughout the year. The ‘agreement’ would need to be under constant review. It wouldn’t work.

[endofthelinefinally]

Thanks wellbehaved and thinking.
I don't like Amazon either, but I would have to produce a "proper book" iyswim. Not "something off the internet". Sigh.
I did some googling and will phone them on Monday morning and see if I can buy direct.
I would happily pay for several copies tbh.

[Thinkingabout1t]

i agree with other PPs here. All recommendations good, except that one section of point 4. No one should use toilets or changing rooms intended for people of the other sex, full stop.

[zanahoria]

^" Whereas the gay rights movement was
about demanding more freedom from the state for people
to determine their sex lives unconstrained by the law, the
transgender movement demands the opposite: it calls for
recognition and protection from the state in the form of
intervention to regulate the behaviour of those outside of
the identity group. Whereas in the past, to be radical was
to demand greater freedom from the state and institutional
authority, today to be radical is to demand restrictions on
free expression in the name of preventing offence."^

This is an excellent point, really skewers the superficial analysis from OJ and others who weren't even there