A salute to Stephanie Davies-Arai

Thanks so much guardianfree

CountDuckula1a

I'd really like that too.

This is all relatively new to me and I'm not sure I can be as eloquent as I'd like

I'd love to know what my (female, Labour MP thinks about all this)

Is there a thread with template letter to MPs etc?

Place marking as i simply cannot work outbhow to effectively do it otherwise

Thank you so much CunningOperative!! It must have taken ages to C and P and dig out all the links. I really appreciate it. What a fantastic article!

Thank you so much CunningOperative, for taking the time to do this.

Amazing, thank you so much!

@ShotsFired

Janice Turner:

Children sacrificed to appease trans lobby
The battle over gender has turned bloody
Even asking questions is now ‘transphobic’
How do you solve a problem like men in women’s changing rooms, Maria?
Meet Alex Bertie, the transgender poster boy

Andrew Gilligan:

Mermaids UK charity ban as boy forced to live as girl
GP gave child, 12, sex change drug
Action for Trans Health activists want free sex-change hormones for children
Teachers told to let pupils switch gender without parents’ consent
Up to half of trans inmates may be sex offenders

Lucy Bannerman:
Scout chiefs accused over transgender ‘self-harming’ with support for chest-binding
Barred academic Heather Brunskell-Evans warns of cowardice over trans issues
Trans teenager Lily Madigan voted in as a Labour women’s officer

Nicholas Hellen:

‘Wrong gender’ feelings could be teen anxiety
New guidelines on school sports for trans pupils

Tim Shipman:

Sex changes spark new dilemmas

Caroline Wheeler and Nicholas Hellen:

Justine Greening delays ‘divisive’ plan for easy gender swaps

@CunningOperative The ones linking to the Times are behind paywall, so if anybody would like to read any of them, let me know and I'll post a share token link.

I would be very grateful for shared links please.

This link is also in my MP's inbox now too, as a follow up to my follow up! Thanks to @guardianfree for posting.

At last, I've found my people.

I'd just read the article so should surely have been able to work it out!! But your tolerance is noted, thank you

Whaaat? Don't say that, it took me ages. How were you supposed to know there was more to come?

Sorry to have broken the flow Cunning; was being a bit dim there

This is the full article. I had to add the links manually so mistakes are totally possible! The ones linking to the Times are behind paywall, so if anybody would like to read any of them, let me know and I'll post a share token link.

Happy new year all you fantastic women (and men) of Mumsnet! Thank you for opening my eyes and fighting the good fight. And thank you Stephanie, you are my personal shero. (And so is Datun. Always.)

The best news of the year and the biggest relief was the reappearance of Magdalen Burns who survived open cranium brain surgery in 2017. Magdalene’s hilarious youtube videos are the best antidote to snowflake culture and should be prescribed viewing in all secondary schools. Welcome back Magdalen.

We want to thank everyone mentioned in this post for their courage in speaking out and for all their work over the past year and we apologise to anyone we’ve inadvertently missed out. We thank those outside the UK whose work we don’t have the space to recognise here. We also want to thank all the people we haven’t mentioned who we know are working behind the scenes, often taking a risk in their personal and professional lives for speaking out at work, at the school gates, on Facebook and amongst their friends and families on a subject which may lead to them being branded as ‘bigots.’

Our thanks go to all those who have written to and had meetings with their MP’s, who responded to the NHS consultation, who have written to and challenged various organisations and who have attended events and added their support. Our gratitude also goes to the teachers we know of who are trying to combat this ideology in their schools and to those who have given us their time and expertise anonymously behind the scenes.

For us, this is not a party-political or religious issue, but one of reality versus ideology, an ideology which harms mostly women and girls and children. This is reflected in the fact that people from all walks of life and all political persuasions have been speaking out this year.

Very many people in 2017 contributed to making sure that the debate can no longer be silenced and we have seen that it is making a difference. Another report last week, from Caroline Wheeler and Nicholas Hellen in the Times, reveals that plans for self-declared gender recognition have been delayed, with education secretary Justine Greening admitting that they are ‘complex’ and ‘divisive.’

In 2017 very many people collectively helped to change the discourse on gender ideology and everyone’s voice has counted. One person speaking gives permission to others to speak out too and in 2018 we hope that voices of dissent will reach a critical mass. A Happy New Year to you all!

Transgender Trend

This year has been very busy for us. We have spent a lot of time liaising with journalists and broadcasters, being interviewed and contributing to articles, some of which were published, some of which weren’t. We have written many letters, some of complaint (including to the World Health Organisation and all the health organisations involved with the new Memorandum of Understanding on Conversion Therapy) and some thanking commentators for contributing to the debate in the media. We contributed a submission to the NHS consultation on gender identity services and we have spoken to and written to many parents who have contacted us through the website.

As well as Transgender Law Concerns, we spoke at the event What Is Gender? at the Grand Hotel in Brighton next door to the Labour Party Conference in September which was very well received by an enthusiastic audience.

Photo: l – r Grottie Lockett, Ruth Serwotka, Julia Long, Stephanie Davies-Arai

We attended the NUT event ‘Is Your Brain Pink or Blue?’ in January, the conference ‘Hot Topics in Child Health‘ in June, the NHS Public Consultation in September, the Tavistock clinic AGM in October as well as attending various meetings throughout the year. We secured two meetings with the Equality & Human Rights Commission, one with Julia Long on the proposed GRA reforms and one with a group of parents and professionals on the government transgender guidance for schools, and a meeting with the Fawcett Society, together with Julia Long, in November. We continue to follow up on this work.

A major project this year has been the design and writing of comprehensive schools guidance which is now finished and ready to launch early in the New Year.

We took part in an international Skype interview with Dr Oren Amitay in December, together with Jungian analyst Lisa Marchiano, which can be viewed here in two parts:

Part 1

We contributed a chapter to a very important book (here) which is the highlight of our year so we have left it till last. ‘Transgender Children and Young People: Born in Your Own Body’ was published by Cambridge Scholars in November and we think it is a groundbreaking contribution to the cause of critiquing the medical transition of children. Our taster of the chapter contents is here. We would like to thank all contributors for their excellent chapters, the editors Heather Brunskell-Evans and Michele Moore for their vision and all the work they have done to secure publication and Cambridge Scholars for their faith in the project.

Trans People

Transgender / transsexual people themselves also contributed to the debate and they too were vilified by trans activist campaigners for the crime of arguing for caution, including Miranda Yardley (here), Debbie Hayton (here), Kristina Harrison (here) and Hope Lye (here). Several more spoke out on Twitter about the erasure of women’s spaces and the transitioning of children.

Professionals

In having the courage to challenge Bath Spa University at great personal financial risk, revealing how the new Memorandum of Understanding was the behind-the-scenes work of trans activists and speaking to the press worldwide, psychotherapist James Caspian had the biggest impact in 2017 in drawing public attention to the silencing of free speech. Even the Guardian had to cover his story (here). Our thanks also to psychoanalyst Bob Withers for being willing to talk to the press, at great professional risk (here).

Parents

Mumsnet has bravely allowed parents to continue to use the platform for gender-critical debate despite accusations of transphobia and mothers from all walks of life have begun to organise. Lily Maynard joined the ranks of parent bloggers whose children identify (or did identify) as ‘trans’ and her excellent post about her own experience (here) was picked up and re-tweeted by Robert Webb, who was roundly attacked for sympathising with parents and expressing his view that we need to be cautious about the transition of children.

Gender Critical Dad continued to publish moving accounts of his day-to-day feelings and experiences as a parent (here) and a new global website for parents of teenagers with Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria was founded (here). Although this is a UK round-up we can’t not mention 4thWaveNow, a site which we are very glad to see has been validated this year as an important platform by heavyweights Ray Blanchard and Michael Bailey (here) as well as the mainstream Canadian press (here) amongst others. UK / US site Youth Trans Critical Professionals continues to publish insightful pieces such as [https://youthtranscriticalprofessionals.org/2017/08/21/children-and-gender-roles/ this one]]. Above all, our thanks go to the parents who have steadily become a force to be reckoned with on Twitter, as well as those who have bravely agreed to be interviewed in the press so that other parents know they are not alone.

Social Media

Platforms such as Reddit and Twitter have been used to protest, campaign and further the debate this year; there are too many wise (and sometimes funny) accounts to mention here but the consistent work of feminists, lesbians, detransitioners and parents has been especially valuable. There is also an increasing number of men (both gay and straight) joining the ranks of already-established male commentators and we must mention the contribution of ‘Marcus’ with this fantastic piece of writing. We set up a Transgender Trend Twitter account in order to reach more people (here).

That is a great and heartening article. Power to the TERFs!

Feminism

Grass-roots organisations such as MayDay For Women began organising events and protests and another new organisation was founded, the Sex and Gender Ethics Society (SAGES). Venice Allen organised a programme of events across the UK to debate proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act. Already-established organisations such as Critical Sisters continued to write and campaign (here), as did Fair Play for Women, who published important research on transgender prisoners (here) from a study by Dr Nicola Williams who was a calm and authoritative spokesperson on Good Morning Britain in November.

As well as the organisations referred to above, feminist writers and journalists in the UK continued to produce important writing on gender and the new proposed legislation, including Marina Strinkovsky (here), Sarah Ditum (here), Glosswitch ([https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/feminism/2017/03/debate-over-jenni-murray-suggests-we-dont-see-older-women-real-women here]]), Louise Pennington (here), Helen Lewis (here), Claire Heutchan (here), Jeni Harvey (here), Jo Bartsch (here), Julian Vigo (here) and Helen Saxby (here). Meghan Murphy continues to provide a global platform for feminist gender-critical voices at Feminist Current (here) and A Room of Our Own publishes some of the best writing in the UK (here). A very powerful piece was written by an anonymous lesbian childhood sexual abuse survivor (here).

Julia Long wrote a letter signed by various organisations which was published in the Sunday Times in July.

Picture: GENDER IDENTITY CRISIS LOOMING

Julie Bindel appeared on Sky News in March, debating the meaning of the word ‘woman’ with Jane Fae () and again in December on BBC2’s Daily Politics (here) which also included an excellent interview with Sarah Ditum (here).

Women who risked their careers and reputations by saying reasonable things in public (and were punished for it) include Jenni Murray (here), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (here), Kiri Tunks (here), Linda Bellos (here) and Heather Brunskell-Evans (here). BBC journalist Hannah Bayman was the subject of relentless trolling for expressing her views on Twitter. Feminist organisation FiLia issued a statement in support of women’s right to speak (here).

As parents we want to especially thank Kiri Tunks for taking such a risk in her position as Vice President of the NUT. Her (very reasonable) view provided hope and relief for parents horrified by the imposition of this ideology on their children in schools as well as parents of adolescents caught up in the trans peer-group culture in secondary schools.

The Morning Star resolutely and courageously continued to use its platform to facilitate debate, including a letter in support of Kiri Tunks (here) who was subject to abuse and a petition calling for her removal as Vice President of the NUT for writing a very reasonable and well-argued article (here). Following the inevitable accusations of transphobia, a letter expressing solidarity with the Morning Star attracted a large number of signatories (here).

Female politicians on the Left who have spoken out include Caroline Flint (here), Thangam Debbonaire in Parliament (here), Liz McInnes, who dared to publicly disagree with Owen Jones’s views on trans rights on Twitter (here) and Labour Councillor Ann Sinnott who regularly uses her Twitter platform to call for more open debate (here). Jess Phillips tweeted her opinion that the demands of A Woman’s Place were reasonable and was roundly attacked by trans activists for holding that view.

On the Right, Caroline Farrow spoke very reasonably on Sky News () and wrote consistently for the Conservative Woman (here), which published several critical pieces including an informed and comprehensive summary of the effects of pushing transgenderism on children by Simon Marcus (here). Gender Critical Greens continued to be the intelligent critical voice of the Green Party and were given a platform by the Morning Star who published a favourable review of their excellent pamphlet (here).

Our politician of the year award, however, must go to Conservative MP David Davies, who met with us, wrote a very good article (here) and organised the event ‘Transgender Law Concerns‘ in the House of Commons in November. The room was packed with journalists, professionals, parents, activists, feminists, representatives of various organisations and cross-party MP’s and many audience members spoke out about their concerns. We would like to credit the woman who took on the responsibility for liaising between all involved in order to create this hugely successful event, who must remain anonymous. If Westminster was unaware of the strength of public unease about gender identity legislation, this event put the record straight. David Davies published a review of the event on his website (here) and continues to speak out about the rights of women and girls. We salute him.

Photo: l – r Stephanie Davies-Arai, Judith Green, David Davies MP, James Caspian, Miranda Yardley

Thank you so much CunningOperative for doing the cut and paste. I wonder why so many of us have been unable to access the site - a bit odd??! Will look at in more detail later.

Politics

In 2017, if the left-wing mainstream press was largely silent, women on the Left came out in force and a number of male allies have spoken out in support across social media platforms. In February, trans activists tried to bully the Working Class Movement Library in Salford into withdrawing their invitation to veteran feminist and activist Julie Bindel to speak about growing up as a working class lesbian, with a petition and a stream of violent and abusive messages on their Facebook page. Bea Campbell published an open letter to the library (here), a counter-petition was circulated and the library had the courage to stand its ground.

If there was one news story which was given the most publicity across the media however, it was the attack on a 60 year-old woman by trans activists at Speakers’ Corner in July, where women had gathered for a debate about the Gender Recognition Act at a secret venue after the original venue had cancelled due to threats from trans activists. The debate went ahead with speakers Julia Long, Miranda Yardley and Sheila Jeffreys, despite attempts by protesters at the new venue to disrupt proceedings.

It was this incident which led to the formation of the Socialist Feminist Network who published an open letter to Jeremy Corbyn (here) and the new campaign organisation A Woman’s Place who succeeded in getting a letter condemning violence against women in the name of trans rights published in the Guardian (here). The press reports were covered on Sky News ‘Press Preview’ whose guests, the writers Christina Patterson and Matthew Syed, discussed the issues raised with great intelligence and insight (here).

The woman who was punched to the ground at Speakers’ Corner, Humanist Maria McLachlan, founded a new website, Peak Trans, in response to the attack on her.

A Woman’s Place has been very active and has achieved great support and influence over a very short space of time. They organised a very successful event in Cambridge (here), giving a platform to several women who had been threatened, no-platformed or bullied this year: Helen Steel, who was aggressively bullied at the London Anarchist Book Fair (here), Anne Ruzylo, who was subject to an orchestrated campaign against her, prompting the executive committee of her Constituency Labour Party to resign in solidarity (here) and Heather Brunskell-Evans who was put under investigation by the Women’s Equality Party after complaints by trans members that she was “promoting prejudice against the transgender community” for expressing concerns about the medical transition of children on Moral Maze (Heather’s response here).

We also saw slightly more balanced reporting from the BBC this year. Broadcasting on transgender issues was still largely uncritical and the normalising of childhood transition continued with such broadcasts as radio drama Just A Girl (here), Victoria Derbyshire (here) and various regional documentaries (here). But the BBC did screen ‘Transgender Kids – Who Knows Best?’, BBC Radio 4 Today broadcast a balanced item in October which included comments from Janice Turner and a detransitioned young woman ‘Kate’ and an episode of Moral Maze in November included Heather Brunskell-Evans and James Caspian arguing for caution around the medical transition of children, with Claire Fox in support. BBC Radio 4 Today also gave a platform to Professor Robert Winston who spoke out about the unhappiness he sees in young people who have medically transitioned and regretted their surgeries and loss of fertility, for which he was vilified as a bigot.

Picture: Trolls called me homophobic...

At Transgender Trend we have been interviewed and asked for comments many times throughout the year and our quotes have appeared in over twenty articles, including the Sunday Times, Mail on Sunday, the Telegraph, the Sun, the Express, the Scottish Herald, the Scottish Daily Mail and BBC Online (here (including an interview with Sarah Ditum) and here). We have been interviewed on LBC Radio seven times, BBC Radio London twice, the Vanessa Feltz show, Woman’s Hour, BBC Radio Sussex, BBC Radio Ulster, and on TV four times: BBC South East Today, BBC London Today, BBC Wales News and Channel 4 News.

We thank all journalists and broadcasters who have sought our viewpoint and worked with us over the year. Our radio presenter of the year award goes to Mark Forrest of BBC Radio London (sitting in for Simon Lederman) for his extremely respectful and considered interview on December 11th (you can listen here).

Finally, we’d like to thank Private Eye for their consistent irreverence and humour throughout the year.

Picture: Barbie&Ken