James Kirkup - Jo Swinson has finally made the BBC do its job on trans rights

It's true about the below the line comments.. until a month or so ago, they were very much of the 'serves the feminists right" /"who cares" variety. There has recently been a sea change in their tone.

Well done for persevering, James. People are waking up thanks to journalists like you.

Thanks James.

I realise I said "penis" in casual conversation at work when discussing males in women only spaces.

I don't want to prioritise the penis and give it even more attention - there are so many men doing that!

in a corporate and editorial culture that has sometimes discouraged such acts of journalism

Floisme, parts of the media has been practicing self censorship when it comes to reporting news that challenges its partisan agenda or contradicts its political bias. It is really good to see this being called out. Most people have absolutely no idea about the influence of this lobby group. It’s an indictment of craven journalists but James Kirkup is superb

I knew James Kirkup would be on to this. I've been checking his Twitter feed ever since the Today programme ended.

I hope that one day he'll be able to tell the full story behind this:
I don’t fault individual BBC journalists. The corporation employs some very good journalists who have long been keen to do their jobs and scrutinise this issue as they would any other, but who have not always been able to do so in a corporate and editorial culture that has sometimes discouraged such acts of journalism.

as he often gets stick from Spectator commentators

Really? That surprises me. Douglas Murray is the associate editor of the Spectator and he is scathing about influence of this lobby. I would expect most Spectator readers are GC.

Agree, excellent piece. Pleased James has persisted with this as he often gets stick from Spectator commentators but his pieces on this issue are usually in the "most read" list of articles. He's the reason I started subscribing, and Lionel Shriver.

I wish a journalist would simply ask Swinson what percentage of sex crimes are carried out by men. If she wants to remove women's rights to single-sex spaces then she should at least have done some basic risk assessments.

Next time she lies that lesbians pose the same physical risk as male-bodied transwomen I really hope a journalist points out that Swinson is spreading hate speech. She's always so focussed on how vulnerable transwomen are she seems to forget that lesbians are considerably more vulnerable.

This morning saw another such horror when Swinson went on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme and was asked by Justin Webb if she accepted that ‘biological sex exists’ and that people are therefore either male or female.Her answer: ‘Not on a binary’

Brilliant piece by James Kirkup. The fact that a wannabe PM has the gall to trot out this nonsense merits ridicule.

Most voters are still largely in the dark on this issue, but with every interview, every broadcast, more of the public will come to see that there are questions about the trans rights agenda which must be asked and which remain unanswered

Absolutely true. And as he states, the reason most people know nothing about this is because of a supine media too scared of Twitter to report radical policies introduced by stealth with no democratic mandate. Great that has changed

Another great article from James. I hope his name is on the special awards thread. He is one of a small number of courageous journalists who have exposed this growing scandal clearly and articulately and continues to put pressure on the many spineless MPs.

The very essence of the problem is penises popping up where you don't want them.

Really, I’m not wild about it myself. If you’d asked me a couple of years ago to set out my limited journalistic ambitions, using the word ‘penis’ repeatedly in The Spectator would not have topped the list.

Indeed!

If you’d asked me a couple of years ago to set out my limited journalistic ambitions, using the word ‘penis’ repeatedly in The Spectator would not have topped the list.

I can relate to this. When I’ve spoken to my MP I’ve found myself somewhat bemused by the fact that I’m repeatedly using the word “penis” in conversation with someone I don’t really know.

Excellent job as always, James!

Transgenderism says that a person with a penis is a woman if they say they are a woman. ‘Trans women are women’ means people with penises have the same legal right to enter ‘women-only’ spaces (changing rooms, refuges, prisons) as any other woman – simply on the basis of their self-declared gender. That raises the question: do other women, women who don’t have penises, have the right to say ‘I do not wish to share intimate spaces with a person who has a penis’?

Yet for understandable reasons of decorum and good manners, a lot of people don’t want to address these basic facts of the debate. Really, I’m not wild about it myself. If you’d asked me a couple of years ago to set out my limited journalistic ambitions, using the word ‘penis’ repeatedly in The Spectator would not have topped the list.

Bravo, and .