Radio 4 just now (8.47) bonkers conflation of intersex and trans

A handsome woman with a formidable academic background and longstanding interest in "trans rights". (Puts me in mind of Jan Morris.)

"A former co-Chair of the Gay and Lesbian Association of Doctors and Dentists [GLADD], in 1994 she (Zoe Playdon) co-founded the Parliamentary Forum on Gender Identity with Dr Lynne Jones MP."

More at:

www.zoeplaydon.com/about

"Gender Identity"?

A little bit of rewriting history there, as in 2005 Lynne Jones MP reported that this was:

The Parliamentary Forum on Transsexualism

"Dr Jane Playdon and I set up the Parliamentary Forum on Transsexualism in 1994. It comprises the UK's leading experts on transsexualism, in both the legal and medical fields, along with a number of MPs. We have been pressing for legal reforms to bring British legislation into line with the rest of Europe and thus end the discrimination from which transsexual people have suffered in this country. I am delighted that, the Gender Recognition Bill received Royal Assent on 1 July 2004 and we now have the Gender Recognition Act."

More at:

www.lynnejones.org.uk/lynne-jones-mp/transsex.htm

I have never interacted with this person on Twitter but I am blocked 😥

twitter.com/zoeplaydon

More dismantling of the Playdon book:

Some quick thoughts on Ewan Forbes Sempill and issues in Scots law

Including highlighting an internal contradiction in the thesis:

Prof Playdon in her book appears to allege that Forbes Sempill falsely provided testicular tissue in support of his case. If, as Playdon argues, the correction of a birth certificate was of right for a trans person why was falsely providing male tissue to support a legal argument that Forbes Sempill was intersex necessary?

This genderism immersive fiction keeps colliding with reality and other groups, doesn't it?

People want the right to pretend they're the opposite sex.

Going along with that means appropriating:

a) the target sex - males can claim to be females, so how do females identify themselves?

b) actual sex corrections - people who had their sex correctly recorded at birth can change their sex designation, so how do people with their sex incorrectly recorded at birth identify themselves and record "no, I actually AM the other sex"?

c) actual sex changes - if anyone ever did actually change their sex, how would they distinguish themselves from the people merely claiming they were the opposite sex? At least this group is currently non-existent, unlike (a) and (b), but the trans lot have effectively pre-appropriated their space.

Cases like this actually highlight a key problem with genderism. As they feel they can't discuss actual sex, they try to use "sex assigned at birth" (or some variation thereof) as a synonym for actual sex.

So in Ewan's case, he would be "AFAB" but actually male. He'd be able to do a "gender recognition" to female, making him look on the records like a transman, but where's his actual sex recorded?

Which leads us into a sort of Alice in Wonderland scenario. In genderland, how would he get that corrected? Would there need to be a "sex assigned at birth recognition act"?

What would distinguish him on a Stonewalled NHS's records from a female person identifying as male?

Genderism in practice relies on the assumption that sex is always recorded accurately at birth. Which is kind of paradoxical...

Article in the Times today about the discussions of the claims in the book:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/760484d8-5b8e-11ec-90d0-c463baf3512f?shareToken=709a38944875561513ca3e5cd9e106bb

Dave Hewitt has done a good article summarising the state of this mess, and digging up the archaeology.

It's a thing that Playdon, Whittle and their circle (including former Labour MP Lynne Jones) have been pushing for decades.

The Curious Case of Ewan Forbes

The barrister Barbara Rich has done a lot of work on this too. This tweet leads onto another thread. twitter.com/BarbaraRich_law/status/1462825543796154375?s=20

The legal details are over my head, but I surmise that unfortunately they were also over the head of Professor Playdon and the editorial staff at Bloomsbury Publishing who commissioned this book and seem to have failed to get it properly checked out for factual accuracy.

The twitter thread goes on after the first 87 tweets to a linking thread and rips the book apart. Says it’s propaganda. And it tags the TV companies too.

Well found, Gaspode - that's an astonishing bit of sleuthing on Twitter. Best to go to the original tweets rather than the unrolled thread, as I don't think they've quite captured all of them, and it's definitely worth reading the lot

I mean - what I think I am saying - other people on this thread have suggested that Dillon might not have been able to do what she wanted to do with her life, at the time when she lived, without identifying as a man. I imagine most of us feel that we should be able to live our life in any way we choose, to do anything as a woman, however gender non conforming a woman. But do we feel that society could ever be arranged in such a way that noone, no woman at all, would feel that she would be, not just a bit better off as a man, but only able to live the life she wanted, by disguising herself as a man, for the whole of her life.

Pagan Kennedy's biography of Michael Dillon suggests that there was a strong lesbian/gender non-conforming culture at university when he (then she) was there. But he still chose to identify as a man.

Quite a few people remember him as their GP; the people I know are in their 80s and 90s but they are still around.

This genuinely sounds like an ever-diminishing opportunity to interview these people while such memories still exist.

Good point. Would make an interesting article for Emma Barnett, while she's on her roll.

Thank you Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g
do you think it likely that Women’s Hour will have seen this?

Update on this thread - legal Twitter is on the case. This is a good (epic, 87-tweet) thread summarising various problems with the Playdon book. twitter.com/Resjudicatamyft/status/1463034759861448705?s=20

threadreaderapp.com/thread/1461277281444409345.html

Quite a few people remember him as their GP; the people I know are in their 80s and 90s but they are still around.

There's no shortage of material about his family in the area in which he grew up - when his sister died in childhood, the family set up a fancy horse trough in her memory, which is now used as a flower trough.

His wedding photos appeared in the local press, as did plenty of other photos.

He was an active member of his local church, and of the University medical former students society.

Admittedly the available material relating to his gender might be thin but there's no shortage of available biographical material.

Srettel “I have a copy of his autobiography "The Aul' Days" published by Aberdeen University Press in 1984. There is no mention of sex or gender in it. At no point does he mention that he was ever Elizabeth. It's a book about the things he loved - his dogs, fishing, his medical practice.

It's almost impossible to reconcile the author of the warm and witty memoirs with the person described in the radio programme.”

Thank you for sharing what you what you heard of him as a person from people who had known him, and also what you had read in his own autobiography. It is nice to know how valued he was in his life.

The person who wrote the biography would seem to have an agenda to promote tran sexuality. She also clearly conflated the difference between DSD affected people and trans identifying people. Who knows whether this was on purpose or if she didn’t know the difference.

I have a copy of his autobiography "The Aul' Days" published by Aberdeen University Press in 1984. There is no mention of sex or gender in it. At no point does he mention that he was ever Elizabeth. It's a book about the things he loved - his dogs, fishing, his medical practice.

It's almost impossible to reconcile the author of the warm and witty memoirs with the person described in the radio programme.

Ewen Forbes was a much loved family GP. I know people who knew him, as a member of the community, and the general belief in the community was that he had been born with ambiguous genitalia.

He grew up as Miss Elizabeth Forbes-Semphill, then graduated in medicine from Aberdeen University. He was then known by the gender-neutral title "Dr" and I believe was generally known as "E"

The change in his birth certificate also allowed him to marry his long term companion. There were no children of the marriage, hardly surprising as both Ewen and Isabella were late 30s / early 40s. when they married.

After WWII he bought an army surplus armoured vehicle which enabled him to access patients through snow drifts in the depth of winter. I have seen photos in the local press of the large gathering of his patients when they presented him with wedding gifts. The "much loved family doctor" bit seems to have been erased from his history.

Not happening by chance.

Press for Change Mission Statement
Statement of Aims and Objectives
The rights and liberties of transgendered people in the U.K.
May 1994 (updated Nov. 1994, June 1996)

Press for Change is a political lobbying and educational organisation, which campaigns to achieve equal civil rights and liberties for all transsexual and transgender people in the U.K. through legislation and social change.

4.00 "Press For Change" campaigning

4.10 The right to have transsexual status taken into account when being sentenced, so that a non-custodial sentence is given whenever permissible, because of the additional difficulties faced by transsexual people in prisons.

archive.md/xZANn#selection-1035.0-1037.221

7.00 The Methods of the "Press For Change" Campaign

7.01 Any legal method of attaining our goals is acceptable, and no particular strategy is laid down centrally, in order to encourage as much individual and grass roots activity as possible.

7.02 The following initiatives are currently being co-ordinated by the committee:

A Parliamentary Forum of M.P.s from all political parties, committed to supporting a change to the law through Parliament.

The establishment of a group of legal professionals committed to challenging discriminatory legislation through the British and/or European Courts.

The establishment of a group of medical professionals familiar with current best practice in the treatment of transsexualism, who are willing to endorse the view that transsexual people are neither insane nor perverted, but are people with an inherent intersex condition, who are generally able, if appropriately treated, of leading full and constructive lives within society.

The establishment of a group of Bishops and other religious leaders willing to support the rights of transsexual people.

The establishment of a group of supportive Members of the European Parliament.

Affiliation to the National Council of Civil Liberties.

Liaison with the Trade Unions, asking that they affiliate to Press for Change and include "gender identity" in their equal opportunities policies.

Liaison with the committee of Pride (in 1996 "Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Pride" to ensure transgender people are properly represented and included in this important event.

A petition to be signed by the public and presented to the government.
Regular articles and television appearances attempting to put forward a positive image of transsexual people and highlight the injustices we suffer.

The co-ordination and dissemination of up-to-date information about transsexualism and about related civil rights and legal issues, to transgender people themselves, to the public and to relevant professionals, including the publication of books and training materials as appropriate.

The provision of leaflets, posters and a campaigning pack, free of charge to any person or organization prepared to campaign in any way on behalf of transsexual people.

The publication of regular updates on the campaign, distributed to all transsexual organizations, and to any individual or group who is actively involved, on request.

Fund-raising as necessary. Please note that all money donated goes directly to the campaign - there are no paid staff. See separate Financial Policy and Procedure.

archive.md/xZANn#selection-1211.0-1289.163

Quite an interesting article about Michael Dillon here - touching on the circumstances of the memoir above. I don't know anything about the author of the article, Pagan Kennedy, except that she wrote a biography of Dillon.

If you click on that link you can read the forward to the book. He finished it just days before he died. His brother had wanted it destroyed. It was a long time before it was published.