Helen Lewis has been incredibly influential on this topic at a level that really matters in policy formation - she's hugely well thought of by exactly the kind of people who work at the top of the Labour Party, the civil service, the BBC, national news orgs, etc. She's got a talent and a towering intellect that can't be denied, and her incisive but polite questioning is one - just one, mind - reason why UK cultural institutions didn't get completely captured.

She's pretty much said herself that her gender critical views (which were/are very moderate) meant she had to leave the New Statesman. Her event about lesbian labour MPs at labour conference a couple of years ago got boycotted and then cancelled because of it. Her voice got taken off a video game because of it. In every single interview and podcast I've heard with her she brings it up and states the case clearly and calmly.

She's done a lot. And yes I am a fan girl.

But that's twice I've seen 'vindicated' in headlines today. I like it and I want to see it written everywhere.

T shirts, maybe?

VINDICATED.

Maya Forstater has to be front and centre on that list. Her court cases have been absolutely pivotal in all of this.

It's nice to see women recognised.

I understand why it makes people angry too that so many aren't on the list. It's just the suffragettes all over again isn't it, how long did it take for working class suffragettes to be recognised.

Not taking anything away from the women mentioned, the fact is that it was the groundswell of public opinion horrified that finally got this on the front page and yes, most of them are much more likely to listen to women like KJK.

And the over-riding thing that got it on the front page was politics, the section 35 and the fact it finally penetrated the bubble of a lot of male journalists who had to write about what they hadn't cared about or avoided for years.

It's all a bit bittersweet, but that's the reality.

Maybe he didn't want it to come up on any super advanced internet searches!

He couldn’t possibly include everyone who’s been outspoken about this. It would fill most of the article!

the Greeks told stories of Cassandra, fated to predict the future but not be believed. That story had to be about a woman, and it’s just been repeated, yet again, over prisons and self-ID.

This made me cry.

Sharron Davies on Twitter and so so many Scottish women who are part of Women Wont Wheesht, Scottish Suffragettes,For Women Scotland etc.

👏👏👏👏

What an achievement. I know the fight needs to continue but what an amazing turnaround.

im just so grateful for all those women shouting about this years ago when the self ID juggernaut seemed unstoppable & so angry for all the needless suffering & damage that has been caused

We are all vindicated.

Thank you James

And well done all who put their necks on the line over this. We've all played our part to defend women's rights.

"That the Scottish Justice Minister Keith Brown (is that the name?) is still saying that they accept people's gender at face value."

We just need to do that literally and we'll be sorted. Man's face = man!

Excellent article. I'm really pleased to see so much coverage, although of course, the spectator has been good on this for a long time.
Mean time, over at the Guardian... I imagine they're still working out how to do their reverse ferret as it'll need some complex choreography to work out the level of acrobatics needed to bring their years-long stance into line. I'm imagining Kath Viner and Owen Jones in 80s workout gear doing their warm ups.

Inappropriate snurk at the typo 'sex offenders might be willing to disassemble'!

He's included Ruth 'domestic zombie' Serwotka and left out Magdalen, Maya, Allison and KJK. And the LGB Alliance. Bigged up WPUK, the most divisive women's group that says you're not a feminist if you're not on the far left. I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say he has no idea rather than assuming he knew and did it purposely. But Helen Lewis? If she's done or said anything much at all it's been so subtle and so 'I don't want to be associated with those second wavers' that no one except Kirkup appears to have noticed.

Thank you, all.

Archive link for those without a sub: archive.is/sKT9M

This!
Look where transactivists are now as a result of their single issue #nodbate, TWAW, "He's a woman if he says he is".

Unable to string a coherent sentence together. No nuance. No ability to understand alternative views. They're a joke. The only tactics they have are threats, intimidation and violence.

Every single one of them helped to heave the spotlight to where it is today, pointing right at the absurdity women have been screming about for years.

They might all have their own ways of doing things and their own politics. But I refuse to believe a single one of them did more harm than simply ignoring the issue, keeping quiet or letting men/pedo-apologists/rapists into female safe spaces.

Thanks for the link!

There's a few of them that did more harm than good, especially the WPUK lot.

And Kellie Jay certainly deserves recognition.

Fuck only knows what Helen Lewis did.

A link for those who'd like to read it:

www.spectator.co.uk/article/nicola-sturgeon-and-the-vindication-of-the-terfs/

Mumnset

😡