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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Can we support Heather Brunsell Evans?

79 replies

AssignedPerfectAtBirth · 20/11/2017 09:49

twitter.com/brunskellevans/status/932544273144270848. Can you retweet?

Her statement

www.heather-brunskell-evans.co.uk/thoughts/public-statement-to-the-womens-equality-party/

The Women’s Equality Party (WEP) has informed me that three Party Members have alleged that my “conduct” on the BBC Radio 4 Programme the Moral Maze on 15th November 2017 has “promoted prejudice against the transgender community”. The Party is currently giving weight to this allegation. As a Spokesperson for the Policy on Violence Against Women and Girls I have been informed I am under review by the Executive Committee.

The Committee is now examining my public statements including my blogs, social media, and on-line forums. It is also assessing whether I have complied with the Volunteer Agreement which I signed at the beginning of my term of office. If the Committee concludes my views do promote prejudice, I have been told I will be expelled from the Party, subject to any appeal I might make to the Appeals Body whose decision will be final.

At the same time, the Party is completely silent about the “conduct” of a fellow panellist on the Moral Maze, Jane Fae. Fae, a trans woman who transitioned to a feminine identity in middle-age, is a speaker for Mermaids (the charity that supports children to transition). She alleged that the prescription of hormone blockers to delay puberty in girls, or the injection of testosterone at the age of 16, is of no greater social or moral concern than prescribing the contraceptive pill.

There are complex psychological and social reasons why, in a society structured by gender and the sexualisation of girls and young women, there is an unprecedented upsurge of girls declaring they are ‘really’ boys. However, there is no credible science to back the narrative that gender ‘identity’ (rather than biological sex) is innate. Hormone blockers have serious consequences on the body, including the probability of infertility. A substantive number of medical practitioners are extremely worried about this practice (as well as the serious medical interventions that usually follow, such as surgical removal of breasts) but daren’t speak out for fear of accusations of transphobia.

I joined the Women’s Equality Party because I believed in a political party which would keep at the forefront the rights and safety of girls and women. Through the example of the Moral Maze, the Party has demonstrated it shares similar approaches to transgenderism and to girls and women’s rights as other political parties: it has not questioned Fae’s views whilst rendering my free speech ideologically suspect; it is concerned to protect the trans community rather than the swathes of girls who are increasingly subject to harmful medical practices.

I refute that I have promoted prejudice against the trans community either on the programme or through my writing and social media. I have called for transparent public debate, without fear of reprisal, of the social, psychological and physical consequences of the narrative that children can be born in ‘the wrong body’.

OP posts:
TiredOfThisAll · 24/11/2017 20:00

I think there are copyright issues with C&P from the Times, which would apply to photographing articles too.

I subscribed to the Times in the end as I want to support the paper for excellent journalism (but admitting this is akin to heresy where I work!). But the Guardian really is awful.

WTAFisthisshit · 24/11/2017 20:04

Thanks tired I'll report myself

EmpressOfTheSpartacusOceans · 24/11/2017 21:25

Tired, if you're subscribed then open a Times article in your browser and click on the share by email icon. It will give you a draft email containing a URL with the words ShareToken in it. Copy & paste the URL into a thread, FB, whatever & it's open access.

knit1purl1 · 24/11/2017 21:28

Just sharing my twitter name @artefactoid as want to support as many critical thinking women as I can

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