I'm not a typist but have listened and done my best...CH = Christopher Hope (interviewer) NZ = Nadhim Zahawi
Q&A as reported
CH: it's a question of biology
NZ: Absolutely right
CH: does it matter? I mean, we shouldn't be talking about genetalia should we? At 10amm_ in a pub. It's dogging our political life isn't it?
NZ: and it really shouldn't and I'll tell you for why:
- We have to make sure we protect those who feel that, actually, their gender is male or female. It's right to protect them. We are a civilised society and a sign of a civilised society is how it protects its minorities. And, you kow, I would asbolutely make sure that happens either in our education system or in the rest of society. But you don't protect them by in some way, being ambiguous, being - you know - unable to answer simple questions around sex. And I think that's important.
The thing that slightly concerns me is, you know, we are a hugely tolerant society and my family had the beneficiaries of this incredible country this tolerant society, is, we don't want this debate to become intolerant, to become nasty. It's not us, it's not how we...
CH: Trans people don't want to be part of a culture war, they just wanna live their lives
NZ: Exactly right. Exactly right. And I don't - I'm not comfortable with this nastiness - you know, I, I, just think we shouldn't be living in a world where - you know - people who say exactly what I just said are then set upon, are attacked.
CH: And young people aren't having this debate, they're completely relaxed about it. Completely. It's a generational thing.
NZ: And that's the beautiful thing about it, right? The great thing about our, our values is we are an incredibly tolerant society. Of course, there are - you know - there are outliers. There are people who behave badly but we have a justice system that deals with that.
[end of gender/sex segment]
[there was no point 2 but point 1 was long and then the interviewer cut in]