Colonel 'forced out of Army' after stating 'men cannot be women'

[IwantToRetire]

In May, he shared a post on his private Facebook account from Fair Play for Women, a campaign group that works with governing bodies to preserve women’s sport for those born female, which consisted of a quote from Helen Joyce, a feminist campaigner backed by the author JK Rowling.
The quote, shared without any additional comment, said: “If women cannot stand in a public place and say ‘men cannot be women’, then we do not have women’s rights at all.”

This prompted a junior officer to warn him that his gender-critical views could be at odds with Ministry of Defence transgender policies, before what Dr Wright calls the Army’s “LGBT champions” allegedly drew up a seven-page dossier about his “substandard behaviour” – which he was not allowed to see.

A formal Army investigation was opened in May that could have led to him being formally dismissed or censured under the Major Administrative Action process, through which he has been asked to make a statement.

“This attack on my honour made my position completely untenable. I could no longer remain in an Army which treated its officers with such disrespect.

“What message does it send to women in the Army, that merely for noting the existence of women and women’s rights even a colonel can be placed under investigation? I therefore feel there is no other choice but to make this matter public.
“It makes you wonder who is running the Army: the Chief of the Defence Staff, or Stonewall?”

From a much longer Telegraph article reprinted by yahoo at Colonel 'forced out of Army' after stating 'men cannot be women' (yahoo.com) with info about his army career including a Hospital Support Regiment

Everyone seems to have forgotten about the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and how clear it was in what was meant by 'sex'.
'The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which protected men and women from discrimination on the grounds of sex or marital status. The Act concerned employment, training, education, harassment, the provision of goods and services, and the disposal of premises.'
Note men are included as well. It is just that women need the protection more.

I recently met a transgender member of the Armed services.

No one thinks the individual is actually a woman. They just care they do their job However no one minds they dress as a woman for non uniform events and in their spare time.... as long as they follow the correct female dress code (which they seem to take a great deal of care to do). Their living accommodation is single. They are actually a very pleasant person.
However, as I said... no one actually thinks they are a woman!

ButterflyHatched. Is it also transphobic for an intensive care consultant to say a transwoman is a man when treating a transwoman patient? Or should he be using female ranges, female drug doses, blood from previous pregnant women when treating him because otherwise transphobia?

This needs to be a giant poster everywhere.

the German army, not noted by any of us who had to work with them as particularly fantastic (conscripts, regulars were fine) have said that genetic men cannot evade potential conscription at time of national need based on their gendered feelings.

Which is good.

the fragility here is not being displayed by the surgeon who said that biological men cannot become biological women.

Your comment is batshit.

Please explain for this hard of thinking ex-squaddie.
What is transphobic? how is it propaganda.

The fragility of screeching "genocide" at people who write words that say "women cannot become men, men cannot become women" is the laughable thing here.
And as long as people like you make hyperbolic comments nothing is going to change.

Isn't it strange how, according to TRAs:

a) There is no clash between trans rights and women's rights, and any women who suggest otherwise are hysterical bigots;

and, yet, also

b) Any assertion of women's rights is a threat to trans rights?

Almost as if someone isn't being entirely truthful 🤔

Brefugee:

When i served you were dismissed pre-12th week of pregnancy if you found yourself in that position. Just out on your ear.
Dismissed for having the tiniest, completely covered tattoo as a woman (not as a man)
Dismissed for being a lesbian. So many of my friends persevered, and it did depend where you were and so on, but a fair few were out on their ear for that.
alongside all the everyday and every day misogyny and sexism etc etc

What strikes me about this is that it wasn't really all that long ago that we served under these conditions. Then changes were rightly made away from such out-and-out sexist bollocks. And now we appear to be heading back to the rigid sex stereotypes we worked so hard to dismantle. How little time we had as almost-equal human beings. It's rage-inducing but desperately sad all at the same time.

@HelenaTranscart - have you read Terry Pratchett's 'Monstrous Regiment'? 😉

I highly recommend everyone reads this!

I've read it and enjoyed it but the outcome was obvious by the start of the third chapter.

Well, Sir Sam Vimes, you would recommend it!

We just started to get somewhere and along came the trans Militants, demanding we be put back in our box.

this is the thing about our current situation (not just in the military) that really sticks in my craw.
2nd wavers tried to dismantle gender stereotypes, with no little success in so many respects.
And now? if you wear a dress? you're a woman
wear lipstick? woman
high heels? woman

I'm glad i left the military when i did.

One of the many many contradictions.

Why do adults need self ID so they don't have to change their bodies at all in any way but children must have access to PBs.

Why is it not a mental health condition when everyone's allegedly suicidal.

Trans people will kill themselves yet the suicides we hear about are from those who are being " treated". Why weren't we tripping over all these bodies in thr 80s and 90s.

Trans people are the most vulnerable so the transwomen must use women's spaces but they support the right for the dangerous men they are escaping from to self ID in right behind them.

Trans kids know who they are early on but there's no way a teenage girl can write a coherent letter without help from adults.

Sex isn't binary. Except it is when you need to define yourself against it.

You can live as man whilst performing the most female function ever and having a baby.

No one knows what a women is until of course a woman is needed to be a surrogate.

Acceptance without exception for us women. Then someone like yaniv comes along with their period obsession and racist targeting of beauty therapists who trans people then dub not " true trans" .

Its not stereotypes but every story starts with " at 2 he liked to wear dresses and play with dolls "

😃

Here's a good news update on this case

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12552835/Cleared-hero-Army-doctor-disciplined-men-women.html

I don't recall knowing that a tw was involved in the initial investigation.

Thank you. The rare man who was punished for saying what we women say. I'm very grateful for his speech and happy he was exonerated but to have even been sent through this is egregious

Thanks for posting this update.

The Mail on Sunday can reveal that a senior member of the Military Provost – the Army's custody and detention specialists – who was involved in the initial probe, joined the Army as a man but now identifies as a woman.

Honestly the entitlement of those who make a personal choice about their live to assert that others must conform to their personal choice.

Thank fuck for that.

Is anyone surprised to hear that a self interested man who claims to be a woman was involved in his initial ordeal?

Well I’m certainly not, and would imagine that the relevant trans widow would be able to shed light as to whether that act of professional vindictiveness was in keeping with their character.

The complainant also claimed Col Wright, who quit the Army, was prejudiced for banning pronouns badges from uniforms.
Another grievance related to his wife saying of Strictly Come Dancing that she liked to see men and women dance together.

How how was this complaint able to go anywhere?! Literally complaining about i. him doing his job (see below) & ii. another person saying something they’re hoping will be construed as homophobic 🤦‍♀️

British “Army Dress Regulations (All Ranks)”:
General Instructions On Wearing Of Uniform
02.11. Control of Uniform.
Commanding officers are forbidden to introduce or sanction any deviation from authorised patterns of uniform clothing, accoutrements, equipment or badges. Any proposed changes are to be submitted to the Army Dress Committee as detailed in Part 1 of these Kegulations. This instruction applies equally to Full Dress uniform as laid down, irrespective of whether it is worn in public or provided at public or private expense.

So, unless I’ve completely misunderstood - & please correct me if I’ve missed something more knowledgeable people! - the army’s own rules ⤴️ mean pronoun badges aren’t allowed on uniforms. And this all happened after the Forstater case was settled, so it was established what he said was not transphobic. And clearly he is not responsible for what his wife posts/comments on Facebook. So the army pursued a non-case; lost a specialist they probably won’t be able to replace; & have made themselves a laughing stock in the press.

Glad to hear this news.

Is anyone surprised to hear that a self interested man who claims to be a woman was involved in his initial ordeal?

Of course I didn't suspect that for one second. Perish the thought!

Eventually more practical people will realise that the money and embarrassment just is not a worthwhile price to pay for all this righteous silliness. Sadly, as India Willoughby has said from their own observations, the pattern recognition will also grow about who is likely to be litigious, impossible not to offend, drag others into the middle of some awful legal case and wreck teams, workplaces and careers, and be difficult to work with. And there will be natural consequences of that.