Gagging of the brave has let gender ideologues seize control

[IwantToRetire]

One of the most serious revelations in Cass’s report was the refusal of many treatment providers to co-operate.

This is why I am cautious about celebrating victory too early. There is plenty of evidence that <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.ph/o/ftP4v/www.thetimes.co.uk/article/stonewall-tried-to-silence-warnings-of-weak-evidence-for-trans-healthcare-n299v00c3" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Stonewall and its allies are simply hoping for a change of government before continuing with their crusade. They misrepresent the law, pretending it says what it does not, and they will misrepresent the Cass report.

Over three decades, politicians of all parties have outsourced power to so-called independent institutions. They were meant to take the politics out of decision-making but have themselves become politicised often with little to no ministerial oversight. They are no longer impartial. As politicians ceded control, many institutions became captured by a minority of ideological activists. When ministers raise the alarm or intervene this is demonised by Labour MPs such as Yvette Cooper as engaging in “culture wars”.

It is good to hear Labour politicians admit culpability in failing to challenge extreme gender ideology. But I don’t believe this change of heart is real.

For anyone wanting to imagine what a future Labour government might do, look at the behaviour of the party in Scotland who voted for the Gender Recognition Reform bill that would have allowed men into women’s prisons and enabled rapists to legally change gender.
That bill was only stopped by the direct intervention of ministers such as myself in Westminster with the support of the prime minister. Sir Keir Starmer would not have done the same.

It takes courage to risk social stigma, loss of income or physical violence by challenging the progressive consensus. Facts and evidence are no defence against ideological capture.
In the case of trans ideology, those who first publicly questioned its tenets were subjected to hysterical abuse and calumny. Brave people including Kathleen Stock and Graham Linehan were hounded out of their jobs. James Esses lost his role at Childline. The Labour MP Rosie Duffield was harassed by her own party members and fellow MPs while Starmer looked away.

Worse than the ravings of the militants was the cowardice of those in positions of influence. How many university administrators, media editors, police officers and politicians preferred to keep quiet for fear of becoming the next target or in the hope of maintaining their progressive credentials?

We need more bravery and less cancel culture.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/148061a7-bcea-46c7-84e6-be

I'm quoting this section of Kemi Badenoch's article as she seems the only one (so far?) to make clear that what happened in the NHS / Tavistock wasn't an isolated event but part of a structural failure of those in decision making positions.

Can also be read at https://archive.ph/ftP4v

The Sunday Times has also done a quick summary of her points and recent developments re Cass report here

Kemi Badenoch attacks gender ‘cowardice’ of NHS, politics and police https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/6c6a3f10-ab7f-4a54-8559-1071e7493fa6
& https://archive.ph/kcOli

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/148061a7-bcea-46c7-84e6-be6ee29d7ce2?shareToken=2f582f76ec269e6e20578142389f9472

Thank you.

Bump

It's a really good article.

Partly why it resonated with me, is that on another thread about how councils are cutting funding to women's groups, I was trying to explain about how decision making in coucils etc., get outsourced to "credible" reprentative groups on the basis that they are "in touch" with grass roots organisations. But of course that means that the representative group than has huge power and is also subject to following its own agenda.

In fact many of the so called 2nd tier voluntary sector groups are all artificial creations of local councils who then force groups to become members because they then dont have to do the work of finding out about the specific values of anyone group. WRC is one example.

And as illustrated particularly in Scotland if the group nominated or funded to be "representative" is captured or infiltrated that is a direct impact on all its "members".

But obviously at the level Badenoch is talking highly destructive of getting any sort of genuine representation.

I wonder if politics was always like that and it is only when you are personally impacted that you realise your so called representative in Parliament has actually franchised out all their thinking, research and apparently their morals.

Apart from the issue itself, it is so disheartening.

I suppose also there was a long period of time when many people weren't aware of the issue, or even if they were, never thought there were behind the scenes networking and alliances being formed so that once it became public they were in place and could dominate any discussion or planning.