The week that Sent trans fanatics into retreat.

[impossibletoday]

Interesting article. I'll try and archive it

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/08/trans-fanatics-retreat-stonewall/

https://archive.is/JGOzX

Bloody hell!
Stonewall finally being removed from schools, the fox killer no longer accepting trans cases (as they’ve lost every single one…)
What a glorious day!

Great to read. Thank you!

That was a really interesting summary of where we're up to. Thanks.

That's a fantastic and encouraging article isn't it?

Thank heavens for Sajid Javid (Tory Secretary of State for Social Care & Health) for realising when he was briefed about the unfolding scandal at GIDS that:
"I knew this was not just another policy area but a child protection issue and huge medical scandal in the making" And for the succession of ministers including the current Labour minister Wes Streeting for ignoring the demands of the powerful trans lobby and prioritising child safeguarding.

What's happened to children has been unforgivable and we're nowhere near removing the activists sticky hands from all schools. the NHS, children's groups etc. But progress is being made and at last people are able to speak up more freely in many places.

I think it's an interesting run of events.

I won't trust anything unless and until there is sense about what counts as conversion therapy (i.e., this should not include therapeutic conversations with children or a refusal to take a full clinical history before diving into relentless affirmation) and it's obvious that sex-based rights are to be maintained and not withdrawn in the face of gender ideology.

I'll go further, I won't believe any of this is real until the NHS retains sex as a relevant field in eHCR, stops lying to women about who is present on wards etc. and stops coercing its staff into aligning themselves with gender ideology.

I apologise for my default cynicism but the last 10-15 years have made me very wary.

I feel that I have a sense of a show dropping soon. That there may be an announcement that might tie some of those decisions together which will put us some steps back.

but I hope not. I hope this is a good sign of the tide turning.

No need to apologise for realistic cynicism. After many years involved in all this it's just a bit of a relief to see this massive tanker slowing and starting to turn. But the forces that drive all this - misogyny, porn, big pharma, unhinged social media are massively powerful and embedded in our institutions - to the detriment of women and children so it is right to be cautious.

Thank you for the links, I love all the good news but I agree with the final paragraph

“There’s been 30 years of institutional capture that doesn’t just go away with the Cass Review,” says Forstater. “There have been lots of turning points, but it’s more like pulling up bindweeds. You just have to keep at it as it keeps growing back.” As Stonewall says, the gradual retreat is strategic. There has been no Damascene conversion – if anything the events of this week suggest militancy is likely to increase as their opportunities to influence diminish.

I agree, too much has happened without the usual howls of outrage. It feels like something is about to happen.

Telegraph again reporting that Labour won't close the loophole in the Equality Act to make it clear that sex means biological sex.😑

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/09/08/labour-wont-close-biological-sex-loophole-in-equality-act/

Without that, how can single-sex spaces, sex-based rights, women's rights and safeguarding be strengthened, implemented, defended or maintained?

I don't think the amendment of the equality act is necessary and nor did the previous conservative government before it was election time and they decided it might win some votes:

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/627984#:~:text=Changes%20to%20the%20Equality%20Act,number%20of%20grounds%2C%20including%20sex.

Sorry, editing for context here: this is people wanting it not edited but the response (I think?) makes clear that the government believes it refers to biological sex.

I really do think from when I've read it before it's quite clear that sex is covered and that sex means biological sex rather than gender.

Thank you.

This feels really encouraging.

I'd love Wes Streeting to really bottom this out properly.

What a great article, thank you for sharing. It's very encouraging news, seeing it all written out like this.

A couple of observations to throw in:

1. it talks about "trans children". I look forward to the day when it is more widely understood in the press that this phrase is unhelpful. I've added my (reasonably regular) screenshots where David Bell brilliantly explains why that is

2. it frames what's happening in the NHS in Scotland as a positive development. As demonstrated in this thread, it's actually anything but:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5158567-health-secretary-updates-mps-on-government-and-nhs-englands-work-to-improve-gender-identity-services-implement-recommendations-of-dr-hilary-casss-independent-review-includes-extension-of-puberty-blocker-ban-to-nov-26th-review-of-adult-svcs

Edited so that the link goes to the start of the thread. For some reason I had linked a random comment within it. D'oh.

Confused Fraggle, Analiese Dodds strikes again 😡

The Labour party can be as proud as they like about the Equality Act 2010 but the Act is not fit for purpose with regards to protecting women and it has developed loopholes due to postmodernist gender identity ideology interpretations that need to be closed because the current trans lobby is determined to drive a coach and horses through them unless they're actually stopped.

Where we have the trans lobby capture of the trade unions, we will continue to have a problem. The civil service. The BMA??? Really. Wth. How can the trans lobby have captured (what should be) a fundamentally scientific organisation??

Whilst things don’t feel As hopeless as they did just a year ago, god we’ve still got a mountain to climb.

I'm concerned that any amendments to the Equality Act won't be pretzeled by the lobbyists who are twisting what, only a few years ago, was uncontroversial common sense. Perhaps keeping what we've got and trying to keep rolling back the nonsense is the best way forward.

The Supreme Court might settle the matter if they rule in our favour in the FWS case. Then it would be clear that the protected characteristic of Sex is bio sex and the government would have to amend the law to include MCWs as women for equality measures like gender balanced boards or a gender balanced Welsh Senedd.

What might be even more important are the ET cases against the NHS - especially the one I heard about today, which is about communal single sex spaces. It will take years but a clear judgement that the NHS has to provide single sex communal toilets, showers etc for staff would be huge, because the NHS itself is huge and one of our most captured institutions.
This is the thread about it.
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5159395-employment-tribunal-case-to-protect-single-sex-facilities-at-work

I am being cautious because all the rollbacks are to do with children's health and safety. I still firmly believe that this government believes that the right hand can put a brake on experimenting on children while the left hand can accelerate the destruction of women's rights and freedom of belief, association, etc.

And frankly, although there's a logical or philosophical tension between the two approaches, in practice they can actually do it.

This is what I've been thinking. Has the government said to Stonewall to pull out of schools without a fuss and in exchange they'll push through self ID asap. We'll see.

That's good news and v heartening, it just feels like it's going to take years to roll back the damage that's been done. And we still have the huge influence from America which won't stop unless Trump is elected ( for clarification I'm NOT a Trump supporter, but Kamala is totally pro trans )

Sometimes it feels like 1 step forward, 2 steps back. I just want it to out of schools, police, NHS, the judiciary, CPS, and for the MSM to report on these issues honestly.

Women have achieved an incredible pushback on this insidious, harmful ideology and for that we should be so proud, but we still can't let up until reality has been restored.

It's a good article, thanks for the link to it, I hope it's right, unfortunately I'm in a part of Britain that has a devolved government, and the WAG are still completely captured.

My concerns are that they will still try to sneak Self ID in through a ban on Conversion Therapy, and this barnpot ideolog will continue to pollute the minds of vulnerable children, and the fight will be never ending.

Same here - but even worse, if an anti-conversion bill goes through, however watered down, it will put the concept of gender identity into law. That is the real purpose of pushing for such a law.

A legal concept of GI could be disastrous for women's rights. The next step would be putting it into the EA 2010 (Labour would be happy to amend the law for that reason). Initially it would replace GR, but eventually it could replace Sex. The big difference between equality legislation in the UK compared to Australia, Canada, Germany , France and Spain etc is that gender identity has no legal status and does not override sex (which in the UK means bio sex and sometimes bio+legal sex, but definitely not legal sex only as in Australia).

Edited for clarity.