Update from Maya
This week I was at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool. (This weekend I am going to the Conservatives with Fiona; our colleague Laura Pascal has been at the Lib Dems’ conference, and the Greens’.)
The Labour Women’s Declaration stand was buzzing, with visits from ministers and MPs, councillors, trades unionists and other delegates who wanted to publicly show their support and to ask questions.
Talking to the Rt Hon Dame Diana Johnson DBE, Minister of State at the Department for Work and Pensions
Chatting with Jonathan Hinder, MP for Pendle and Clitheroe
Talking with Sharidin Mumuni, Equalities Officer at Unite the Union
An LWD fringe event chaired by Tracy Gilbert MP and featuring Susan Smith from For Women Scotland, Sarah Vine KC and Dee McCullough from the new group LGB Labour was standing-room only.
I also spoke, and said what a difference a year makes: talking about these issues is so much easier and simpler after the Supreme Court judgment, which made clear that the Equality Act is on our side.
I went to and was welcomed at the Labour Women’s Network event and the Fabian Women’s Network event. Labour Women’s Network (LWN) has recently returned to interpreting its constitution as being based on biological sex, in line with the Supreme Court judgment.
I took the chance to go to several events hosted by gender-identity organisations – the LGBT Foundation networking breakfast (where I spoke to Simon Blake, CEO of Stonewall); the Stonewall fringe event; and a very poorly attended Pride in Labour event where four men on the panel (three of whom identified as women) spoke to an audience of three men and one woman about how trans rights are not in conflict with women’s rights.
There was also the Labour for Trans Rights rally, which was well attended – a parade of MPs (including a member of the government, Steve Race MP), and trade union leaders speaking about why they disagreed with the Supreme Court ruling and wanted to change the law or else ignore it. This was a big theme of the Stonewall event as well. The common talking point for MPs and activists against the Supreme Court judgment was that they stood for “decency” and against “division”.
Of course single-sex services are also fundamentally about decency. And the distinction between men and women is one that has to be recognised and respected in order to protect women’s rights.
Lisa Nandy, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, tried to undermine the clarity of the law, saying that the issue of male athletes competing as women is still not clear-cut. She suggested that decisions should be made on a sport-by-sport basis, and said: “The first (priority) is inclusion, the second is fairness, and the third is safety. And there are some sports where it’s perfectly possible to include everybody and still meet those principles around fairness and safety.” Which sports those might be she didn’t say.
I had dozens and dozens of conversations – about sport, about women’s rights and violence against women, and about women’s healthcare – in sessions where people seemed to have regained the confidence to talk clearly about women as female people.
Most of all I talked about digital identity. Whether the government goes ahead with its plan for a government-led system for proving the right to work, or continues with the private-sector verification approach that it established through the Data Act, or settles on some combination, it is clear that it is impossible for the same system to be reliable for some people and unreliable for others when it comes to proving their identity and their sex. This is an issue that is not going away, and I saw a few pennies drop in discussions.
I was also delighted this week to welcome the launch of the Athena Forum, led by Faika El-Nagashi. Sex Matters has been lending support to this much-needed new organisation over the past couple of months. There is more about it below and on our website.
Apologies to Bryndís Blackadder for wrongly crediting her picture taken at the Terf Island launch party last week.
Maya Forstater
New case briefing: Maria Kelly v Leonardo UK
From an employment tribunal this week, newspapers reported that women at this aerospace company had been forced to use a “secret toilet” to avoid dealing with menstrual blood in front of trans-identifying male colleagues. We have a briefing on that case, plus an update on Sandie Peggie v NHS Fife and Beth Upton.
A new initiative for sex-based rights in Europe
We’re proud to support Athena Forum, a much-needed European initiative. It launches with a new report Beneath the surface – a comprehensive account of how gender-identity ideology has captured European institutions.
What happens in Brussels does not stay in Brussels! If you are concerned about the way gender ideology has taken over European institutions, please spread the word.
In the news
Sex Matters was quoted widely in coverage of the Scottish Government’s new schools guidance, with Maya Forstater saying that while it acknowledges For Women Scotland’s Supreme Court judgment, the guidance is still muddled and unlawful. Articles included Catriona Stewart for The Scotsman, Ben Borland for the Scottish Daily Express, Claire Elliot for the Daily Mail and Simon Johnson for The Telegraph.
Also in Scotland, we were much quoted on the news that NHS Fife has issued an equality and diversity impact assessment requiring staff toilets and changing rooms to be operated on the basis of biological sex. Helen Joyce said that the move was a devastating blow to the arguments made by the health board in Sandie Peggie’s tribunal. Coverage included BBC News, Alasdair Clark for The Courier, Daniel Sanderson and John Boothman for The Times, David Walker for the Scottish Daily Express, Scottish Legal News and Graham Grant for the Daily Mail. Fiona McAnena was interviewed by Forth1 radio for its news bulletin ahead of the announcement.
In an article that ran in The Herald among hundreds of outlets, Aine Fox for PA News covered the news that Health Secretary Wes Streeting is keen to get the puberty-blocker trial up and running as soon as possible. She quoted a letter to Streeting from Sex Matters and other groups earlier this year which urged for the trial to be cancelled.
Aaron Newbury for the Daily Express covered the news that Eurostar has unveiled “gender neutral” uniforms which allow staff to “express their individuality”. Helen said that this tired trend is part of a vision of workplaces as locations where staff are validated, but what really matters is that customers and other staff are not expected to pretend to think that men wearing skirts are actually women.
Geraldine Scott for The Times broke the news that Green Women’s Declaration was banned from having a stall and recruiting members at the Green Party conference. Fiona McAnena said that it is extraordinary that the Green Party, which claims to stand for fairness and equality, is refusing women a platform simply because they uphold the reality of biological sex.
Fiona’s interview with Josh Howie on GB News on Emma Watson’s comments about JK Rowling on a recent podcast went viral after Rowling shared it on X in a post responding to Watson’s comments. The exchange was widely reported in the media, and Fiona and Maya did further interviews on TalkTV on the fallout.
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