Update from Fiona
I went to my first-ever party conference earlier this week – the Conservative Party conference, from Sunday to Tuesday in Manchester. Maya travelled to Manchester too, but got Covid and wasn’t able to attend. We had dinner on Sunday evening with our Manchester-based trustees: from left to right, Rebecca Bull, Emma Hilton and Charlotte Cadden.
My Monday highlight was a session entitled Britons and Blasphemy – Defending Free Speech. Research consultancy More in Common presented findings showing what the British public think are the limits of free speech. The focus was on freedom to criticise religions, but its survey also asked respondents whether it was acceptable to say that “transwomen” should not be in women’s sport – as if that was a potentially offensive statement. The vast majority of, but not all, respondents thought this was something that could be said.
I asked the panel whether gender ideology was the most successful set of quasi-religious beliefs, pointing out that it has succeeded in getting the police to arrest people for misgendering and for “offensive” tweets. The MP Nick Timothy strongly agreed, mentioning Graham Linehan’s recent arrest at Heathrow by five armed officers.
Later I joined women and men from LGB Alliance to go to the Pride reception: Celebrating 50 years of the LGBT+ Conservatives. (What is that plus? No-one knows.) Both the speeches and the room were dominated by gay men and sexual innuendo. On the way in, a chap with a giant transgender flag wrapped round him like Superman’s cape was pointed out to me as a known troublemaker from the previous year. We didn’t know we’d be hearing from him the next day – and seeing him on GB News.
On Tuesday, Marion Calder and Sharron Davies were on the main stage with the Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities, Claire Coutinho MP, discussing gender-critical beliefs and what should happen now. The trans-flag chap heckled from near the front of the hall, asking why no one trans was on the panel. Marion and Sharron handled him like pros. The predominantly male audience was entirely with them.
From there it was straight to a fringe meeting organised by Conservatives for Women called After the Supreme Court ruling: what next for sex-based rights, chaired by Caroline Elsom from the think-tank Onward. The room was packed, with about 80 people who had mostly missed Marion and Sharron to queue for this event. You can imagine the joyous reception given to our two heroines, who arrived to join the audience just as we were starting.
I gave an overview of the harms done by self-declared gender identity replacing sex, the pivotal For Women Scotland Supreme Court judgment, the widespread failure to comply with the law and what we are doing to enforce it.
During the conference I met several women who were taking on their local councils, some as councillors, trying to get them to comply with the law as clarified by the Supreme Court. I told the audience that Sex Matters has written to every local authority in England, Scotland and Wales asking them to confirm that they are bringing their policies into line, and I called for Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the Conservative Party, to write to all Conservative-led local authorities demanding that they do so immediately.
MP Neil O’Brien and former MP Miriam Cates talked about what is happening to children and what’s being taught in schools. I saw shocked reactions from audience members. People who attend party conferences are more politically engaged than average, so if some of this is still news to them, we can be sure that many ordinary people have no idea what’s going on.
Kate Barker of LGB Alliance talked about the impact of transgenderism on gay men and lesbians, and especially on gender non-conforming children whose sexuality is still developing but who may well grow up to be gay – provided no-one transes the gay away.
Cath Leng of SEEN in Journalism talked about the damage done to and by the BBC’s embrace of gender ideology.
You can watch the event here.
The highlight of the day was when the heckler was being interviewed on GB News, and Marion stopped by to have a word. An impromptu debate followed, in which he was soundly beaten. Enjoy!
Fiona McAnena
The law is clear – so get on with it!
It is six months since the FWS judgement and we have developed a new campaign with a message that the law is clear and organisations need to get on with complying with it!
Now that the Supreme Court has cleared up the definition of sex it shouldn’t be complicated to understand how to comply with the law: guidance should fit on a postcard.
To illustrate this we are at FiLiA this weekend and Battle of Ideas next weekend with a brand new set of postcards (and mini-cards) with simple explanations of the law, for you to take away and share. Each postcard links back to an online resource page where you can find more information, template letters and guides on taking action.
Updated guidance
Gender-critical beliefs at work
After a series of successful employment tribunals, employers need to be clear about the law – and employees should know their rights. We summarise “gender critical” beliefs, how employees are protected from belief discrimination and how employers should deal with conflicts of beliefs in the workplace.
Providing single-sex services with confidence
We’ve revised our guide for service providers that aims to give them confidence to understand and use the Equality Act to respect everyone’s rights and avoid discrimination. The new annex has informational signs to download or edit, to make the rules clear to service users.
The Scottish Government has dropped its unlawful toilets policy
We were preparing to lodge a petition for judicial review when the Scottish Government finally confirmed that it has removed the paragraph from an inclusion policy that said “Trans staff should choose to use the facilities they feel most comfortable with.” In line with the law, it should now have single-sex toilet facilities in all its buildings.
In the news
David Walker of the Scottish Daily Express broke the news that we have dropped our legal challenge against the Scottish Government after confirmation that it will operate facilities on the basis of biological sex. However, questions remain about the implementation of its updated guidance. The story was also picked up by Rachel Amery for The Scotsman.
In other legal news, Blaise Cloran and Tim Sigsworth for The Telegraph wrote about the City of London’s consultation on allowing trans-identifying men to use the Ladies’ Pond at Hampstead Heath, which is the subject of a current legal challenge from Sex Matters. Maya Forstater was quoted as saying that the City of London Corporation seems to think that the results of a consultation could somehow legitimise breaking anti-discrimination law.
Daniel Martin for The Telegraph first revealed that a new European Commission strategy proposes gender self-identification for children of any age and punishment for member states who don’t comply with gender ideology. Maya was quoted as saying that it is a mercy British campaigners for sex-based rights don’t have to deal with this sinister strategy and the pernicious capture of EU institutions on top of our own challenges in the UK, and was interviewed on the story on GB News. Further coverage, which coincided with the launch of Faika El-Nagashi’s Athena Forum to campaign for sex-based rights in Europe, included Bruno Waterfield for The Times, Adam Pogrund for the Daily Mail, David Walker for the Scottish Daily Express and Adam Toms for the Daily Express.
In health news, Fiona McAnena was quoted by Michael Searles for The Telegraph on the news that a research project on the future of NHS care for gender-questioning children appears to have been heavily influenced by transactivists, while Claire Elliot for the Scottish Daily Mail quoted Maya in a story on 300 sexual assault attacks in Scottish hospitals justifying the need for single-sex spaces in wards.
In her column for The Critic, Helen Joyce wrote about BBC bias on sex and gender, and argued that the state-funded broadcaster is a biased and boring purveyor of propaganda. If a media outlet is determined to keep lying about something so obvious as biological sex, she asked, why would you trust anything it says?
Battle of Ideas
The Battle of Ideas festival is next weekend in central London. Maya will be in a session on Saturday at 12.15pm on the rise of the workplace speech police, and on Sunday at 10am Fiona will be talking about her book TERF Island – how the UK resisted trans Ideology in the Battle Book Club. Sex Matters also has a stand, so if you’re attending, do come and say hello! Use this link or the discount code BOIF-SEXM to get a 20% discount on your ticket.