‘You can idiot all of the people among the time and among the people all the time, but you may’t idiot all the people on a regular basis.’ So allegedly said Abraham Lincoln, though exactly when and where has never been verified, but whether accurately attributed or not, the opinion is undoubtedly true. And nowhere has this been more strikingly illustrated than within the row over gender identity.
For the previous couple of years, we’ve had the message hammered home that trans women are women, and have to be treated as such. Irrespective of how they give the impression of being – and there have been some supposedly ‘trans women’ still sporting beards – they’ve an absolute right, the argument runs, to be treated as women. From which it follows that they will use female-only spaces, compete as females in sports events, and receive health care appropriate to their ‘self-identified’ sex.
Predictably, there have been problems. There have been reports, for instance, of transgender prisoners transferred to female prisons raping fellow inmates and prison officers. While the NHS had provoked ire by instructing medical staff to stop using terms reminiscent of breastfeeding and vaginal birth for mothers-to-be, in favour of ‘chestfeeding’ and frontal birth. But despite the numerous and vociferous objections, battle-hardened campaigners for gender ideology have fought on regardless, not only laying claim for trans-women to make use of female-only spaces, but encouraging everyone, and particularly children, to think about whether or not they too may not have been born within the flawed body. ‘Gender is selection, not biology’ has develop into the chosen mantra of the day. You will be whatever you would like!
But into this seething maelstrom of delusion, eventually, a ray of sunshine has come. As protest from women’s groups at this invasion of their space has develop into more vocal, and increasing evidence of the damage being inflicted on vulnerable children has emerged, we’ve eventually begun to see resistance, and the emergence of a change in policy.
It began with concern over the malign influence being exerted over Whitehall by LGBT+ campaigning group Stonewall and, particularly, its attempts to shape public policy. This was seen as so bad that the Minister for Women and Equalities, Kemi Badenoch, instructed Government departments to stop employing the charity and to withdraw from its diversity scheme.
This was followed by the recent delivery of the Cass Report into gender identity services for youngsters and young people, heralded as the biggest review into kid’s care on the planet. With over 8,000 children now awaiting treatment within the UK, paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass unequivocally stated that gender medicine within the UK had been applied without proper medical investigation, causing severe harm to children and young people reportedly experiencing gender dysphoria.
In particular, she highlighted the incontrovertible fact that there had been little or no investigation into the good thing about such treatments, and little regard paid to their well-documented uncomfortable side effects, including things like impaired brain development (possibly everlasting), headaches, hot flushes, negative impact on mineral bone density, increased risk of depression, mood disorders, seizures, heart attack and strokes.
Following the review, the prescription of medicine to halt production of sex hormones causing physical changes at puberty (so-called puberty blockers) was banned for all children under 18, except where registered as a part of a clinical trial. In tandem with this, the proposed government guidance into gender questioning children has now advised that a baby’s legal sex should always be registered as their biological sex, while any degree of social transitioning throughout the school environment is to be discouraged.
At the identical time, reversing previous policy, it calls for folks to be kept fully informed and consulted as to how their child might best be supported in school. In other words, the proposed guidance now officially recognises that the ideologically driven campaign to advertise gender selection has no basis in science and poses an extreme risk of harm to vulnerable children, who may already be affected by related mental health issues.
In light of past events, and brought together, that is encouraging! But there’s more. On 30 April this 12 months, in keeping with government-proposed changes to its written structure, the NHS announced that sex is a biological fact. One would have thought doctors must have known this already, but, be that as it could, under proposed revision of its structure, NHS policy will ban trans women from female only wards, while biological women may have the best to request that treatment for intimate care be provided by medical staff of the identical biological sex .
In a health service that thus far has been dominated by ideological activists promoting selection and inclusivity, it is tough to over-estimate the seismic effect of such a change, and on any assessment, this marks a radical shift in direction. But does this mean that the tide has modified?
No. It is an indication that individuals are waking up, actually, but we must guard against complacency. There is a battle ahead. Gender activists are already reportedly on the point of challenge the proposed schools guidance and are refusing to follow it, claiming that it should harm trans and non-binary children. Similarly, we are able to expect protest from gender selection and trans groups in relation to health policy, with hospital bosses already accusing the federal government of inappropriately dragging them into ‘a pre-election culture wars debate’.
It is nice that common sense seems eventually to be prevailing, but we must always not delude ourselves. We are faced by an ideological battle for total control, and LGBTQ+ activists is not going to hand over and not using a fight. For the protection of the nation’s young, for girls, and for the wellbeing of society as a complete, it is a battle we must win.
