You might recognise that title - it’s the final chapter title in Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality, Helen Joyce’s sensitive and thought provoking book on one of the biggest issues facing women in recent times. (And, of course, it’s the first book in JKR’s Barmy Book Army book club).
I use it now as we have some important updates on the British feminists Helen touches on, who are helping the UK to understand the reality of sex, and its importance in life and law.
At the time of publishing, in 2021, Kathleen Stock was a Professor of Psychology at Sussex University. Helen stated that Kathleen was “one of the few in her field to argue publicly against self id, solicited testimonies about the chilling effect of gender-identity ideology in universities” - only to fall foul of it herself, and find herself bullied out of the role she loved. Pushing her out backfired at Sussex, when the press picked up on the story, and peaked more people.
Within the same time frame, a similar case - proving Kathleen’s point - was unfolding at Bristol University, as student Raquel Rosario-Sanchez fought to be treated fairly, following the bullying and abuse she received for chairing a Woman’s Place meeting. We have an outcome to her case: she lost. The judge concurred with her about the university’s treatment of her BUT - and this is huge - she lost because the University of Bristol successfully argued that it has no duty of care to its students. Let that sink in: A university happily admits it has no duty of care to the young people in its establishment. Can you imagine the uproar if a primary school or a care home or a community centre insisted it has no duty of care to the people who use them? Unbelievable. Not the win a university should be proud of.
The beginning of the end for “No Debate” came when JK Rowling - arguably the most famous author in the world - tweeted in December 2019: ‘Dress however you please. Call yourself whatever you like. Sleep with any consenting adult who’ll have you. Live your best life in peace and security. But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real? #IStandWithMaya #ThisIsNotADrill’.
The Maya in question was Maya Forstater, who had lost an employment tribunal when the judge stated that gender critical beliefs weren’t worthy of respect in a democratic society.
Maya appealed and the judgement was reversed - it was deemed that gender critical beliefs are worthy of respect in a democratic society. The implications for HR departments are huge, with any woman having a precedent they can refer to if their own employers try to discriminate against them. Maya currently awaits the judgement in the third and final part of her discrimination case against her employers. If you see ‘WORIADS’ as a rallying cry anywhere, this is its origin: Worthy of Respect In A Democratic Society.
The scales were now rapidly falling from the eyes of the general public, particularly with the venomous attacks on JK Rowling, who’s received enough death and rape threats to “paper my house”. And still she keeps going, keeping us all going.
There followed more triumphs. Late last year, Harry Miller (@WeAreFairCop) had the ridiculous notion of gender critical views being listed as “non-crime hate incidents” struck down as unlawful.
And For Women Scotland - whilst joining forces with all the other awesome Scottish women’s groups to fight Nicola Sturgeon’s self id plans - had a remarkable victory when challenging the law on company boards defining a woman as ‘anyone who says they are one’, ensuring that female representation on Scottish boards will be exactly that, female.
One of most meaningful court cases has just started: Lawyer Allison Bailey is taking the cornerstone of trans ideology to court: Stonewall, whose pernicious capture of institutions and organisations led to the Equality Act being misinterpreted as how Stonewall wanted the law to be, rather than how it actually is. Her crowdfund is still open, and she’s over 71% of the way to her total.
With news that the UK was about to have its own ‘Lia Thomas’ imposed on women’s sports via cyclist Emily Bridges, trans activists finally overstretched themselves. Trying to convince the general population that having male bodies compete against female ones was in any way fair, the pushback gained strength, particularly when reports came in that female cyclists were going to rebel and boycott their national championship.
Joining respected former athletes, current female athletes spoke up, risking their own careers. But here’s the thing: such was the support they received, that as far as we know, none have been censured.
And the outcome? British Cycling backed down and suspended their trans-inclusion policy. When the facts of life are pointed out, the majority of the public know exactly what’s what.
However, this meant that a they/them sponsor decided to withdraw his sponsorship of the Women’s CiCLE Classic cycle race. As public outrage ensued, Fair Play For Women and Sex Matters stepped in and offered to sponsor the event. The organiser - mindful of the potential politicisation of the event - thanked them but declined. Buoyed by the outpouring of support on Twitter, he is crowdfunding the required £15k.
Women have power.
And this is an important part of many of the victories and potential victories for women, both legally, and in the court of public opinion: Crowdfunding. Would Maya, Harry and FWS have been able to take on the system without the support of thousands of women (and some men, I’m sure) dipping their hands in their pockets to help them?
The women’s rights movement is often accused by gender ideology activists of being funded by right wing, Christian, conservative, evangelical groups etc. And a thought struck me about why that was. Is it, I wonder, that the alternative terrifies them?
The alternative being that women are organising and funding to defend themselves. And those pushing gender ideology have zero control over that. There’s no charity commission or industry body they can file a complaint to. They can’t serve thousands of individual women with Freedom of Information requests. And much as they’d like ‘thought crime’ to exist, it doesn’t, so they can’t get us arrested either (they have tried).
With the launch of our #RespectMySex if you want my X campaign, the Women’s Rights Network, Women Uniting and Sex Matters have been front page news near enough everyday since, with national newspapers and broadcasters now centering our struggle.
And at the time of writing this post, JK Rowling has been trending for a couple of weeks, with a fresh flurry of savage tweets following the gorgeous photos of her Ladies’ Lunch. Our opponents are apoplectic at the sheer audacity.
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