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Kayla and Shelby identify as a transwoman and a ciswoman.
Although they consider themselves to be a married lesbian couple, Kayla
hasn't had any surgery and they can potentially have children. |
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The early 2000's were an extraordinary period for the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgender) community. After decades of apparently fruitless campaigning, the walls suddenly fell, and politicians and big corporates began to compete to prove their LGBT friendly credentials at Pride and Awareness events.
I find particularly worrying
indications that teenage children are seeking to change their gender
just because their friends are. Social media sites are a massive
influence on teenagers and encourage a bandwagon effect when popular
infuencers transition, whilst the mission of leading trans charities in
the UK such as Stonewall and Mermaids leads them to encourage and
support young children in changing their gender without questioning if
this is necessary and in the best interests of the child. Even worse, the NHS in
the UK has been overwhelmed by the number of children who now apparently
suffer from gender identification disorders (GID), and as result it's providing
irreversible
"gender
confirmation" treatments and surgery to teenage children with minimal assessment. I
fear that there will be huge backlash by the end of 2020's, with
thousands of young transmen and transwomen (it's rarely recognised that the former outnumber
the later) bitterly regretting their poorly advised decisions as a
teenager.
Gender vs. Physical Sex Despite all the positive developments, huge problem remains in the wide-spread assumption that gender and sex are the same when in fact they are very different. Gender is a mental and lifestyle attribute), whilst is sex is a physical attribute which includes genes, sexual intercourse and reproduction. In the UK, the ignorance of Civil Servants and Members of Parliament about the difference between sex and gender resulted in the passing into law of the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (GRA2004). This inaccurately confuses sex as being synonymous with gender. In 2016 it was announced that GRA2004 would be reviewed after a campaign for a 'simplified' Gender Recognition procedure where the applicant could self-declare their gender with no medical assessment required, and that this declaration will be legally binding. An amendment to the Act was expected to be passed allowing this in 2019, but other UK government priorities such as Brexit and then Covid-19 delayed the legislation, and it was eventually dropped. However, the Scottish Parliament, which has extensive devolved powers, has continued to pursue the self-declaration route, for example the 2022 census will in Scotland allow anyone to self-declare their sex - regardless of what official documents such as their Birth Certificate or Passport may state.
Implementation of the GRA2004 has become a triumph of the views of a small but very vocal trans-lobby. The rights, safety and best interests of women with a vagina (yes, I'm including constructed neo-vagina's) are subordinated to anyone with a penis who can coherently fill in a form.
Possession of a GRC permits the holder to be considered female for all legal purposes, whilst often still physically a fertile male with a fully functional penis. One (and not unique) appalling example of the consequences of this is the case of David Thompson. Whilst on remand for grievous bodily harm, burglary, multiple rapes, and other sexual offences against women - David applied for and obtained a female GRC as Karen White. When subsequently convicted as a male paedophile who had sexually abused young girls, her GRC meant that 'she' was sent to a women-only prison - despite having had no genital surgery or even any hormone treatment. Within a few weeks Karen had raped or sexually assaulted four fellow prisoners. As a result, Leeds Crown Court described Karen as being a "predator who was a danger to women and children". However, whilst Karen had been temporarily relocated to a male-only prison, the court couldn't order this to be made permanent as she was legally female! More positively, GRA2004 has helped to legalise thousands of marriages in the UK between a man and a transwoman. For this, both partners must complete a statutory declaration for submission to the Gender Recognition Panel. Whilst the vast majority of husbands are aware that their wife is transgender (or vice versa), there are a small number of instances where she has successfully been in deep stealth and this is a huge surprise, and a source of magazine articles!
Problems
The pendulum swung extraordinary quickly and by 2020 it
had become almost mandatory for “progressive” politicians, sports
administrators, charities, et al, to advocate the rights of
transgender women. Indeed it seemed that
the rights and interests of self-declared transgender women were
more important than those of cis women.
discovering that the in-print edition of classic books by JR Rowling, Roald Dahl, Enid Blyton, Ian Flemming - amongst others - have been re-written to remove sexual stereotyping potentially offensive to a very small minority traditional family friendly films such as Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music being re-certified to require parental guidance, with trigger warnings added about their sexual stereotyping the NHS's National Menopause People Policy Framework claiming "It is important to note that not everyone who experiences menopause is a woman." parents discovering from schools (e.g. at parent meetings when their son is unexpectedly refered to as "she" by teachers) that their child has asked to change their gender, and they legally can't prevent this! I'm going to be controversial by stating that I consider some of the complaints to be valid as I've been personally affected by the increasing backlash against transwomen because a few men (I can't find an alternative word) and "trans activists" have abused the rights that it took decades for us to win. I find extraordinary the apparent current belief by
many supposedly “progressive” politicians, sports administrators,
charities, et al, that the rights and interests of self-declared
transgender women are more important than those of cis women.
 The Thought Police
Extreme and polarised views are now dominating the transgender agenda in the UK and in other western countries.
For example, a lesbian woman (normally the good person in WOKE thinking) who refused to have sex
with a self-labelled lesbian transwoman who had not had "bottom surgery" and obviously had a functional penis was damned on social media as being 'transphobic'.
Supposed transphobic behaviour (e.g. posting a comment on Twitter that a
post-GCS neovagina "goes nowhere" - which is physically true) has become so unacceptable in
the UK that it can
lead
to a visit by the police, with a formal warning issued that "whilst a
criminal offence has not been committed, you now have civil offence
record for a hate incident". Thousands of UK companies, schools and public sector bodies
thus now subscribe to schemes run by the LGBTQ charity Stonewall,
which is largely
taxpayer funded. It's unclear why Stonewall qualifies
as being a charity as
when it appointed a new CEO in May 2020, her
salary was more than
the £160,000 paid to the UK's Prime Minister! Stonewall
advice participating organisations to avoid the use of the words
"mother" and "father" (instead sugeesting "parent who has/has not given
birth"); "boy" and "girl" (instead use terms such as "learner"); and
"he" and "she" (use "they").
As a result, for example, the NHS Scotland has been removing these
offensive words from all of its publications, forms, leaflets and
websites.
Compliance with Stonewall's guideance will gain Bronze, Silver and Gold awards.
"mother" to "the birthing parent" "breast-feeding" to "chest-feeding" "woman" to "cervix-haver" or "menstruator"
By 2021 the trans agenda was so succesful that a leading medical journal,
The Lancet, avoided the word "women" and
instead used the phrase "bodies with vaginas" on its front cover in
reference to an article about menstrual periods. Crazily, this
still created a hail of criticism on the grounds that the phrase was
prejudicial and exclusionary to transwoman, with a British politician
confusingly stating that "it was not right [to say] only women have a
cervix". I find it impossible to defend this situation - it's a modern
incarnation of the Thought Police in George Orwell's novel 1984.
If
the recommendations of Stonewall and similar organisations are followed, the resulting genderless
society seems akin to a science fiction book - and certainly does
nothing to advance women rights. Indeed, women's rights are
becoming subsumed into the rights of transwoman, even if the later have
had no medical treatment.
A
scene in the 1986 movie the
Life of Brian lampoons the current situation with surprising
accuracy: There has since been huge pressure to delete this scene from both the movie and a prospective stage show because it might offend some people.
In October 2021 the European Commission published communication guidelines which attempted to ban gender specific words and phrases such as "man-made" and "ladies and gentlemen" and replace them with neutral phrases like "human-induced" and "dear colleagues". This was withdrawn a month later with the official reason that it was not "a mature document and more work was required". An alternative reason provided is that examples were in English but the French language categorises every noun as masculine or feminine - France is strongly advocating that French should replace English as the primary working language of the EU post-Brexit.
A Moment of Sanity? T Examples of where restrictions would be applicable include:
The EHRC's guidance immediately hit a storm of criticism, including from the NHS which will have to change it's supposedly progressive policies to comply, and is relucant to do so. In June 2024 a group of NHS nurses in Darlington sued their employer for allowing transwomen to use the female changing rooms. In particular, they felt unsafe and even experienced panic attacks after being required to change into work clothes in front of a sexually active biological male with an all too obvious penis who claimed to identify as a woman, and had changed her name to Rose. After raising concerns, the nurses were told by HR that they needed to be "re-educated" - which Rose offered to help do. In July 2024 the EHRC tried to clarify its guidance by stating that if an employer wanted to advertise for a woman-only job, that must only mean biological women or those who have received a gender-recognition certificate (GRC). Unfortunately it is very easy to obtain a GCS and no evidence of medical treatment such as hormones or surgery is required.
Woman or Transwomen? A massive challenge that is never addressed by lawyers or trans advocates is the physical reality that there is a huge difference between transwomen, for example: Example 1. A 20-year-old who is 160 cm tall (5ft 3in), weighs 48kg (106lbs), transitioned and began hormones age 17 under supervision after a medical assessment, had SRS age 19 and identifies as a hetrosexual woman attracted to men. However, her USA passport still states that he is "Male". and Example 2. A 58-year-old who is 185 cm tall (6ft 1in), weighs 102kg (223lbs), and transitioned age 56 without any medical supervision and doesn't take hormones consistently. He is pre-SRS but identifies as a lesbian attracted to women. He has obtained a UK Gender Recognition Certificate and her passport now states that she is "Female".
Applying a law where just completing a form makes an adult man legally a "woman" not only doesn't work, but it can dangerously abuse the rights of other women. Impact on Children Personally, I'm very concerned about the impact that saturation trans-advocacy on social media is having on children. In 2000 I was a strong supporter of the earliest possible medical treatment of children with GID. But that was when just 1 in 4000 of UK children (the majority male to female) under 18 were being reported as having GID, in 2020 the number astonishingly reached over 2 in 100, with 76% female to male! Something has surely gone badly wrong when so many teenagers, particularly girls, are questioning their gender. The increasing number de-transitioners in their twenties - who have often had irreversible and ironically named "gender confirmation surgery" - need to be listened to. Children are now being bombarded on social media, television and even at school by LGBT+ messaging. Organisations such as Stonewall are sponsoring television programmes and making adverts to encourage children 'to be themselves' and come out as transgender. Their pamphlets and posters have also appeared in almost every school. It's become trendy and attention gaining among teenage children to come out as transgender, gender neutral, non-binary, gender neutral, etc. UK children with Gender Identify Disorder (GID) are almost doubling annually - the NHS accepted 77 children for treatment in 2009, 2,590 in 2019. A typical UK school now has 1% of its pupils registered as having GID. W In my own (medically unqualified) experience there's a small proportion of transgender children who after expert medical assessment should be given pro-active medical assistance (including blockers, hormones and surgery) at the earliest possible age. But there's also a greater number where it would be best not to intervene medically - even if that meant them passing through puberty. Unfortunately, there are a substantial number of children in the middle that require the "Wisdom of Solomon" to assess correctly.
My Experience Since 2020 the term Sex-Reassignment Surgery (SRS) has largely been replaced by the term Gender Confirmation Surgery (GCS). I prefer the later term as SRS didn't change my physical sex - I'm still genetically XY. I'm unsure what gender confirmation surgery really means, but it sounds like a better fit than sex reassignment surgery for my life. As a teenager I knew that I was a boy and fancied girls, but also envied girls. When a girl told me that "it must be so boring to be a boy, I would hate it", the statement became embedded in my memory. After many difficult years I reluctantly accepted, for reasons I can never adequately explain, that I needed to live my life as a woman, and in my mid-30's I transitioned from living as a man to living as a woman.
About 18 months after transitioning I entered into an increasingly serious relationship with a heterosexual man. Despite my reluctance, there was no avoiding the fact that I needed to have major surgery. Breast augmentation and SRS/GCS resulted in my physical secondary sexual characteristics being clearly female, to the satisfaction of both my now husband and myself. By the end of 2004 I was passing as a woman physically and socially, and also considered myself to be a married woman. Our marriage was legally in rather a grey area at first but changes in the law in first the UK (2010) and later Ireland (2015) resolved this, and there is now no doubt over its validity. However, being legally a wife doesn't necessarily mean that my "sex" is female. I'm dubious that this is reasonable or factually correct. For example, when we first married I was still just young enough to be regularly asked if we intended to have children, or even if I might be pregnant - but this was physically impossible. However - for good or bad - I would have liked to have experienced periods, pregnancy and childbirth and it's a gaping hole in my life as a woman. I'm registered with the Health Service in Ireland as "Female". Given my increasingly mature age, I regularly need intimate medical examinations and tests - which can be a cause of confusion. I haven't found the mammograms offered to me every two years since I reached 50 to be a problem, I inform the staff that I have breast implants and have [so far] always received an all clear letter a few weeks later. However, it's not always so easy. After several letters asking me to attend a cervical cancer screening for a PAP test, I eventually complied after discovering that there was a small possibility that my neo-vagina (constructed from penile skin) can contract this. But my visit resulted in a confused nurse, a very puzzled doctor, and having to out myself as trans MTF.
In another example, I swim at a local pool during a women-only session as the time is
ideal for me, but I now must sign for entry a form whose small print now
oddly includes "people who are not having menstrual periods can be
excluded". As an alternative I tried another
swimming
pool and spotted a notice advising swimmers to "Use the
Changing Room (Male or Female) you are most comfortable with".
This means that I could potentially be sharing the Female changing room with physically complete and sexually fully functional
males. It seems to be a victory for a tiny number of
transactivitists (often pre-GCS/SRS) over perhaps 1000 times more
cis-women.
Even outside a women's changing room or toilets', I've met some very scary (both physically and behaviourally) individuals whom I've struggled to accept as being women. I was astonished in a meeting to hear a very large and masculine looking transgender activist proclaiming as apparently a positive to 'her' LGBT+ credentials the fact that 'she' had not had any medical treatment! Some countries such as Japan (since 2002) and Sweden (until 2013) require an applicant requesting a legal change of sex to have been sterilized (most commonly via an orchiectomy) or have completed sex-assignment surgery before this is granted. There is a lot of well-argued opposition to such rules, but after many bad experiences I can also reluctantly see some merit in favour of this. I've become worried that it has become too easy for a man or even a teenage boy who is wondering if they are transgender to be quickly sucked in to the system. Any man with $25,000 can almost on impulse catch a flight to Thailand and arrive back home two weeks later minus his testes and a penis, and with a breast implants and a neo-vagina. Transwomen are often emerging from the process of changing their gender much poorer, jobless, disowned by their family and friends, struggling to pass as a woman, infertile, unable to sexually attract 'normal' men, and suffering from medical complications. From my own experience I favour the rule in the now obsolescent V4 of the Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People which prescribes a two-year real-world test before a surgeon performs SRS/GCS. Back to top |
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Last updated: 1
April, 2022
(c) 2000-2024 Annie Richards |
Even without the amendment, under GRA2004 it is possible
in the UK to legally to change sex from male to female, or vice-versa, without having
had any medical treatment. The requirements are: fill in a form; find a
registered doctor who will sign it; and pay the requisite fee (just £5).
About
a month later a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) will arrive in the post. 
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