This incessant bullying of women speaking out against crazy transgender ideology should shame us all
THE incessant bullying of women – in particular, of feminists speaking out against crazy transgender ideology – should shame us all.
The latest example is the appalling hounding of Baroness Falkner for her views on sex and gender.
Falkner is impressive by anyone’s standards: The first Muslim to serve on a Parliamentary front bench, this Liberal Democrat is a strong and forthright advocate for equality.
Yet there is currently underway a full-blown witch hunt against Falkner in the form of a dossier containing more than 40 complaints from a dozen present and former colleagues at the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Why? Because of her perfectly common-sense views on the gender debate.
As head of the EHRC, Falkner has said she believes the characteristic of “sex” should be clarified so that it is not interchangeable with “gender identity”.
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All this means is that biological sex (whether we are male or female) should be given precedence when we talk about “sex equality”.
Of course it should!
The whole point of fighting for women’s rights is that we are treated differently to men and subjected to inequality, sexual violence and many other kinds of negativity precisely because of our biological sex.
Falkner recently wrote a lengthy letter to equalities minister Kemi Badenoch, noting some slippage in recent years when it comes to discussing what a woman is.
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Bullied and hounded
In recent years there has been a push to consider that men have the “right” to self-identify as women (trans-women) on the basis of nothing more than a “feeling”.
This renders the notion of women’s sex-based rights — those I have been battling for throughout my adult life — meaningless.
I’ve been bullied and hounded for daring to speak out against this ideology since 2004, when I wrote an article in a national newspaper in defence of Vancouver Rape Relief, a brilliant organisation that advocates for victims of sexual assault in Canada, that was put through ten years of horrific and costly litigation because a male-bodied trans-woman decided they should be eligible to train as a counsellor for rape victims.
For saying that it is impossible to change sex and that biological men have no place in rape crisis centres, I have been hounded, vilified, defamed, no-platformed, called a Nazi and a bigot, told I will cause “transgender children” to kill themselves and even physically assaulted.
Other feminists have come in for the same treatment, such as my friend Kathleen Stock, currently being treated by some highly privileged Oxford students as though she were Hitler, simply for accepting an invitation from the debating society to present her perfectly reasonable views on sex and gender later this month.
Then there is Maya Forstater, the brave woman who took her employees to court for belief discrimination when she was treated appallingly for simply stating that there is a biological basis to sex, and that it matters when it comes to policy, healthcare and single-sex spaces.
I could name countless other women, such as Labour MP Rosie Duffield, again called a bigot and a Nazi for simply protecting the rights of women and speaking out against the most extreme version of transgender ideology.
This hounding of decent, honourable women in the name of transgender rights has to stop: It is no more than a misogynistic pack of wolves baying for women’s blood because we dare to tell men they can’t have everything they want.
Baroness Falkner has now joined the ranks of those accused of being Nazis, and told she has dehumanised trans people.
She has also been called scum, a bigot, and a fascist — as well as transphobic, of course.
And for speaking out against Nicola Sturgeon’s plans to allow children as young as 16 to embark upon a medical pathway to change sex (such as being administered puberty blockers and subsequent surgery), the same treatment has been meted out.
Equality and justice
In my view, Falkner is a brave and principled woman for speaking out against this vicious mob that denounces anyone standing up for women’s rights as a Nazi.
Given her position at the EHRC, such allegations must particularly sting.
Because she is committed to equality and justice, suggesting the very opposite is both defamatory and hugely damaging.
We should all stand up and support her, because any one of us could be next.
Despite the fact that I have campaigned relentlessly against rape, sexual assault and all forms of male violence towards women, I am seen by trans activists as nothing more than a bigot.
Baroness Falkner has been accused of the same, despite her fine record as a respected public servant.
The cowardly hyenas calling for her to be sacked have no idea what justice and fairness actually is.
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These people like to see themselves as true “social justice warriors”, yet many have threatened me with rape, death and other atrocities.
It’s high time these bullies were denounced as the misogynists they clearly are.