The Campaign Against Me by the Trans Lobby Was Unbelievably Nasty

This is the second of four extracts from my book, Transsexual Apostate published by the Daily Mail

As my thinking developed, the trans people I knew became more and more distant, particularly after I began to put my thoughts in print through pieces of journalism.

In articles, I queried the rush to update the Gender Recognition Act to give the green light to self-declaration. At stake, I wrote, was the legal distinction between men and women, a fundamental issue that needed to be discussed and debated. Instead, those who expressed reservations were dismissed as TERFs.

Standing for ‘trans-exclusionary radical feminist’, this derogatory term labels anyone who questions trans orthodoxy as ‘anti-trans’ and full of bigotry and hate.

It’s a means of silencing debate, and that’s precisely what it was doing. No one was allowed to challenge the idea that gender identity alone was the key, not even me, who had gone through the whole physical transformation.

I argued we must not forget the rights of women. I asked: should female facilities be open to anyone who declares themselves to be a woman, or should limits be set? What about women-only shortlists? Should those positions be open to anyone who identifies as a woman irrespective of who they actually are?

I thought I would be listened to. After all, who better to write these things than a member of the TUC LGBT+ committee who was also trans?

I spoke about casual discrimination against trans people in the workplace — something close to my heart as a trade unionist . That was what I wanted to see tackled, not self-ID, which I described as ‘a battle that is totally unnecessary’.

The reaction was hysterical. Rapidly, I became persona non grata among the trans tribe. I was charged with heresy for opposing the ideology and denying the central tenet of the faith — trans women are women. My Facebook friends list shrank before my eyes. Online trans discussion groups excluded me and blocked me without explanation.

The campaign against me was unbelievably nasty and dishonest. My school would get tweets such as: ‘Why are you employing a transphobic teacher?’ The school’s Twitter account received accusations that I was an online bully, a danger to children and an apologist for paedophilia.

One activist tweeted: ‘DH is a danger to all children,’ adding that by still employing me, it had to be presumed the school didn’t care about children either.

I had even chaired sessions of the TUC LGBT+ conference, but on one of the most fundamental pillars of human society — the distinction between men and women — the trade union movement had been captured by gender identity ideology. I was hounded off the committee, branded as a bigot and anti-trans. I had become an apostate to the true faith.

Gender identity ideology treats its defectors like some religious cults treat theirs. We are deserters, heretics, even traitors; we are seen to be bad people who need to be removed from positions of influence and silenced.

The trans fanatics have a slogan: ‘Trans women are women. Get over it!’

I countered this with a T-shirt that read: ‘Trans women are men. Get over it!’ Which is what, in all conscience and after considerable thought, I believe. This — and many other of my arguments — were ludicrously denounced as hate speech.

And so now we have an impasse in our society over that most basic of questions: ‘What is a woman?’ The result is a polarised dispute that gets more toxic, with no winners in sight.

Firmly dug into one set of trenches, the proponents of gender identity ideology argue that ‘man’ and ‘woman’ are identities to be claimed. A woman is anyone who utters those magic words: ‘I identify as a woman!’

It sounds progressive and liberating to allow anyone to find their own place in society, and it doesn’t stop there. So new categories are created for those who feel they don’t fit either of the existing ones. ‘Non-binary’, ‘agender’, ‘neutrois’, ‘androgyne’, ‘gender fluid’, ‘genderqueer’ — the list goes on. The BBC once explained to children that there were ‘over 100 genders’.

Facing them across no man’s land (or should that be ‘no person’s land’?) are the defenders of biological reality. Like me. Who think the idea that transwomen are women is preposterous. We are not women. We behave quite differently from women. There are differences between the sexes that are clear and unmistakable.

It’s not just that male-born bodies are on average taller, stronger and more hairy than female bodies. Male and female psychologies also tend to follow different patterns. Studies show that, when it comes to decision-making, men tend to be thinking-preference while women have a tendency to be feeling-preference.

The fact is that even throughout the time I imagined I was some kind of woman, the evidence for my sex was indisputable. I was born with testes and male genitalia. Three children were born after I supplied the sperm. Two of those children were boys, and there was only one person from whom they could inherit their own Y chromosome — me. Biologically, I am a man, an adult human male.

But as humans, nobody needs a degree in genetics to tell the difference between men and women: we have had that skill since before the dawn of humanity.

We share it with other species. My female cat knows a tom cat when she sees one and reacts appropriately. Indeed, a species where the individuals cannot perceive the opposite sex is unlikely to contribute much further to evolutionary history.

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From Transsexual Apostate by Debbie Hayton

This extract was first published by The Daily Mail on 27 January 2024: The campaign against me by the trans lobby was unbelievably nasty.

Transsexual Apostate is published by Forum (Hardcover, £16.99)