Physics teacher and trade unionist.
The BBC has upheld a ludicrous complaint against the Today programme’s Justin Webb. Back in August, Webb told listeners that trans women were ‘in other words, males’. This basic truth should not be controversial. We transwomen are male. It is a necessary criterion – women cannot be transwomen because women are female.
As the Church of England once again tears itself apart over gay marriage, us transsexual Christians have slipped in under the radar. It’s been 24 years since the first transgender CofE priest, Carol Stone, returned to work in Swindon after gender reassignment surgery. Even in 2000, Stone’s parishioners weren’t that bothered about their ‘new’ vicar. I’ve also found my fellow Christians to be mostly welcoming – but that doesn’t mean being a trans Christian is without its dilemmas.
A transgender judge has resigned, apparently because of the risk of politicising the judiciary. But this was no ordinary judge. Victoria McCloud is a King’s Bench Master of the High Court, a senior job. In 2010, McCloud – then aged 40 – was the youngest person to have been appointed to the role. The news was not trumpeted at the time as a ‘first’ for transgender people. Few people knew about McCloud’s unusual history and, it seemed, fewer cared.
The Parkrun saga over times for transgender runners staggers on, but the organisation has only itself to blame. For want of a clear policy on sex and gender, Parkrun seems to have upset everyone. Last week, at least one event director quit as the company erased its run records wholesale in what looked like a knee-jerk reaction to a campaign against Parkrun’s view that competitors could self-declare their gender.
This piece was written in response to an exchange in Parliament; it draws upon ideas that I developed in my book, Transsexual Apostate.
The transgender row isn’t going away. Prime Minister’s Questions this week was dominated by a jibe Rishi Sunak made about Keir Starmer’s stance on gender. The Labour leader then lashed out at Sunak for criticising him on the topic while the mother of murdered trans teenager Brianna Ghey was in the Commons.
This is the fourth and final of four extracts from my book, Transsexual Apostate published by the Daily Mail
The fashion for declaring your preferred pronoun is now so ubiquitous that it is difficult to be a conscientious objector.
On the surface, bowing to someone’s wish to be called ‘he’ or ‘she’ or ‘they’ is surely no more than a kind and thoughtful gesture that respects other people’s situations. And perfectly harmless. Except that it isn’t harmless. It transfers power. No longer do any of us have the freedom to perceive which sex-based pronouns best describe the human being standing in front of us: we are now expected to read the label and follow the instructions. Or else.
This is the third of four extracts from my book, Transsexual Apostate published by the Daily Mail
You may think that changing your sexual identity should be an issue of concern solely to people like me. Though middle-aged and married with three children, after decades as a secret transvestite I came out and transitioned from a man to a woman, first socially by cross-dressing and changing my name from David to Debbie, then physically by subjecting myself to the extreme surgery of having my genitalia sliced and diced and reconfigured.
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.
This is the first of four extracts from my book, Transsexual Apostate published by the Daily Mail
Are you sure you want to do this?’ the anaesthetist at Charing Cross Hospital asked as I lay on the trolley ready for theatre, giving me one last chance to back out.
Debbie Hayton