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Academic dynamite
Author: Debbie Hayton
Physics teacher and trade unionist.
Twelve years ago, I was a happily married, middle-aged man with a good job and three wonderful children. But something was wrong. I had convinced myself that I had been born into the wrong sex.
After years of crushing anxiety and even moments of physical self-harming caused by this understanding, I transitioned in 2012 and underwent gender reassignment surgery four years later.
This madness needs to stop
‘Transwomen are men: Get over it’ – a personal account of how one transsexual did get over it, and found satisfaction and contentment as a result.
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We need trans-only wards
The Health Secretary Steve Barclay is expected to announce plans to ban transwomen like me from female hospital wards today*. Let’s be clear, the privacy, dignity and safety of women in hospital have been overlooked for too long – but Barclay will also need to offer separate wards or rooms for transgender people. Yes, women should not be expected to budge up and make room for men who identify as transgender, but nor should the Health Secretary make the lives of those who transitioned – perhaps many years ago – more difficult than needs be.
The clock is ticking on a bill to ban conversion therapy, at least for this year. Let’s hope that time runs out before it becomes law.
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Tenderness and truth
What should parents do about gender-nonconforming kids?
Schools are back but teachers are still waiting for the government’s guidance on transgender pupils. Back in March, Rishi Sunak promised that it would be in our hands ‘for the summer term’. Well it’s now autumn and another round of teacher training days – and the summer holidays – have come and gone, and still we are no nearer to any answers.
Danielle McGahey is set to become the first transgender cricketer to play an official Twenty20 international. The 29-year old Australian-born opening batsman has been named in the Canadian women’s squad that will take on Brazil, Argentina and the USA next week* in Los Angeles. The ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Americas Region Qualifier is hardly the Ashes, but at stake is a possible place in the 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup in Bangladesh.
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What does Vogue have against women’s sport?
Vogue magazine’s recent ‘powerhouse’ of 25 ‘women [who are] defining – and redefining – Britain in 2023’ includes one person who is not like the others. Emily Bridges is no more a woman than I am, but the transgender cyclist is the only sporting figure to have made the cut. What a kick in the teeth to the Lionesses recently returned from Australia.
Debbie Hayton 