Author: Debbie Hayton
Physics teacher and trade unionist.
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Nine years in the transgender debate
If a week is a long time in politics, then nine years is surely an eternity in the transgender debate. I began this blog in September 2016 to record my thoughts and archive my published work. If it has my byline, there’s a copy here somewhere.
Having left the EU, the UK is now threatening to turn its back on the European Court of Human Rights. The McCloud case, which arose from a debate over the definition of the word “woman,” risks adding to tensions that might lead to a “judicial Brexit.”
Après avoir quitté l’UE, le Royaume-Uni menace désormais de tourner le dos à la CEDH. L’affaire McCloud, née d’un débat sur la définition du mot « femme », ravive la tentation d’un « Brexit judiciaire ».
On April 16, the Supreme Court ruled that the meaning of the terms ‘sex’, ‘man’ and ‘woman’ in the Equality Act refer to biology. More than three months later, you might think that the Youth Hostels Association (YHA) – an organisation that provides single sex dormitories in hostels across England and Wales – would have reviewed their policies to ensure that they were consistent with the law.
The Supreme Court has spoken but not everyone is happy with the judgment.
Acte de naissance ou évidence visuelle ? Au Royaume-Uni, la reconnaissance du sexe devient un casse-tête bureaucratique – et judiciaire.
The plot of Transaction, a six-part comedy currently showing on ITV2, is simple. A supermarket accused of transphobia hires a transgender night shift worker to protect themselves from an activist mob hammering on the doors. The problem for manager Simon (played by Nick Frost) is that he employs a transwoman on a mission to be outrageous, vulgar and crude, and to lecture the audience on trans rights. Promoted as humour, there’s a big problem: it just isn’t funny.
Sex matters, but the perception of sex matters also
The Supreme Court judgment on the definition of a woman on 16 April restored a degree of sanity to a world that was in danger of going mad. Even Keir Starmer now knows that a woman is a matter of biology rather than ideology. Can somebody please tell the Americans? Or, more precisely, those progressive types over the pond who like to concern themselves with other people’s business.
Debbie Hayton 