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.
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.
The Department for Education has delayed yet further its long-awaited transgender guidance for schools. Rishi Sunak had pledged that the document would be in our hands ‘for the summer term’, but that looks increasingly like another broken promise.
Does a woman have a penis? Of course not. Until recently, that basic biological fact was accepted by almost everyone. Perhaps it still is but, with the transgender thought police waiting in the wings, it is a truth that few politicians are willing to articulate.
Last night*, Professor Kathleen Stock told the Oxford Union that we need to talk about ‘reality’. She is absolutely right.
Debbie Hayton