by Rob Marchant
Change happens, to paraphrase Hemingway, gradually and then suddenly. In the wake of April’s historic Supreme Court ruling (that a woman is defined by her biological sex, rather than how (s)he “feels”), it seems the gender ideology edifice is finally starting to crumble, in the UK at least. It cannot crumble soon enough.
Last week, Linzi Smith, supported by the activist group Fair Cop, won her case against Northumbria Police, the judge effectively ruling that their attendance at Pride celebrations – let’s face it, an act which is by no means politically neutral in the current context of Pride – inhibited police impartiality and was therefore “unlawful”.
Surrey County Council also finally agreed no longer to fund tarnished Surrey Pride, after its former leader, Stephen Ireland, was sentenced to 30 years for assorted crimes, including paedophilia relating to a 12 year-old boy (we should note that his colleagues and friends are still in charge of it). It is not, self-evidently, the case that anyone connected with gay or trans rights should be under any particular suspicion of criminal behaviour; simply that, for a few years, we stopped treating those activists as we treat everyone else when it comes to basic safeguarding. We created an “untouchable” class, who were beyond criticism, and paedophiles like Ireland gaining access to children was the tragic result.
The Labour party itself unexpectedly announced on Tuesday that it would no longer allow biological men to stand as women in single-sex categories for electoral representation – a position Uncut argued was madness a good seven years ago – and would return to the simple rule that sex means sex. Alleluia. And it seems unlikely that that move would have happened without Keir Starmer’s blessing.
Labour has still a way to go in terms of all its parliamentary party “getting it” – Jo Bartosch is quite right – but it is also true to say that, amongst those who actually sit within government, it seems pretty unthinkable that they will at this point be allowed to pass any legislation which will “make things worse”. Anneliese Dodds – perhaps the most anti-GC member of Starmer’s initial Cabinet – no longer sits in it. Formerly vocal “be kind” advocate Lisa Nandy, whose support may well have hobbled her leadership chances in 2020 (see Uncut piece from the vault) has gone remarkably quiet on the subject. And Wes Streeting has in recent years made his position on affirmative healthcare and puberty blockers very clear, acting to some extent as Starmer’s lightning rod for criticism from LGBT lobby groups, and others, on the subject.
