Gender

It takes some doing to make a census interesting. So congratulations to the National Records of Scotland (NRS). NRS, which administers the decennial survey, is facing a judicial review over its guidance on the document. On the question of sex, it states that 'if you are transgender the answer you give can be different from what is on your birth certificate'. That is, something other than your legal sex. Feminist group Fair Play For Women will challenge this guidance at the Court of Session on 2 February. If this sounds familiar, it’s because similar guidance for last year’s census in England and Wales was challenged at the High Court and found to be unlawful.

We're closing 2021 by republishing our ten most-read articles of the year. Here's No. 10: Julie Bindel's piece from March on the Green party's muddle over trans rights: At the Green party spring conference this weekend, a motion which sought to introduce a party policy on women’s sex-based rights was defeated. A whopping 289 delegates (out of 521) voted to not include biological females in the party’s list of oppressed groups. All the motion aimed to do was simply add a paragraph to the Green party’s ‘Our Rights and Responsibilities Policy’.

They seem like completely unrelated questions: 'Is sex work real work?, and 'Who will replace Yvette Cooper as chair of the Commons Home Affairs Committee?' Yet the two are deeply linked. Sex work first. If you’re not familiar with the phrase 'sex work is work', get used to it, because you’re going to be hearing it a lot more in public debate in the next few years. The phrase has been around since at least the 1970s, but is now being used with growing frequency and energy by people on the self-appointed 'progressive' side of politics. As a result, 'sex work is work' is looking like being a new dividing line for people who enjoy identity and culture politics.

This morning saw a profound breakthrough in the trans debate. I say that on the basis of an interview Nancy Kelley, Stonewall's CEO, did with the BBC’s Emma Barnett on Woman’s Hour.  What’s important is not really anything that Kelley said, though some of that was indeed interesting and I’ll come to it in a second. What matters is that the interview took place at all, since that constitutes a significant shift in the way Stonewall does its work. Stonewall's instinct has been to largely avoid mainstream media and other political debates about its work on trans issues that is now its primary focus.

Last week, Intelligence Squared put on a debate called ‘Is Labour unelectable?’ Unsurprisingly, Labour MP Jess Phillips spoke against the motion – yet in doing so she managed to prove exactly why Labour are in fact hopelessly sunk. The key moment was when Spiked’s Ella Whelan challenged Phillips for having quote tweeted and then promptly deleted an article that was supportive of Kathleen Stock, the philosophy professor hounded out of her job for her audacious view that women deserve some of their own spaces.  'This is worth a read. Thoughtful and gentle,' said Phillips on Twitter, though apparently she quickly decided it wasn’t worth a read and removed the tweet. Some accuse Phillips of being a typical politician, fickle and lacking conviction.

Last week, signing a batch of pet bills to end the legislative session, Gov. Gavin Newsom made California the first state in the nation to require gender-neutral retailing. The law, which will take effect in three years, is limited to toys and 'childcare products' sold by big companies. It will never be enforced, since in essence it's already happening. Target dropped boys and girls toy sections in 2015, and for years retailers have been moving away from gender-specific labels. But the law’s emptiness is immaterial. The point is not to weed out a bias or fix a pressing wrong. The act is a victory for LGBT advocates who claim that sellers pressure children to conform to gender stereotypes and stigmatize non-conformers.

Transphobia is defined as the fear or hatred of trans people. But all too often, it is applied much more widely than that. Disagree with a trans person, and you could well be labelled as transphobic; look at us a 'bit funny' and we may report you for hate crime. Poke fun at us, and heaven help you. Comedian Dave Chappelle pulls no punches when it comes to the transgender community. In The Closer – his latest Netflix special – he is direct and uncompromising. But – and this is important – he plays the ball rather than the man. His target is not us but the ideology that has sprung up around us: a pseudo-religious doctrine that demands everyone believe that a man can become a woman just because he says so.

What is your sex? It is a simple question and one that we can all surely answer. When it comes to filling out a census, ascertaining a person's sex is particularly important. Working out the number of men and women living in an area allows for the appropriate provision of public services. But in its approach to conducting Scotland's census next year, the Scottish government risks undermining this. Astonishingly, according to guidance published this week, the 2022 Scottish census will allow some respondents to essentially answer what they think best. It says: 'If you are transgender the answer you give can be different from what is on your birth certificate. You do not need a Gender Recognition Certificate.

Pronoun politics can be something of a minefield. But if you think the gender debate is confusing, spare a thought for our German cousins. The quirks of the language make it hard to avoid causing offence, even for those determined to tread carefully. German, as with French and Spanish, has different noun endings for masculine and feminine words. For example, eine Ärztin specifically refers to a female doctor and ein Arzt to a male doctor. The masculine form is used most frequently and as a sort of gender catch-all. And it's here that the issue arises. The language has, to be fair, adapted to cater for modern sensitivities. In modern German, the title Fräulein (Miss) is no longer widely used, following criticism from feminists in the second half of the 20th century.

When Liz Truss confirmed that the government was committing itself to banning LGBT conversion therapy, there was some bemusement: is the middle of a pandemic really the time for this? The decision was announced back in May, and Truss – who serves as equalities minister – conceded that 'many forms of the practice are already prevented under current legislation'. But this 'new ban', she added 'will ensure that it is stamped out once and for all.' Let’s be clear: coercive and abusive practices need rooting out. But if existing laws doesn’t work, will new ones really help? Or could they have unintended consequences? James Esses – a trainee psychotherapist – worried that normal therapeutic practices could get caught in the net.