Debbie Hayton

The Parkrun saga over times for transgender runners staggers on, but the organisation has only itself to blame. For want of a clear policy on sex and gender, Parkrun seems to have upset everyone. Last week, at least one event director quit as the company erased its run records wholesale in what looked like a knee-jerk reaction to a campaign against Parkrun’s view that competitors could self-declare their gender. It’s not ‘right wing’ to understand the material reality of biological sex This is a fuss that never needed to happen but – like too many other organisations – Parkrun abandoned biological reality when it allowed everyone to choose their sex when it came to their times.

The transgender row isn't going away. Prime Minister's Questions this week was dominated by a jibe Rishi Sunak made about Keir Starmer's stance on gender. The Labour leader then lashed out at Sunak for criticising him on the topic while the mother of murdered trans teenager Brianna Ghey was in the Commons. It's clear that both sides in this debate are doubling down: Sir Keir has previously said '99.9 per cent of women haven't got a penis'; while Sunak has said that 'a man is a man and a woman is a woman' – that’s just common sense'. As well as a Spectator writer, I am a science teacher. The history of science is littered with fallacies dressed up as ‘common sense’ which have sowed confusion and held back progress.

The Scottish government is once again champing at the bit to satisfy the LGBTQI+ lobby. Holyrood’s grandiose plans for sex self-ID might finally have hit the buffers, but the voters need to keep a close eye on what is coming in its wake. Yesterday, Emma Roddick – the Minister for Equalities, Migration and Refugees – announced a public consultation on ‘detailed proposals for legislation to end conversion practices in Scotland’. The way Roddick sells it, it sounds uncontroversial: Our approach, set out in this consultation, aims to bridge this gap while ensuring that fundamental rights already enjoyed by people in Scotland, such as freedom of religion and the right to family and private life, are upheld. Our focus is on protecting people from harm.

This has been a year to forget for the transgender lobby. This time last year, Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP government had just forced its Gender Recognition Reform Bill through Holyrood following an acrimonious late night sitting in the run up to Christmas. It seemed likely then that anyone over the age of 16 would be able to change their legal sex much more easily, without the need for a psychiatric diagnosis of gender dysphoria. For some of Sturgeon's Scottish Green allies, the only regret was that they had not gone far enough. Maggie Chapman MSP suggested that consideration should be given for allowing children as young as eight to be able to take up the offer. Thankfully, that ludicrous bill was blocked by the UK government before January was out. But the push back did not stop there.

The government has finally published its transgender guidance for schools. Teachers have been waiting a long time. We were promised we would have this document ‘for the summer term’. Well, it has arrived just in time for Christmas. But was it worth waiting for?  On the surface, this long awaited document looks like it will please nobody, upset everyone and leave schools still unclear about what they should do when parents get on the phone and explain that their son John is now their daughter Janet. It’s all well and good to advise that schools do not have a duty to let children change their gender identity but, when it happens as a fait accompli, what can schools do?

Almost twelve months after rapist Isla Bryson was sent to women’s prison, the Scottish Prison Service has come up with a new transgender policy. From 26 February 2024, trans women – including male transsexuals like me – will be barred from the female estate if they had been convicted of crimes that harmed women. Quite right, but behind the headlines – 'Trans women who hurt females to go to male prisons', according to the BBC – the devil is in the detail. Transgender criminals, including those with a history of violence against women, will be eligible to be admitted to women’s prisons if there is 'compelling evidence' that they do not pose an 'unacceptable risk of harm'. But who is to say what is compelling and what is unacceptable?

Scotland's government has plenty of things on its to-do list: tackling inflation, dealing with unemployment and cleaning up the mess left behind by Nicola Sturgeon. But amidst these tasks, it has found time to wade into the gender debate – by publishing its 'non-binary equality action plan' to help those who do not fit in to one gender or another. Predictably, not everyone is happy. Tory MSP Murdo Fraser – a former deputy leader of the Scottish Conservative party – quipped: 'Choosing to identify as ‘non-binary’ is as valid as choosing to identify as a cat.' For that, Fraser has got himself into hot water with the usual suspects.

Lisa Nandy could not have been more wrong when she waded into the transgender debate this week. The Labour MP, who has been criticised by JK Rowling over her stance on trans rights, said that 'when we look at the way we reduce the debate to things like bodily parts, I think when we look back in history we will be utterly ashamed of ourselves.' Those of us who understand that human beings have bodies, and those bodies matter, have no need to feel ashamed of anything, now or in the future. Men and women have a sex and, in some contexts, we need separate services because of that sex. What's more, our children need to know that they cannot change their sex. These are the truths that we have known since the dawn of time.

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. The Tories had previously promised to ban the practice of attempting to change someone's sexuality or gender identity, but the government appears to have had second thoughts. When Lib Dem MP Wera Hobhouse asked last week if the bill would be ready in time for the King’s Speech in November, Leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt avoided the question. Instead, Mordaunt pointed out that, ‘those are abhorrent practices that sometimes have lifelong impacts on those who have had to endure them.’ Quite.

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. In the mean time, teachers and trans pupils remain in limbo. They are not alone: doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital have reportedly been advised to 'stop using gendered language' such as boy or girl. Without any clear line from the government on this issue, it's no wonder confusing advice like this emerges.

A-level results day is the most terrifying moment in anyone’s education. Poor GCSEs can be overlooked by a school that knows their pupils could do well in the sixth form. Degree classifications at university are so broad that one bad paper may well not matter. But A-Levels are brutal. Students who miss their university offer by just one grade in one subject can find themselves rejected without the right of appeal or the means to resit. Their future changes instantly by the barest of margins.  But the main problem with A-levels is that it’s not clear what they actually measure. We might like to think that grades reflect ability. They do, but there are far more variables at play. Hard work is one factor.