Debbie Hayton

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.

I grew up in 1980s County Durham; it felt at the time like a People’s Democratic Republic. When the miners went on strike in 1984, Labour held 53 of the 72 seats on the county council. But whatever impression southerners might get from watching Billy Elliot, boys like me did not engage in ballet. Labour may have been in charge, but attitudes were socially conservative. We played football and supported the Toon, or Newcastle United to give them their official name. Allegiance to Sunderland raised eyebrows — in my town at least — while Manchester United was beyond the pale. If boys were ostracised for supporting the wrong football teams, teenagers struggling with sexuality or gender learnt to keep those things very close to their chests.

Our planet is in a mess. Ice caps are melting and the glaciers are retreating. This summer in Canada, the mercury has already broken through 49 degrees Celsius, with August still ahead of us. Climate change worries me, and I think it should worry others too. But despite the party's name, the Green party isn't devoting its full attention to this issue. Instead, some of its members are preoccupied with rooting out alleged transphobia within the party. This week, co-leader Sian Berry announced that she was standing down over 'inconsistencies' within the party. Her statement didn’t name names, and was probably baffling to the ordinary voter, but the cause of her discomfort was easy to read between the lines.

New Zealand was the first country in the world to give women the right to vote in parliamentary elections. But now, 120 years on from that landmark moment for female equality, Kiwi women are fighting a rear-guard campaign to defend the meaning of the word 'woman'. As well as dealing with the fallout from the pandemic, Jacinda Ardern’s Labour government has been busy prioritising a bill that would effectively allow anyone to become a woman just because they wanted to. While Ardern is being cheered on by the transgender lobby, it has fallen to Speak Up for Women, a grassroots campaign group, to speak truth to power. Rather predictably, politicians seem unwilling to listen; worse, some are determined to stop anyone else hearing what these women have to say.

It’s been a bad night for Stonewall. Yesterday, the Labour MP Dawn Butler created a Twitter Poll. ‘Who do you trust more?’ she asked her 150,000 followers, Stonewall or Liz Truss? It’s not exactly clear what inspired Butler to ask this question online, but this is, of course, the MP who last year told Good Morning Britain that she believed ‘babies are born without a sex.’ https://twitter.com/DawnButlerBrent/status/1399708211838607362?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Why anyone would need to hand over good money to show they treat their staff with dignity and respect is a mystery to me Butler’s folly gave anyone with a Twitter account the opportunity to have their say. The numbers are not looking good for Stonewall.

Has Police Scotland misunderstood the purpose of policing? A recent crackdown on 'controversial stickers' appears to suggest as much. 'On Monday 17th May we received a report of controversial stickers having been placed on lampposts,' said a message on Kirkcaldy police's Twitter feed, posted last week. 'Should you come across stickers of this nature, please contact ourselves or Fife Council so that their removal can be arranged'. So what did the stickers actually say? It transpired that they were emblazoned with the words: 'Women won’t wheesht' Baffling? Maybe. But is it really the business of the police to investigate such stickers? Various hashtags, including 'SexNotGender' and 'WarOnWomen', were also included.

Tonia Antoniazzi’s speech in the House of Commons this week was remarkable, not because of what she said – the need for accurate recording of crimes according to sex – but because she had the courage to actually say it. After the ongoing intimidation of Rosie Duffield, it is a brave Labour MP who stands up and defends the right of members of her sex not to be blamed for the crimes of the other sex. Antoniazzi pointed out that where particular offences are very rarely committed by women, the addition of just one or two people can have a significant impact on data. Antoniazzi alluded to the case of transgender fell-runner Lauren Jeska who was jailed in 2017 for the attempted murder of Ralph Knibbs, UK Athletics' head of human resources and welfare.

Caitlyn Jenner – gold medallist in the men’s decathlon at the 1976 Montreal Olympics – is now in the running to the be the next governor of California. These days, Jenner is more famous for marrying into the Kardashians before a very public transition in 2015. 'Call me Caitlyn,' screamed the headlines at the time. Like me, Jenner seems to be someone for whom gender transition was no impediment in life. Perhaps we both have our feet on the ground when it comes to the reality of biological sex? On Saturday, Jenner was accosted by a journalist in a car park. There were questions to be answered.

Once upon a time an organisation was established to campaign for gay and lesbian rights. They faced opposition from the outset. They were widely condemned, even called out as a hate group when they talked about same-sex attraction. When they sought charitable status, a petition was launched, urging the Charities Commission to reject the application. Tens of thousands of people signed it. But this was not the dark days of the 1980s, when Section 28 stopped councils and schools 'promoting the teaching of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship'. This is now. LGB Alliance was formed in 2019 to promote the elimination of discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation.

Robert Webb is best known for making people laugh, but he conducted himself with poise and grace when he was ambushed by American podcast host Jesse Thorn. Thorn had invited Webb and long-time collaborator David Mitchell to talk about their latest show, and their experiences performing together as a double act over the years. But the programme ended in yet another episode of the transgender inquisition. This was personal. Thorn told listeners he has two gender non-conforming children, 'one of who is transgender,' as he called Webb to account for criticising gender charity Mermaids UK in December 2018.

A year of disrupted schooling means there are plenty of issues facing our schools right now. But delegates at last week’s National Education Union conference were more interested in another subject: developing a new – and presumably beefed-up – definition of transphobia. 'Transphobic news stories are a continued and escalating blight on trans and nonbinary members’ lives, with severe consequences on mental health,' said motion 22. The 'Pride in our Union' motion (you can read the full text here) called for a 'definition of transphobia that goes above and beyond legal compliance and that supports and endorses trans and non-binary identities without resorting to the erasure or downgrading of 'gender''.

Is the Green party determined to make its female members feel unwelcome? After voting down women’s sex-based rights at their spring conference, the party has now suspended the co-chair of its women’s committee, Emma Bateman. The reason? According to Bateman, her decision to question whether trans women are female is to blame. As a trans woman, who also happens to be a science teacher, I know that trans women are most definitely male. Indeed, it is only because we are male that we can be transwomen. But where gender ideology is concerned, the Greens appear to have lost touch with reality. Bateman is no transphobe but – as with many other women – she thinks that being female is rather more than a feeling. She is also well respected in the party.

Since 1801 the decennial census has asked us to state our sex. But never before has such a simple question generated such controversy. Yesterday, it ended up before a high court judge. With the 2021 census less than two weeks away, Mr Justice Swift ruled that the guidance accompanying the question should be changed. The legal action, brought by the campaigning group Fair Play for Women (FPFW), arose after the Office of National Statistics (ONS) backtracked on a promise made by Sir Ian Diamond – the UK’s National Statistician. In January, Diamond was very clear on the Today programme, when he said, ‘The question on sex is very simply your legal sex.’ Sex matters.