Josephine Bartosch

When we meet in the House of Lords, Professor Richard Dawkins has just addressed a cross-party parliamentary gathering of politicians and researchers. He is wearing a tie embossed with a DNA double helix which is the perfect accessory for the occasion, because what he’s here to remind Whitehall of is basic science. There’s a kind of Puritan revulsion against even discussing certain things and you can essentially be cancelled just for inviting discussion In his speech to the politicians, Dawkins railed against the ‘debauching of language’ and the assault on science and reason. In particular, he took aim at Gender Studies Professor Anne Fausto-Sterling for her nonsensical argument that ‘sex in humans is a non-binary continuum’. ‘There are two sexes’, he said.

‘Acceptance without exception’ is the aspirational slogan emblazoned across the website, merchandise and literature of Stonewall, the UK’s largest LGBT charity.  The problem is that there are exceptions. Those who are not accepted include those who refuse to believe that a person can change their sex simply by saying: ‘I identify as.’ The fractious nature of the LGBT alliance – and Stonewall's intolerance for dissenting voices within the community – is becoming increasingly clear. At this year's London Pride, a group of protestors from ‘Get the ‘L’ Out’ made their feelings known by marching to the front of the parade with banners, including one reading ‘Transactivism Erases Lesbians.