Relationships
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The obsession with trans inclusivity is making a mockery of equality
Kate Barker, CEO of the LGB Alliance, for The Telegraph.
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Woman who posed as boy and sexually assaulted teenager sentenced
Mark Brown & Helen Pidd for The Guardian
Georgia Bilham given 24-month community order and made to join sex offender register.
A jury at the week-long trial heard how Bilham created a male alter ego called George_132x on Snapchat to trick her accuser into believing she was a boy. -
Stonewall chair speaks (and then recants)
Iain Anderson, chair of trustees for Stonewall, has given an extended interview to Sky News’s Beth Rigby. It is well worth watching the whole thing. In the interview Anderson seemed to be trying to distance the organisation from the extreme position it has taken, saying that he recognises that...
22nd July 2023
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Georgia Bilham convicted after posing as man to seduce teenager
Peter Chappell for The Times
A woman who posed as a man to lure a short-sighted teenager into a relationship has been found guilty of sexual assault. -
Blade Silvano: Woman who pretended to be man guilty of sex assault
Phil Shepka for BBC News, Cambridgeshire
A woman who pretended to be a man in order to deceive a woman into having sex with her has been convicted.
Blade Silvano used an unknown object and wore boxer shorts when she sexually assaulted the victim whom she met online, Cambridge Crown Court... -
Lesbian groups are being banned from female-only spaces in bid to include men who identify as women, report claims
Sanchez Manning for Mail Online
An article about our report Lesbians without liberty.
• Gay women said to be meeting in secret to stop events being 'invaded by men'
• Research featured women's testimonies in survey about single-sex spaces -
Lesbians without liberty
With a foreword by Joanna Cherry, this document investigates how the UK denies freedom of association to women who love women.
Discriminating against people because of their sexual orientation is a violation of their fundamental human rights. Alongside comments from many lesbians, we explain how the law needs to... -
Joanna Cherry KC speaks about the importance of sexual orientation under the Equality Act
For LGBT History Month 2023, Joanna Cherry speaks in the House of Commons.
Read a transcript. -
LGB Alliance
Registered charity set up in 2019 to advocate for the rights of gay, lesbian and bisexual people. Founded by two lesbians, Bev Jackson (who in 1970 was a founding member of the UK Gay Liberation Front) and Kate Harris (who was formerly an active supporter of, and fundraiser for,...
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Freedom of belief matters
Sex Matters’ response to a call for input by the United Nations’ Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
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Sex Matters responds to CPS consultation
Sex Matters has responded to the Crown Prosecution Service’s public consultation on its proposed revision to the section on “deception as to gender” in its guidance on prosecuting rape and serious sexual offences. In fact what the chapter should be called is “deception as to sex”. The case law...
19th December 2022
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Response to the Crown Prosecution Service’s consultation on deception as to sex
Sex Matters examines the proposed revision to the CPS’s legal guidance on Rape and Serious Sexual Offences, Chapter 6 – Consent
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Gay Men’s Network: Deception as to biological sex in cases of rape and serious sexual offences
Response to the Crown Prosecution Service’s consultation.
"We urge a radical and comprehensive re-think reflecting the law in this area and properly weighing in the balance the interests of victims." -
The Lesbian Project
Founded in March 2023 to highlight and champion the experiences, insights and sensibilities of lesbians in all their diversity. Intended to give voice and influence to women whose stories are too often overlooked. Works to build a knowledge base about lesbian lives, promote sensible and evidence-based policy, and contribute...
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Converting minds or bodies?
A riposte to the Good Law Project’s published advice on conversion therapy
16th August 2022
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Trans Widows Voices
A trans widow is a woman (usually heterosexual) whose male partner or husband believes that they have a gender identity other than “man” or who cross-dresses. Often women also report having experienced that their husband or partner has autogynephilia (AGP). Women in this situation report feeling as if their...
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Groups defending sex-based rights
Overview of groups opposing sex self-ID in the UK, set up by individuals and collectives concerned by the failure of established third-sector organisations to defend women’s sex-based rights, child safeguarding and evidence-based policymaking. Also listed on our website.
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What is conversion therapy?
Stella O’Malley of Genspect explains… “Gay conversion therapy” is the term given to attempts to change a person’s sexual orientation from gay to straight. This includes demeaning and painful practices such as electric shocks, forced watching of pornography and, in extreme cases, “corrective rape”. Such abhorrent practices are now...
15th June 2022
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Sex Matters briefing for conversion therapy debate
On Monday 13th June there will be a Westminster Hall debate on introducing “gender identity” into the planned government bill to ban gay conversion therapy. This is a debate following a public petition. It is not a government motion, but a government Minister will respond. This is Sex Matters’...
11th June 2022
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“Conversion” therapy or just therapy?
On 23rd May 2022 an article appeared in the i news stating that Dr Az Hakeem was under investigation for attempting to “practise transgender conversion therapy”. Dr Az Hakeem is a psychiatrist now in private practice after more than 15 years working in the NHS. He is Fellow of...
8th June 2022
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Briefing: “Conversion” therapy or just therapy?
There has been a media report that a young patient has complained to the General Medical Council about Dr Az Hakeem, accusing him of “conversion therapy”. This is Sex Matters’ brief analysis.
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Through the Looking Glass: Making sense of the memorandum of understanding on conversion therapy
A two-part article by counsellor, supervisor, trainer and researcher Peter Jenkins, exploring the impact of trans activism channelled via the Memorandum of Understanding on Conversion Therapy (MOU) on the practice of counselling and psychological therapy within the context of the United Kingdom.
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Scoping survey for government equalities office consultation on conversion therapy
Written by Thoughtful Therapists, a group of psychotherapists and counsellors working in the area of gender and gender dysphoria, in November 2021
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Has your MP fallen for a simple slogan?
Was your MP one of the ones who posed with a sign about banning conversion therapy? It is worth writing to them urgently. Make sure they hear the other side. Use our form to send them Dr Hilary Cass’s interim report and Sex Matters’ report on the “Ban Conversion...
16th May 2022
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No ban on talk therapy for gender-distressed children in Queen’s Speech
It has been confirmed in the Queen’s Speech that the government intends to pursue a limited ban on “conversion therapy” aimed at practices intended to change sexual orientation but not to include in this therapy to resolve gender distress. But the “ban” campaign continues to promote simplistic slogans about...
11th May 2022
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What is behind the campaign to ban conversion therapy?
The campaign to ban “conversion therapy” has come out of nowhere, to suddenly dominate the priorities of organisations such as Stonewall, Gendered Intelligence, Mermaids, GIRES and the LGBT Foundation. There have been protests and petitions, and these groups pulled out of a planned international conference on human rights when...
4th May 2022
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Why ban talking therapy?
How a campaign to criminalise the most effective treatment for gender-distressed children made it from the margins to the mainstream: we look at the history of conversion therapy.
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Sex Matters’ statement on conversion therapy law
Sex Matter praises decision to abandon fatally flawed “Conversion Therapy Bill”.
31st March 2022
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Responses to the government consultation on banning conversion therapy
The government's consultation on conversion therapy has now closed, and the responses are being analysed. More than a thousand people used the form on our website to send the government their own responses to the consultation.
11th February 2022
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Response to the government consultation on banning conversion therapy
We reviewed the government’s evidence base and, like the EHRC, found little evidence to support this legislation – and a great deal that concerned us…
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It’s not too late to talk to your MP!
Sex Matters supporters have been speaking to their MPs about the proposed legislation on conversion therapy. Their reports from face-to-face and telephone meetings highlight the need for a proper review of the proposals. Supporters who have managed to speak to their MPs tell us that some have been surprised...
2nd February 2022
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Organisations unite to praise the EHRC
Twenty different campaigning groups from across the UK have come together in a statement of response on the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s recent communications – with the UK Government about conversion therapy and with the Scottish Government about reform of the Gender Recognition Act. The EHRC has come...
31st January 2022