Updates • Page 2

Was the concept of biological sex really ended in 2004?

This is the second in our series of posts about the Haldane judgment. Philip Larkin famously wrote that “Sexual intercourse began / In nineteen sixty-three Between the end of the Chatterley ban / And the Beatles’ first LP”. Protection against sex discrimination followed not long after, in 1975, with...

23rd December 2022
The question for the next four weeks

The Gender Recognition Reform Bill looks set to be voted through by the Scottish Parliament. But before it becomes law it has to be given royal assent.

22nd December 2022
Risks in the final rush to legislate self-ID in Scotland

The Scottish government’s plans to allow anyone from age 16 upwards who is ordinarily resident in Scotland to obtain a gender recognition certificate (GRC) without any medical assessment are due to be voted on by the Scottish Parliament tomorrow, 21st December. The vote comes barely a week after the...

20th December 2022
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
UN expert calls for an “act of compliance”

On Friday 16th December Victor Madrigal-Borloz, the UN Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, sent an extraordinary letter to the Scottish Government claiming that “legal recognition of gender identity” via self-identification is an “international human rights imperative”. He has now...

18th December 2022
Labour should call for a pause before voting on the gender recognition bill in Scotland

Sex Matters has sent an urgent open letter to Anas Sarwar, leader of the Scottish Labour Party, and Jackie Baillie MSP, calling on Labour MSPs to demand more time to consider the implications of the Haldane opinion before voting on the Gender Recognition Reform bill (Scotland). The Labour Party,...

16th December 2022
Clarify the Equality Act: sign the petition

The Equality Act 2010 protects everyone’s rights and covers everything from schools to hospitals, pubs to sports, and everybody’s workplace. It includes protection against sex-discrimination, and allows single-sex services. But on 13th December a judge in Scotland pronounced that Equality Act does not recognise biological sex as a protected...

16th December 2022
The “gender-affirming” care model is built on sand

Our new report shows that the “gender-affirming” model of care for teenagers is based on evidence that falls apart under examination. Researchers and clinicians often argue that gender-questioning teenagers need puberty blockers and hormone treatment because their mental health will suffer without them. But all long-term studies showing mental-health...

15th December 2022
Scottish court rules that sex is about paperwork, not biology

A judgment handed down on 13th December in the Scottish court of session highlights the importance of a Sex Matters campaign to persuade the UK government to clarify the meaning of sex in the Equality Act 2010. SIGN THE PETITION TODAY The ruling concerns the meaning of “woman” in...

13th December 2022
Why we have written to UCAS about data

The latest attempt to destroy data on sex by replacing it with data on self-declared “gender identity” is in the higher-education system. The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), the national undergraduate admissions service that acts as gatekeeper to all university places, is planning to change an already-flawed question...

7th December 2022
Hadley Freeman interviewed on Woman’s Hour

On 5th December 2022, Hadley Freeman was interviewed by Emma Burnett on BBC Woman’s Hour. She talked about why she was leaving the Guardian, after 22 years of working for the paper. The audio with subtitles available on Youtube. We have added links to relevant media articles, and to...

7th December 2022
Petition to make the Equality Act clear – campaign webinar

Maya Forstater and Helen Joyce of Sex Matters were joined by campaigners @MsGiveZeroFox and @satiricole on 6th December 2022 Watch the recording About the webinar Since our petition was launched in early November, more than 38,000 people have signed, calling on the government to update the Equality Act 2010...

29th November 2022
Our response to the NHS interim service specification consultation

The NHS’s public consultation regarding the interim service specification for youth gender services ends on 4th December. We would encourage people to respond, including parents, teachers, school leaders and clinicians. We have published our full response. Sex Matters joins Transgender Trend and the Gay Men’s Network in welcoming the broad direction...

29th November 2022
Mass harassment in HM Prisons and Probation Service

As reported in The Telegraph today, HM Prisons and Probation Service’s Pride in Prison and Probation (PiPP) staff network has circulated documents for Trans Awareness Week telling MoJ staff to recognise a series of words and phrases as “transphobic dogwhistles”. The PiPP is an official staff network, with a...

20th November 2022
Helen Joyce speaks at Caius College

On 25th October 2022, Sex Matters’ Director of Advocacy Helen Joyce spoke at an event at Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge, entitled “Criticising gender-identity ideology: what happens when speech is silenced”. This page documents the events surrounding the talk. Criticising gender-identity ideology: what happens when speech is silenced...

15th November 2022
Lib Dems revise “transphobia” definition

The Liberal Democrats have revised their definition of transphobia in the light of recent legal cases. The previous policy which drew on the work of “organisations such as Stonewall and TransActual UK”. But following advice from two KCs (one, from Karon Monaghan KC, has been published), it has now...

14th November 2022