Kemi Badenoch brings sense to the sex and gender debate
The era of “No Debate” is finally over. And it came to a spectacular close in the most important debating chamber in the country, if not one of the most important in the world.
The Secretary of State for Women and Equalities, Kemi Badenoch, gave a statement in the House of Commons today introducing the a new statutory instrument to tighten up the list of countries which are included within the “overseas track” of the Gender Recognition Act.
She then went on to talk about the need for clarity about the meaning of sex in law. She answered questions about the approach to sex and gender in life and law which she is leading across government. Read the Hansard report.
What the Secretary of State said from the despatch box at Westminster today constituted a tour de force.
The Secretary of State was clear that Stonewall does not define the law in this country. She sees clearly how gender-identity ideology is wreaking havoc across society, from schools and hospitals to sports and workplaces, and how it is damaging women’s rights and child safeguarding.
The Secretary of State confirmed that her department is working on clarifying the relationship between the Equality Act and the Gender Recognition Act – as Sex Matters called for in a petition that garnered 110,000 signatures.
Sex Matters argues that the practice of conversion therapy has evolved into a new, equally abhorrent form, modern conversion therapy, in which troubled children and vulnerable people are medicalised in gender clinics and told the falsehood that it is possible to change sex. We’re delighted to see that the Secretary of State agrees.
She was also clear that there would be an end to gender indoctrination in schools, and that the era of shutting parents out of decisions about their children is over. She set out clearly what is meant by the vague term “social transition”, and confirmed that most of what it encompasses cannot be lawfully accommodated in schools.
It took a lot of work by a lot of people to get to this day. Sex Matters is proud to have helped end the silence about the harms of trans ideology with our petition to make the Equality Act clear, which led to a Westminster Hall debate in June, at which many politicians talked about these issues for the first time.