A Constituent emailed me to ask if I believed that a woman could have a penis.
Clearly, she wasn’t contacting me for an insight into my biological understanding and expertise. Rather, she was seeking to identify where I stood on the question of ‘trans rights’ which has produced so much confusion and obfuscation from front-line politicians when that question has been put to them recently.
I am relieved that the Prime Minister has now brought some robust common sense to the matter.
There is nothing new about transgender issues. It is as old as human experience. As for it becoming a matter of public discussion and interest, I remember reading Jan Morris’s book Conundrum about her own experience, when it was first published way back in 1974.
Personally, I don’t have a problem with people, who are uncomfortable with their biological sex, identifying as the opposite gender. It does me no harm to me and it isn’t my business to enquire after the personal choices of others: live and let live.
There is a proper distinction to be drawn however, when it comes to a man who identifies a woman, yet retains his male genitals, being admitted to exclusive female facilities such as changing rooms, toilets, hospital wards, and even prisons. I find it difficult to comprehend that some people even question this, let alone mercilessly persecute female academics and authors who have sought to protect these exclusive biologically female spaces.
Now let’s come to the question of ‘conversion therapies’: There is little disagreement that the more cruel and brutal parts of conversion therapy should be banned, indeed current legislation already outlaws the more egregious aspects. There are important interventions however, that need to be thoroughly explored and which must not be caught by the ‘chilling effect’ of ill-defined and poorly thought through legislation. It is crucial that teenagers with gender dysphoria receive support from medical and psychological professionals before they take irrevocable decisions about a transition, which they might later regret. This is not attempted conversion, but merely investigating the causes of gender dysphoria, which can be numerous and complex.
There are particular concerns about the exposure of children to radically progressive ideas concerning sex and gender. We must avoid heading down a road where a generation of young people are taught to think that it is normal to transition to a different gender before becoming an adult.
Finally, Women have been fighting for decades for their sport to achieve the same status and prize money as men, yet we now find ourselves in a situation where biological males can announce themselves to be female and proceed to blow their biologically female opponents out of the water. This is ridiculous. Biological men should compete with biological men and biological women with biological women. A compromise might be to create transgender events where those who have transitioned are able to compete against each other on a level playing field, rather than denying those who have been training for an event their whole lives a fair shot at glory.