JK Rowling, the Cass report, women's rights and a hauntingly worrying similarity to Rotherham child sex abuse

Even as I rat-a-tat-tat out the first few keystrokes of this newsletter, I wonder whether I will publish it at all. Will the time it takes to put down my thoughts be wasted? Why are you even venturing into this conversation, James?

In 22 years as a journalist, I have been part of and led campaigns for the betterment of multiple communities up and down the country - some of which have not been easy. I have put difficult questions to people who’d rather not answer them. I always try to pay more attention to the stories and issues that will, in the end, make a difference to people’s lives; make a positive contribution to society. I encourage my team to do the same, and try to be as supportive towards colleagues in such endeavours as I can be.

Two-score years and two of writing freely, confidently and in the public interest about all manner of things without so much as considering swerving something for fear of reprisals.

Until now.

You see, perhaps like you - perhaps not - I have watched the enactment of the new hate laws in Scotland with interest, not least because I do not believe the poor bobbies, doing an already thankless task on the beat, have a cat-in-hell’s chance of enforcing them. Then came tweets from Harry Potter author JK Rowling in which she expressed her own concerns - in her own inimitable way - about women’s rights, as if to test Scotland’s legislators.

Rowling, as she often does in her defence of women’s rights, stirred the hornets’ nest that is the trans lobby, bringing the whole subject to the forefront of the national and international news agenda - now for several consecutive days.

So what is all the fuss about? In a horribly simple nutshell: some women are worried about men taking it upon themselves to state they want to be treated as a woman, going on to demand women’s rights as well as claiming access to women-only spaces. Now, those biologically-born-men do not want to be thought of or treated as trans, certainly no longer as a man. They want to live their lives as a woman.

Legitimate gender dysphoria is a thing and for those who experience it, often it is traumatic. Again, please forgive the almost banal simplicity of this if you are expert in this field, but for many of the people reading this, it will be an introduction to a hugely complex, bewildering, worrying topic. However, what gender dysphoria means for many is a desire to be the opposite sex, not a new, third category. Trans-folk do not want to live their lives in a no-man’s-land; not a M or an F but a T. That, progressive liberals will tell you, is bigotry. It’s isolationist. It is prejudice that brings stigma, alienation and fear. And, to the best of my enlightenment, I can see that and, through reading and trying to understand, I can begin to empathise.

Against that premise, there is an increasingly vociferous, determined and visible movement expressing concerns for women’s rights: from JK Rowling to Olympic great Sharron Davies. Tennis legend Martina Navratilova has long warned against allowing men to transition into women’s sports, citing fears for safety and fairness. She once lamented: “Come on, United States Tennis Association - women’s tennis is not for failed male athletes, whatever their age!”

In growing numbers, women feel that their hard-won rights are being eroded; given away … to men. One correspondent sent me this:

“In my opinion, this is the new manifestation of patriarchy - the only thing left to conquer was womanhood itself, and to take away our right to even name ourselves as women. Transgenderism is seen as a progressive movement when it is the very opposite - it is deeply sexist and regressive, and undermines safeguarding.

Name and contact details known to The Yorkshire Post

You will not be surprised to know, the woman who wrote this note to me daren’t contribute publicly to the conversation for fear of reprisals. So, to women like her, to Rowling, Davies, Navratilova and others who share these concerns, the rise in men wanting to transition into women is an insidious form of misogyny. No matter the dysphoria, you cannot change biology, they say. If I am to reveal my own cards, right now, this is where I sit. The science supports this unequivocally. In this space, you can transition socially and culturally; you can be accepted wholly as a person and loved for who you are, but, if you are to be as respectful to others as you wish to be treated, you cannot expect others to forgo their rights and beliefs, rights and beliefs that are tethered to law and science.

Be warned: holding that view will have you accused of being transphobic. Bigoted. It is a dangerous mast upon which to nail your colours. Should you share that view publicly, in particular on social media, what happens next to you will almost certainly be deeply unpleasant and certainly uncomfortable.

So, first things first, we must ensure everyone feels safe as we come to terms with this as a civilised, inclusive, society; if we are to protect everyone’s rights we must make discussing the issue safe first of all because at the moment it is fraught with danger and whilst it is fraught with danger, it is bereft of knowledge, experience, evidence and insight. The abuse that people receive when daring to suggest some, many, women are in favour of women-only spaces, be they changing rooms and toilets or sports competitions and achievement awards, is terrifying. To suggest women’s rights are safeguarded for people born a biological female is, believe it or not, a controversial thing to say in 2024, heresy: this has to stop. Biological facts cannot be undermined. It’s science. Scientific absolutes cannot be shouted into becoming a parochial inconvenience.

This leads me towards answering my own question: why are you even venturing into this conversation, James?

Honestly? And I may be wrong on this, but I believe this will define our generation, shaping the future irrevocably - and for the better if we skilfully combine compassion and inclusivity with evidence and law. It is desperately critical that we do get this right, too. So how do we make progress? Progress that acknowledges the legitimate fears many women feel, and gives those fears a fair hearing, not ridicule and castigation. How do we make progress that offers support and understanding to those who genuinely experience gender dysphoria and identity incongruence, replacing all of the hatred and stigmatisation. Progress that is steeped in evidence, knowledge and expertise and insulated from the toxicity of ideology, dogma and ill-informed do-goodery.

The best place to start right now is with the incredibly detailed work of Dr Hilary Cass whose independent review of gender identity services for children and young people marks a landmark moment in supporting young people in the midst of gender dysphoria, and offers adults a roadmap towards a sensible, sustainable society. Worryingly, though, she says this:

“Despite the best intentions of everyone with a stake in this complex issue, the toxicity of the debate is exceptional…The knowledge and expertise of experienced clinicians who have reached different conclusions about the best approach to care are sometimes dismissed and invalidated. There are few other areas of healthcare where professionals are so afraid to openly discuss their views, where people are vilified on social media, and where name-calling echoes the worst bullying behaviour. This must stop.”

In other words, the most enlightened clinicians, medical practitioners, psychologists and paediatricians are so afraid of being branded transphobic, bullied, harangued and harassed for merely presenting their evidence that, well, they don’t present their evidence at all. In some cases, they deliberately avoid collecting any, deferring where possible to other care providers.

This is hauntingly reminiscent of something that happened to vulnerable children in South Yorkshire - Rotherham - as well as elsewhere in this country. Alexis Jay, OBE. Ten … years … ago:

“Several staff described their nervousness about identifying the ethnic origins of perpetrators for fear of being thought racist; others remembered clear direction from their managers not to do so.”

Alexis Jay, OBE 2014

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This is a deeply disturbing parallel. In other words, the very people with the powers, knowledge and skills to intervene then and intervene now, daren’t. The fear of damnatory labels - bigot, transphobe, racist - paralyses good people into doing nothing whilst those who desperately need their help are out in the open, exposed to cultish claptrap and exploitation, offered up to the highest bidding unscrupulous actor.

This has to be a watershed moment: woven through every page of Dr Cass’ report is a plea for a calmer, more considered conversation. One that puts human beings, often children and young people, at the forefront. My first reading of her words left me grasping for something that was missing, not from her report but from the wider conversation: respect. Where is the respect in the trans/women’s rights debate? Is there even a debate? Isn’t it just the answer, the sustainable solution that is missing? There is no debate. Women’s rights are sacrosanct and science tells us who women are, nothing else. Yet trans people, too, have the right to feel included, accepted, happy and healthy. Few people will argue otherwise.

Now, I know I will be attacked for this newsletter, branded a stale, tin-eared, white transphobic male, no doubt, for daring to suggest that there are women born biologically female who fear losing their rights to men who transition. Places on sports teams, privacy in public spaces, accolades at work to biologically born males who have transitioned. I will be held up as the finest example of the patriarch, a misogynist myself for daring to purport to speak on behalf of women. ‘You don’t speak for me, James!’ I know. This piece speaks for no one but myself. I do hope parts of it resonate with others, though.

Because I also know from experience that I will likely be thanked by some women; women who cannot believe what is happening to them right now. I will be held up as an ally by these women. A feminist, even, for the words in this newsletter. Is there any wonder people feel reticent about contributing to this, when for saying precisely one and the same thing you are a bigoted misogynist and a right-minded feminist all at the same time?

Crucially, I do not want those experiencing now or those having gone through and made peace with gender dysphoria to think I don’t care about people with a genuine internal conflict about who they are. Those people who have reached out to me to explain the disorientation, the fear, the bewilderment posed to them; I give thanks to the loved ones of those experiencing gender dysphoria who have helped me through sharing; people whose loved ones are entangled in discombobulation owing to their gender, their identity, themselves, even. Individuals who often feel ostracised, objectified and categorised as they seek a trans route out of what can be and often is a painful, lonely, miserable place to be, too often quickly and conveniently - lazily and spitefully, in truth - compared to sex offenders and criminals by the actual, real hateful transphobes. Painted by malicious, callous nasty Luddites as deviants who do not comply with social norms, daubed head-to-toe, in fact, and shunned from society. It is incumbent upon us all to cut such evil out of society full stop. We must reach inside ourselves to find a way to make the trans community comfortable, accepted, included, loved.

But, I’m afraid, we won’t get there by screaming blue murder in one another’s faces. Shouting down women who viscerally believe women’s rights are sacrosanct - why shouldn’t they? - accessible to and only to humans born biologically female.

In a conversation with someone who shall remain anonymous, they said this: surely the only way to protect and provide for all sides - if no side is willing to cede ground - is to find another way?

This took me back to my time reading Homi K. Bhabha, a post-colonial theorist whose work I still refer to today to help me solve problems at home and at work, and it leaves me wondering if Third Space Theory can be the Henry Kissinger, here.

Handily, Bhabha’s work is about cultural identity, though through the lens of colonialism - coloniser v colonised. The Third Space is, in effect, uncharted territory. It is, if you like, an opportunity to create something new when two seemingly incompatible things collide. The Third Space gives rise to something different; something new and previously unrecognisable - you can’t design the outcome, it materialises organically through willing engagement and assimilation. It is a hybridised concoction that delivers new cultures, new identities, new ideas and activities. In time, it too will collide with something seemingly incompatible and so will begin something else, equally amazing and stimulating and, yes, possibly frightening.

So, for now, my position is this: aggressive partisanism has poisoned the well. Some of the aggression is passive, underpinned by sentiment its owners think comes from a good place, yet is as misguided as it is misinformed. Some of it, though, is vile, nasty, vindictive - from all sides. This is the fear that Dr Cass warns is hindering progress and in the process ruining lives - just as happened in Rotherham.

Editor | The Yorkshire Post

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Write to me at: [email protected] - it’s nice to read a friendly word or two.

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