Gender wars: no end in sight?
Our new government might have promised an end to the 'culture wars', but seems to be doing everything it can to prolong them.
‘The government does not plan to amend legal definitions in the Act.’ So said Anneliese Dodds, the minister for women and equalities, in September, in a response to a question about amendments to the Equality Act. Perhaps the one sound idea the Conservatives had in their last few months in power was to clarify that the categorisation of ‘sex’ in the Act meant biological sex - and not gender. And with a shake of parliamentary heads, that hope for clarity is gone. This is bad news for women-only spaces, heads of rape-crisis centres or anyone caught in legal crossfire over who does and does not qualify as ‘a woman’.
We knew that when Lisa Nandy and the new government tut-tutted that the culture wars were ‘over’ that the opposite was probably true - and this latest signalling over gender issues through the Equality Act comes as no surprise. This doesn’t mean that things haven’t shifted, particularly in the bravery of popular opinion to be able to talk about things that might have previously got you labelled ‘transphobe’. But where are the new battle lines?
At the Battle of Ideas festival, we are covering several aspects of the sex and gender wars, from discussing some of the lessons of the victories won by gender-critical campaigners over the past year to examining the problems with medical ethics, the denial of detransitioners and the ‘queering of society’. We’re also going to look at the Equality Act: is it still an important protection for minority groups or has it become a vehicle for anyone’s political gripe or personal grievance?
Read on for some more detail on those sessions - and get your ticket to the Battle of Ideas festival now. We’ll be getting together on the 19 & 20 October in London’s Church House in Westminster for a weekend of talking, arguing and hashing out what the future might be. There are excellent discounts for students, school pupils and our paid Substack subscribers. See you there.
Equality law: freedom’s friend or foe?
It has long been accepted that the fight for equality and for freedom march together in lockstep. But the quest for equality has become ever more a matter of law – culminating in The Equality Act 2010. Politics has become increasingly organised around complex and sometimes conflicting issues of identity, and some fear the great causes of equality and freedom are coming into conflict. Some legal protections of identity groups intended to secure equality now pose thorny issues related to freedom, whether it is the right to enjoy single-sex services or, more broadly, free speech. Conversely, many free-speech activists now see the Act as more essential than ever in protecting the expression of legal, if controversial, views.
Enacted by the coalition government, The Equality Act brought together a host of existing legislation, including laws covering race relations and various discrimination acts, including on the grounds of sex and disability. Supporters of the Act stress that extending previous discrimination law in socially progressive ways has enabled formerly marginalised voices to be afforded space and dignity by protecting people from less favourable treatment. With protections including for sex, race, religion or belief, disability, sexual orientation and gender reassignment, supporters argue the Act encouraged more diverse representation in workplaces, management boards and educational curricula of universities and schools.
Yet 14 years on, it has become clear that some of the Act’s provisions are causing problems. For example, the rise of gender ideology means the legislation has been used as a threat against feminist student societies, women’s sport, and single-sex spaces like domestic violence refuges and rape-crisis centres. The issue is that the Act gives protection to both women and people undergoing ‘gender reassignment’ in ways that are seen as coming into conflict. The law uses the words ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ interchangeably, even though campaigners argue they have different meanings. Maya Forstater, CEO of the charity Sex Matters, said before the election: ‘Whichever party forms the next government, it must grapple with the serious lack of clarity about the law on single-sex services, which is undermining the rights and safety of women and girls in practice.’
Others have raised broader and more systemic issues relating to the Public Sector Equality Duty, including to eliminate discrimination and harassment, and Positive Action to improve representation in workforce, that critics say are being weaponised and can themselves be described as discriminatory.
Recent cases, including those of Amy Gallagher and Sean Corby, show that the Equality Act is being interpreted by tribunal judges in ways which can devastate people’s livelihood and reputation for holding, and voicing, different opinions about race and anti-racism. Meanwhile, Section 26 of the Act uses a definition of harassment that includes ‘unwanted conduct related to a protected characteristic’ that has ‘the purpose or effect of violating’ an individual’s dignity, a subjective criterion open to grievance claims. Conversely, despite such speech-chilling impacts of the Act, increasingly the provision that treats beliefs as protected characteristics has become a key legal route to guaranteeing free speech.
Is free speech strengthened by the legal concept of protected beliefs? Should a subjective category such as preserving dignity of individuals with protected characteristics trump freedom of thought and expression of dissenting viewpoints? Have we tipped over from justified laws against intended and unintended discrimination, to using the law to pursue overly restrictive, partisan, divisive ends? Is it time to repeal, or at least amend, the Equality Act?
Speakers include:
Joanna Cherry KC: King’s Counsel at Scottish Bar; former SNP MP for Edinburgh South West; former chair, Joint Committee on Human Rights
Dolan Cummings: writer and novelist; co-director, Manifesto Club
Maya Forstater: chief executive, Sex Matters
Dr Alka Sehgal Cuthbert: director, Don't Divide Us; co-editor, What Should Schools Teach? Disciplines, subjects and the pursuit of truth
Check out our related sessions at the Battle of Ideas festival…
Neurodiversity to gender dysphoria: a problem of over-diagnosis?
Saturday 19 October, 10:15—11:45
Are we over-diagnosing the likes of neurodiversity and gender-dysphoria, even pathologising behaviour which in the past may have been described as shy, socially awkward or perhaps a bit quirky? Do medical diagnoses help people understand their difficulties in interacting with the world by giving them a vocabulary and practical accommodations that help manage and alleviate debilitating discomforts? And what are the implications for medical ethics and health policy, when diagnoses have become so closely linked to understanding our identities?
Speakers include Dave Clements, Dr Jennifer Cunningham, Dr Az Hakeem, Sophie Spital
The women who wouldn’t wheesht, in association with For Women Scotland
Saturday 19 October, 13:45—14:30
Join some of the contributors to the best-selling book The Women Who Wouldn’t Wheesht to discuss the causes and consequences of this political upheaval of women’s rights. How did it take years of women risking losing jobs, families and friends to challenge a previously fringe ideology? And while some battles have been won – from the resignation of Nicola Sturgeon to widespread coverage of the injustices in sport – are the sex and gender wars still raging?
Speakers include Joanna Cherry KC, Gillian Philip, Susan Smith and Marion Calder
Saturday 19 October, 14:45—16:15
What next for the gender wars? While legal victories are important, will this change a culture of censorship around gender issues in workplaces, schools and public institutions? Has the fight largely been won, or will internal Labour Party tensions and an identitarian party base mean even more gender ideology infecting public life, whatever Keir Starmer’s more pragmatic intention?
Speakers include Simon Calvert, Bev Jackson, Stephen Knight, Fiona McAnena and Professor Jo Phoenix
Meet the author: Dr Az Hakeem on Detrans: When transition is not the solution
Sunday 20 October, 10:00—10:45
Dr Az Hakeem is one of the first clinicians to write about the modern explosion in trans identification from outside the ‘gender affirmative’ paradigm. In his new book, DETRANS: When transition is not the solution, he uses his background in providing psychiatry and psychotherapy services to adults who experience gender dysphoria to explore and give voice to the first-hand experiences of those detransitioners and desisters for whom gender transition was not the hoped-for solution or panacea.
Speakers include Dr Az Hakeem
From WPATH to the Cass Review: the crisis in medical ethics
Sunday 20 October, 11:00—12:30
From the long-awaited Cass Review to the publication of the WPATH files, many people now feel that a blasé approach to children’s medicine has proved that something has gone deeply wrong with medical ethics. Why has this been allowed to happen? Has a central idea of medicine – ‘first, do no harm’ – been lost in pursuit of what is politically correct? Have we given up on the cool-headed pursuit of medical ethics? And what do we need to do to restore trust in doctors?
Speakers include Jennifer Lahl, Dr Margaret McCartney, Stella O'Malley and Nancy McDermott
Declare your pronouns: EDI and compelled speech, in partnership with FIRE
Sunday 20 October, 15:45—17:00
What is the impact of EDI on our institutions? Do such policies promote social justice and enhance opportunities for underrepresented groups? Or are these policies playing a divisive role in public life, to the detriment of free speech and free inquiry – imposing values on students, employees and customers by compelling the majority to think and speak only in officially approved ways? Is EDI/DEI here to stay or might it DIE in the future under the weight of popular revolt?
Speakers include Dr John Armstrong, Eric Kaufmann, Connor Murnane and Dr Joanna Williams
Saturday 19 October, 12:15—13:30
From homophobic slur to LGBTQ+ identity, ‘queer’ is no longer just a word. The concept of ‘queering’ has now emerged – a technique to challenge binaries, boundaries and ‘heteronormativity’ across society as a whole. What is behind this complete shifting of language and the attempt to re-write the past, present and future through a ‘queer lens’? Is queering simply a new way of looking at the world, one which we should embrace with an attitude of ‘live and let live’? Or is there something to be defended in our understanding of binaries and boundaries, that help our understanding of each other rather than harm?
Speakers include James Esses, Professor Frank Furedi, Kate Harris and Graham Linehan