Getting back on track

In this episode, Helen Joyce speaks to Sarah,* the mother of a daughter who identified as trans for seven years and has since desisted. Sarah explains how her daughter’s identity took hold in early adolescence, influenced by bullying, undiagnosed autism, peer groups and online communities, and how those around the family affirmed it. She explains what she believes helped her daughter find her way back to comfort with her biological sex, and warns that proposed conversion-practices legislation could result in families like hers facing criminal charges, simply for doing what is in their children’s interests in very difficult circumstances. *To protect the family’s privacy, all names have been changed and Sarah’s identity has been obscured. Read our briefing on the draft Conversion Practices Bill.

In this week’s episode, Helen Joyce is joined by social scientist Matilda Gosling, who was commissioned by Sex Matters to write Criminalising conversations, a new report on the government’s proposed Conversion Practices Bill and how it would affect parents, therapists and gender-distressed young people. The report is the first of its kind to document the serious problems with the planned new law foreseen by experienced therapists who work with gender-distressed young people. Matilda discusses the risk that experienced therapists stop working with gender-distressed people for fear of prosecution, and the knock-on impacts on children and parents, lesbian and gay people, and detransitioners.

Why does it matter whether we collect data on sex? In this episode of the Sex Matters podcast, Helen Joyce talks to sociologist Professor Alice Sullivan of University College London about her forthcoming book Sex, Lies and Statistics, due out in November. Alice explains why sex has always been an essential statistical variable, and how conflating it with “gender identity” conceals differences in health, crime and life outcomes. They discuss preference falsification: how the vilification of the commonplace understanding of sex as real and biological has led many people to conceal their true views. They look at how public and private organisations, from the Office for National Statistics to sports governing bodies, came to adopt fringe ideas that few people share, and why so many institutions have treated people who raise concerns as the problem. Finally, Alice discusses the need for stronger free-speech protections and an end to the culture of impunity if sex-based data and evidence-based policy-making are to be restored.

This week, Maya Forstater and Fiona McAnena explain the key role charities have played in allowing misunderstandings of the Equality Act 2010 to undermine safeguarding in schools. They look at recent NSPCC guidance on changing rooms, which could allow male teachers to supervise female pupils while they get changed, counter to essential safeguarding principles. They discuss the charity sector’s opposition to Keeping children safe in education, statutory guidance for schools that was recently updated to emphasise the importance of clear sex-based rules. They argue that schools should reject advice from charities that are unwilling to state and act on risk factors related to sex. Secrecy, lies and evasion about sex put children at risk of abuse, exploitation and harm.

In this week’s episode, Fiona McAnena is joined by Tanya de Grunwald, host of the This isn’t Working podcast and founder of the This is Working network, to discuss how employers should navigate the sex and gender debate. Widespread misunderstanding of the law over the past decade has resulted in workplace policies that now urgently need to be put right. Fiona and Tanya explore why some employers are correcting these policy mistakes while others remain stuck, the cost of ignoring these issues and why open, professional conversations in the workplace are the way back to reality.