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1./ A thread on the most dangerous idea our political elite has embraced for decades... and whether we can trust the Tories not to fall for it. Last week in a 'debate' hosted on @mypinknews a cunning strategy was set out to sell Gender Self-ID to Tory backbenchers.
2./ This may seem wildly ambitious. After all, isn't the idea people should be able to decide what sex they are- with no restrictions at all- the sort of stuff woke warriors like @DawnButlerBrent dream up in between cheering on Extinction Rebellion? It is. And yet....
3./ As the 'debate' made clear Self-ID is now going to be repackaged in what for Tories is the alluring language of individual autonomy. If they have their way the gender identity lobby will tart up Self-ID so it seems like the kissing cousin of Adam Smith's Self-Interest.
4./ Tory MPs should ignore this, not least because the more voters learn about Self-ID the less they like it. Not that you'd guess from the 'debate' where the same tired claims were made that Gender Recognition Reform is somehow nothing to do with single sex spaces
5./ No one on our side ever claimed a gender certificate had to be shown to gain entry to girls' changing rooms. Self-ID is sinister because it would allow anyone to identify as a woman. So how would you know who is genuinely trans entering a women's space? Cue Alex Drummond
6./ The current GR process was designed for transsexuals who have a deep-seated need to try to become the opposite sex. A psychiatric panel assesses their commitment. Alex champions a new approach that says you don't have to bother with surgery (or even look like a woman).
7./ Alex is at the heart of a revolution in the trans movement that says multiplying 'non-binary' identities are all valid and that medical panels and any restrictions must be swept away. But if someone who looks like Alex can gain entry to single sex spaces, what bloke can't?
8./ Self-ID would effectively allow any male, no matter their appearance, to enter women's spaces. Critics ask why would non-trans people (blokes in other words) do that. If Red Wall Tories don't know the answer to that they've already spent too long away from their constituents.
9./ When I asked one proponent of reform if in the future we were to assume all big burly bearded people entering a women's changing room were in fact nice, genuine transwomen expressing their inner identity he said, yes. Good luck with that approach at your next hustings
10./ If this was the only flaw with Self-ID then it would be bad enough. But there are other problems that should concern Conservatives (and all of us). If people can rewrite their life stories & society has no option but automatically accept these 'edits' where will it end?
11./ If we must automatically accept the reality of a guy who says he's a woman with a penis must we also accept someone's inner reality who says they're an outstanding employee when they're not; or not a criminal when they are? Maybe they've qualifications (..in their own head).
12./ Self-ID says we must always believe what an individual says is in their mind. They always know best. This would dispense with society as an arbiter and judge of reality. That's a Pandora's Box which once open will take us to strange and troubling places. Such as this
13./ I worked on this BBC Horizon about people who wanted limbs removed because they identified as amputees. The psychiatrist who signed off the surgical removal of limbs on the NHS was the UK's leading expert on transsexuality Russell Reid. He said the issues were the same.
14./ Reid was the expert advisor to the govt during the passage of the original Gender Recognition Act (2004). He was later found guilty of misconduct for fast-tracking the transition of a woman who wanted to be a man because she believed she was Jesus. https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/nov/01/health.gender
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/nov/01/health.gender
15./ If 'transition' in the past attracted a small minority who had other mental health issues how do we know these people won't be overlooked if Self-ID makes transition automatic? Especially now there are over 100 gender identities (as the BBC loves to tell children).
16./ Talking of kids, this page from @Mermaids_Gender labelled 'Resources for Young People' offers a link to a site about a 'non binary' identity called 'Neutrois'. A few clicks later and you're told some 'neutrois' want to become 'null'; ie eunuchs. https://mermaidsuk.org.uk/young-people/resources-for-young-people/
https://mermaidsuk.org.uk/young-people/resources-for-young-people/
17./ Many 'nulls' it seems don't want to CHANGE their sex. That's so 2004. They want to be unsexed. So uncomfortable are they with the biological reality of their bodies, they may "seek an orchiectomy or a penectomy." Russel Reid's legacy clearly lives on.
18./ When @SadiqKhan intoned the mantra "all gender identities are valid" did he think he was validating this one? Are Tories now going to celebrate young men removing their testicles not to try to be women but because they were born with an inner eunuch? https://talkradio.co.uk/news/sadiq-khan-all-gender-identities-are-valid-20021732993
19./ That's not the half of it. Waiting in the wings are other identities that want validation. If Self-ID is to give automatic legal recognition for non binary people then why not for the Plurals, people who believe they are systems or multiple personalities.
20./ The same arguments as used by the LGBTQ+ lobby will be used: How dare society decide what's real. How dare we restrict people's authentic journey to full self hood. Or in this case selfhoods. The Plurals don't want to be forced to "integrate" and good luck to them.
21./ And then there are the elves. If all gender identities are valid, then why not these lovely peeps with their inner greenness? They don't appear to advocate puberty blockers in kids, or castration as a form of self-actualisation. Or not yet they don't.
22./ The Tories have a choice. They can follow meekly in the footsteps of Sadiq, Starmer, Sturgeon and the woke corporations and their lobbyists. Or they can listen to the public. They won in 2019 by sticking it to know it all elites. Will they be brave enough to do that again?
