Article The Welsh government has betrayed gender critical women

JOSEPHINE BARTOSCH *In England politicians are finally pushing back against transgender lobby groups. But in Wales it's a different story.* “Lesbians don’t have penises” shouted the self-declared “proud dykes” protesting last Saturday at the head of Pride Cymru, Wales’ largest LGBTQ+ Pride march. After around thirty minutes, the activists from the group Get the L Out (GTLO), were escorted away by the police, apparently for their own safety. Spectators jeered, seemingly unconcerned that a factually correct statement should be deemed so offensive as to be unspeakable at an event to celebrate inclusion. In the hours that followed, Welsh politicians and LGBTQ+ figureheads threw criticism at GTLO on social media. Senedd Member Hannah Blythyn tweeted that there was “no place for hate” at Pride. Lu Thomas, chair of the Welsh government’s LGBTQ+ Expert Panel, referred to GTLO as a “toss pot hate group” complaining “They turn up to spoil an event with their exclusionary backward bigotry and then pretend they're the ones being excluded”. But GTLO hold views that would’ve been considered quite mainstream just a decade ago, they simply believe being female is fundamental to being a lesbian. Today, heterosexual, fully intact males who identify as ‘lesbian transwomen’ have penetrated lesbian culture from dating apps to support groups. And any sniff of rejection of these males’ lesbian identity is considered hateful transphobia by activists and Welsh politicians alike. This is what GLTO were trying to highlight. It would be comforting to dismiss this, to laugh it off as identity politics eating its children. But to do so would be to underestimate the enormity of the social rifts which are emerging thanks to the excessive demands of transgender activists. Not only are parents finding themselves divided from their children over the issue, but a struggle between Westminster and devolved administrations is brewing. Perhaps surprisingly, protesters like GTLO have an ally in Attorney General Suella Braverman MP QC. While she has yet to join the left-leaning lesbians in shouting slogans about penises, the Conservative lawyer is unequivocal about the harms caused by transgender ideology. Earlier this month Braverman blasted the waste of public money on partisan diversity training, railing that “Equality laws have been misconstrued and weaponised to fight those who challenge their views as perpetrators of hate speech”. Notably, she named LGBTQ lobby group Stonewall for their part in promoting ideas which are “tearing up the fabric of our society.” But while in England politicians are putting their foot on the brake to avoid hitting some of the legal potholes transgender lobby groups have steered them toward, in Wales ministers have stamped on the accelerator. A LGBTQ+ action plan is currently being drawn-up with input from Stonewall and the panel chaired by the aforementioned independent expert Lu Thomas. Amongst 55 recommendations made in the draft, the plan seems set to: “challenge heteronormative and cisnormative [non trans] assumptions”; offer recognition to “non-binary” identities; and seek to “devolve powers in relation gender recognition.” The women’s rights group Merched Cymru have been unsuccessfully pushing for a meeting to discuss the issues since their inception in 2020. A spokeswoman says it’s “impossible for any women's or LGB group that doesn't follow the gender identity line to get meetings with Welsh government, it relies on a very small pool of organisations to inform its policy development.” She adds that in the wake of Braverman’s announcement, Welsh ministers are “digging in even further.” The Welsh government is already facing one legal challenge from Public Child Protection Wales (PCPW), a group representing around 5,000 parents seeking to challenge mandatory Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) in schools. PCPW’s primary concern is that children “will be taught about sensitive and arguably inappropriate topics such as gender ideology”. The approach currently taken in Welsh RSE is that anything goes with regard to intercourse but mention of biological sex is bigoted; the terms male, female, boy and girl have been expunged from guidance. As the Senedd vies to define itself as anti-Westminster, support for extremist transgender ideology has become a part of a national identity for some members. The consequences are likely to play out in the courts, where the aspirations of Welsh politicians will rub up against the law. During Saturday’s Pride march, First Minister Mark Drakeford said, “no ground for any progressive movement was gained without a struggle.” In this he unwittingly hit a truth; from parents’ groups challenging gender identity in schools to renegade lesbian feminists, ordinary people across Wales have had enough of trans tyranny- they’re ready for a struggle.