It's a racket, folks.

Citizen journalism at its best

(Reprinted and slightly edited with permission from womangendercritical’s blog. I started reading casually but when I realised the connections between The Guardian, Mermaids and the unfortunately-named MAP, I was stunned. MAP is in many schools across the country offering counselling services to young people. This is a very important part of what I’ve been calling the ‘slow-motion scandal’, and parents especially need to start paying much closer attention. Thanks again to Womangendercritical for her investigation.)

Have you noticed an agenda apparent in Guardian reporting of recent years? The vehement adherence to gender identity ideology, the vilification of the women who challenge it, the deafening silence in place of stories it should be covering?

It was the article above, about the Marie Dean Case, which first confused and then outraged me. The Guardian piece was clearly campaign journalism, the intention being to facilitate a trans-identified male prisoner’s move to the female estate. What the Guardian did, until shamed by angry readers, was to minimise the crime ie de-sexualise the nature of the “burglary” and, therefore, disregard any risk to the female prisoners.

It was the above piece that inspired me to do a bit of digging. The Guardian has a history of exposing dark money and labyrinthine ownership structures which mask influence or hide money.  So this was where I started.

The Guardian itself reports that it has a unique ownership structure. Part of that structure is The Scott Trust. As you can see the Board of the Trust have ultimate editorial control & power to sack the editor.

This is one of The Board members. He is also on the board of The Paul Hamlyn Foundation, which immediately looked familiar.

It was the Paul Hamlyn foundation that caught my eye because I had seen them referred to in the accounts of the Mermaids charity. The foundation have a search facility where we can see who they fund.

Sure enough….

Here is another beneficiary of The Paul Hamlyn Foundation.  This is an organisation working with children as young as 11.  If I was in charge of their branding I would definitely recommend a name change, as MAP is also an acronym for Minor Attracted Persons and is currently being used by paedophiles, or pranksters pretending to be paedophiles, in various online spaces.

Naturally, the MAP Youth Fund also advise on “Gender” and have an interesting book collection including The Testosterone Files, Gender Outlaws, Transgender Voices. They have an entire section on Gender and this is not matched by sections on the LGB.

The Paul Hamlyn Foundation also funds anti-bullying charity, “Ditch The Label”. The CEO, Dr Liam Hackett, is a gender ideologue - he uses the misogynist slur “Terf” - and appears to engage in the bullying of women. After demonstrating his lack of regard over women’s need for privacy and dignity during breast cancer screening, He targeted a lesbian, feminist philosopher, Kathleen Stock, engaging in targeted abuse, and blocked a number of women who raised concerns about his behaviour. 

Another beneficiary is Gendered Intelligence. They are another key player in the debate women were told was not allowed to happen. I have seen them frequently referenced in Hansard.  In particular as independent advisors on the management of trans prisoners.

Some of you may remember the sexual health booklet produced by Gendered Intelligence and aimed at “trans youth”.  Quote: “A woman is still a woman even if she enjoys getting blowjobs”.

This next screengrab is the submission, by Gendered Intelligence, to the Transgender Equality Inquiry, courtesy of A Woman’s Place.  Marked up to make it clear their aim is to dismantle legal provisions which allow for same-sex delivery of specific services.

Parliamentary Inquiries publish submissions and the ones to this inquiry are well worth a read. (You can find them here: Hansard)

The Paul Hamlyn Foundation also funds another organisation, All About Trans, enabling them to employ a press officer and media trainer to train “media professionals” from a number of different organisations.

It is well worth looking at the media guidance produced by groups like these. Definitions are highly contested and the re-shaping of language has significant implications for women and non-gender-conforming children. It’s worth taking a closer look at their resources and partners.

It makes sense that they claim to have advised the BBC & Channel 4, two organisations where there has been a noticeable increase in using ‘gender’ where ‘sex’ seems more appropriate. Furthermore, phrases such as “assigned female at birth” & reductive references to women as ‘cervix–havers’ etc seem to have emerged. There is a sense that female biology is inherently transphobic or that referencing women’s sex-based experience is insulting to the trans community.  This is, as an aside, not a good way to foster good relations between different protected characteristics. Further information below.

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I first published this as a thread on twitter.  Courtesy of some sleuthing by some Mumsnet warriors I was sent some information on the founder of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.  (No idea why it did not occur to me to start there!).  Here goes:

Quelle Surprise: Lord Hamlyn & Madam Lash

I don’t share that just as some titillating story. Anyone following this debate needs to understand how BDSM (Bondage and Sado-Masochism) figures in the fetishizing of sex stereotypes. It is well worth reading up on queer theory and, in particular, the work of Judith Butler in particular, for which I recommend Dr Jane Clare Jones.

I singled out the Guardian because it was my daily paper for decades so the sense of betrayal runs deep. The paper is not alone in promoting gender identity ideology but it certainly does appear to be significantly compromised on this issue.  (No disrespect to the women working there who are striving to get women’s issues covered appropriately. I imagine it is not without some personal and professional cost).

Anyone watching Pink News coverage will be used to the lack of any balanced reporting from that outlet.  Here are the CEO, Benjamin Cohen, and his husband, Dr Anthony James, a trustee for Mermaids Gender.

Perhaps these connections offer clarity about why the media is so out of step with the majority view by trying to erase biological reality.