The Good News Supplement: Monday 13th May - Sunday 19th May

Lucy Smith & Pauline Ranken of the Ladies Scottish Climbing Club scaling Salisbury Crags cliff in Edinburgh, 1908.

Another jam-packed edition of good news from the gender beat this week. Enjoy!

Leaving Them Kids Alone

The UK government has announced new schools RSHE guidance which will prevent teachers from indoctrinating children into gender identity ideology.

The government is to overhaul school sex education guidance to limit the teaching of certain subjects until pupils are thirteen years old.

Under the new RSHE statutory guidance, schools will be prohibited from telling children that they can change their ‘gender’. “Staff will be explicitly told to avoid proactively teaching children about gender identity. If asked, they should teach ‘biological’ facts about sex”

The Secretary of State for Education, Gillian Keegan, spoke in parliament about the government’s RSHE proposals.

She said that, overall this guidance is underpinned by three core values:

1] Parents have right to know what their children are being taught.
2] Teachers are there to teach children facts, not push the agendas of campaign groups.
3] Schools should not teach about the contested issue of gender identity.

She underlined the third point by reiterating, “We are making it absolutely clear that the contested topic of gender identity should not be taught in schools at any age… Whilst protected characteristics such as gender reassignment should be taught, they must be done so on a factual basis, at an appropriate age and not based on contested ideology”.

The Mississippi Belter

This week Mississippi became the 7th US state to enact legislation that protects women’s single sex spaces. Governor Tate Reeves signed SB 2753 - the SAFER (Securing Areas for Females Effectively and Responsibly) Act into law.

Commenting on social media, Gov Reeves stated, “Today is a win for girls and women across our state, and I was proud to sign SB 2753.You have my word that as long as I’m governor, our state will do everything in its power to keep Mississippi’s daughters safe. Thank you to all of the girls and women across our state who stood up and made your voices heard! We are grateful for your efforts and proud of you!”

The Dust Settles

In news from Down Under, politician John Pesutto, has settled two defamation actions brought against him by Kellie-Jay Keen and Angie Jones.

Women’s rights campaigners, Australian, Angie Jones, and Terf Island’s very own Kellie-Jay Keen (Posie Parker), brought defamation actions against the Victorian Liberal Leader, John Pesutto, following comments he made last year after the Let Women Speak event in Melbourne was gate-crashed by a group of neo-Nazis.

Pesutto has now settled these two defamation cases and issued an apology.

Talking about this outcome, Kelly-Jay Keen accepted Pesutto’s apology and called it “A fantastic step for Australian women”.

John Pesutto is still facing legal action from MP Moira Deeming and the case is due in court later this year.

Sisters In Law

Some good news from both sides of The Atlantic this week as a number of wonder women take on the legal fight for their rights.

Firstly, in the UK, Allison Bailey’s appeal against Stonewall was heard at the Employment Appeal Tribunal.

In July 2022 Allison Bailey won a landmark victory when an employment tribunal found unanimously that she had been discriminated against and victimised by Garden Court Chambers on the basis of her gender critical beliefs. However, the tribunal did not uphold her claims against Stonewall ie that its actions were unlawful under the Equality Act 2010 because they constituted Stonewall “instructing, causing or inducing” Garden Court Chambers’ unlawful discrimination.

She appealed that decision at the Employment Appeal Tribunal in London this week. (Surrounded by some absolutely splendid company.)

On the other side of The Channel, Dora Moutot and Marguerite Stern are taking legal action in response to the relentless abuse, threats and harassment they have endured as a result of their gender critical beliefs and feminist campaigning.

They are pursuing legal action against Nina Séron-Abouelfadil, parliamentary assistant to deputy Mathilde Panot of La France Insoumise party, over her social media comment, “TERFs to the stake”. They are also pursuing legal action against certain unidentified individuals who have made death threats against them during public demonstrations.

Meanwhile, there was some big news from the US in the fight against medicalising vulnerable dysphoric youngsters.

Prisha Mosley, a brave detransitioner, is taking legal action against the clinical team which fast-tracked her into medicalisation when she was just seventeen.

Despite the defendants’ motions to dismiss, a judge has now ruled that the case is legally viable. North Carolina Superior Court Judge Robert Ervin decided that “The Court has determined as a matter of law that the allegations of Plaintiff’s Complaint, treated as true, are sufficient to state a claim upon which relief may be granted”.

This is hugely significant as Prisha’s is the first detranistioner lawsuit that has been allowed to proceed in a US court.

We wish all of these amazing women every success in their legal fights. All strength and power to you, sisters.

Women Won’t Wheesht - Victory In Edinburgh

In extremely important news from Scotland, Roz Adams has won her legal case against Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre.

Roz Adams, was employed by Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre (ERCC) as a counsellor. When a ‘service-user’ (ie a woman who has suffered male sexual violence) requested to know the sex of her support worker, explaining that she would not feel comfortable talking to a male, Roz suggested putting the woman’s mind at rest by informing her that the staff member in question was female but merely identified as non-binary. She was shocked to subsequently receive a letter informing her that she was being investigated for ‘gross misconduct’ and faced immediate dismissal without pay. She left ERCC following a nine-month disciplinary process throughout which she was accused of ‘transphobia’.

She subsequently took legal action against the ERCC, claiming constructive dismissal because of her gender critical beliefs.

This week, the Employment Tribunal found that ERCC discriminated against Roz Adams on basis of her gender critical belief & constructively dismissed her. Its judgement is not only damning of the ERCC itself - describing its investigation against Roz as ‘reminiscent of the works of Franz Kafka’ - but it is also excoriating of it trans-identified CEO, Mridul Wadhwa, about whom we have written in the past.

The Tribunal described ‘a heresy hunt’ conducted by Wadhwa and other senior managers against Roz Adams and decided that Wadha had an agenda to ‘cleanse the organisation’ of staff not adhering to trans ideology. It said that ERCC’s position was “At the very extreme end of gender identity theory” and concluded that “There is absolutely no need for a Rape Crisis Centre to be seen to take such a stance”.

Huge congratulations to Roz Adams and her legal team.

The Wheels Are Coming Off

Stonewall is to review how it compiles the ranking of its ‘Workplace Equality Index’ amid a fierce backlash over the organisation’s promotion of gender woo.

In light of the Cass Review, Stonewall’s lobbying of trans ideology has faced intense scrutiny. Now several of Stonewall’s Top 100 employers from last year have said they do not want to be included in this year’s rankings.

The ship is sinking and the rats know it.

For The Reading List

A fabulous new book, The Women Who Wouldn't Wheesht, will be published by Constable on 30th May.

It is edited by the redoubtable Susan Dalgety and Lucy Hunter Blackburn, features over thirty essays - authors including JK Rowling and Joanna Cherry MP - and tells the story of the fight for women’s sex-based rights in Scotland over the last five years.

You can pre-order it here. It seems the book is already shooting up the charts!

And Finally…