The Good News Supplement: Monday 18th March - Sunday 24th March

IMAGE CREDIT: Kiki the Maddest aka @RudeFemRants

Yet again our cup runneth over with good news stories from the gender beat. Enjoy!

EHRC To Ensure Fair Play For Women

The EHRC is to take urgent action over the charities which misinterpret the law and allow trans-identified males to apply for the roles supposedly reserved for women.

A number of charities are permitting trans-identified males to apply for positions specifically reserved for female candidates instead of applying to the The Equality Act exemptions which allow employers to restrict a job role to a particular sex. The tireless feminist campaigners at Fair Play For Women have prompted the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to take action over these charities.

The EHRC says it is now conducting an immediate review of its guidance for employers on the advertising of single-sex positions. A spokesperson commented “We are urgently reviewing our guidance on discriminatory adverts and will be updating it shortly… Employers should be aware of their obligations under the Equality Act and know that we will enforce them.”

Allons, Enfants

Senators in the French government are calling for a ban on the medicalisation of gender-distressed minors.

A detailed report released this week by Senator Jacqueline Eustache-Brinio describes ‘one of the greatest ethical scandals in the history of medicine’. It points to the harms of the so-called ‘gender affirming’ medical treatments being prescribed to children and proposes urgent legislation to put an end to them.

Leaving Them Kids Alone

A website which pushes gender ideology to children and teenagers is to be investigated over safeguarding concerns.

Last July we reported on a mental health app called Kooth which effectively coaches children and young people in gender ideology and is supported and used by the NHS.

Now Health Minister, Maria Caulfield, is to hold meetings with senior NHS officials after parents and MPs have raised concerns about the Kooth site. In a letter seen by The Telegraph, Ms Caulfield said that she appreciated ‘the seriousness of the concerns raised’ and said that the matter had been “Escalated to the national and regional safeguarding and mental health teams”.

Fuck Around, Find Out

Planet Fitness has had its own Bud Light moment after defending the man caught shaving in a women’s changing room.

Last week we reported on a branch of Planet Fitness in Alaska where Patricia Silva, who was a member there, challenged the presence of a man in the women’s changing room. Instead of taking action to protect the safety and privacy of its female members, the gym revoked Patricia’s membership, defended the male in the ladies’ and clung to the company’s ‘gender identity non-discrimination policy’.

Within five days, Planet Fitness’ valuation plummeted by $400 million. The company’s value dropped from $5.3 billion on 14th March to $4.9 billion on 19th March and its shares are down by 13.59% compared to a month ago.

It looks like gender ideology can be very bad for business.

A Sporting Chance

UK sporting bodies are being to urged to ban trans-identified males from women’s competitions by the sports minister.

Lucy Frazer, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, has said that the Football Association and other sporting bodies must protect the fairness of women’s sports.

She told Sky News, “I think it's very important that women are able to compete against women and there's an inherent unfairness, that if you're not biologically a woman, you have a competitive advantage. And I think a number of sports have looked at this very carefully and come to the decision that it's not appropriate to have women competing against people who are not biologically women. We've seen that in rowing. We've seen that in swimming. And I would encourage other sporting bodies to look at that very carefully”.

A Room Of One’s Own

The government is planning changes to the Equality Act to protect women’s single sex spaces if it wins then next election.

Senior government figures are considering a manifesto commitment to amend the Equality Act “To make it unambiguously clear that sex means biological sex”. A spokesperson said that the proposed amendment would “Remove the current vagueness which is exploited to undermine women’s rights, security and competition in sport”.

The proposals could also include a wider review of the legislation, which Rishi Sunak said during his 2022 leadership campaign was used to “Engage in social engineering to which no one has given consent.”

A Level Playing Field

Across the pond in the US, the New Hampshire House approved a bill which would prevent trans-identified males from participating in female sports teams in schools and public colleges and universities.

House Bill 1205 would require parents of students to produce a birth certificate to confirm their child’s sex to the school districts before they could participate in a team sport. The bill would also ensure that all interscholastic, intercollegiate, intramural, or club athletic teams that are sponsored by a school are divided according to biological sex and that women’s and girl’s teams are strictly female-only.

The Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, now heads to the New Hampshire’s GOP-led Senate where it is expected to pass.

There is similar news from the state of New York. The Manhattan School District, the largest in the state, voted in favour of a resolution to review current guidelines on the participation of trans-identified males in female sport. The fight is far from over, but it’s a good start.

Glinner Down Under

Our Graham continued to delight audiences in New Zealand this week…

Before moving on the Melbourne where he held a comedy writing masterclass.

Don’t miss him speaking to Michael and James from the Free Kiwis Podcast.

And talking to Chris Lynch at Christchurch Newsroom.

And in conversation with Andrew Urquhart from Rhema.

Don’t forget that Graham’s memoir, Tough Crowd, is still available from Amazon, The Express shop, Lightning Eye, Waterstones, Blackwells and all other discerning outlets. (There are also audio versions available on Audible and Spotify too.)

And Finally…