The Good News Supplement: Monday 19th February - Sunday 25th February

Phillis Wheatley, the first African-American writer to publish a book of poetry in the US. Statue by Meredith Bergmann at the Boston Women's Memorial

A handful of this week’s good news stories from the gender beat. Enjoy!

Sale Or Return

John Lewis has suffered a huge backlash over its promotion of gender ideology.

Last week we reported on the John Lewis staff newsletter which advocated breast binders and scandal-hit charity, Mermaids, to the parents of gender confused kids. It was also revealed that the company funded a portrait exhibition of its LGBTQ+ staff which featured a trans-identified male employee who posts pornographic pictures of himself wearing lingerie and fetish gear on the internet.

It seems that the retail giant subsequently had its own Bud Light moment and has now decided to close the exhibition weeks ahead of its scheduled end date.

And Nothing But The Truth

A trans-identified high court judge who had been a public advocate of gender ideology has resigned from the bench.

Victoria McCloud is a High Court judge who has been on the bench for 14 years. He was instrumental in creating the Equal Treatment Bench Book, guidance for the legal profession which requires the use of ‘preferred pronouns’ in court and the indulging of a defendant’s self-declared ‘gender identity’, even for males accused of violent and sexually violent crime.

Recently, McCloud has commented publicly on issues pertaining to sex and gender demonstrating, as Sarah Phillimore in The Critic puts it, “A concerning lack of objectivity and political neutrality”. For example, he responded to a post on LinkedIn suggesting that LGB Alliance and Sex Matters engage in criminal harassment. He also sent unsolicited private messages to prominent gender critical campaigners, Maya Forstater and Sarah Phillimore, accusing the latter of being ‘angry’ and claiming that she ‘harboured views’ against trans people.

McCloud also appears to have breached the social media guidance issued to judges which clearly state they must not (1) identify their judicial post on any social media account to which the general public has access, and (2) use such an account to engage in debate on matters of political controversy.

McCloud has now chosen to quit the bench. In his resignation letter to the senior judiciary, McCloud likened himself to Rosa Parks and claimed that he cannot remain on the bench while maintaining his dignity. However, one legal expert has suggested that he may have chosen to resign rather than face disciplinary action over the inappropriate behaviour which would cast doubt on his impartiality.

He leaves his post in April.

In Plain Sight

The government is to close the legal loophole which allows sex offenders to change their name and identity.

The government announced plans this week to prevent sex offenders from changing their identities. Police officers will be able to issue a notice to registered sex offenders barring them from changing their names, or attempting to do so, on official documents such as passports and driving licences.

Failure to comply will result in prosecution with a maximum penalty of up to five years in prison.

Leaving Them Kids Alone

A new scientific study from Finland has just demolished the popular myth about suicide and gender confused children.

Gender zealots have always peddled the myth that dysphoric children are at risk of suicide if they are not medicalised. A new ‘ground breaking and data driven’ study by clinicians in Finland has just blown this theory out of the water.

“What these young people need most urgently, the study authors concluded, is comprehensive mental health care – and not necessarily controversial medical interventions.”

Nana On The Naughty Step

The police officer dubbed ‘lesbian nana’ after she arrested a vulnerable teenage girl will have to apologise and ‘reflect’ on her conduct.

In August 2023 a TikTok video went viral showing footage of a female West Yorkshire Police officer arresting a suspect. The ‘suspect’ in question was a traumatised 16-year-old girl who suffers with the spinal condition scoliosis and is on the autism spectrum. The officer was intent on arresting the girl, claiming she had committed a ‘homophobic public order offence’ because she said that the officer looked like her nana who is a lesbian.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) subsequently launched an investigation into the officer's conduct. It has reached a conclusion; “We decided that it would be appropriate for the officer to undertake reflective practice – to reflect and learn from the incident to prevent any issues identified from re-occurring, as their actions fell short of the expectations of the public and the police service as set out in the Code of Ethics”.

Furthermore, a letter of apology will be sent to the girl and her family.

SEEN And Not Herd

And while we’re on the subject of the police, the new organisation set up to protect the gender critical members of the force has had some great press coverage this week.

A few weeks ago we reported on the launch of a new initiative for the boys and girls in blue who know the difference between the two. Police SEEN UK is a network for all serving officers and staff who are sex realists / gender critical.

This week it was the subject of a Daily Mail article which detailed the aims of the group and quoted Cathy Larkman, a former police superintendent: “It is high time for those police officers and staff who believe that there are two sexes and that sex is immutable, to have a voice within the policing service and for that to have as much recognition and support from their leaders as other internal police networks do. Given the growing number of tribunal successes for women who have been unfairly discriminated against for their views, police chiefs would be well advised to support them”.

For more information and to apply for membership, drop them an email at: PoliceSEENUK@outlook.com.

Glinner Down Under

Our Graham is about to head down under for a book tour to Australia and New Zealand with the Free Speech Union.

For information, tour dates and to buy tickets etc, see the Free Speech Union Australia and Free Speech New Union Zealand websites.

And 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…