The Good News Supplement: Monday 20th January - Sunday 26th January

IMAGE CREDIT: @Serena_Partrick

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

The New Order

One of Donald Trump’s first acts as US President was to sign an Executive Order upholding the reality of sex over ‘gender ideology’.

This Executive Order:

• Establishes government-wide recognition that sex is binary and clearly defines the terms ‘male’ and ‘female’

• Orders the removal of guidance, communications, policies, and forms promoting gender ideology

• Orders that federal agencies must stop substituting gender identity for sex when enforcing sex discrimination laws

• Defines the word ‘woman’ as ‘adult human female’

• Requires that all government identification and records, including passports, must reflect sex rather than self-declared gender identity

• Prevents the housing of male prisoners in women’s prisons and prevents taxpayer funded ‘transition’ procedures for incarcerated prisoners

• Prevents the enforced use of ‘preferred pronouns’

• Upholds the right to recognize the binary nature of sex, including in workplaces and federally funded institutions

May Mailman

And if celebrating a Trump initiative doesn’t sit comfortably with you (as it certainly doesn’t with me!) perhaps it may help to know that, apparently, this Executive Order was written by May Mailman, the former Legal Director of the Independent Women’s Forum and a graduate of Harvard Law.

Kara Dansky has provided a brilliantly detailed analysis of the Executive Order (and its various limitations) on her Substack site.

She writes:

“This order strikes me as significant for a number of reasons, and I’m particularly pleased to see it rescind all previous orders that enshrine ‘gender identity’ in federal administrative law and clarify that the previous administration’s reliance on Bostock v. Clayton County was misplaced. I’m also very pleased to see it call for a re-evaluation of the 2012 PREA regulations, which permit men to be housed in women’s facilities under certain circumstances.

Its limitations are important; there is much work to be done to eliminate ‘gender identity’ at the state level and in federal statutes. And, of course, there is work to be done in the courts. But this order is a significant step toward eliminating the scourge of ‘gender identity’.”

Justice Is Served

The federal case against Dr Eithan Haim has been dropped.

Last June we reported on Dr Eithan Haim, a clinician indicted on felony charges after he revealed that gender-distressed minors were being secretly medicalised in Texas.

In 2022 Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, stated that administering medical treatments to dysphoric minors could constitute a form of child abuse and Governor, Greg Abbott, instructed the Department of Family and Protective Services Commissioner “To conduct a prompt and thorough investigation of any reported instances of these abusive procedures in the State of Texas.” The Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH) subsequently issued a statement that it was to cease prescribing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to minors.

However, just over a year later, in May 2023, Christopher F Rufo reported that TCH was still treating gender-confused minors with medical interventions and was still operating its ‘transgender programme’. The anonymous whistle-blower who featured in Rufo’s article was Eithan Haim, a surgeon who completed his surgical residency at TCH. He released documents which appear to show that TCH staff had continued to provide puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to children even after the public declaration they had stopped doing so.

The day after Rufo’s article was published, the Texas Legislature voted to ban medical interventions for gender-confused minors. The very TCH ‘transgender’ treatments exposed by Dr Eithan Haim were made illegal within 24 hours of the story breaking.

On 23rd June 2023, the day he was due to graduate as a surgeon, two federal agents arrived at Eithan Haim’s home to interview him. He was handed a letter signed by a federal prosecutor stating that he was being investigated for a criminal case regarding ‘medical records’. Dr Haim has continually maintained that the documents he leaked contained no patient details and that no laws were broken. In January 2024, Dr Haim decided to waive his anonymity and began to speak out publicly.

At 7am on Tuesday 4th June 2024, Dr Haim and his pregnant wife found three heavily armed US Marshalls on their doorstep. The United States Department of Justice had indicted Dr Haim on four federal felony charges. Dr Haim was subsequently released on bond but, with a new baby on the way, he faced up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.

This week, after suffering months of stress and anxiety (during which his wife Andrea gave birth to a beautiful baby girl!) Dr Eithan Haim has finally been vindicated. The US Justice Department has dropped all charges against him.

Ryan Patrick, one of Dr Haim’s attorneys, said the dismissal speaks to the veracity of their case. He added, “We are very happy for Dr Haim and his family that this ordeal is finally over”.

Making a statement on X/Twitter, Dr Haim’s wife, Andrea Cohen Haim, wrote:

“Eithan Haim was the only person with the courage to stand up for what was right. For him, it wasn't even a decision. Kids were being harmed, and he had to stop it. Because of Eithan and Chris Rufo, the Texas Legislature voted to save untold numbers of children in the State of Texas from the horrific consequences of transgender medical experimentation. It came at great personal cost… But if you ask either of us, we would do it again in a heartbeat. Because of Eithan, the world is a better place for children, including our daughter. There is no greater gift we can give her than the knowledge that her daddy is a hero”.

We extend our sincere congratulations (and raise our own glass) to Dr Eithan Haim, his family and his legal team.

The Dominoes Are Toppling

Every major government department has left Stonewall’s Diversity Champions Programme following concerns over gender ideology.

More than 15 ministerial departments - including the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign Office - contacted by The Times this week have confirmed they were no longer part of Stonewall’s Diversity Champions Programme.

Nothing But The Truth

A judge has ruled that Sandie Peggie and her legal team can refer to a trans-identified male with the correctly sexed pronouns in court next month.

We have reported previously about nurse, Sandie Peggie, who is taking legal action after being forced to share changing facilities with a trans-identified male. Her case against NHS Fife and Dr Beth (formerly Theodore) Upton begins at Edinburgh Employment Tribunal next week.

Her opponents have previously failed in the bid to maintain the anonymity of the transgender colleague, Dr Beth Upton, at the centre of the suit. They then tried to control the language used by Ms Peggie and her legal team by petitioning for a ban on the use in court of male pronouns in reference to Dr Upton.

This week, Judge Sandy Kemp ruled in favour of Ms Peggie and is allowing the use of male pronouns for Dr Upton in court. He rejected the claims made by Dr Upton’s lawyers that the use of accurate language would amount to ‘harassment’.

And more good news about this case; the redoubtable Tribunal Tweets has been granted permission to live-tweet the court proceedings. You can follow Sandie Peggie’s legal fight via Tribunal Tweets’ X/Twitter account and on their website.

We wish Sandie and her legal team the very best of luck.

And Finally…