The Good News Supplement: Monday 27th May - Sunday 2nd June

The ‘Hag of Beara’ on Skellig Michael in County Kerry - IMAGE CREDIT: @folkhorrorforum

Another bumper edition bulging at the seams with good news from the gender beat this week. Enjoy!

Leaving Them Kids Alone #1

Probably the best news this week is that the Health Secretary, Victoria Atkins, has taken emergency measures to ban private prescriptions of puberty blockers for gender distressed children.

Just before the dissolution of parliament, the government introduced new regulations to ban private clinics, whether in the UK or abroad, from prescribing puberty blockers for minors under 18.

These are emergency measures, effective for three months, and it will be up to the next government to decide whether to extend the legislation. (Should the Labour Party win the general election, Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting, has already stated that the party would fully implement the Cass review and he has indicated a commitment to cracking down on private gender clinics.)

In a separate piece of legislation applying to England, Wales and Scotland, ‘indefinite restrictions’ are placed on GPs prescribing puberty blockers.

In similar news from across The Channel, the French Senate has voted to adopt a bill which will tightly regulate the medicalisation of gender distressed children. ‘Gender reassignment’ treatment - cross sex hormones and surgery - for minors will be banned. The provision of puberty blockers will be restricted to specialist centres and only prescribed following a minimum period of two years after the first consultation.

The bill now progresses to the French National Assembly.

Leaving Them Kids Alone #2

Teachers will now have to inform parents if a child questions their gender, according to new government rules.

The Daily Mail reported that updated safeguarding guidelines were published on the Department for Education's website this week.

In what seems a significant departure from the wording of the previous policy, the updated guidance has replaced the word ‘transgender’ with the phrase ‘gender-questioning’. It says schools should support ‘gender-questioning’ children by working ‘in partnership’ with their parents.

Furthermore, the revised policy is statutory, meaning that teachers are legally obliged to abide by it.

Read All About It

The British Medical Journal has described The Cass Review as “A seminal moment in contemporary medicine”.

In an article published this week, the BMJ condemned the influence of ‘multiple lobby groups’ over policy making, stressed the need for ‘strong leadership’ and spoke of ‘medicine backing off from prescriptions and surgery’ when treating gender-confused children. “Medical institutions must treat The Cass Review as a significant event and act upon it”, it says.

TERF’d Out

There were two tales of whoa from the world of politics this week, both of which involve notorious gender zealots.

Firstly, in Scotland, Euan Weddell (better known to Twitter users as Sophie Molly or Sophie Sparkles) has been de-selected as a Green Party candidate.

Weddell/Molly had been standing as the Scottish Green Party’s general election candidate for Gordon and Buchan. However, following a meeting of the Executive Committee this week, he’s been barred from running.

Weddell/Molly, who lives in a polycule with two other trans-identified males, one of whom is Heather ‘dilation’ Herbert, who spends much of his time on Twitter harassing and abusing women, who called JK Rowling a ‘torn faced cow’ and who posts to public platforms pornographic photographs of himself wearing nipple clamps and a ball gag, is blaming ‘transphobia’ for his being ousted. Sure, Jan.

As Wings Over Scotland puts it, “Is it possible to be TOO much of a creepy misogynist pornsick nutcase for even the Scottish Greens?” And it looks like the answer is “YES!”.

Meanwhile, there was big news from Westminster. Only a week after Kellie-Jay Keen announced she planned to run against him in his Brighton constituency, the Labour Party suspended Lloyd Russell-Moyle.

Habitual misogynist finger-jabber, Lloyd Russell-Moyle, you will remember, raged at, insulted and tried to intimidate Miriam Cates MP during a debate on self-ID last year. He was also forced to apologise following an article for The Tribune in which he accused JK Rowling of “Using her own sexual assault as justification for discriminating” against trans people.

Lloyd Russell-Moyle

Russell-Moyle was suspended from the the Labour Party following a complaint about his behaviour relating to an incident eight years ago. Writing on social media, he claimed that the complaint is “Vexatious and politically motivated”, adding, “I’m gutted”.

Oh, so are we, Lloyd, so are we. Robbed of the chance to see you try your jabby finger routine on KJK. Absolutely gutted.

The Future Is Rosie

Courageous defender of women’s rights, the redoubtable Rosie Duffield, will be seeking re-election in Canterbury and is raising money to fund her election campaign.

If you are able to help out, you can find her fundraising page here.

Hot Off The Press

The fabulous new book, The Women Who Wouldn't Wheesht, was published this week and immediately sold out on Amazon.

And it’s among the new releases being promoted by Waterstones.

Mumsnet’s (Wo)manifesto

Mumsnet, the world's biggest online forum for mothers, has launched a manifesto with a series of requests for the next government.

This manifesto calls for the next government to clarify the Equality Act 2010 and to defend single sex services.

Glinner Of Hope

Don’t miss Our Graham speaking to Nick Dixon on his podcast, The Current Thing.

And in conversation with Will Kingston on the Fire at Will podcast from The Spectator Australia.

And interviewed by Will Lloyd in The Sunday Times.

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…