The Good News Supplement: Monday 29th July - Sunday 4th August

British tennis player, Charlotte Cooper who, after losing her hearing, became the first female athlete to win an individual Olympic gold medal - Paris 1900.

Our cup runneth over with good news stories from the gender beat this week. Enjoy!

Order In The Court

There was yet another defeat for vulpine-averse tax lawyer, Jolyon Maugham, and his erroneously named Good Law Project this week; the High Court has upheld the government’s ban on puberty blockers.

Prior to the general election, the Tory government prohibited the prescription of puberty blockers to children using emergency legislation. These laws are due to expire on 3rd September but, as The Telegraph reported a few weeks ago, Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, intends to maintain the ban on puberty blockers.

This legislation was subject to a legal challenge by Trans Actual and the Good Law Project Their action was unsuccessful; this week the High Court ruled that the legislation was lawful and the ban on puberty blockers remains in place.

Wes Streeting said that he welcomed the court’s decision and added that children's healthcare must be ‘evidence-led’.

Legal expert, Dr Michael Foran, described the ruling as ‘a crushing defeat’, for Trans Actual and the GLP.

He also drew attention to some of the most important aspects of the ruling:

“The Court was clear that any attempt to smear the Cass Review was unfounded and the Secretary of State is perfectly entitled, not just to rely on it, but to treat it as the best available evidence.… Assertions as to a rise in suicide risk were dismissed as unfounded and the Court accepted that the Secretary of State was entitled to rely on the Cass review in making an emergency Order.”

First Do No Harm

The Association of Clinical Psychologists UK (ACP-UK) has responded to the BMA’s recent rejection of the Cass Review and is refusing to sing from their sheet.

“ACP-UK is committed to the promotion of evidence-based health care… The Cass Review represents the best evaluation of the current state of the evidence, and ACP-UK continues to support the Review’s recommendations and their implementation… We welcome the invitation to work with other professional bodies to implement the recommendations of the independent Cass Review, to equip clinicians to support children holistically, psychosocially, and utilising evidence-based psychological interventions where available.”

Winsday Again

Dr Laura Favaro has successfully settled her legal action against her former employer, City, University of London.

Dr Laura Favaro joined City, University of London in 2020 as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. Being ‘gender critical’ herself, she intended to investigate the disputes around sex and gender and collected substantial data on the ‘gender wars’ in academia.

Over a three year period, Laura endured ostracization by the Gender & Sexualities Research Centre, the withdrawal of line management support and academic mentorship, the pursuit of vexatious complaints, attempts to persuade her to destroy her research, bullying by a senior colleague, the withholding of full access to data she collected, attempts to prevent her from making her data public, the locking of the email account via which she contacted her survey participants, requests that she return her research data and dismissal by reason of redundancy.

She then instructed a legal team to take action against City, University of London via an employment tribunal.

This week, Dr Larua Favaro announced that the case has been settled. Posting an update in her CrowdJustice page, she wrote:

“I have excellent news: City, University of London and I have settled my Employment Tribunal claim and I hope soon to be regaining access to the rest of my research data (survey). I am extremely pleased with the resolution that we have reached… I hope shortly to be able to publish on all the data from my 'gender wars' research project.”

Huge congratulations to Laura and her legal team.

Another Win For Sense & Sanity

Cambridgeshire County Council has admitted liability for the harassment and discrimination of social worker, Lizzy Pitt, over her ‘gender critical’ views.

A social worker with almost 20 years experience, Lizzy Pitt, was employed as a Social Work Manager by Cambridgeshire County Council. She is also a lesbian who knows that sex is real, immutable and important.

Of course, being a lesbian, Lizzy participated in her workplace LGBTQIA group meetings in which she expressed her gender critical views. Her colleagues instigated a group complaint. The subsequent disciplinary proceedings resulted in a formal ‘management action’ intended to silence her and she was excluded from the workplace LGBTQIA network.

After suffering such harassment and discrimination, Lizzy took legal action against Cambridgeshire County Council via an employment tribunal.

The case was due to be heard this week but, at the very last minute, Cambridgeshire County Council surrendered. In an update on her CrowdJustice page, Lizzy wrote:

“My hearing was due to start on Monday this week… However, first thing on Monday morning, the Council’s solicitors told us that they were willing to admit that they had discriminated against me, and pay the compensation I had claimed in full. After some negotiation, they also agreed to a recommendation from the tribunal that they should add a compulsory module to their e-learning on freedom of belief and expression in the workplace.”

In addition to admitting culpability and being required to train staff on freedom of belief and expression, the council will also have to pay Lizzy £54,000 in compensation.

Huge congratulations to Lizzy and her legal team.

Boxing Clever

Following the travesty of women boxers being forced into the ring with male opponents at the Paris Olympics this week, a number of high profile sporting personalities have spoken out in defence of women’s sport.

Irish boxing legend, Barry McGuigan, wrote in The Mirror to express his disgust for the situation and his support for the female athletes involved.

“It’s wrong, it’s unfair, and above all it’s dangerous”, he wrote. “Who are these people making the decisions?”

Gold medal winning Team GB boxer, Nicola Adams, also condemned the IOC’s decision.

Posting on social media, she stated, “People not born as biological women, that have been through male puberty should not be able to compete in women's sport. Not only is this unfair it's dangerous!”

And former Wimbledon champion, Boris Becker, spoke volumes with just one word.

Glinner Of Hope

Don’t miss Our Graham speaking to Alexandra Marshall on ADH TV this week.

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…