The Good News Supplement: Monday 9th September - Sunday 15th September
A handful of the good news stories from the gender beat this week. Enjoy!
Mridul Has Left The Building
Mridul Wadhwa, the man who was CEO of Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre for over three long and disastrous years, is FINALLY out of a job.
Following the publication of a damning report concerning his tenure at ERCC, Wadwha has resigned. It’s about damn time.
A statement from ERCC said:
“Mridul has stood down from her [sic] role as CEO of ERCC. Recruitment of a new CEO will happen in due course. We are committed to delivering excellence while taking on board the recommendations from the independent review to ensure we place survivors voices at the heart of our strategy.
We are in daily communication with Rape Crisis Scotland, have met their urgent demands, and are currently implementing the recommendations in the report. We will continue to work alongside RCS to ensure our services not only meet but exceed the National Service Standards.”
Barnes Storming
Hannah Barnes - who wrote the game-changing book, Time to Think, about the Tavistock and Portman GIDS clinic - won an amazing four trophies at the 2024 Medical Journalists’ Association Awards this week.
Hannah won three category awards - Feature of the Year, Science Explained and the Dr David Delvin award for Sex and Sexual Health Journalism - as well as the coveted Outstanding Contribution to Health and Medical Journalism. (Her Delvin award was for her reporting on the litany of failures at the Tavistock.)
We send our huge and heartfelt congratulations to Hannah for winning these brilliant and richly deserved awards.
Lies, Damn Lies & Statistics
There was huge news this week concerning the shambolic ‘gender identity’ data collated during the 2021 England and Wales Census.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the UK Parliament. It is the UK's largest independent producer of official statistics and the recognised national statistical institute of the UK.
We have written previously about the ONS and the saga of the 2021 national census. This census included a voluntary question about gender identity in addition to its recording of the subject’s legal sex. The accompanying ONS guidance notes advised that the question on sex could be answered based on documents such as passports and driving licences. Since such documents do not record legal sex, the guidance would have allowed people to answer the sex question according to their preferred ‘gender identity’, not their legal sex.
Fair Play for Women, launched a legal action to challenge the ONS policy. Three days later, census organisers made the survey live, a whole month ahead of its scheduled release. Nevertheless, FPFW continued its fight and, eventually, a High Court judge ruled that the ONS census guidance on the question of sex had to be rewritten.
In November 2023, Sex Matters wrote to the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR), asking that the census data on gender identity not be designated as national statistics.
This week, the OSR published its final report after conducting a review of the data on gender identity collected during 2021 census. It found that too many people misunderstood the question on gender identity and concluded that the statistics do not comply with the Code of Practice for Statistics. Consequently, the official figures which estimated the number of transgender people in England and Wales have been stripped of their accredited status. In what The Guardian describes as ‘an embarrassing setback’ for the ONS, the organisation has requested a reclassification of the data on the trans population which will now be deemed as ‘experimental’.
The OSR issued a statement:
“Our review has concluded that the Census 2021 gender identity statistics published by ONS do not comply with important quality aspects of the Code of Practice for Statistics. Today we wrote to ONS and confirmed the cancellation of the accreditation of these statistics...
We found that the issues highlighted in this report are unique to the statistics on gender identity. All other outputs from the Census 2021 in England and Wales are unaffected by this decision and remain designated as accredited official statistics.”
Huge congratulations to everyone at Sex Matters for securing this important and significant decision.
Sex Matters In The House
On the subject of Sex Matters, together with Women Won’t Wheesht and Women’s Rights Network, they led the charge of feminists taking their fight to Westminster this week.
This action was part of a ‘lobby day’ when citizens can access Parliament to speak to their MPs. Hundreds of women (and some chaps!) took part and lobbied their MPs to stand up for single-sex services and to clarify the Equality Act 2010.
Many congratulations to the organisers and everyone who took part. We must keep raising our voices louder and louder.
Green Around The Gills
The Green Party has been ordered to pay the legal costs of former deputy leader, Dr Shahrar Ali, who won a discrimination case against it earlier in the year.
In February 2022 The Green Party sacked Dr Shahrar Ali from his role as spokesman for policing and domestic safety, claiming he had breached the party’s Spokespeople Code of Conduct. Dr Ali subsequently took legal action - the first legal action of its kind against a political party - believing that party officials had colluded in removing him from his post over his expressing gender critical views. Dr Ali won his case against the Green Party and, in an historic victory, the court ruled that his sacking was ‘procedurally unfair’ and that he had suffered unlawful discrimination.
This week there was yet more bad news for The Green Party as the court ordered it to pay Dr Ali’s legal costs to the tune of £90,000.
Huge congratulations to Dr Ali and his legal team.
Glinner Of Hope
Our Graham has spent a hugely successful week performing stand-up to sell-out audiences with Comedy Unleashed on tour in Ireland.
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.)
A nice little tea time boost! thanks JL. I bet the nobhead’s at the BMA are furious that their colleagues have chosen to celebrate Hannah! And great that the greens have been learnt. In your face greens! now renounce this shit and get back to your proper work!
I’ve just called Graham a star on the other piece but you are one as well. Thanks for all your hard work each week and what a fantastic set of good news stories this week. 👏