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A year in the Gender Wars

Gender ideology is a many-headed Hydra

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Stonewall is crumbling, experts are blowing the whistle on the UK’s gender abattoir, and the belief that there are only two, immutable sexes is officially worthy of respect in a democratic society.

While the world locked down for another year, the last twelve months have been the most momentous yet in the seemingly-endless Gender Wars. The debate that trans activists tried to prevent has moved from social media to bestselling books, to the courts and to the highest levels of government.

But we’re nowhere near opening the champagne. Gender ideology is a many-headed Hydra that’s wormed its way into practically every institution, and into the minds of the many who mechanically repeat the mantra “trans women are women”. Over the last year I’ve been chronicling developments in the gender debate for Graham Linehan’s The Glinner Update — in particular, the real-world impact of believing absurdities and enshrining them in law.

Let’s look back at some of the biggest stories from around the world in the year that was.

January 

The year began with legislation which allows prison inmates in California to be accommodated according to their “gender identity” rather than their sex.

Under the new law, male prison inmates can request accommodation in the female estate, whatever their crime and regardless of their anatomy, by claiming a female “identity”.

Only months after this law was passed, The LA Times reported that women’s prisons in California were inundated with hundreds of transfer requests from males claiming to identify as women. Consequently, vulnerable female prisoners are now forced to share cells and bathroom facilities with intact males, some of whom are violent sex offenders.

The outcome was inevitable. Women in Californian prisons are not only being traumatised and terrified by male inmates, they are being assaulted and attacked.


The situation is no better for female prisoners in the UK. In July the High Court ruled that trans-identified males, even intact sex offenders, can continue to be accommodated in women’s prisons.

February

Children are especially vulnerable to the harms of gender identity ideology, with many being groomed and exploited by a sinister online “community”.

A Telegraph investigation found that offshore gender clinic, GenderGP, has been prescribing powerful cross-sex hormones to children without their parents’ knowledge and after only a cursory online consultation.

GenderGP Staff did not request any parental consent or involvement

The Times had previously reported that GenderGP was using a loophole in the law to prescribe puberty blockers and hormones to underage patients in Britain without ever meeting them and without meeting any regulations in the UK.

In February, an undercover Telegraph reporter posing as a 15-year-old girl had just three Skype appointments with a member of GenderGP staff before being prescribed a four month supply of testosterone.

GenderGP Staff did not request any parental consent or involvement. A single email from the girl’s 20-year-old half-brother, confirming that he would pay for her treatment, was the only contact with an adult they required.

March

A trans-identified male author was nominated for a literary prize supposedly set up to celebrate female writers.

The Women’s Prize for Fiction was founded 25 years ago. In October 2020 it was announced that the competition is now open to “Cis women, transgender women and anyone who is legally defined as a woman”. So men as well.

This year one of the sixteen books nominated for the long list was Detransition, Baby by trans-identified male, Torrey Peters. The book is drenched in misogyny and “sissy porn” and fetishizes male violence against women.

April

The Times reported on a freedom of information request which revealed that, as in England and Wales, Scottish Police allow rape suspects to self-identify as female.

Consequently, if a man commits or attempts to commit an offence of sexual violence, even rape, he can be recorded as female on the relevant systems, skewing the statistics and making it even harder to combat male violence against women.

The crime of rape is defined specifically as penetration with a penis. Nevertheless, between 2012 – 2018, 436 individuals prosecuted for rape in England and Wales were recorded as women.

May

Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre appointed a man as its CEO.

Mridul Wadhwa is a trans-identified male. He was formerly the manager of Forth Valley Rape Crisis Centre, a job he appears to have secured by lying about his sex. He has no gender recognition certificate so, not only is he biologically male, he’s also legally male.

A few months after his appointment, when appearing on a popular podcast, Wadhwa made some deeply alarming comments about the service offered to rape victims at ERCC. He denied that women who’ve suffered male violence need a female-only space and said that those making such a request could “expect to be challenged on your prejudices”.

Still Rape Crisis Scotland continue to defend and support him. And employ him.

June

Over the past year much has been revealed and written about Stonewall’s all-pervading influence thanks, in no small part, to Stephen Nolan’s podcast.

One of Stonewall’s aims is the erasure of women’s sex-based rights and spaces

In June, The Tax Payer Alliance reported on the huge amounts of money being paid to Stonewall by government offices. Between 2015-2016 and 2018-2019 Stonewall received over £2.5 million in grants from government bodies.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Welsh government handed over £660,028 and £552,326 respectively but The Department for Education provided the largest total grant over the period, shelling out £934,424.

Stonewall is a lobby group pushing a very specific agenda and yet a huge chunk of its income came from the very law and policy makers it seeks to influence. Let’s not forget that one of Stonewall’s aims is the erasure of women’s sex-based rights and spaces.

July

A Los Angeles branch of Wi Spa was in the news after a customer complained that a naked man was using a female-only area, exposing himself to women and children. Staff insisted that he identified as a woman, and so they could not take any action. The video footage of the exchange between staff and customer went viral.

The response of enraged gender ideologues ranged from “It’s a transphobic hoax” to “Oh that poor oppressed trans lady” to “It’s rude to stare at the woman’s penis” to “Only right wingers object to a naked man in a women-only space”.

It then transpired that Darren Agee Merager, the so-called “transwoman” at the centre of the story, is a registered sex offender with prior convictions for indecent exposure.

Los Angeles police have now charged Merager with five felony counts of exposure relating to the Wi Spa incident. Four women and one child came forward to give evidence, saying that they witnessed Merager’s partially erect penis in the female-only hot-tub.

August

The Scottish government implemented new guidelines for schools which promote unscientific dogma and encourage children as young as four to “change their gender”.

Both primary and secondary schools have been instructed to add books promoting gender ideology to their curriculum. One of the books recommended is I Am Jazz, about the life of Jazz Jennings, the teenager pushed down the pathway to medical transition ever since he was a toddler. The synopsis begins, “From the time she was two years old, Jazz knew that she had a girl’s brain in a boy’s body”.

Furthermore, these new guidelines allow pupils to use toilets and changing rooms based on their self-declared gender identity rather than their sex. Teachers are instructed not to question any child who decides they want to “switch genders”; they must ask their preferred pronouns and affirm their new gender. Even without their parents’ consent. Even if the child is only four years old.

September

A trans-identified male won his debut MMA fight by choking his female opponent.

Alana McLaughlin is a 38-year-old former sergeant in the US Army Special Forces. He now “identifies as a woman”, transitioned five years ago and has just begun a new career in MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) fighting. In the women’s division, of course.

He won his debut match by overpowering his opponent, Celine Provost, with a “rear-naked choke”.

This situation is not unprecedented. Trans-identified male, Fallon Fox, also late of the US military, took up women’s MMA fighting post-transition. In March 2013 he took just 39 seconds to defeat Ericka Newsome, whacking her in the face with this kneecap and rendering her unconscious. She never competed again. A year later, Fox crushed Tamika Brents’ skull in a fight which lasted less than three minutes, breaking her eye socket and ending her career.

October

A report in The Telegraph highlighted the serious safeguarding issues in our hospital wards. NHS Trusts are prioritising trans-identified males on female-only wards, gaslighting patients and threatening staff who object.

Dr Sinead Helyar told the Conservative Party Conference that NHS policy prioritises trans-identified males over women, accommodating them on women-only wards with no concern for female patients. Some trusts have even decided that a history of sexual violence is not necessarily a bar to placing a trans-identified male in female wards.

Official NHS documents describe female patients as “transphobes” and “offenders” and equate them with racists if they object to being accommodated with males. A Greater Glasgow and Clyde Trust policy compels staff to lie to such patients and “reiterate that the ward is indeed female only and that there are no men present”.

November

It was revealed that a trans identified male who posted disturbing photos of himself on social media had a senior volunteer role with Girlguiding.

Since 2017 Girlguiding has had a “trans inclusive” policy. It allows boys who believe themselves to be girls to be members and, of more concern, allows intact adult males to be volunteers if they “identify as female” (or claim to). When Girlguiding leaders Helen Watts and Katie Alcock dared to challenge this lunacy, they were expelled from the organisation.

58-year-old bus driver, Monica Sulley, is a trans-identified male who posted highly inappropriate photographs of himself on social media. In one picture he was wearing a leather bondage outfit and holding a whip. It was captioned, “Now behave yourselves or Mistress will have to punish you.” In another photo he is aiming what appears to be a fake assault rifle and has a holstered handgun hanging from his waist.

He was appointed Girlguiding’s divisional commissioner for Southwell in July.

In the wake of this story, Girlguiding issued a statement to say it is “aware of concerns raised” and “looking into this as a matter of urgency”.

December

The Science Museum is planning to replace an exhibit which focuses specifically on biological sex after receiving complaints that it isn’t “inclusive” of trans people.

The museum’s “Boy or Girl” exhibit, which details the differences between the sexes, has received complaints that is does not represent transgender people and so there are plans to alter it.

The display has already fallen prey to trans activism and information about the determination of biological sex by chromosomes was removed. The museum also added an entire panel dedicated to a discussion on gender identity in which is displayed a fake penis “packer”, a breast binder and testosterone patches.

Even this isn’t enough to placate the gender ideologues and now further complaints have resulted in another “review” of the exhibit. According to internal documents, The Museum of Transology in Brighton is going to be consulted about the planned alterations.

What a year. Women are not safe on NHS wards, the Science Museum eschews biological reality to kowtow to activists, rapists pretending to be women are supported in their deception by the forces of law and order, and children are being fed dangerous dogma and even more dangerous medication.

Such is the power of gender identity ideology and its zealots.

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