The BBC upheld a complaint against Justin Webb for saying “trans women, in other words males” last year
Artillery Row

The BBC now knows what a woman is

The state broadcaster has made an important transition

The BBC is the most read news website in the UK, with an impressive six times more views than its nearest rival, MailOnline. So it really matters how it uses language in the trans debate. Since the Supreme Court judgement, the Equality and Human Rights Commission updated its guidance to say:

trans women (biological men) should not be permitted to use women’s facilities

After the new EHRC advice was released, the BBC, when referring to the passage above, had surrounded it in quote marks. But yesterday it published the first article which did not use quotes. We all know how important punctuation is — by excluding the quotes, the BBC are finally acknowledging that “trans women” are actually biological men. A big step for the state broadcaster which last year sanctioned R4 Today presenter Justin Webb for a breach of impartiality after saying “trans women, in other words males” during a discussion about whether being biologically male can give players an advantage in chess.

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The question now is, how long before MailOnline, the  IPSO-regulated Spectator, and the ostensibly anti-woke GBNews make a similar transition?

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