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Transgender hate laws are being questioned by an ex-police officer via a new campaign called A Fair Cop, it was reported in May.

Harry Miller is spearheading the group after being visited at work by police in Humberside after retweeting a limerick about trans women. The force admitted there had been no crime committed. They had received training by Mermaids, the controversial group which teaches that there is a spectrum of genders.

What’s going on in the Church of England over transgender issues? How does that relate to wider UK society? How will the future unfold?

The CofE is in a mess over this. In 2017, the General Synod – a denominational Parliament of sorts – supported a call for ‘the House of Bishops to consider preparing nationally-commended liturgical materials to mark a person’s gender transition’. The bishops refused. But in 2018 they did suggest that the existing liturgy for the Affirmation of Baptismal Vows could be used ‘as the central feature of any service to recognise liturgically a person’s gender transition’.

A vicar and Oxford biology graduate resigned from the Church of England and from his role as a school governor in May. This occurred after transgender ideology, endorsed by his diocese and taught in the CofE school where he was a governor, silenced him as a scientist and a Christian.

During a training session on transgender issues run by Mermaids, John Parker was told by the headteacher: ‘This is training, John, it’s not your time to share your view-point.’ This followed his request to raise some different perspectives. The training session was recorded, and the audio clearly demonstrates that his request was shut down by the headteacher.

A pupil in Scotland was thrown out of class for saying there are only two genders, it was reported in June.

In a three-minute recording*, the teacher told Murray, with no sense of irony, he was ‘entitled to his opinion’, but he couldn’t share it in class because ‘this is an inclusive school’. The teacher gave his own and the school’s opinion: ‘There are more than two genders. This view is acceptable in the school, and yours is not.’

In March, while Muslim parents continued to protest in Birmingham about liberal sex education teaching in primary schools, a Christian mother in Croydon launched a legal challenge against a school and council for the way she was treated after making a complaint about a ‘Pride’ event at her child’s school.

Heavers Farm Primary School organised a parade which included a clear celebration of LGBT lifestyles in June 2018. Mrs Izzy Montague, one of a group of parents who complained at their children being forced to take part in the event, reported that she and others were treated dismissively and then victimised following their complaints to the school about the event.

A shocking attack on a 60-year-old woman by pro-transsexual activists was widely denounced in the media.

The Times’ columnist Janice Turner witnessed Maria MacLachlan being punched and kicked as she met with others to discuss government plans to allow people to legally self-identify their gender. Turner said the attack reveals the lengths to which activists will go to shut down debate. the attending those and MacLachlan meeting hold the view that men who say they are women are still male, and believe allowing men who identify as female to enter female-only spaces (e.g. toilets and changing areas) puts women at risk. This has seen them labelled as Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists (TERFs).

en staff

Date posted: 1 May 2019

The Baptist Union has received an application for the post of President in 2020-21, supported by 25 Assembly members, from a self-declared pansexual woman.

The Baptist Union asked people to prayer-fully consider which of two candidates should serve the Union as President. The statement says: ‘The question for discernment is who is the most appropriate candidate for this particular season in our Union’s life’.

On 25 March, The Values Foundation for Faith and Families in Education was launched in the Houses of Parliament.

Judith Nemeth, Executive Director of the multi-faith organisation, explained its three primary aims: to represent faith schools and their families (and anyone else with a traditional approach to family values) before government and its agencies; to open a debate on what British values are and so recover respect for faith in the public square; and to revisit the Equality Act of 2010, to resolve what happens legally when two or more protected characteristics clash. At present most of the protected characteristics will trump the seventh protected characteristic of religion or belief.

The founder of Transgender Trend, Stephanie Davies-Arai, was shortlisted for the 2018 John Maddox Prize.

The prize is awarded to those who address misleading information about scientific issues, bring sound evidence to the public and help others to make sense of a complicated scientific topic. The prestigious award seeks to recognise ‘the work of individuals who promote sound science and evidence on a matter of public interest, facing difficulty or hostility in doing so’. In her work, Davies-Arai challenged the unquestioning acceptance of transgenderism and addressed the concerns faced by parents and young people.

Tim Dieppe

Date posted: 1 Feb 2019

In December, no Government spokesman in the House of Lords would confirm that a Christian would be free from arrest if they proclaimed the uniqueness of Jesus.

In reply to a question by Lord Pearson, Baroness Williams of Trafford, the Minister of State for countering extremism, replied:‘The definition [of a hate crime] is: any criminal offence which is perceived to be motivated by hostility or prejudice based on a person’s actual or perceived disability, race, religion, sexual orientation or transgender identity. When flagged as a hate crime, the police will be satisfied that an offence has been committed and will then investigate evidence in support of the appropriate charge, as well as the aggravated element of hostility. It would not be appropriate for me, as I have just said, to confirm whether this [proclaiming the uniqueness of Jesus] is an example which would constitute a hate crime. That would be an operational decision both of the police and the CPS based on the specific circumstances.’

In September, the Ministry of Justice apologised for failings in the prison review system that allowed a transgender sex offender to be transferred to a women’s prison where he raped and sexually assaulted female prisoners.

Frances Crook, the Chief Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said that prisoners with a penis who have male hormones should not be transferred.

The Word on the Wash convention took place at King’s Lynn Academy in mid-Sep-tember.

An appropriate quote from Anne Frank on the wall of the school hall – ‘How wonderful it is that no-one need waste a single moment before starting to change the world’ – fitted with some of the talks the delegates heard as part of the conference entitled ‘Living with hope in a changing world’.

NHS England is to be taken to court by the UK’s equality watchdog for failing to offer fertility services to transgender patients, it was reported in early September.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a high-profile judicial review action, a legal manoeuvre that is likely to prove controversial at a time when the NHS is struggling to balance budgets and provide core services. Surgery to alter sex organs generally results in infertility.

en staff

Date posted: 1 Nov 2018

The unanimous decision by the five justices of the Supreme Court on 10 October was greeted as a victory for free speech.

They ruled that Ashers, the Belfast bakery, was not obliged to make a cake emblazoned with the message ‘support gay marriage’. If anyone needed clarification that this case was about a message and not about discriminating against a person, Daniel McArthur of Ashers ended his statement outside the court saying Mr Lee ‘will always be welcome in one of our shops’.

A series of Freedom of Information (FoI) requests revealed in June that councils in Scotland have widely backed guidelines produced by organisations campaigning for the rights of transgender people, but have not considered how the new approach will affect children – particularly girls.

None of the councils involved, nor the children’s commissioner, nor Education Scotland have carried out an equality impact assessment to ensure that the rights and well-being of other pupils are unaffected.

Christian television channel Revelation TV was fined €6,000 in June for homophobic remarks made on one of its breakfast shows last year.

The channel, which broadcasts to the UK but is based in Spain, was given the penalty by the Spanish National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC). The conversation in question was about trans-gender children, following a Christian family removing their child from school because one of his classmates identified as transgender.

en staff

Date posted: 1 Sep 2018

The government opened a consultation in July, closing on 19 October, on changes to the Gender Recognition Act, which seeks to allow people to self-identify as transgender without having to make any formal declaration.

Many groups including Christians, feminists and lesbians, are greatly concerned about the dramatic effect upon society the legal changes would bring. They believe that women’s rights achieved over many decades will be rolled back. Women who have tried to meet together to discuss the impact of trans issues have experienced violence and found venues in which to meet almost impossible to come by (en July 2018).

While primary school pupils in Cambridge take part in celebratory ‘transition’ assemblies, Welsh ‘boys’ share dorms with girls, and Scottish 12-year-olds are being encouraged to have their birth certificates altered, women on Twitter were banned, in May, from stating biological facts about men and women.

The social networking giant, Twitter, censored tweets which state what the women say are ‘basic, incontrovertible biological facts’, claiming the content goes against its ‘hateful conduct’ policy. The group, Fair Play for Women, wrote an open letter to Martha Lane Fox, a peer who also sits on the board of Twitter, asking her to help stop their views being silenced. She is yet to respond to them. The letter speaks out against a ‘concerted attack on women’s free speech’.

Parents at a Croydon primary school called for the headteacher to resign on 4 July after a ‘Proud to be me’ Pride parade was organised as part of the school curriculum in June, which parents planned to protest.

The parade was part of a series of events celebrating Pride Month which included children thinking about things of which they were proud, including what made their families special. Children were encouraged to wear ‘bright clothes’ to school for the event. Lessons on LGBT issues had been included in the teaching series.