Free speech is being undermined by trans rights activists attempting to shut down debate and dissent, a report warns today.
The study says that while the ‘transgender ideology movement’ has successfully got the public sector to adopt its own beliefs and language, it has also tried to suppress opposing viewpoints.
Campaigners have forced gender-critical people out of their jobs, had their public speaking engagements cancelled and even got police to record ‘non-crime hate incidents’ against them simply because they deny humans can change sex.
The report by the Institute of Economic Affairs warns hate crime laws could be strengthened further under a Labour government, leading to prosecutions for misgendering.
Author Marc Glendinning, head of cultural affairs at the think-tank, said: ‘Many supporters of transgender ideology do not aim to win the debate but rather prevent debate from occurring.
‘Maintaining free speech… is essential if we are to defend a liberal society based on rationality rather than coercion.’
His study was backed by Labour backbencher Graham Stringer, who likened gender ideology to the claim made by Humpty Dumpty in Alice In Wonderland that words mean whatever he chooses them to mean.
He said: ‘There are many in the transgender debate who follow in the Humpty Dumpty tradition.
‘Men become women and women become men via a simple declaration. If words can have any meaning debate becomes meaningless.
‘You end up with authoritarianism, which is what transgender ideologues desire, with them in authority.’
Anger flares at the controversial Tavistock Clinic over a sex change operation for a young person who cannot read or write and has 14 mental health conditions
Fresh questions were raised last night about a controversial NHS clinic after it emerged that a young person with 14 mental health conditions and who cannot read or write has been approved for gender surgery.
Conservative peer Lord Goldsmith branded medics at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust ‘utterly barbaric’ and said they should be ‘locked up’ for carrying out procedures akin to ‘lobotomies’.
The case of the troubled 22-year-old emerged in court papers as it was argued that ‘misgendering’ had contributed to the failure of their education. Known only as AI to protect their identity, the individual who is transitioning from female to male took Wandsworth Council to the High Court, through solicitors, for allegedly failing to cater for transgender young people with special educational needs.
The judgment in the case revealed that AI cannot read or write following a ‘chaotic’ childhood with a mother who was a ‘recovering drug addict’ whom he saw ‘subjected to domestic violence‘.
AI was looked after by his disabled grandmother, went into the care system as a teenager and had a ‘long history of disrupted schooling’.
The judgment continued: ‘He has a total of 14 diagnoses and continues to have complex needs. His difficulties have been medically described as Mild Mental Retardation, Attachment Disorder, Emotion Dysregulation, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorder, dyslexia, severe anxiety, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and low self-esteem.
‘In 2021, he was diagnosed with disturbance of activity and attention, minimal impairment of behaviour and reactive attachment disorder of childhood.’ AI was referred to the Tavistock – whose gender clinic for young people was rated ‘inadequate’ by inspectors and earmarked for closure last year – aged 14 and has now been approved for body-changing surgery.
The judgment added he would need ongoing support.
Fears have been raised in recent years that vulnerable teenagers have been rushed into taking puberty-blocking drugs and undergoing irreversible surgery at the Tavistock. Lord Goldsmith wrote on social media: ‘This young person has been diagnosed with 14 mental health disorders.
‘The response from these ghouls is to chop up her body and fill her with hormones. How is this different to lobotomies? These professionals are utterly barbaric and need locking up.’
Marcus Evans, a former governor of the trust that runs the Tavistock, quit in 2019, saying it should not be ‘hurrying’ young people ‘down the path of no return’.
AI accused Wandsworth Council of breaching its duties by failing to secure him special educational provision, and failing to consider his placements may have broken down because of gender discrimination.
The judge concluded that the town hall had ‘paid careful attention to AI’s requirements’, rejecting his claim.
But Judge Mrs Justice Foster wrote: ‘The circumstances of his early life are significantly distressing and can only provoke profound sympathy.’
The Tavistock was contacted for comment.
