Finally, Boris is talking sense on trans issues
Was it really so hard to say that biological sex matters?
Finally, Boris Johnson has found the courage to defend women’s sex-based rights. During an interview at a hospital yesterday, he said that ‘biological males should not be competing in female sporting events’. ‘I also happen to think that women should have spaces – whether it is in hospitals or prisons or changing rooms or wherever – which are dedicated to women’, he added.
His comments came off the back of news that over 100 LGBT+ groups have pulled out of a government-backed LGBT conference, ‘Safe To Be Me’, in protest against a u-turn on the proposed ban on trans conversion therapy. The potential for children struggling with their gender identity to be denied access to counselling was one reason the government backtracked. Johnson clarified his thinking in that interview, too: ‘I don’t think that it’s reasonable for kids to be deemed so-called Gillick competent to take decisions about their gender or irreversible treatments that they may have. I think there should be parental involvement at the very least.’ At last, some clear, concise common sense. Thank you, prime minister.
Mind you, it has taken Johnson a while to arrive at this point. Last year he dithered over the question of whether or not only women have a cervix. A fortnight ago the best Johnson could do was acknowledge that ‘basic facts of biology’ are ‘overwhelmingly important’. But yesterday we finally got his clearest statement yet on the importance of the distinctions between males and females, and adults and children.