They repeat to us again and again that men endowed with penises and beards can become members of the opposite sex simply by saying, “I am a woman.” This is simply wrong and dangerous, it infringes on freedom of speech. I intend to prevent the triumph of such an ideology.

Transgenderism, rooted in our institutions, undermines women's rights, endangers children and suppresses freedom of speech. I came to this irrefutable conclusion in my new report, “The Destructive Effects of Transgender Ideology,” published this week by the Civitas think tank. In this article, I explore how, in just two decades, the term “transgender”, which previously characterized a tiny group of people, has come to mean a powerful political ideology supported by activists and relevant organizations. He became the driving force behind significant changes in society.

The total number of transgender people remains small (according to government estimates, in the UK 200-500 thousand transgender people is much less than 1% of the population), but as a social movement transgender people gained real weight.

Those in charge of our schools, prisons, police, media, and health care now take for granted the belief that sex "recorded" in our bodies and chromosomes does not matter, and instead we all need to reveal our supportive world “Gender identity” as we perceive it.

Everywhere, people in power were ready to support the demands of trans-activists. They are so unsure of themselves, so doubtful of their own ability to lead, that they turned to the supposedly persecuted transgender community to secure a source of moral authority. And, it seems, few people care that it endangers women and children.

We are constantly told that men who have a penis, chest hair and a beard can become women simply by saying the magic words: "I am a woman." Such statements must be taken as an undeniable truth. According to the modern catechism, we are obliged to simply answer: "Trans women are [also] women."

Because of the belief that a man needs only a few words to become a woman, female prisoners are sexually abused by male prisoners, schoolgirls have to share toilets and changing rooms with boys, women's shelters are no longer just space for them, athletes lose to larger and stronger men, short lists of candidates lost their meaning.

But just try to call any of these topics into question, try to ask whether a trans-woman with a male body is really a woman, and the institutions of power will begin to put pressure on authority. Share your objections on Twitter - and, as in the case of Harry Miller, the police will contact you to “check your judgments”. Start asking questions at work - and, as Maya Forstater, find yourself out of work.

With each passing day, the boundaries of what can and cannot be said about gender are narrowing. This week, comedian and screenwriter Graham Linehan was permanently blocked on Twitter. What is his fault? After a typically British institute, the Institute for Women's Affairs, wished all its transgender members a happy month of pride, Linehan remarked that “men are still not women.”

Meanwhile, a black lesbian and lawyer, Allison Bailey, began an internal investigation into her Twitter posts in support of the LGB Alliance, a group of lesbians and gays who believe that attraction to the same sex exists in and of itself and is not connected with attraction based on the coinciding psychological attitudes of gender identity. Earlier, Bailey organized a fundraising campaign on the CrowdJustice crowdfunding platform to defend her job, and this week her campaign was canceled due to complaints from trans-activists. After that, the campaign was restored, but already without the possibility of receiving donations.

Transgender activists claim that everyone has the right to define themselves as they want, but the spread of transgenderism is accompanied by increased control over behavior and statements. This is the essential difference between the modern transgender movement and gay rights movements in the past.

If gays demanded more freedom for independent decision-making about sex life without restrictions from the law, transgender people require the opposite: they want increased government intervention in people's personal lives.

Recently, the British government hinted that it would reject the proposed changes to the Law on Gender Recognition and plans to allow transgender people to change their birth certificate without a medical diagnosis. It's good. However, a broader cultural shift is needed to bring back our captured institutions.

In 2018, an internal BBC survey showed that the corporation employs more than 400 transgender people: in other words, the probability of meeting a transgender person in the BBC is four times higher than on the street. The attention that the media gives to transgender people does not correspond at all to the real share of the transgender population.

However, when women try to disagree with this approach, the most heinous insults fly towards them. When Joan Rowling dared to suggest that the man with menstruation is actually a woman, insults and numerous threats of rape in the most terrible and terrible forms rained down on her. From now on, transgenderism is a legitimate manifestation of misogyny.

Rowling will probably survive this. However, more and more often children are forced to doubt their own gender, and, being on the path of a transgender transition, it is much more difficult for them to understand themselves than adults.

Last year, more than half of the children who came to the Tevistock Clinic, a British public institution specializing in helping children with difficulties in developing gender identity, were under the age of 14. Over the past year, the number of 13-year-old children who needed help increased by 30% and reached 331, while the number of 11-year-olds increased by 28% compared to last year. The youngest patients were only three years old. Three quarters of the children who wanted to change their gender were girls.

It is possible that some of these children are simply experimenting or having a difficult time. But allowing children to make a social [transgender] transition means paving the way for medical intervention, which can begin with hormones to stop the onset of puberty, and for older teens, also include hormones of the opposite sex.

It is good that the authorities plan to reject the proposed changes in gender legislation. However, it is necessary to go further and insist on the right to discuss the impact of transgender ideology on society. Such a discussion instantly reveals the conflict between rights based on gender and rights arising from gender identity. The mantra "trans-women - [also] women" unsuccessfully disguises the existence of such a conflict and destroys the opportunity to even discuss what women and children may lose as a result of strengthening the position of transgender people.

Twitter author: Joanna Williams 

The author’s point of view may not coincide with the position of the publisher.