Safety, Trans People and the Equality Act

 

    This blog is a reply to Freddie McConnell's article published in The Guardian on 31 July 2025 which can be found here.

    At the heart of the differences between people like Freddie, a trans man [female], and gender critical women are diverse interpretations of the applicability and relevance of gender and sex. Gender is defined the characteristics of women, men, girls and boys that are socially constructed, sex on the other hand refers to biological characteristics; genes, genitals and gametes that characterise an individual’s potential reproductive role. Trans people and their supporters believe that gender, i.e., what they identify as, trumps sex, us gender criticals believe that it doesn't. Hence for them a woman is a social or cultural construct into which those born male can identify, whereas for gender criticals a woman is an adult human female and therefore people born male can never be women.

    It is difficult to understand what Freddie means when she says that the recent Supreme Court judgement on the application of the 2010 Equality Act has made trans people less safe. Trans people have the same rights as the rest of us and rightly so, no gender critical person would deny this. The fact that many trans people, especially so-called trans women [males], decided that their chosen identity allowed them to use protected female spaces such as changing rooms and toilets and, when convicted of crimes, to be sent to female prisons may have made them feel safer (again, this could well be a perception, given that there is no reason for a male who identifies as a woman to feel less safe in male spaces than they do in female spaces), but it certainly increased the danger and discomfort of those of us who were born women. Although trans women may identify as women, this does not diminish their physical characteristics (many transgender women have not undergone sex change operations nor do they take hormones), nor apparently, does it affect their propensity to violence (it should be recalled that over 90% of crimes involving violence are committed by males). Gender critical women simply do not want to share intimate spaces with males whether these males may believe they are women or not, because for us, that belief makes no difference whatsoever: a man born is a man whether he identifies as a woman or not. Because of our biological characteristics women have a particular need for privacy dignity and safety and this is clearly affected by allowing males to access our intimate spaces. A piece of paper, such as a Gender Recognition Certificate, or a legal fiction does not change our stance on this.

    And to tell the truth trans women have done significantly little to assuage the fears of those of us born female. Most early attempts at dialogue were met with “no debate” from their side and demands that we acquiesce to every claim they cared to make. Very well-known are the cases of trans women entering female sports and using their male physique to relegate females to second place in our own events, distastefully flaunting their medals on female podia. One of their current leaders here in the UK has a conviction for kidnapping and
violence, parades topless down the street and talks openly about “punching women in the face”. In fact, if you want to see the insults and coercion threats of rape, mutilation and violence directed at women by trans women and their supporters, you can pay a visit to the website terfisaslur.com and browse it at your leisure.

    I would be very interested to know whether Freddie, a trans man [female], feels safer in women’s or men’s spaces. I would be particularly interested to know whether, if she were to receive a conviction of any kind, she would choose to serve time in a male or a female jail… I think the answer is obvious.