LGBTQ

Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual rights

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Free Sarah Jane Baker

Sarah Jane Baker is currently a political prisoner. On Wednesday 12 July 2023 she was arrested because of a speech she made at Trans Pride (8 July). In it she said, “If you see a TERF, punch them in the fucking face”. It was not a helpful thing to say, and she has publicly apologised for it. It was said in anger, to be outrageous and to give confidence to her audience. She didn’t imagine that anyone would actually act on it. Since her release from prison in 2019 Sarah has never been violent to anyone. She has been the victim of transphobic assaults and harassment but has never retaliated. The...

A parent's view on trans rights in schools

As a parent and as an educator, I have followed the development of the guidance for schools around transgender pupils from both perspectives. As a parent of a transgender child, this has made me think deeply around the rights of the parent to know what is going on with their child. Do I want to know that my child is questioning their gender, using a new name and new pronouns, exploring what it is to be gender non-binary? Yes. Of course I do. However the how and the when of that discussion is of supreme importance. My son came out in his own time. He had been using he-they pronouns for a year...

Yes, more from Harper

I think Maxine Carpenter ( Solidarity 677 ) is right to recognise Joanna Harper as an “authoritative voice” on trans rights and sports. Harper argues carefully against British Cycling banning trans cyclists from high-fame-big-money women’s events even if they have completed medical transition and done medical tests. Harper’s research, much already published , more in the works, finds that trans women athletes are bigger and stronger than cis women, but they also suffer physiological disadvantages. If there is a net advantage, it is small. History corroborates. Alarm about women’s sport being...

Tory push against transgender students

On 18 June the Sun reported on leaked government guidance on treatment of transgender students in schools. For readers who remember Section 28, this is worse. Teachers will be able to deadname and misgender students under two criteria. Firstly, if the teacher wants to, and secondly, if the teacher feels that using the correct name and pronouns will be upsetting for the other students. Teachers as a default must report to parents any conversation around gender identity and any tendency to present as the unassigned gender. There have been huge improvements over the years to safeguarding to...

Let’s hear more from Harper

Bravo to Solidarity for the interview with Joanna Harper, who is an authoritative voice on trans rights and sport ( 676 ). Let’s hope the paper carries more interviews and articles of this quality on these important matters. Harper is right about the current climate of hostility towards trans women and men, which socialists are duty-bound to oppose vigorously. However this context cannot rule out tackling difficult concrete questions. Sport is not simply a wedge issue to attack trans rights — it is also a mass participation activity where equality, fairness and inclusion matter to billions of...

Trans rights: the UK falls behind

The following represents the opinion of Joanna Harper and is not in any way a representation of the opinion of Loughborough University. Joanna Harper is a researcher on trans sport performance (at Loughborough University), author of the book Sporting Gender , and a trans athlete herself. Trans women have probably been more successful in cycling, on a global level, than in any other sport. The list of successful trans women cyclists includes a Dutch 15-year professional cyclist who just retired in the last year, and an alternate for the 2020 US Olympic team. Whatever advantages these trans...

Cycling ban is political backlash

On 26 May, British Cycling banned trans women from competitive cycling. Joanna Harper, the leading academic researcher on trans women’s sports performance, and a trans athlete herself, commented on ITN: “This is just another in a long line of British sports governing bodies that have made very similar decisions, following triathlon, athletics, rugby, etc... There have been a number of trans cyclists in Britain and around the world who have been reasonably successful in the sport, but they have not been over-represented in the sport, nor are in any way threatening to take over the sport”. Trans...

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