Gender identity ideology has been embedded in all UK institutions by stealth, leading to illegal removal of single-sex spaces and services, promotion of pseudoscience, biology-denialism, a medical scandal and unlawful persecution and harassment of anyone who raises objections. Here I aim to document the extent of this problem, by sharing testimonies of people who experienced the chilling effect of these policies first hand.

The testimonies are broken down by industry, and will be added to over time.

I have also written an overview of institutional capture in medicine, and BMA capture as it happened.

Academia

My Time at Abertay as a newly found GC by Lisa Keogh

“In the very first class I managed to put a target on my back which made me stand out from my peers. This is because I was asked what my ‘definition’ of a woman was. Now I didn’t realise that this was a trick question to ‘sus’ me out. So, I answered honestly… “A woman is a person born with a vagina and the ability to reproduce.” It sounds simple enough, but this was not the answer I was expected to give and to be honest I’m still not sure what they expect from me. So after I stated that I was then asked “So, if someone can’t have children does that make them less of a woman?” and of course it doesn’t, I explained that I had friends who had trouble conceiving and I would never say that makes them less of a woman. How on earth could someone twist what I said and paint it as an insult? If a person is born with a disability for instance that doesn’t make them any less of a person I pointed out. But it got worse.”

Russel Group London university contractor

“I worked at a Russell Group London university as a contractor. My brief was to put powerpoint lectures online so students could access them during the covid crisis.  I was asked to put a lecture on Women in War online. My background is in International Development and I had worked on several projects to improve the lives of women who had been caught up in violent wars in Nepal and Nigeria. I have met women who suffered terrible sexual and psychological abuse, who were raped in front of their children and who are now dealing with the guilt and shame of those assaults. Some have borne children as a result, who are themelves shunned by society. I was therefore expecting a lecture which would address these issues but was appalled to read a powerpoint which was entirely based on queer theory and barely mentioned biological women at all. I felt sick and angry for those women, whose lived experience was being sidelined and dismissed. Academia has fallen down the rabbit hole so far it is now refusing to acknowledge male violence in war and how it has affected women as a biological sex.”

Junior academic

“Junior academic. Crime. Unable to teach about trans people in the criminal justice system (cjs) in any sense, because my department is utterly intersectional at all levels. Trans women in prison? Can’t teach it. Can’t even teach about our ignorances, such as “we can have no reliable crime recording stats because a GRC means we cannot access the underlying data.” Or even about problematic stats – “yes, many transwomen in prison are sexual offenders, it may also be that this is not a full representation of the population because there are both reasons not to disclose gender nonconformity AND clear reasons for imprisoned sex offenders to claim that they are trans.”

Mature age student

“I’m a mature student at a UK University. I’m really disappointed in some of the gender ideology being pushed, such as in P.10 of this document (note: this document has since been removed from the university website)

Just one of the nonsense emails from the union.”

Mature age student studying English Literature

“I began seeing the shift when I returned to academia in 2016. I chose the Contemporary Literature/Gender and Sexuality module in the second year of my English literature degree. We looked at the usual suspects whenever the words gender and sexuality crop up – Butler and Foucault, but I found Foucault rearing his ugly head in a lot of my other modules and with him always came with the same mantra ‘knowledge is power’. In my Theories of Reading module we talked about the signified and signifier – arguments I have since seen used by young TRAs when trying to change the meaning of the word woman. It is as though these youngster have been captured by the Post-Structuralist obsession with deconstructing language.”

UK university employee

“The University HR team created a women’s network in response, and immediately advertised it as “including trans women and non-binary people comfortable in a female-centred community”

Of course females were not asked if this would impact on their comfort in sharing personal female issues within the community.”

Education

High school teacher in Scotland

“Following staff ‘training’ by LGBT Youth Scotland I and other members of school staff were alarmed at the speed at which gender identity ideology was promoted within our school community. The lives of some of our most vulnerable young people and their families were affected. I received emails on two occasions, requesting that parents are not informed when their daughters have chosen to self-identify as boys, one as young as 13 years. These emails were sent from the LGBT club teacher and not a guidance teacher, nor was there any diagnosis of gender dysphoria. Freedom of Information requests to sixteen Scottish councils at the time showed that this ideology was being introduced into schools by local authorities across Scotland, apparently without any consultation, evaluation or risk assessment. 

Emails have continued announcing name changes, in one case the seventh name, and pronouns of a number of girls wanting to be boys. The acceptance of gender identity ideology in our schools has created ‘trans kids’, in our case all girls.”

Year 12 student

“I’m a year 12 student in a Stonewall Champion school, and there is a troubling dissonance between the school’s professed values (of inclusion, freedom of speech, tolerance) and the reality (a culture of censorship and a lack of free thinking).

We are taught that we all have an innate gender, and gender ideology is presented as fact. Anything deviating from this narrative is ‘hateful’ – anyone who does not believe that sex is a spectrum, or that trans women are women, is labelled as a transphobe. This has created an environment of intimidation and speech policing which stifles discussion and bullies into silence those who dare to question gender ideology.”

A story of institutional fear

“Until recently, as an A-Level teacher of English Literature I had to teach a booklet explaining various theoretical perspectives including Feminist criticism. The syllabus then changed. Last year, I was teaching a poem by Donne and thought that I could use this booklet to give the students a quick introduction. It had key features on Feminist theory as explained by Peter Barry, an eminent academic.

I gave out the booklets and started reading through. And had to stop. “Sex is the biologically determined state, gender is a socially construct.””

Public and civil service

Ministry of Defence employee

“We have blogs on our internal websites and a man from the LGBTQ+ network wrote a blog on feminism but failed by conflating sex and gender in regards to sex discrimination and used Danielle Muscato as an example of a woman who has done good as a feminist. Anyone who is on Twitter will know this is a transwoman who says themselves they “can’t transition” has been publicly vocal about being violent towards women. Thankfully, many women read this blog and corrected the author and even pointed out Danielle Muscato was a not positive figure at all mainly due to the violent and negative attitude they have towards women. Someone even commented discrimination against women was due to their sex and not their gender and it is by talking to women about their experiences of sex discrimination senior managers would understand what’s it’s like being a woman.”

Environment Agency employee

This is an incredibly comprehensive testimony, demonstrating – with evidence – the depth and breadth of capture of this institution. So without further ado, I encourage you to read it in full.

Council employee from England

“I then had a complaint made against me for mis gendering a colleague by calling them ‘she’. Now, I must state that I checked and their profile does show ‘woman’. I’m not sure what else I would possibly call them? I didn’t think calling someone ‘she’ would result in my boss forcing me to apologise to this person even though I didn’t want to. I was too worried I’d face disciplinary action if I didn’t do as I was told.”

Ministry of Justice employee

“I work for the Ministry of Justice and following their withdrawal from the Stonewall Champions Scheme I decided to take a look at MoJ Equality and Diversity Policies to see if they had been misrepresenting the law as was suggested in press reports and the University of Essex report. The reason given for withdrawal was ‘cost effectiveness’. The MoJ has been ranked 5th in the Stonewall Equality Index. 

I had already noticed a fudging of what the protected characteristics actually are in Civil Service Learning courses implying for example that gender identity is a protected characteristic and using the word gender when the legal term is sex.”

A civil servant

“I work for the civil service – we were told gender identity is a protected characteristic as part of diversity and inclusion workshops. I challenged it politely (“ I think you may have made a mistake here”) and was shut down aggressively… this was in a teams workshop … the woman running it refused to discuss just said I was wrong … this is one example of literally hundreds … I’m at the stage that I don’t know if they know if they are right or wrong anymore … but they absolutely refuse to even consider looking beyond Stonewall’s definitions of PC and the Equality Act.”

Public servant from East London

“My particular government department, a large cumbersome and antiquated place now has it’s own intranet where guidance on various aspects of law can be found, among staffing issues and concerns. 

One such page on the intranet is Prism, it’s LGBTQ+ community group where social get-togethers and advice mingle among the direct link to the charity Stonewall and guidance on the LGBTQ+ community and how to be “a great ally.” Here, the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010 are written to inform allies and friends of the law. Except sex is not listed as a protected characteristic, but “gender identity” is listed.”

Unions

Policy capture at the NEU

“I have been a trade unionist all my working life and, for the past several years, I have been a workplace rep too. 

I have sat by and watched as more and more policy has been altered to be ‘more inclusive’ including going above and beyond what is required by law e.g. trans guidance which states that anyone who identifies as the opposite sex should be able to use the facilities matched to their identity and not their sex, rendering single sex spaces, as covered by the Equality Act, pointless, putting women and girls in a vulnerable position. I have watched the same people who laud this decision also jumping on the bandwagon of ending VAWG.”

Utilities

BT Openreach employee

“I work in Openreach, which is part of the BT group and we seem to have recently started a relationship with Stonewall (last 18 months). We now have a ‘transition policy’ that allows trans employees to use facilities of their choice. We have diversity data that doesn’t capture sex, but has about a dozen (sometimes overlapping) characteristics under LGBT+.

When I questioned this they said they were happy they were complying with the Equality Act 2010, and that they were “going beyond the law to follow best practice”. It sounds very Stonewall.

Any query or challenge can get you reported by an “inclusion ally” to your boss.”

Banking

Barclays employee

“I recently resigned from Barclays partly because of their Stonewall capture. I had worked there 6 yrs. I felt alienated by the constant bombardment of emails about the Trans and inclusion and educating ourselves. Their ‘Transitioning at Work’ policy is out the Stonewall playbook, a trans person can use the toilet that aligns with chosen gender. I started to feel resentful and powerless to challenge anything. After I resigned and was working my notice I had the courage to contact HR and point out that the ‘gender identity’ mentioned in the policies was not a protected characteristic, but I got short shrift. They said they were happy it was correct.”

Media

The BBC 50:50 (In)equality Project

“The BBC’s 50:50 project was originally set up to ensure that 50% of the population (ie women) had their voices and perspectives heard. It was an impressive and successful corrective to the routine visibility of men booked as interviewees and experts on news and other programmes. It’s run for several years and has made a real difference.

Yet the 2021 version of 50:50 now monitors ‘gender identity’ in data gathering. This is not what 50:50 was named for or designed to do. In doing this it’s simultaneously redefined the meaning of the word ‘woman’.”

Law

Family court employee

“Our data collection has trans as an option for sex, I have had men want their previous name and sex deleted so that safeguarding checks couldn’t be completed on them on their new “identity”. 

We have had a local group deliver training which was a trans “man” berating everyone including the NHS who he works for and who had dragged along his own child to talk about her new “maddy” mummy daddy hybrid.”

Police

Metropolitan Police employee

“There is this Stonewall’s ‘guidance for the policing sector’ which makes some astonishing claims – namely that ’employees shouldn’t have to disclose their trans status.’ So, I’m presuming you could join with a new sex and name – I would hope that a previous identity would be picked up on background checks – but who knows?

It also talks about changing rooms and toilets and the gender you feel comfortable with – whilst also saying that no medical transition is necessary. All implemented by the Met without consulting female staff – for Stonewall points – and when there was an officer recently in court for filming a female colleague in the shower while they were on a residential course.”

Medicine

Female patient denied NHS funding for treatment of painful breast condition

“Despite all of the above, the greatest insult to me as a woman during these last few bitter years is the policy rationale as to why this service to women has been withdrawn, and to whom the recommendations for funding still applies to, these are as follows: 

1.            Female Patients undergoing breast reconstruction as part of treatment for breast cancer.

2.            Female Patients with PIP implants for whom national guidance applies.

3.            Male Patients undergoing Gender Reassignment Surgery.

Yes, you read that correctly. A man who wishes to have breast surgery as part of his gender affirming care is now more eligible for funding to make his non medically necessary, dysphoria induced dreams come true over my, a natal woman’s, need to have a congenital issue resolved. All I can say is thank heavens that the NHS still accept breast cancer survivors and the recipients of dangerous implants as a priority – but you never know, soon this too may be recognised as a luxury cosmetic procedure!”

Nurses request that health and nursing organisations withdraw from Stonewall’s Diversity Championship Scheme

“Nursing bodies must have the highest regard in terms of its affiliations. We believe Stonewall’s recent activities no longer align with the values of nurses which require evidence based practice, support for child development, informed consent, safeguarding, accurate and fair implementation of equality legislation for the benefit of all patients, zero-tolerance to any form of bullying and an understanding that true inclusion requires language, including sexed-based language when relevant, that reflects the needs of all patients.”

NHS doctor working in A&E

“I saw a transwoman in the ED the other day. Medical records all said ‘female’. NHS number was new. Nothing from [patient] to reveal natal sex, except ‘I take HRT’. I could see this patient was taking 6x the exogenous oral oestrogen normally taken post-menopause, plus a weekly patch. Formerly took [androgen blocker used in feminisation therapy for males] and had had NHS speech and language therapy.

With patient’s consent I viewed the SCR [Summary Care Records], to record drug history accurately in the notes. In the SCR natal sex was not recorded. All it contained was childhood immunizations and current drugs. No ‘diagnosis’ relating to drug history. No record of any surgery.”

New GP trainee

“I just started GP training so I had to register with the RCGP (Royal College of General Practitioners). These were the options available to record my “gender identity” on registration.”

NHS hospital pharmacist

“Every Tuesday, we would attend patients from the sex clinic. The vast majority of them being trans people. As a professional and human, I treat every patient with dignity and respect. However, patients didn’t want to be called by their legal name, which was written on the prescription. So we would write their preferred name on their prescription and call them as they wish, as strongly suggested by our managers. 

Some of these patients felt offended that the actual box of medication prescribed had a label with the instructions and the legal name. To comply with management, we had to change the name on these labels. The software would not allow to change the patient’s name, resulting in us being forced to create a fake patient.”

Member of London Ambulance Service

“The London Ambulance Service guidelines for supporting trans people define the term Transgender as: ‘Someone whose gender identity or behaviour is different from those typically associated with their assigned sex at birth’. 

This reinforces sexist stereotypes that there are male and female behaviours. Sex is apparently now ‘assigned’ when it is, of course, observed with exceptional accuracy.”

Equality and Diversity Policy at an NHS hospice

I was given this copy of an Equality and Diversity Policy by an employee of one of the NHS hospices in the UK. 

I had sincerely hoped that I would never have to write this post, yet here we are.

Midwife in the NHS

“I’m a midwife in the NHS, fighting back against gender identity ideology when and where I can, including on a LGBT online study day, and a new digital system we have implemented. Reassuringly, all my colleagues seem to be gender critical.

On our new digital system, for booking pregnant women, we are supposed to ask preferred pronouns. I don’t and don’t know who actually does. Part of the booking documentation it mentions assigned gender.”

Female patient with dementia concerns

“I’m 66, daughter and granddaughter of women who suffered dementia. Mum had it early, so I keep watch. It’s complicated for me by an old head injury that makes me confuse or forget words occasionally when I’m tired. I thought I was having memory problems and possible cognitive problems and was admitted to the geriatric clinic of a Vancouver hospital, got a scan and some oral and written testing, a helpful interview and was told I had a structurally normal brain for my age but could come back if I needed help. Then I was offered a final meeting, via phone due to Covid, to make sure I had no lingering concerns or questions about coping strategies.”

Other

Industrial sector employee

“I raised polite and grounded questions, mainly around safeguarding concerns. A trans person complained. I was shut up and told not to discuss openly again, or discipline may follow. 

Simply this: if a trans person is offended by anything (*anything*) I say, then discipline could be brought against me. This one group is allowed to abuse the laws around harassment to maliciously silence another.”