Banning conversion practices: lessons from Australia

On this week’s podcast, Maya Forstater talks to Akua Reindorf KC, barrister and former commissioner at the Equality and Human Rights Commission. With Baroness Kishwer Falkner, she has written a new Policy Exchange report on the draft Conversion Practices Bill.The report concludes that the draft bill leaves key terms undefined and risks criminalising ordinary parenting, teaching and pastoral care.The joint committee scrutinising the bill is taking written evidence until 5pm on Monday 16th November. Anyone can respond, and you don’t need to be a lawyer. Our guide in the show notes suggests answering three short questions and one longer one about your own experience. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.sex-matters-news.org

Helen Joyce speaks to Tess Hackett, an Australian mother estranged from her trans-identifying daughter. Tess set up Australia’s first support group for parents of children who identify as trans, now a nationwide network she still runs.She describes life under conversion-practices bans in Australian states: detransitioners in Victoria having to go interstate for medical help; psychologists turning away teenagers; and parents too scared to seek help.As the UK’s draft Conversion Practices Bill goes through pre-legislative scrutiny, this is a look at what such laws mean in practice.Read our briefing, Who will be criminalised This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.sex-matters-news.org

In this episode, Helen Joyce speaks to Sarah,* the mother of a daughter who identified as trans for seven years and has since desisted.Sarah explains how her daughter’s identity took hold in early adolescence, influenced by bullying, undiagnosed autism, peer groups and online communities, and how those around the family affirmed it.She explains what she believes helped her daughter find her way back to comfort with her biological sex, and warns that proposed conversion-practices legislation could result in families like hers facing criminal charges, simply for doing what is in their children’s interests in very difficult circumstances.*To protect the family’s privacy, all names have been changed and Sarah’s identity has been obscured.Read our briefing on the draft Conversion Practices Bill. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.sex-matters-news.org

In this week’s episode, Helen Joyce is joined by social scientist Matilda Gosling, who was commissioned by Sex Matters to write Criminalising conversations, a new report on the government’s proposed Conversion Practices Bill and how it would affect parents, therapists and gender-distressed young people.The report is the first of its kind to document the serious problems with the planned new law foreseen by experienced therapists who work with gender-distressed young people. Matilda discusses the risk that experienced therapists stop working with gender-distressed people for fear of prosecution, and the knock-on impacts on children and parents, lesbian and gay people, and detransitioners. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.sex-matters-news.org

Why does it matter whether we collect data on sex? In this episode of the Sex Matters podcast, Helen Joyce talks to sociologist Professor Alice Sullivan of University College London about her forthcoming book Sex, Lies and Statistics, due out in November.Alice explains why sex has always been an essential statistical variable, and how conflating it with “gender identity” conceals differences in health, crime and life outcomes. They discuss preference falsification: how the vilification of the commonplace understanding of sex as real and biological has led many people to conceal their true views. They look at how public and private organisations, from the Office for National Statistics to sports governing bodies, came to adopt fringe ideas that few people share, and why so many institutions have treated people who raise concerns as the problem.Finally, Alice discusses the need for stronger free-speech protections and an end to the culture of impunity if sex-based data and evidence-based policy-making are to be restored. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.sex-matters-news.org

This week, Maya Forstater and Fiona McAnena explain the key role charities have played in allowing misunderstandings of the Equality Act 2010 to undermine safeguarding in schools.They look at recent NSPCC guidance on changing rooms, which could allow male teachers to supervise female pupils while they get changed, counter to essential safeguarding principles.They discuss the charity sector’s opposition to Keeping children safe in education, statutory guidance for schools that was recently updated to emphasise the importance of clear sex-based rules.They argue that schools should reject advice from charities that are unwilling to state and act on risk factors related to sex. Secrecy, lies and evasion about sex put children at risk of abuse, exploitation and harm. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.sex-matters-news.org

In this week’s episode, Fiona McAnena is joined by Tanya de Grunwald, host of the This isn’t Working podcast and founder of the This is Working network, to discuss how employers should navigate the sex and gender debate. Widespread misunderstanding of the law over the past decade has resulted in workplace policies that now urgently need to be put right. Fiona and Tanya explore why some employers are correcting these policy mistakes while others remain stuck, the cost of ignoring these issues and why open, professional conversations in the workplace are the way back to reality. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.sex-matters-news.org

As the autumn term begins, Maya Forstater and Fiona McAnena discuss statutory safeguarding guidance, as well as draft technical guidance on equality law for schools from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).Disappointingly, the EHRC’s guidance is riddled with serious legal errors. Unless it is significantly revised, it will mislead schools about their legal duties and what they must do in order to treat all pupils fairly and safely. This draft guidance is open for consultation until Wednesday 30th September. It’s an important opportunity for parents, teachers and others concerned about protecting children from gender ideology to ensure that the equality regulator hears what they have to say.Read more on our website or respond to the consultation. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.sex-matters-news.org

In this week’s episode, Helen Joyce speaks to psychotherapist Stella O’Malley, founder and director of Genspect, about how the government’s plans to criminalise so-called “conversion practices” would harm families and therapists.Good therapy requires open, trusting conversations, Stella points out. But the planned law risks making discussions about trans identification taboo, and driving therapists away from working with gender-distressed young people, who will be left without support. Stella also explains how conversion-practices bans elsewhere have silenced parents and prevented them from giving their children honest, loving guidance.Watch Stella’s conversation with Canadian writer Peter Gajdics about surviving abusive conversion therapy and why he now believes conversion-therapy bans are a Trojan horse.Catch up on our conversation with non-practising barrister Dennis Kavanagh on the flaws of the draft Conversion Practices Bill.Read our briefing on the bill. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.sex-matters-news.org

In this week’s podcast, Fiona, Maya and Helen discuss the cancellation of a panel organised by Women’s Rights Network Northern Ireland at the Féile an Phobail arts festival in Belfast.They discuss how the event was successfully relocated, drawing greater public attention, and what the controversy reveals about the challenges facing gender-critical women.They also examine media coverage of sex and gender issues, including recent updates to BBC reporting guidance and the frustrating way that even when gender-critical women are invited on broadcast shows, the discussion often stalls at disputes over “preferred pronouns” rather than progressing to substantive issues of women’s rights.Watch the full panel discussion or read about it on our website. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.sex-matters-news.org