Ian Dunt is turning into a real trans ally, this article describes the likely stitch-up of how Starmer and Philippson are likely to take away all trans people’s human rights without a debate or vote in parliament.
Anyone who considers trans rights to be a debate is not someone I can vote for. It would be lovely for there to be a single party in the UK who is not pro-trans elimination.
2 July 2025 Rt Hon Bridget Phillipson Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities Appointment of the Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission Dear Secretary of State, Our two Committees met yesterday, 1 July, to hold a pre-appointment hearing with the Government’s preferred candidate for the post of Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson. We held a wide-ranging discussion with the candidate, covering topics including: • Suitability of the candidate's knowledge and experience • The equalities and human rights remits of the EHRC, including regarding race, disability and Islamophobia • The role of the EHRC as equality law regulator and enforcer • Future relationships with the Government and Parliament • Board level vacancies • Biological sex-based rights and transgender rights • Equality and human rights implications of artificial intelligence It is clear that Dr Stephenson has extensive academic credibility in the field of women’s rights and has an important contribution to make to public life. However, it is with regret that we do not feel we can endorse her appointment to the role at this time. Our reasons relate to our concerns about vision and leadership, about breadth of expertise across the wide remit of the EHRC, and about rebuilding trust.
The Joint Committee on Human Rights and the Women and Equalities Committee have made public their letter rejecting Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson for the role of new Chair of the EHRC.
So it's official!
Read their reasoning in full here: committees.parliament.uk/publications...
Every day I hear of more trans kids dropping (being forced) out of school. Kids who have used the bathroom with no bother for years, sometimes throughout their school years, who are now being forcibly outed, excluded, isolated, & segregated. 1/3
THREAD 🧵 of initial thoughts on the transphobic schools "guidance" produced by this deeply transphobic Labour government today.
SECTION 28+
This morning the media coverage of the new RHSE guidance for schools led me to suggest it represents Labour’s Section 28. The real thing is, however...
1/11
Imagine being that trans girl, sat in a classroom while your teacher tells everyone that you are a biological male who cannot use the toilet because it is illegal & you make women uncomfortable. There is no way of teaching this that is not bullying, & many teachers will do this awfully.
The government explicitly ignored the public consultation on their terrible new guidance for schools
Most people said the guidance was bad. They went ahead anyway
The government now wants teachers to explicitly teach that trans people have less rights than cis people, and that "biological sex" is different to your sex in terms of biology
It's not Section 28, but indoctrinating oppression and science denial is disgusting. Labour hates LGBT people
1/🧵 NHS England, Information Commissioner's Office and their legal teams failed to submit a Response today about the whereabouts of the Cass Review papers. It's truly shocking they missed the deadline.
TACC is making a shift. From today, we will no longer refer to groups like Sex Matters, LGB Alliance, and For Women Scotland as simply anti-trans, or use their framing. We’ll call them what they are: anti-rights campaigners
tacc.org.uk/2025/07/14/c...
This is consistently the case with stuff like this. The GC movement wants to force anti-trans policy on organisations that want to be trans inclusive. See also, their harassment of VAWG services that had made a positive choice to be trans inclusive.
transsafety.network/posts/gc-har...
The EHRC FOI release reveals a disturbing pattern: trans people — especially trans women — are repeatedly framed as inherently dangerous, deceptive, or a safeguarding risk. The EHRC didn’t challenge this once.
tacc.org.uk/2025/07/13/t...
The Welsh Government are doing a consultation on its pro-trans schools policy. UK GCs are trying to push it in an anti-trans direction. If you possibly can, please join me in filling out the consultation to reinforce the pro-trans stance.
Deadline 31 July.
www.gov.wales/rights-respe...
Extraordinarily response from the EHRC to our letter asking whether they were using AI to process consultation responses: "It is not for your client to question the manner in which that process is
being conducted while the process is ongoing."
Obviously we won't let it drop.
Screenshot of a letter titled "Your Freedom of Information Request" addressed to "Dear Trans Advocacy and Complaints Collective". The letter states, "Thank you for your request, detailed below, which we received on 11 June 2025." It includes the quote: "During a recent meeting between the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and the Women and Equalities Committee, Baroness Kishwer Falkner referred multiple times to an "81% satisfaction rate" in relation to the EHRC's performance or public perception." The letter requests "The full source of the 81% satisfaction rate cited by Baroness Falkner, including: - The title and date of the survey, report, or research from which this figure is drawn. - The commissioning body, if applicable. - The sample size, methodology, and target population of the survey." Contact information is provided: "T: 0161 829 8100 E: foi@equalityhumanrights.com Arndale House, The Arndale Centre Manchester, M4 3AQ equalityhumanrights.com".
Screenshot of a document regarding a Freedom of Information Act request. It lists three points asking for: "The specific question(s) asked that produced this figure," "Any documents, reports, internal communications, or datasets held by the EHRC that provide further detail, breakdowns, or analysis of this satisfaction figure (including demographic data or comparison with previous years, if available)," and "A direct link (if publicly available) or a copy of the original source document(s) or dataset(s)." The document states, "This request is being handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000." The response indicates that the Equality and Human Rights Commission does not hold the requested information. It further clarifies that Baroness Falkner did not refer to an 81% "satisfaction rate" at a meeting, and the figures quoted refer to media sentiment analysis, with additional information available on the UK Parliament website here.
🧵We sent an FOI to the EHRC about the “81% satisfaction rate” claim. We got a response back.
Which revealed a letter to the Women and Equalities Committee.
What we found goes far beyond a misleading “approval rating.”
committees.parliament.uk/publications...
The UK government is introducing conversion therapy with the claim that being trans may be “secondary” to other conditions.
There is no evidence for this claim.
Medical professionals going along with this are acting unethically.
BBC search of the keyword 'trans' showing articles over the last 7 days, which the articles focus was anti-trans
The BBC's Pride coverage this year didn’t mention the word trans once, despite most events focusing on trans rights. Meanwhile, a search shows 4 anti-trans stories in just the last 7 days. Clear bias on a regular basis from the BBC.
Baroness Kishwer Falconer, Chair Equality and Human Rights Commission 10th April 2023 Dear Kishwer Thank you for publishing your letter to the Minister for Women and Equalities setting out, with careful reasoning, why you support revisiting and clarifying the meaning of "sex" as a protected characteristic in the Equality Act. We are sorry that you have been subjected to abuse as a result. As you will know, this bullying is commonly experienced by anyone (but particularly women) who departs from simply affirming that "trans women are women". You have our solidarity, support and admiration for your integrity, steadfast in this storm. The treatment you have received is part of an international pattern of institutionalised discrimination and harassment of people who express "gender-critical" views. Last month in Auckland, campaigners for women's rights were threatened, assaulted and prevented from speaking in public. We have seen women at a rally in Hyde Park facing a barrage of amplified abuse, and hate-filled protests outside the inaugural conference of the Lesbian Project in London. In the US, swimmer Railey Gaines was hit in the face and threatened by a mob. We have personally (Maya and Helen) sat quietly in a pub in Westminster while protesters gathered outside shouting "fascist" at us. The EHRC offices has had urine poured over its doors by a protester who exposed himself. Our experience is that the impunity with which protesters threaten women and LGB campaigners is linked to a broad-based and frightening campaign to dehumanise us and portray us as outside the bounds of civilised society, and therefore as acceptable targets for any sort of attack. We are referred to as vile old hags, fascists, Nazis, and cockroaches that are infesting the public domain. Our inboxes are full of messages from women and men who describe routine and explicit discrimination and harassment which they face at work or at the hands of public authorities, schools, universities, regulators …
encouraged to use violence against them. We believe that clarifying the meaning of sex in the Equality Act in the UK is an important step to address this. Not only will it deal with the specific anomalies and issues you detail in your letter, but also, and perhaps even more importantly, it will clarify that biological women, as a group, are vulnerable to discrimination because of their sex, and that those setting public policy must consider the impacts of their decisions upon this group as well as others. Speaking clearly about the distinction between being a woman, on the one hand, and being a man who identifies as a woman, on the other, is not hateful. Nor is collecting accurate data on the two sexes. Indeed, these distinctions are essential to understand impacts and protect everyone's rights, and in particular those of vulnerable groups. We welcome your recognition of competing rights. If any possibility of competing rights is dismissed, then women's rights are, in effect, set at zero whenever the demands or interests of men who identify as women are raised. As you may know (and we will be writing to Melanie Field with further details), we were shocked that, after attending an EHRC-sponsored event for civil-society organisations on 17th February at Birmingham City University Centre for Human Rights, we (together with LGB Alliance) were subjected to the same silencing treatment. The joint communiqué developed by participants at the event was vetoed because of our involvement. Project staff deleted a tweet that recognised our participation and told us they would not work with us in future. This is the polite use of the "heckler's veto", but has the same effect as those who scream in our faces and seek to intimidate us physically. You are right when you sayin your letter to the minister that there is an urgent need to move public debate on these issues to a more informed and constructive basis. This includes engagement with civil-society organisations. The BCU incid…
The April 2023 letter from Sex Matters to the EHRC is a calculated piece of political theatre, one that masks a campaign of trans exclusion behind a polished appeal to “civility” and “clarity.” On the surface, it feigns concern for balanced debate and women's rights, but underneath,
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/70...
Given the direction of travel of the UK government I think it's extremely important to get a debate on this.
Please sign and share.
I am not calling it the fucking Star Trek thing.
It is always deeply frustrating to talk to people whose stance on talking to people about the possibility of being queer is rooted almost entirely in etiquette, ignoring that we are culturally, systemically discouraged from considering it.
The EHRC is meant to protect everyone’s rights. But internal documents reveal a different story: repeated meetings with anti-trans lobbyists, legal bias, and secret coordination. We filed the FOI. Here’s what we found.
tacc.org.uk/2025/07/01/f...
GIRES is in urgent need, and they need you.
For decades, the Gender Identity Research & Education Society has supported the trans community with vital research, resources, and advocacy. Now, it’s at risk.
They’re trying to raise £10,000 to keep GIRES going. Please share this and if you can donate.
Sex Matters and Transgender Trend were given privileged access: private meetings, letter exchanges with the Chair, and the right to bypass consultation rules. Their language appears, almost verbatim, in EHRC policy
GIRES supports in promoting a crucial UK-wide research survey conducted by TransActual in collaboration with Dr Jack López.
addressing concerns observed after the Supreme Court’s judgment & now EHRC interim guidance.
Survey Link: tinyurl.com/SingleSexSpa...
Closing Date: Monday 14th July, 5pm
I've started reading web serials again for the first time in like 8 years. There's something really soothing about the medium. I wonder if it's similar to what people who dig fanfiction get out of fanfiction.
Hey, it's Ash's partner jumping in:
Am I Nima - store.steampowered.com/app/3224600/...
I live for this kind of game: a story driven, psychological horror, Little Alchemy-like! You're a kid trapped in your own mind, trying to remember who you are and how you got here.
Can't wait for the full game!
Run TavernQuest - store.steampowered.com/app/808610/R...
A Choose your own adventure in which you game master a text adventure for Steve- the worst guy ever. It had my friends and I cackling. Great writing and VA work. Fucking with Steve really catered to inner petty bitch.
Is This Seat Taken? - store.steampowered.com/app/3035120/...
Cute little logic puzzle game about catering to the needs of a bunch of little shape people. I am too much of a stimulation craving worm of a thing to be able to give it a long play, but give it a look if you like cozy puzzlers.
Some demo recommendations.
MINDWAVE - store.steampowered.com/app/2701030/...
It's a Warioware-like in which you are taking part in a tourney where you need to brain blast your opponent by beating a bunch of microgames made out of their memories/personality.
Very excited for the full release!
I love these threads, I nearly always find a new favourite.