RISHI SUNAK, the British prime minister, created a heated debate when he said, “we shouldn’t get bullied into believing that people can be any sex they want to be,” in a speech at his first Conservative party conference as leader.
Despite having been in power for 13 years, Sunak is attempting to frame his party as a force for change in preparation for the general election that will take place next year.
In a speech, he made it clear where he stood on gender identity, saying it was “common sense” that “a man is a man and a woman is a woman”; this provoked outrage from transgender rights advocates and enthusiastic applause from Conservative Party Conference participants.
Supporting his stance, one user commented online: “I have so much disagreement with him in other issues. But this statement is an absolute gold. There are only two genders. A man and a woman.”
Another netizen wrote: “I agree with him and I am not against anyone. It’s just biology!”
India Willoughby, the transgender British newsreader said: “Outrageous hate, which is going to encourage bullying and physical attacks by thugs, utterly vile.”
One user criticised his assertion and wrote: “Taking a population of less than one per cent in the UK and vilifying them to this level is absolutely terrifying. Why take a marginalised community who are just simply trying to be themselves and speak as if they are bullies and monsters?”
After promising to legislate that “sexual and sadistic” killers would spend their lives in prison, Sunak listed other positions he said “shouldn’t be controversial,” including – “for parents to know what their children are being taught in school about relationships.
“Patients should know when hospitals are talking about men or women,” Sunak continued during his closing speech at his party’s annual gathering, held this year in Manchester.
Tim Hopkins, the director of the Equality Network – an LGBTQ+ rights charity in Scotland – said the comments were similar to those made by Margaret Thatcher about gay people in the 1980s.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay is the latest Conservative MP who used his speech to ask for a restoration of a “common-sense” approach.
Barclay said: “We need a common-sense approach to sex and equality issues in the NHS – that is why today I am announcing proposals for clearer rights for patients.
“And I can today confirm that sex-specific language has now been fully restored to online health advice pages about cervical and ovarian cancer and the menopause.
“It is vital that women’s voices are heard in the NHS and the privacy, dignity and safety of all patients are protected.”
Possible changes could include plans to implement the return of “sex-specific” language across the NHS, as well as trans women no longer able to access care on female wards across the NHS.
Stonewall, an LGBTQ+ rights group, has condemned Barclay’s plan to eliminate transgender women from NHS female wards.
There is growing backlash from LGBTQ+ Conservatives over the party’s rhetoric on gender identity and sexuality.
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