Abusive Misogynist Activist Writes NHS Policy in Bristol
Last week I published an article about trans activist lobby groups in Bristol, and the tactics they have used to capture policy makers and police in the city. (I wrote previously about the activists delivering transgender training to police forces all over the UK).
Since then I’ve learned that these same activists are writing policy for the NHS in the Bristol, South Gloucestershire and Devon region.
Many trans-identified males have a paraphilia known as autogynephilia: ‘ a male’s propensity to be sexually aroused by the thought of himself as a female’. Readers can learn more about autogynephilia from the many resources here.
Cheryl Morgan, a trans rights activist who calls women ‘terfs’, ‘maniacs’ and ‘an infestation’ is the director of the Diversity Trust. Morgan, who is male, attended a menopause event and claims to be able to breastfeed.
Morgan has written this guidance which has been adopted by the Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset NHS Clinical Commissioning Group.
The guidance is published by SARI, originally an anti-racism organisation. Alex Raikes, director of SARI, has worked with Morgan for many years. Neither are medical professionals.
It does not mention of the needs of women, or the needs of any other groups who have protected characteristics under the Equality Act such as children, elderly people, disabled people, lesbian, gay or bisexual people, or religious people.
It advises that patients who do not want to be on a ward with someone of the opposite sex should be ‘educated’. ‘Transphobia’ is the only reason, according to the guidance, that a female patient would not want a male patient in the same ward.
The guidance stresses that trans staff must never be misgendered, but makes no mention of women’s right to request a female healthcare practitioner.
The only safeguarding concern raised for children and young people is that of unsupportive parents. According to the guidance, ‘flattening chest tissue’ — which carries a risk of broken ribs and collapsed lungs — and ‘tucking genitals’ is simply normal behaviour for a ‘trans child’.
‘Doing nothing or delaying treatment CAUSES HARM’(original bolding and capitals), the guidance tells NHS staff. There is no mention of detransitioners or of the 35 resignations from the Tavistock Gender Identity Development Service clinic for young people since 2015.
The ‘Training’ section of the guidance written by the Diversity Trust director and published by SARI recommends buying in training from… the Diversity Trust and SARI. There is a FOI request awaiting response which asks how much SARI was paid for writing this guidance. A previous FOI revealed that the Diversity Trust was paid £360 for one-off training for University Hospitals Bristol.
In November, Raikes and Morgan, along with Henry Poulteney, an LGBTQ youth work team manager from Off The Record and a supporting writer of the guidance, attended a meeting of the CCG governing body, where the guidance was approved.
According to the minutes, there was no risk assessment, no equalities impact assessment and zero public consultation, or consultation with patients who do not identify as trans.
The minutes state:
The Governing Body:
Noted the contents of the toolkit and its aims to support better care and experiences for trans people
Endorsed the toolkit and its dissemination to relevant practitioners within BNSSG
Agreed that the BNSSG CCG logo can be added to the publication as a reflection of this endorsement
As well as the BNSSG CCG logo, the guidance features the logos of North Bristol NHS Trust and Devon Partnership NHS Trust.
No-one at the meeting raised the need for women’s single-sex spaces or their right to request a female HCP. No-one raised concerns about the lack of evidence for medical intervention in ‘trans children’.
Morgan, Raikes and Poulteney are unelected people, who receive public money. They make policy decisions behind closed doors which will affect everyone in their area, but they are not subject to any accountability.
In a Parliamentary Human Rights Committee session of May 2019 Joanna Cherry QC MP asked Katy Minshall, head of UK policy at Twitter ‘whether ‘terf’ is a gendered term in the same way that bitch and cunt are gendered terms’’. Minshall agreed that it is.
Would someone who, over many years, calls women cunts and bitches be invited to write NHS policy that will negatively affect women? We can only hope not.
Is there a different standard when the word is ‘terf’ instead of ‘cunt’?
Is someone who has given indications that they may have a paraphilia which involves fetishising female anatomy the appropriate person to write NHS policy that will influence the treatment of trans-identifying children and young people, and which will affect women’s access to healthcare?
With thanks to the FOI-requesting women of Mumsnet.
