The lessons of the trans debate

The World Athletics Council has taken the decisive step of announcing that transgender women who underwent male puberty before their transition will henceforth be excluded from female events. The decision has been made, according to the council, to ‘protect the future of the female category’. World rugby has already made a similar ruling and other sports are expected to follow suit. It has been a long and heated debate, but a consensus is emerging on the side of common sense.

Those who overreached on this issue are counting the cost. Nicola Sturgeon’s bizarre gender self-ID law that would have granted women’s rights to anyone who wanted to claim them went on to sink her premiership. She said that opponents of her plans included homophobes and bigots – but they also included about two-thirds of the Scottish public. When a convicted rapist was sent to a women’s prison, Sturgeon was unable to say why his request to be seen as a woman should be granted.