Gillian Keegan has declared that she will no longer use the slogan, ‘trans women are women’ because, as she explains, her understanding of the issue has ‘evolved’. Good for her; it is far better that politicians develop their positions than dig their heels in and refuse to countenance the concept that they were ever wrong.
What happens when common sense diverges the from the hard facts of biology?
In 2020, the Education Secretary went further than the slogan when she told an LGBT+ forum in her Chichester constituency that ‘trans people should have equal access to safe spaces’. Assuming she meant that trans women should be able to access women’s spaces, that was wrong. Biological females should have an absolute right to single-sex provision whenever it is a ‘proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim’. That’s the legalese, and it’s surely a legitimate aim for women to be able to protect their boundaries.
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