The Conservative leadership race is sucking up a lot of the media oxygen, but this week also saw two significant developments in what I suppose we must call the ‘culture wars’.
First, an employment tribunal ruled that a barristers’ chambers had discriminated against her for expressing ‘gender critical’ beliefs; Allison Bailey was reportedly awarded aggravated damages of £22,000.
Second, following a damning internal review the NHS is shutting down the Tavistock Centre, home of the increasingly infamous Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS).
According to the Times, the author of the review “found that the Tavistock clinic was “not a safe or viable long-term option” and that other mental health issues were “overshadowed” when gender was raised by children referred to the clinic.”
I can’t state enough how profound this decision is 💥 There’s lots I can say now I’m no longer equalities minister -personal testimonies heard of destroyed childhoods, protecting whistleblowing clinicians from endless harassment by twitter activists (1/2) https://t.co/dE6j12MAYw
— Kemi Badenoch (@KemiBadenoch) July 28, 2022
Both of these developments represent a setback for the wilder fringes of the trans rights movement.
In the former case, it is yet another blow to Stonewall’s embattled Diversity Champions Programme (DCP). The scheme has been pushing employers well beyond what the law requires, and it now seems to have advised them to actually breach the terms of the Equality Act 2010.
Bailey was not successful in her bid to hold Stonewall partly culpable for the discrimination she experienced; the charity and its allies are claiming this as a victory. But the fact that employers can’t shelter behind its advice if it lands them in trouble will surely push even more to re-examine their participation in the DCP.
In the case of the Tavistock clinic, the shutdown does not seem to entail a reduction in services offered to trans people; it is set to be replaced by a decentralised network of clinics, including two new clinics for children. This is quite right – medical malpractice is evil, but should not be used as a cover for shutting down or restricting good and necessary care and support.
But the publication of the review, and the shuttering of the Tavistock, is a significant achievement given what looks to have been an extraordinary amount of pressure from activists (both within and outwith the NHS) to shut down critical scrutiny of the institution and its methods.
Two swallows don’t a summer make, of course. But there does seem to have been a vibe shift in the tone of the debate on these questions – indeed, Penny Mordaunt’s leadership bid fell foul of it.
The effort to deliver this has sometimes produced new political bedfellows, as the proliferation of left-leaning feminist academics at right-leaning outlets illustrates. (Our own column on the topic, Radical, was run by rightists.)
But its success is testament to the fact that the zealous certainty of social movements which think themselves on the cutting edge of history and progress is no proof either of the rightness of their arguments or the surety of their success. A useful lesson for other contexts.