The tide is finally turning against the gender extremists

For too long, tough ministerial rhetoric on confronting extreme gender ideology was not met with accompanying action. Senior Conservatives criticised Labour’s ridiculous contortions on matters like gender self-ID, social transitioning in schools, even on the very definition of a woman, while doing far too little as public institutions continued to adopt a misguided – sometimes even dangerous – approach to the trans issue.

In recent months, the situation has slowly begun to change. Thanks largely to the efforts of Kemi Badenoch, the equalities minister, new schools guidance should give teachers greater confidence to resist the demands of radical activists, with parents meant to be put at the heart of decisions concerning their children. Ministers have accepted the recommendations of the Cass review, meanwhile, and puberty-blockers are no longer routinely prescribed by the NHS.

Now, the Government is launching a consultation on updating the NHS constitution for England, a move that could permit patients to request to be treated in single-sex hospital wards based on biological sex. This would be a sensible and proportionate change, reflective of the fact that many women will feel more comfortable being looked after in a female-only ward. A right to be treated by a doctor of the same biological sex for intimate care could also be enshrined in the constitution, while terms like “chestfeeding” could be banned.

Doubtless, these announcements will be met with the usual outcry from groups such as Stonewall, but that should not stop the Government from going further in other areas. There is widespread concern, for example, about the use of third-party educational materials in schools, some of which have been found to promote highly controversial views on gender. There have also been calls to overhaul the Equality Act, to give greater protections on the grounds of biological sex.

Thanks largely to the efforts of a very small number of exceptionally brave women – JK Rowling among them – the trans debate has been utterly transformed in the last few years. The gender extremists are clearly in retreat, and their dogmas are finally being exposed to proper evidence-based scrutiny. Politicians have begun to recant their previously unthinking support for policies that were causing active harm.

But there is a long way to go before the legacy of the errors made in the past few years is fully addressed. In particular, the woke ideology that buttressed the gender extremists remains embedded in far too many organisations. It has to be rooted out once and for all.