A year after the Supreme Court's ruling on the legal definition of sex, public institutions are still being dragged into compliance, according to Esther Krakue. She argues that misogyny is being repackaged and espoused by misguided women and gender-bending allies.
Self-identification is not a royal decree
Krakue questions why reality should be decided by individual assertions, and why declining to participate is treated as punishable. She points to the pushback against women wanting spaces reserved only for them, citing the transgender chief executive of Edinburgh's rape crisis centre who suggested women should "reframe" their trauma.
Data on transwomen offending
Krakue references a 2011 study cited by academics in evidence to a parliamentary committee, which found that male-to-female transitioners retained a male pattern of criminality. Ministry of Justice figures from 2020 to 2022 show men committed 99% of rapes, over 90% of sexual and weapons offences, and over 80% of violent crime.
She dismisses the objection that individual convictions don't constitute evidence of a wider trend, noting that the number of transwomen in the country is so small that a single conviction shifts the figures.
Enforcement remains the issue
The new code runs to 342 pages and doesn't rewrite the Equality Act. Kishwer Falkner, who chaired the equalities watchdog during drafting, says organisations were acting unlawfully all along. Falkner has warned that the commission lacks money to take cases up, leaving women to enforce the law themselves.
Green-led Lambeth council has backed a motion refusing to implement the code, and Hackney councillors joined a rally against it. The government sat on the document from September until May.
Krakue concludes that while it's a win, a code of practice is not a rescue, and women who took the case to the Supreme Court will likely fund the next round.
