significant inroads into institutions across education, health, charities and corporations over the past few decades, and a triumphant week for those who campaign against its doctrine. “It feels like the grown-ups are back in the room,” says Maya Forstater, CEO of human rights charity Sex Matters.
It's too soon for complacency, though.
With Streeting’s firm line on Cass and puberty blockers, the battleground upon which trans-rights groups can prosecute their war is shrinking. This may be contributing to the increasing vehemence of activists, who stress the heightened risks of suicide to trans children. Maugham claimed that the upheld puberty-blocker ban would “kill trans children. My feelings about Wes Streeting are unprintable.” Susie Green, former chief executive of Mermaids, says Streeting has “blood on his hands… How dare Wes Streeting put so many trans kids at risk by continuing this murderous ban.”
This type of language and its basic assertion were branded “unfounded and dangerous” earlier this year in a government review conducted by Prof Louis Appleby, chair of the national suicide prevention strategy advisory group.
“There’s been 30 years of institutional capture that doesn’t just go away with the Cass Review,” says Forstater. “There have been lots of turning points, but it’s more like pulling up bindweeds. You just have to keep at it as it keeps growing back.” As Stonewall says, the gradual retreat is strategic. There has been no Damascene conversion – if anything the events of this week suggest militancy is likely to increase as their opportunities to influence diminish.
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