On January 6th this year I wrote an opinion piece for hospitality sector website Propelhospitality.com. This was titled ‘Enough is Enough’ and was a critique of gender ideology and the implications for hospitality premises of gender self-ID. In that piece – ‘How I Got Cancelled by the Gender Borg For Daring to Criticise its Ideology’ – you can read a full account of what then happened to me as a consequence.
The furore created by daring to suggest that sex is binary and immutable caused my publisher’s commercial sponsors to threaten to withdraw their funding. As a result, the publisher parted company with me and publicly apologised for publishing my article. Over the following week I was denounced as transphobic by two pub companies and by the leaders of all three of the hospitality sector’s trade bodies. And it got worse. On January 13th Propelhospitality.com published no less than three articles taking aim at my opinion piece and denouncing me. I had been cancelled!
But such is the ferocity of the Gender Borg that the denunciation, vilification, and de-platforming hasn’t stopped there. So, Propelhospitality.com has bow employed a ‘Diversity, Equality and Inclusion’ advisor who has written her first piece for the website. This person was known as Geoffrey Warren Wright for the first 65 years of his life but is now known as Gaynor Mary Warren-Wright. A married man for 37 years and father of two children, Gaynor came out as a transwoman at the age of 65, following a diagnosis of gender dysphoria by the London Transgender Clinic.
I’m going to refer to Geoffrey as ‘Gaynor’ and use female pronouns out of courtesy. What follows is my response to her article and the implications of de-platforming for freedom of speech.
Gaynor’s article chronicled her personal journey and career as a property surveyor and then she took aim at me, describing my piece as a “highly destructive and transphobic article”. Furthermore, she said she “could not believe the archaic falsehoods and misrepresentation that had been communicated to the hospitality sector by that opinion piece, contrary to all clinical and scientific knowledge available. It was wrong in every respect. I know, as I have got the badge.”
Now, leaving aside the improbable claim that Gaynor knows and understands “all clinical and scientific knowledge available”, you might expect that assertion would benefit from a little intellectual justification. But that is not how it works in Genderland. There, all you need is denunciation and vilification – you’d get more rationality from a Papal bull of excommunication.
However, helpfully, Gaynor does provide a link to a Tedtalk on Gender in which a psychologist explains that male and female are not binary categories but points on a spectrum. Apparently, where you end up on that spectrum depends on how much testosterone a male foetus is exposed to in the womb. The implication is that gender dysphoria is caused by a hormone deficiency during gestation. This paves the way for gender ideologists to argue that oestrogen administered by a doctor, plus castration, penile inversion and the surgical creation of a neo-vagina really can turn the dial and, as if by magic, a man becomes a woman. Hence the mantra ‘transwomen are women’.
I recall the testosterone argument was first aired over 50 years ago as a hypothetical explanation of male homosexuality – that homosexual males are ‘that way’ because of a hormone deficiency, that they’re not ‘real men’, perhaps even a third sex. This pseudo-scientific twaddle was exposed as nonsense years ago but here we see it being recycled to justify gender woo.
And Gaynor’s declaration that she knows I was wrong in every respect because she’s been there and “got the badge” is another expression of delusion. Suffering from gender dysphoria does not automatically make you an expert on psycho-sexual disorders, any more than getting knocked down by a car makes you an expert on road safety. What is happening here is that Gaynor has latched on to a rationalising ideology that justifies turning a clinical issue into a social justice issue.
But then Gaynor’s personal vilification of me intensifies. She writes: “We now have seen Brianna Ghey, a 16-year-old trans teen, stabbed to death in an ‘extremely brutal and punishing’ attack in a park in Warrington – stabbed and murdered for being trans. That is what hostile and ill-informed articles like that one – and a climate of prejudice – can do. Remember her next time anyone suggests that we are not ‘real’ women.”
In fact, whether Brianna Ghey was killed for being trans is pure speculation, but that doesn’t stop Gaynor from stating it as fact. It is of course an atrocious crime. But the suggestion that my opinion piece, and by implication, me, are directly or indirectly responsible for that murder, that I have blood on my hands, is not only a wicked slur, but frankly, preposterous.
I rather doubt that Brianna’s murderers were avid readers of Propelhospitality.com, but if it is accepted that by criticising gender ideology you contribute to an atmosphere in which such acts are somehow permissible, that will have a chilling effect on free speech. There are already those who say if you criticise Islamic fundamentalism, you are Islamophobic and thereby contributing to racist attacks on Muslims. Once a belief system becomes above criticism because any criticism is seen as a cause of violent attacks on a vulnerable minority, we censor our own freedom of speech and accept there cannot be any debate; we surrender the contest of ideas and allow that there is only one permissible narrative.
Finally, Gaynor makes this point: “We see another progressive country, Spain, permitting self-identification and extending trans rights. What is wrong with the U.K.?” Well, Spain has done that. And they have also just legalised bestiality – provided the unfortunate animal involved doesn’t get injured and require the attention of a vet. My advice to Gaynor is to be rather more careful about citing Spain as an exemplar of progressiveness.
I have been denied a right of reply on Propelhospitality.com. It’s publisher is now permanently in thrall to the trans lobby and will never be able to get rid of Gaynor. This is what happens when you seek to curry favour with a noisy cult in denial of material reality.
Paul Chase is the leading industry commentator on alcohol policy and public health. He is the author of Culture Wars and Moral Panic – the story of alcohol and society. He is regularly published in industry journals and is frequently a speaker at industry events.
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“I’m going to refer to Geoffrey as ‘Gaynor’ and use female pronouns out of courtesy”
An admirable sentiment, but one which Mr Wright and his supporters are unlikely to extend to you, as you have seen. Why should anyone, even as a matter of courtesy, feel it necessary to deny biological truth and say what they know to be a lie?
Mr Wright is a man. He was born a man and will die a man, and no amount of hormone treatment, surgical mutilation and self-deception can change that.
As a woman wrote in a past article I got from the daily news overview: Each and every cell of a male or female body can be identified as such because they all have the corresponding chromosome set. All kinds of different men and women exist, especially wrt to behaviours some people consider stereotypically male or female, but they’re all unquestiongly one of the other down to the last skin cells of their bodies.
Bravo!
I’ve just paraphrased that. Unfortunately, I don’t know the name of the original author, just that she belonged to the group of people smeared as TERFs.
….it’s all in the autosomes, baby! Couldn’t find the DS article but this one says much the same – surprised it still up on the Yale website, it’s so woke now probably every building has a rainbow and big ‘white supremacist’ cross painted on it:
https://medicine.yale.edu/news-article/every-cell-has-a-sex-x-and-y-and-the-future-of-health-care/
‘….there are intrinsic biochemical differences between XX and XY cells that affect tissues and organs across the entire body and have a significant impact independent of sex hormones…
“Imagine if you’re going to surgery and your surgeon has never been instructed in the anatomical differences between men and women,” he said. “Would you sign the consent form?” ‘
Which means that gender reassignment surgery/treatment is predicated exactly and explicitly on the biological differences between men and women. I rest my case.
….it’s all in the autosomes, baby! Couldn’t find the DS article but this one says much the same
What that actually says is that men are nothing but broken women. That was not the point of the article I was referring to, which simply pointed out that they’re actually different without judging those differences according to some set of preconceived political ‘values’.
Another nice part of the same article (or a similar one) I remember was:
Patriarchy says “Women do the dishes.”
Feminism says “Both women and men can do the dishes.”
Transideology says “Whoever does the dishes is a woman.”
I’d like to add one here:
Modern pseudo-feminism says “Women must stop men from trying to do the dishes because they’re masculiny broken and simply can’t do anything right!”
There’s only one of these statements which makes any sense and that’s neither the first nor the third and certainly not the fourth (which looks eerily similay to the third, BTW).
And while I’m here, will men transgendering to women PLEASE sort their tailoring out? No matter how much oestrogen you take or mutilating surgery you undergo, XX women’s clothing does not fit you. Period [sic]. There must be trans designers out there who can design for the male trans figure, surely?
Totally agree. It’s reminiscent of Dewhurst’s window display.
I sincerely hope that she doesn’t develop prostate cancer, as the NHS will be unable to help her.
I should add that I am an expert on prostate cancer as I have survived it and as I have always identified as (been) a man then treatment was available. Does anyone want to see my badge?
I thought the exact same thing when I read that. You should treat others how you want to be treat yourself, and this Gaynor bloke doesn’t appear to be showing a whole lot of respect to the author, but also, by referring to this person as “she” then you’re literally pandering to this fantasist and enabling their delusion. Bit odd how the author states that sex is binary then proceeds to call a mentally ill man “she/her”.
Last sentence is beautifully put
Yes. He can, however, change his name. I wouldn’t mind calling him Gaynor, but I wouldn’t refer to him as “her.”
Agreed.
Brett Peter Ghey … who had the same name as his, presumably, unmarried mother – look to the lack of a father figure as a major issue here
By calling Gaynor “she” you surrender to the evil: it is possible for Stan to change his name to Loretta but it is not possible for Stan to become a woman, even if he owns a box.
If sex is a spectrum wouldn’t most people produce things that are part sperm and part egg?
If anyone would like to donate an affordable amount, that you won’t miss, to help Graham Linehan with legal costs due to being sued by a trans rights activist, you can do so here where the whole case is explained:
https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/help-me-2/
I donated partly as thanks to Graham for co-writing my favourite ever sitcom which I’ve watched multiple times (and still always laugh out loud) during the last 25 years for free.
Legalised bestiality in Spain?
Has anyone told Drakeford. They’ve got an awful lot of “vulnerable” sheep in Wales …..
Please, in Wales it is tenderising, not bestiality.
it seems Stonewall and other cults have managed to capture almost all public sectors and others by creating these nonsensical and superfluous roles / titles called diversity manager or whatever. And the only qualification is if you are a trans. No wonder so many men suddenly turn trans !!! Wow! AmazIng benefits – you can openly walk into a women’s toilet, change room, you can compete against women in sports, you can steal women’s suitcases (kid you not, that’s what a Biden employee has just been caught doing), and most lucrative of all, you get the job!!! You get to abuse your job to criticise and demonise others. What a wonderful world. Self ID. What a magic wand. Even Harry Potter couldn’t do that.
This nonsense hasn’t become truer since the last time this was rotated through: The majority of teenagers who fall into this trap are girls and there are no men queueing to get castrated just so that they can become diversity managers, your unsavoury prejudices about men notwithstanding.