Samuel Morrison: Naive liberals leave women at risk of violence from trans men

The case is ongoing, but it can hardly be said that such a situation was unexpected.

In January of last year the case of Adam Binnie Bryson, a convicted double rapist who was held at a women’s prison in Scotland, caused outrage as he had been convicted of a crime which no woman could commit.

Since then, a review has been conducted which means that transgender prisoners are initially accommodated according to their sex at birth while an assessment is carried out into whether it is more appropriate to house them in a men's or women's prison.

The case also promoted action in England and Wales with regulations introduced in February 2023 banning transgender women "with their male genitalia intact", or those who are sex offenders, from being sent to women's prisons.

And in September 2024 TUV MLA Timothy Gaston asked first minister Michelle O'Neill about the issue following a statement on the executive’s violence against women and girls strategy.

Mr Gaston asked Ms O’Neill: “In Scotland, there was a ridiculous situation where a rapist was held in a female prison before, rightly, being moved. Is there anything in the strategy to defend women-only rights and women-only spaces and to oppose the efforts of a biological man who thinks he is a woman to gain access to female-only spaces?”

The first minister responded by scolding Timothy rather than engaging with his point. It is such an evasive answer that it is worth reproducing in full: “It is unfortunate that you take that approach, but we will not be distracted.

"We are here to launch a strategy to end violence against women and girls. It is endemic in our society, and it must stop.

"The focus of the framework is on prevention and tackling the root causes of violence against women. We will remain focused on the work that we are trying to do. It is a whole-society approach.

"I encourage you even to get behind it, because it is really important. It is about women who are being murdered. We need to end violence against women and girls. I would like to think that everyone who has been elected to the Chamber has the same goal in mind.”

Of course that reply not only avoided the issue, but inadvertently showed how serious it is that naive liberal politicians leave women vulnerable to a new threat of violence, that of men who get access to women-only spaces by claiming to be women.

But the issue is much older than the mid 2020s. As the Women’s Rights Network has observed, the right of women prisoners to be held in single-sex prisons staffed by female prison officers was a right won by the great prison reformer Elizabeth Fry who was instrumental in securing the 1823 Gaols Act.

Significantly, the act was introduced in order to protect female prisoners from rape and sexual exploitation. Right up until 2017 Fry’s reforms were recognised as so significant that she was deemed worthy of being depicted on Bank of England £5 notes.

Who would have thought that less than a decade after her face disappeared from the notes in our wallets the battles she had won would have to be fought all over again!

Furthermore, the issues which the transgender lobby raise impact other vulnerable people.

Earlier this year, a representative of Age NI refused to answer when asked in the Executive Office Committee if a man claiming to be a woman should be permitted to bed bath an elderly woman in a care home.

In fact, the mere asking of the question provoked outrage from Sinn Fein and Alliance members of the committee - and even a demand for an apology from the DUP member of the committee.

On September 24 Mr Gaston tabled a question to the first and deputy first minister asking them to detail the agreed departmental understanding of the word woman as employed in the Strategic Framework to End Violence Against Women and Girls. They still haven’t been able to agree an answer.

And it isn’t limited to the Executive Office.

To his credit, DUP minister Gordon Lyons has discontinued a distinct service for transgender individuals in relation to Personal Independence Payments.

His colleague in the Department of Education, Paul Givan, has taken a much more laissez faire attitude, dodging questions on schools which have introduced gender neutral bathrooms and on pupils being facilitated in schools to use pronouns which do not match their sex without their parents being informed.

Much of the discussion about these matters will cause sensible people to roll their eyes at the foolishness. But the matter does raise profound issues around single sex spaces, female sports and the rights of parents.

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Samuel Morrison is TUV press officer