The National Police Chiefs’ Council Has Surrendered to Gender Ideology

In light of the story today in the Mail Online, I have written to the NPCC as follows.

“Dear Sirs,

I am writing to you following the disclosure in the Mail Online this morning of your recent policy guidance on strip searches. Your organisation may think that, in prioritising alleged ‘inclusivity’ over the sex-based rights of both women and men, it is in tune with public thinking, but you most definitely are not. You have, like many other national and regional organisations, public bodies and businesses, allowed your thinking to be clouded by ideologues and you have done so, no doubt, for fear of being criticised by this very vocal minority. Either that or you just think it is cool to be trendy.

All trans women are biological males. Most trans women (between 90 to 95%) not only do not go through any gender reassignment surgery but do not have hormone treatment either. In addition, we have moved on from the situation where the majority of individuals who transition do so because of some deep-seated gender dysphoria. It is now just as likely to be a life-choice as it is to be related to treating a particular feeling of profound distress.

Whilst any right-minded person recognises that individuals can make whatever decisions they like about how to live their lives, including choosing a gender identity different to the sex into which they were born, that does not mean that rational thinking should be sacrificed on the alter of ideology. A strip search is, by definition, an extremely intimate procedure and hitherto the guidelines have been clear, as I understand it, that they should be carried out by officers of the same biological sex as the person being searched. Those guidelines were in place for very obvious reasons – the dignity and protection of both the person being searched and the officer performing the search to name but two.

There is no adequate reason for those earlier guidelines to be altered but your organisation has done so nevertheless. The very fact that the new guidance emphasises the feelings and sensitivities of a trans officer who might be involved in a search to the complete exclusion of the dignity and feelings of the person being searched tells us all that we need to know. I have no doubt that this change to your guidance has been influenced by Stonewall or another similar organisation. It would not surprise me in the slightest if the drafting of it was farmed out to someone with an activist agenda – it certainly reads that way.

Whatever else they might be, trans women are (and will forever remain) biologically male. The vast majority will have retained their full male anatomy, as detailed above. There are circumstances where it is perfectly legitimate to prioritise the needs of individuals based on their biological sex, especially women who have, historically, been the victims of aggression and violence perpetrated by biological males, including several police officers. A strip search is clearly such an occasion.

The mantra ‘trans women are women and trans men are men’ is nothing more than an expression of a political ideology which is, in fact, completely divorced from reality. It is a calculated tactic to obfuscate language with the aim of removing sex-based rights so that they can be replaced by those based on gender. No trans woman can possibly understand what it is to be or to feel like a woman. Any trans woman who thinks that this new guidance is appropriate and that it is thus discriminatory for a woman to object to being strip-searched by a biological male who ‘identifies’ as a woman clearly has not an inkling of what it really means to be female. If they did, they would know 100% that it is a violation of a woman’s dignity and personal space, not least because the likelihood is that the vast majority of women who find themselves in such circumstances will have had a lifetime of violence or abuse at the hands of men!

This new guidance is equally inappropriate for female officers who might find themselves being ordered to strip-search a trans woman who is a fully intact male on pain of disciplinary action if they refuse.

Your new guidance is misogyny writ large and needs to be withdrawn. If you do so, you might incur the wrath of the vocal activists but you will receive the support of the vast majority of the general public. It is time for organisations like yours to escape from the influence of the activist groups like Stonewall. Not only are they nothing more than a very loud voice claiming to represent a very small minority, but they do not actually represent anywhere near all of the trans community. Bullies become emboldened when no one stands up to them. The NPCC needs to take a lead by respecting the sex-based rights and needs of women whilst seeking to be, of course, inclusive towards trans people generally and, in so doing, rejecting the bullying tactics of ideological groups.”