Dictated by Stonewall

Even Boris Johnson’s people are pushing the Stonewall line.

A group of Boris Johnson’s most senior advisers are allowing government policy on trans rights to be dictated by Stonewall, a former aide to the prime minister has warned.

It seems that Stonewall are viewed as The Experts when in fact they’re The Quacks.

Nikki da Costa, who stood down as Johnson’s director of legislative affairs in August, claimed the prime minister was being presented with “skewed” advice by a powerful lobby in No 10 that was undermining women’s rights.

Maybe that’s the appeal.

She alleged this extended to deciding what Johnson saw in his red boxes and refusing to arrange meetings with people who would present opposing views. She added it was having a “chilling” effect on some staff who risked being seen as “difficult” by the most senior political officials.

Da Costa claimed the prime minister was only getting the view of Stonewall on the clash between sex-based rights and those based on gender identity. “The PM is not receiving the range of opinions on the debate around gender identity that he should,” she said.

Da Costa cited the government consultation on banning conversion therapy that could potentially make it a criminal offence for therapists to try to help patients with gender dysphoria to feel comfortable in their birth sex.

The consultation period was halved from the normal 12-week period to six weeks, which Da Costa said was “driven” by a desire “to get a good news story” in time for next year’s government-backed LGBTQ equality conference.

“The fear is that if we don’t get this right then therapists, doing perfectly legitimate work, particularly supporting vulnerable children, could find themselves in court accused of coercing someone into not undergoing gender alignment surgery. There’s no reason why the government can’t take a few more weeks, even a couple months to get this right.”

Especially when getting it wrong could mean hundreds or thousands of teenagers permanently ruining their own lives.

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