Midwifery muddle reveals extent of Stonewall’s grip on education

Stonewall has long had the ear of those in education. Over time this has enabled it to spread highly questionable information disguised as ‘equality’ advice, particularly on the issue of transgenderism.

The LGBT lobby group is campaigning hard for people to blindly accept its gender ideology; to force people to affirm someone’s self-declared sex, rather than their biological sex. You would think that educators would seek to impart the most accurate knowledge possible – that humans are male or female based on biology, and that this cannot be changed.

Instead they appear to be swallowing everything Stonewall and its allies are serving up.

‘Men can give birth’

A recent case in point revealed that midwifery students at Napier University in Edinburgh were being taught that biological males can give birth. This is a place of education for future medics. They should surely be firm in asserting that it is of vital importance that people are treated according to their biology, not their personal preference.

The erroneous information was contained in a module guide on catheterisation which told students that they “need to be familiar” with procedures for “both female and male anatomy”.

Some students, obviously uncomfortable with this teaching, and recognising it to be completely inaccurate, did not feel they were able to raise this with their educators for fear of reprisal. One student said: “We have to write an essay for this course. I have only referred to women and pregnant women and I have this nagging worry that I’m going to lose points.”

Surely no medically trained person could possibly believe that a genetic male could give birth.

They took their concerns to the press and following understandable outrage, the module was removed from an online teaching portal. In response, Napier University staff claimed the guide’s wording was “the wrong way round”, and should have referred to women living as men who may now have male genitalia.

Bullying

So if this was a genuine mistake, how might it have occurred? And why might students have assumed it was the university’s official position?

Simply put, it’s because Stonewall and other organisations are unrelenting in spreading their radical gender ideology, forcing organisations to accept what they have to say, and labelling all who disagree as ‘bigots’ and ‘transphobes’. There have been countless stories of medics and others across a variety of professions feeling unable to speak out about the reality of biological sex.

Some who have stuck their heads above the parapet have found the flak they have taken for speaking the truth made their positions untenable. Take Professor Kathleen Stock, a university academic who resigned after a campaign of hate was waged against her at her workplace by student activists calling for her to be fired. Stories like hers only make others more fearful to stand up.

And so organisations accept this advice with less and less scrutiny, weaving Stonewall’s recommendations and direction into their own policies. The Napier guidance that said a man living as a woman could become pregnant, also referred to women, not as ‘mothers’, but as ‘birthing people’.

This is evidence of the grip Stonewall has on these organisations. They are making fundamental mistakes because they are being bullied and misinformed. The end result is that highly trained, intelligent people are parroting anti-scientific nonsense.

Columnist Gillian Bowditch put it well when she criticised universities for encouraging students to simply accept ideas, rather than test them. In doing so, she said the universities are “giving in to unelected and unaccountable bodies which the authorities dare not challenge for fear of their voluble, well-funded wrath”.

Commenting particularly on the Napier case, Kat Barber, the co-founder of the Sex Not Gender Nurses and Midwives group, said it was concerning that students felt they had to take their concerns to the press, which she said revealed “a lot about the state that our nursing and midwifery institutions are in”.

And Milli Hill, an author, journalist and the founder of the Positive Birth Movement, said she believes transgender activists target areas such as midwifery because “childbirth, breastfeeding and menstruation are all major barriers that stand in the way of trans ideology’s insistence that anyone, regardless of their anatomy, can be a woman”.

‘Bodies are not male or female’

More and more, people seem to be realising how extreme some of Stonewall’s lies are, and are urging organisations to break ties.

Take a recent employment tribunal considering the case of lesbian barrister Allison Bailey, a founder of homosexual activist group LGB Alliance, who brought legal action against her employer for income lost as a result of criticising Stonewall.

During this court case, Kirrin Medcalf, Stonewall’s Head of Trans Inclusion, was asked: “You define women as anyone, including men, who say they are women?” Medcalf then made the ridiculous assertion: “Bodies are not inherently male or female. They are just their bodies.”

Following the news that a senior Stonewall employee was spreading such factual inaccuracies, former British Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies tweeted: “How can any organisation/company etc take advice, let alone legal advice from stonewall when they say they don’t believe in a biological reality? Especially any institution where physiology matters eg sport, medicine, safety?”

Bodies are not inherently male or female. They are just their bodies.

Stephanie Davies-Arai, founder of Transgender Trend, said: “We are glad Stonewall’s ideas have finally been publicly exposed in court”, adding that the many schools involved with Stonewall “should end their association with the organisation now”.

Ostracised for speaking the truth

Speaking of schools, what about the sad case of a teenage girl who was mercilessly bullied after she voiced her belief in the reality of biological sex?

A member of the House of Lords came to visit the school, and in a wide-ranging debate she proffered her support for radical gender ideology. The 18-year-old told the Baroness that she ‘respectfully disagreed’ with her views.

But after the debate, the girl was confronted by around 60 other pupils who screamed at her, leading her to collapse, suffering from breathing problems.

She was accused of ‘transphobia’ and was told by the school she would have to work in the library if she said anything ‘provocative’. She spent her break and lunchtimes there too, feeling as though she had to quarantine herself. The bullying continued, and she eventually left the school.

The teenager said: “I spent so long convincing myself that I was in the wrong because I don’t even want to countenance the hatred people must feel towards me if that wasn’t the case”.

Author JK Rowling tweeted her support for the student, saying: “The girl’s crime? Saying ‘sex exists’.”

Some organisations, such as the BBC, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, along with universities, police forces and multiple Government departments at Westminster, have been cutting ties with Stonewall in recent years. The scales appear to be falling from people’s eyes, and we can pray this will continue.

If not, confusion will continue to abound, and more people will continue to suffer for speaking the truth.