Share this page!

Enter URL or ID to Unroll

You can paste full URL like: https://x.com/threadreaderapp/status/1644127596119195649
or just the ID like: 1644127596119195649

How to get URL link on X (Twitter) App

  1. On the Twitter thread, click on or icon on the bottom
  2. Click again on or Share Via icon
  3. Click on Copy Link to Tweet
  4. Paste it above and click "Unroll Thread"!
  5. More info at Twitter Help
Prof. Stephen Whittle OBE, PhD, DLaws, FAcSS, Profile picture
Prof. Stephen Whittle OBE, PhD, DLaws, FAcSS,
@stephenwhittle
🏳️‍⚧️💪🏼🏳️‍🌈 Professor, Woke, anti-growth, lefty lawyer, Proud out trans guy, transitioned 1975, he/him. Only responds to anonymous accts to show them up
4 subscribers
Jan 5 • 15 tweets • 3 min read
1. @PreetKGillMP For 50yrs since the Sex Discrimination Act (SDA) 1975 , Women’s rights have been protected

At the time the Sex Discrimination Bill was going through Parliament. Baroness Summer asked in Cttee whether the Act covered those women who ‘have had a sex change’’. … 2. The response was that ‘Yes, it did’

But in practice it didn’t

Following a decision in White v British Sugar [1979] it was determined by the Equal Opportunities Commission [EOC] (a precursor of the EHRC) that the folk we now call Trans people had a …
Jan 3 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
@_oatc_ 1. For pity’s sake - you asked that question just before 10pm last night & want an answer on a Saturday morning. Give us some life space.

Long-Short answer:

The ECtHR recognised our rights to bodily & developmental autonomy, privacy & marriage, & the obligation…
1/12 Text of original question: oatc @_oatc_•12h Hmm, so ECtHR was wrong to tile that sex changes, UKSC was right in saying only a notional "certified sex" changes after a GRC is issued, your new Birth Certificate & your opposite sex marriage are frauds & those of us born our gender changed nothing in transition? Really? 2. … of the UK Govt to respect the changes made . Has it ever said ‘sex’ changes?

A lot of this arises from definitions - how do we define sex. But that’s another question

I’d argue the science points to TP having innate biological differences from non-T people in some sex …
Jan 2 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
1. The questions i would ask GC women as they take JKR’s money to fight cases in order to remove the hard won rights of trans people to be recognised in law in their affirmed gender, and to not experience arbitrary & unfounded discrimination are:
… Group of gender critical women with sign saying adult human female 2. “in what way has a the existence of a trans woman (or trans man) affected YOU?

“Have the feelings of a particular trans person resulted in you losing your job because you are a woman?

“Has a trans person refused you a service …
Dec 29, 2025 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
1. Speaking as one of those trans guys, I can confirm that thousands of us walk amongst you

We use your loos - so please put up the seat when you pee & remember to flush after you poo

We use your gyms - so please use a towel & wipe your sweat off the equipment … 1/6 2. We use your changing rooms - so please clean the washbasin after you shave & put your towel in the basket for washing

We take your jobs because we work harder than you ever imagined possible

We date your ex’s & they are overjoyed that a guy showers before making love …
Dec 26, 2025 • 17 tweets • 3 min read
@IanBell460060
1. In the UK, there is a difference - in law & medicine - between a child & an adolescent with the competence to address medical interventions

Competence requires a young person to have enough understanding and intelligence to fully grasp … 2. … a medical treatment's purpose, effects, and risks, allowing them to consent without parental help.

Competence is assessed individually by the clinician who evaluates competence based on the adolescent’s developmental stage, cognitive ability, and experience, …
Dec 26, 2025 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
1. I wish that research had been done - it might have lng settled this debate.

It has been done at the Utrecht & Amsterdam clinics on cohorts of gender incongruent kids stretching back to 1990

Broadly it found PBs made patients less depressed but not less dysphoric … 2. … An unsurprising finding as PBs just pause life, they don’t progress the body to the preferred state. Social transition improved overall well being provided the child had parent, school & peer support.

The biggest improvement in well being comes with starting hormone …
Dec 22, 2025 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
I encouraged all sorts of speakers, & have never suggested or voted to no-platform anyone

2016 I invited my (former) friend Julie Bindel to debate Susan Stryker on these issues

We had a great debate & then Julie joined ~30 colleagues & TP for a curry in Manchester’s curry mile 2. The assumption is I am against academic freedom & free speech. I am not

But just as I am very polite to anyone I meet including GC /SR activists, I consider it disrespectful not to use my name & pronouns as used by everyone else for me & which I prefer

I once …
Dec 22, 2025 • 20 tweets • 4 min read
1. If Prof Sullivan is a ‘real’ academic she would hope that her teaching or lectures encourage students to develop their critical thinking, to speak up, & to protest things they have concluded are wrong. — in other words to use right to speak freely, & where they see … 2. … injustice to stand against it & to act

Prof Sullivan gave her talk & used the opportunity to practice her freedom of academic speech

So why the complaint? A typical GC Activist, she gave her talk but did not like it when her attitudes to Trans people were …
Dec 17, 2025 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
1. If driving 40 in a 30 mph zone you broke a ‘strict liability’ criminal law.

Strict liability means you have no defence to the crime even tho nothing untoward happened, & you caused no harm to anyone.

You will be convicted even if driving 40 to save a life. That … 2. … may be used to plead mitigation & the sentence on conviction may consequently be reduced

The civil law is different & it requires some detriment to have occurred to the claimant. If found to cause the harm, you will be told to compensate them

The Equality Act is …
Dec 11, 2025 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
1. Trans people (TP) have the protected characteristic of gender reassignment because individuals & institutions who were prejudiced towards TP, practiced discrimination detrimental to TP’s life quality, health, employment & wellbeing solely because they were trans… 2. The European Court of Justice awarded us some protection in employment in 1996

It took until 2008 to get protection in goods, services, housing & other facilities

I experienced 30yrs of blatant arbitrary & unfounded discrimination before we properly gained protection …
Dec 5, 2025 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
1. Medicines produce effects
Patient leaflets list some effects as beneficial effects & some as side effects

E.g. semiglutude was originally developed to amplify the insulin response in diabetics

Originally, listed as a side effect is that it makes you feel … 2. … full more quickly when eating, & so you tend to less, & you may lose weight

Now semiglutude is listed as having the beneficial effect of losing weight, & a side effect can be ‘low blood sugars’ as it improves your insulin production but you are not diabetic …
Dec 5, 2025 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
1. Growth in numbers of TP (of all ages) started much earlier, 1996 to be precise

That growth in numbers has gradually slowed in the last 4 years, now being replacement rate

The first factor in growth was visibility - people could see others who felt as they did. … 2. Second is the change in parental attitudes. They are more open to listening & letting teens be their own people
Third is the change in rights - no longer being refused employment or college place/ or facing instant dismissal if found to be trans
Fourth society’s acceptance …
Nov 15, 2025 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
1. 1971 GnRH agonists (PBs) discovered

1982 first used to lower sex hormones when treating hormone-sensitive cancers eg prostate & breast cancer. Still the most significant use of GnRH agonists

Mid-1980s were trialed to stop precocious puberty in kids age 0 to 11. This … 2. … is still the 2nd most common use of PBs

1990 Netherlands Utrecht GI clinic first used to pause puberty in trans youth.
TY must be
- at serious risk of significant self harm.
- have long term gender incongruence,
- supportive school, parents, & peers
…
Nov 8, 2025 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
1. I agree.

All gender clinics can do is offer detrans services on the same basis as trans services, which ATM are not good, but nowadays all gender clinics do provide detrans services

Re complaints of lack of follow up:

(a) Until 2000s most NHS services just wanted TP … 2. … out the door

Underfunding & lack of research funding, & anti-trans attitudes meant TP were a Clnician’s sole responsibility. Once treatment/surgery provided it was ‘goodbye’ as quickly as possible

(b) research has no benefit to Hormone manufacturers, They already have …
Nov 5, 2025 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
1. You accused me of living a “segregationist lifestyles & go to pricey schools, deliberately getting as far away from the poor as they can get

How could they know the issues important to working/poor ppl, if they NEVER associate w/us?“ … 2. Am I not allowed to speak in my defence?

Despite constant prejudice, discrimination & hate crime victimisation, I have done my level best to live a decent life.

I have pursued public service as my employment, and throughout the rest of my life as a volunteer. …
Nov 5, 2025 • 18 tweets • 4 min read
Long 🧵👇🏼
1/18. Internally revealed” makes it sound like a spiritual experience, as in the revealing of God, Christ or Faith

I have never had faith, but I did wonder why, if those exist, they were not revealed to my mother, who died in terror having never received faith. … 2. Of course I know why, & it is that those things are fanciful myths revealed, if at all, & experienced as ‘real’ through spiritual experiences as described so well by William Temple

I understand why some trans people will talk of a revealing of an inner essence - the …
Nov 4, 2025 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Newnham college is allowed to decide, whether, how, when, where & to whom it provides its educational services

University Education does not meet the EqAct’s requirements that define a single or seperate sex service

To be able to claim to b single sex service The EqAct … 2. … requires one of the following conditions be met:

a. that only persons of that sex have need of the service

b. the service is also provided jointly for persons of both sexes, and
the service would be insufficiently effective were it only to be provided jointly. …
Nov 3, 2025 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
1. Apparently to c1ss GC women & men, lesbian or gay, the 19 years I lived as a daughter, female child & teenage girl means nothing

14yrs of study, all my academic, non-fiction or other reading means zero.

My years of teaching policy and feminist legal theory & practice … 2 … or feminist human rights mean zilch. My years of research & my many amicus briefs or expert witness statements in the asylum courts in order to prevent the deportation of vulnerable women & children are as dust.

Despite being part of in 1972-4, & a Lesbian …
Nov 3, 2025 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
1. A ‘round about’ argument by @akuareindorf

“We, the Commissioners for the Commission for Equalities & Human Rights (EHRC) say we now know what Equality Act means in law

“We say proposed EHRC guidance to the Equality Act, provides guidance according to what we say the … 2. … law is

“We say there is no point assessing the impact of tye guidance on people & business, because the law being as we say it is, our guidance is correct

We think the law, as we say it is, must be followed. Assessing the impact of our guidance is pointless, because…
Oct 17, 2025 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
1. I spent many years seeking the cause & whilst there are small studies, there will never be gold standard studies because of the ethics of treating some. & not-treating others, in order to obtain a true random control group

As there is evidence of people experiencing (1/7)… 2. … this mismatch between body & self perception throughout the historical & anthropological record across hundreds of different societal structures - in traditional cultures across the six inhabited continents - and that’s despite the repression of imperial colonialism & …
Sep 30, 2025 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
1. I provided research for the Discrimination Law Review, which became the Equalities Review, a body which I was part of. I sat on the general group, the specific duties group & the statutory duties group of that body.
The Equalities Review formulated the final Equalities Act … 2. The question of access of TP to separate & single sex facilities was discussed in depth.

Consequently it was agreed to continue the principals formulated in 1999, following principles developed in EC law.

EC law allows anti-discrimination law to have exceptions where…