With a general election looming in 2024, the subject of gender ideology has become controversial.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has emphasized his belief in biological sex, putting him in opposition to the leader of the Labour Party who has said that “99.9 percent of women do not have a penis” as Britain debates gender laws.
When asked earlier this week by right-leaning website, ConservativeHome, what percentage of women have a penis, Sunak agreed with the statement that “of course” 100 percent of women do not have a penis, reaffirming his view that “biological sex is vitally, fundamentally important to these questions.”
“We should always have compassion and understanding and tolerance for those who are thinking about changing their gender. Of course we should,” said Sunak.
As The Epoch Times' Owen Evans reported earlier this week, according to a poll by Unherd, 38 percent agreed and 30 percent disagreed with the statement, “It is acceptable for adolescent children to make their own decisions about their gender identity.”
The poll also found that the subject “cuts across party lines and income groups,” while whole swathes of rural England are “deeply skeptical” and concentrated urban centres “feel very differently.”
There is renewed controversy surrounding the issue following the Scottish government’s decision to seek a judicial review after UK ministers intervened to prevent the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, passed by MSPs in December, from gaining royal assent.
The Scottish bill—championed by then-First Minister and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon—would have allowed anyone over the age of 16 to self-ID via a statutory declaration to obtain a new birth certificate, which changes the recording of their registered sex at birth to their chosen gender.
There would also be no requirement for an applicant to undergo surgery or hormone therapy, and the process to change sex on birth certificates would have been simplified.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and deputy leader Angela Rayner at the launch of of Labour’s 2022 local election campaign at The Brown Cow, Burrs Country Park, Bury, Greater Manchester, England, on March 31, 2022. (Danny Lawson/PA)
After Starmer’s assertion in a Sunday Times interview in April that “99.9 percent of women” do not have a penis, the Labour leader faced criticism from his own party.
“For 99.9 percent of women, it is completely biological … and of course they haven’t got a penis,” said Starmer.
Rosie Duffield MP, who has been outspoken about women’s single-sex spaces and gender ideology and has criticised Scotland’s Gender Reform Bill wrote on Twitter
“There’s no ‘somehow’ or ‘could’ about the rolling back of women’s rights. It’s already a reality, one that huge numbers of women are frightened and furious about. Sir Keir could take a look at the 2,500 livid comments under his Sunday Times piece.”
Sunak's 'science-based' comments have been fiercely criticized by the human-rights group Liberty, which said that his comments are grounded in “transphobic assumptions” and were a means for politicians to use the lives of transgender people as a “pawn in the culture wars.”
