Men do not belong in women’s rape crisis centres
How did we reach the point where “gender identity” became prioritised over sex in the support of victims of sexual assault?
If there is one space that surely requires single-sex provisions, it’s a rape crisis centre. In what world would a man, however he identifies, be convinced that a refuge for women who have been sexually assaulted is the place for him? It’s the kind of notion that back in the pre-woke era nobody would have believed was possible, like the police investigating citizens for “non-crime” or a leading school in London segregating children by skin colour.
Yesterday the judgement was handed down in the constructive dismissal case of Roz Adams, a former support counsellor at the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre (ERCC). Although never opposing the rights of trans-identified people, Adams had always understood that the reality of biological sex is paramount when it comes to supporting those who have suffered violence at the hands of men. Having discovered that the management team at the ERCC favoured the ideological view that sex isn’t real, and that “gender identity” is all that matters, Adams had raised some entirely reasonable concerns.
In particular, she had suggested that victims of rape ought to be given clear information regarding the sex of their counsellors. After all, what would happen if a victim were to ask for female-only support? According to the ERCC management, in such a scenario they were to be reassured that there were no men working there. This created problems when one victim specifically asked Adams to reveal the sex of a “non-binary” counsellor, and she asked her managers whether she should respond according to biological sex or “gender identity”. That Adams sought clarity on this issue was all it took to see a disciplinary procedure launched against her.
This is all reminiscent of the NHS policy known as “Annex B”. I have written previously about these dangerous guidelines which resulted in police being misinformed during an investigation into a sexual assault on a hospital ward. In accordance with Annex B, staff told the police that a rape could not have taken place because there were no men on the ward, even though a male who identified as female was accommodated there at the time. So we have a situation where an investigation into a serious crime was being misdirected in order to satisfy this esoteric ideology, and this was being enabled by the NHS.
Astonishing as it may seem, the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre has been run by a trans-identified male called Mridul Wadhwa since 2021. That he doesn’t have a Gender Recognition Certificate ought to be beside the point. It should go without saying that victims of rape are individuals at their most vulnerable, and it is entirely reasonable that they would expect not to be in the vicinity of men in the aftermath of such a horrific experience, irrespective of how they might identify.
That Wadhwa applied for the post at all shows the extent of the entitlement that drives this movement, and that he was appointed tells us all we need to know about how far the tentacles of gender identity ideology have reached. While debates about hospital wards, toilet facilities and sporting events are maddening enough, when it comes to this particular issue we find ourselves thrown headlong into the realm of absurdist dystopia. I’m all for rational and moderate discussion with those who take a fundamentally different view, but on this particular issue I would be tempted to shake my opponent and say: “You think a man should be in charge of a refuge for female victims of rape?! What the hell is the matter with you?”
Thankfully, the court decisions keep falling the right way, reminding us that our society still retains a few scraps of sanity. Most famously we’ve had the cases of Maya Forstater, Jo Phoenix, Allison Bailey, Denise Fahmy and Rachel Meade. Of course, there are innumerable other people who have been monstered and hounded out of their jobs for their gender-critical views who have not had the means or the stamina to put themselves through lengthy court proceedings, but it is reassuring that those who do generally succeed. Yet just imagine the outcomes of these cases had our judiciary been as ideologically captured as most other of our major institutions. This is an eventuality that activists have long sought but, fortunately, have so far failed to achieve.
Much ink has been spilled on how we got to this preposterous situation. My book The New Puritans offers an overview of how so many institutions fell to this regressive ideology, but even having written at length on the subject I never fail to be surprised at the lunacy of it all. How can it be that it was left to a novelist to set up a women-only centre for rape victims in Scotland? If it weren’t for J. K. Rowling and her founding and funding of Beira’s Place, there would be nowhere for many victims to turn.
And yet the ERCC refused to refer victims who sought single-sex services to Beira’s Place, which would strongly suggest that their ideology matters more to them than the people supposedly in their care. This is confirmed in the findings of the tribunal, which can be read in full here. Consider what the aforementioned “non-binary” member of staff at the ERCC had to say on hearing about Rowling’s new project. She had written an email on 14 December 2022 to all staff under the heading “Bad News in Collective Care”.
“Hey everyone just writing to acknowledge the really terrible news that came yesterday about JK Rowling’s new Centre.
It landed really heavy with me, and I wonder if it did for some of you too.
I wonder if it would be useful to have a moment to get together (online ofc) to talk about it and rage about it and express whatever other feelings come up.
If everyone would like that reply to this or my SLACK message and I’ll set up a time.
Big love to you all in the face of this total festive stinker.”
At least what has been described as a “heresy hunt” against Adams is now over, and the forces of decency and sense prevailed. The judgement could not be more damning. The disciplinary process against Adams is described as “completely spurious” and “deeply flawed” and “unfortunately a classic of its kind, somewhat reminiscent of the work of Franz Kafka”.
In all of this, we should remind ourselves how little the general public support gender identity ideology. For all the nonsense claims of a Tory “war on woke”, the overwhelming majority of the public understand that this government has presided over a period in which “gender identity” has been allowed to take precedence over truth. A recent report by Sex Matters – Women’s Services: a Sector Silenced – shows that 84% of British people say that women who have been the victims of rape, sexual assault or domestic violence should have access to female-only services. The only surprise in these statistics is that the figure is not higher.
Yet we have enabled activists like Wadhwa to make important decisions that fly in the face of popular consensus. On his appearance on The Guilty Feminist podcast in August 2021, Wadhwa was asked about those victims of sexual crimes who would rather not be in the company of men, trans-identified or otherwise. This was his response:
“Sexual violence happens to bigoted people as well. And so, you know, it is not a discerning crime. But these spaces are also for you. But if you bring unacceptable beliefs that are discriminatory in nature, we will begin to work with you on your journey of recovery from trauma. But please also expect to be challenged on your prejudices.”
He went on to say that these women should “reframe” their trauma and develop “a more positive relationship with it”. In other words, all must defer to the ideology of Wadhwa and his fellow activists. And if this means smearing a few rape victims as “bigots” then so be it.
Such is the nuclear-strength arrogance of those who subscribe to this quasi-religious worldview that they are willing to denounce and shame innocent people even when they are at their most traumatised. Surely the ERCC case must be seen as the moment when gender identity ideology “jumped the shark”. I cannot conceive how it could possibly get any worse – or, as the judgement put it, more Kafkaesque – than female victims being turned away from a rape crisis centre because they don’t wish to be counselled by men.
It is not enough for Wadhwa to resign and for the ERCC to commit to single-sex provisions. This problem is deeply entrenched throughout our society. Enough is enough. We have to ensure that this deranging, toxic and surreal ideology is driven out of our institutions for good.
If we put aside the children and young people who have been indoctrinated into a cult like belief system, what we are left with is entitled, demanding and narcissistic males, many of them rich, many of them with the fetish of autogynephilia, who have been pushing gender ideology into every institution, organisation and business across the west….and doing it on the quiet in order to avoid scrutiny ( see the Dentons Document). Martine Rothblatt, for example, has been creating a legal framework for the ‘transgender child’ since the late 90s. He has said that “transgenderism is the on-ramp to transhumanism”.
What we now need to do is to ask ourselves why. Why has so much money been put into training schemes, why attach it to the LGB and pretend that’s it’s another civil rights movement….one that fell out of the sky, fully formed and operational only a decade ago. Unlikely. Until we understand the root causes, all we are doing is trying to battle a multiheaded hydra. It’s time we understood the enemy.
Jennifer Bilek has been researching the collaboration between powerful and greedy big pharma/tech and transhumanist billionaires, who want to play god with female reproductive systems, amongst other things. It’s why women are being erased in language and law. We just don’t matter as people, only as a means to an end. These men covet female anatomy. It’s the age old story of misogyny but on a grand scale and with huge implications for society as a whole. What’s happening in our rape crisis centres and prisons is the perfect illustration of this misogyny. We are all being groomed to accept the reduction of females into body parts, as being less than human, as normal.
Absolutely spot on,Andrew. I can't believe that we're in this situation. I'm 77 and I've never been so angry about anything else in my life. The misogyny is off the scale ,along with homophobia ,racism and antisemitism !! Woke is pure evill ,100% ,and the people driving it are the most greedy ,self entitled,narcissistic people I've ever heard of. Keep fighting ,Andrew. We MUST win this battle for humanity 🙏🙏🙏