I'd rather go to prison than accept Labour's trans lies

Labour’s draft Conversion Practices Bill has rightly sparked an almighty backlash for opening the door to criminalising parents for questioning their child’s gender identity. If enacted, there are fears the law could also lead to people being jailed for using incorrect pronouns . Campaigners are understandably up in arms, pointing out that the legislation appears to run roughshod over the Supreme Court’s ruling that sex in equality law means biological sex, effectively allowing gender-ID to return by the backdoor.

It also seems to ignore the scandal of the Tavistock Clinic, which was closed after a review by Baroness Cass highlighted the dangers of puberty blockers and children being put on irreversible medical pathways. But before we even get into the many reasons why this latest loony trans legislation should be scrapped, can we establish a few home truths that appear to have been lost in this increasingly perverse debate? We are now having to enter into debates about whether a parent should be jailed for questioning whether their child can self-identify as a cat – rather than asking ourselves how on earth such a delusion could have been countenanced in the first place.

It’s not just ludicrous that Labour is tabling legislation that could criminalise parents for questioning their child’s self-identification as a feline. It’s ludicrous that we ever got to the point where exotic identities such as “catgender” are given any credence at all – let alone potential legal protection. Children are not cats and never will be. Similarly, boys cannot be biological girls and girls cannot be biological boys, end of story.

If this extreme degree of biological confusion has crept in, how about a piece of legislation confirming that biological sex is immutable and that children cannot ever be animals? Similarly, what about a law banning medical transitions for anyone under the age of 18? And a clause stopping any child from embarking on an intervention that could lead to permanent sterility? Because at the end of the day, giving a child a double mastectomy for no other medical reason than that they “believe” they’ve been born into the wrong body is abuse, pure and simple.

As a mother of three teenagers, I remain incensed that successive governments have not just turned a blind eye to children being exposed to all of this, but have actively encouraged it. They have encouraged it to the extent that we are now facing the prospect of warped legislation that would seek to criminalise a parent for acting in their child’s best interests. As ever, the fingerprints of organisations like Stonewall are all over this latest madness, having been allowed to exert a disproportionate institutional influence over government, education and the media for years.

Trans people make up such a tiny proportion of the population – and yet they appear to be completely overrepresented in the minds of the so-called progressives, who normally claim to be “for the many, not the few”. Lefties who have spent years pushing this divisive and destructive nonsense appear to have forgotten that there is no more vulnerable member of society than a child . They seem content with children being bombarded with confusing information, be it online or in schools.

This week I was sent the “gender identity and gender questioning” policy of a primary school in Leeds, which stated: “There is a spectrum of gender which is wider than just boy/man or girl/woman.” It goes on to suggest that: “School staff should not disclose information that may reveal a child or young person’s gender questioning status or gender non-conforming presentation to others, including parents/carers and other members of the school community unless legally required to do so or because the child or parent/carer has given permission for them to do so.”

This is essentially saying that a parent doesn’t have the right to be told their primary-age child is gender questioning or gender non-conforming. And yet many schools send out forms for parents to sanction the administration of Calpol in class. It’s a complete breach of societal norms. Just as parents have a right to know how their children are faring in class, and how they’re behaving, they should also be told about every aspect of their child’s emotional wellbeing .

Is there any particular reason why this Government appears to hold mothers and fathers in such contempt? Seemingly not content with brushing children’s teeth and feeding them breakfast, we’re now faced with the prospect of the powers that be stepping in to criminalise parents for calling their children their own name? It’s nanny statism on steroids and I’d genuinely rather be imprisoned than abide by such laws. I imagine the vast majority of parents would agree with me.

There is surely only one reason why trans identification has exploded in recent years: social media . If it weren’t for the internet, I doubt we would have seen such a surge in children demanding breast binders and puberty blockers. Trans identification remained a fringe phenomenon among children until the advent of the smartphone. But children have been indoctrinated online and the grown-ups have done precious little to stop it. It should have all been nipped in the bud as soon as the first deluded activist started talking about “spectrums” of gender and mastectomies for 14-year-olds.

Or at least as soon as liberal bullies started cancelling people. Most went silent except a few brave voices like JK Rowling and Graham Linehan . Well, we cannot remain silent now, not when faced with this unashamed assault on family life . Technology may have changed, but children haven’t – and nor have the basic facts of life. We don’t just have to end this bill – but the lies upon which it was built.