Your editorial does not recognise that for a number of years the government, Department of Health and others have shied away from providing clear guidance on sex and gender identity (“The failure to accurately record biological sex harms us all”, last week).
In 2021, the LGBT Foundation published a report, “If we’re not counted, we don’t count”, which included a recommendation that organisations asked people if their gender identity was the same as the sex they were assigned at birth. If this was recorded, organisations such as the NHS could still identify the sex of individuals, regardless of the gender they identify as. If people did not want that information shared they could elect to opt out, understanding it may put them at risk of missing out on screening programmes etc.
The toxic debate around gender identity has stopped a sensible approach prevailing and caused a poorer experience for gender diverse people and those who continue to identify as the sex they were born. This is fundamentally about human rights and respect and dignity, all of which have been forgotten in this debate and in successive governments’ failure to act.
Karen Edmunds
Ashford, Kent
Of course biological sex or sex assigned at birth is relevant when organising sex-specific medical checks such as cervical cancer screenings, but gender identity is also relevant. A trans woman who has been on hormones for several years will have different medical requirements to a cisgender male.
We have a huge issue with male on female violence, but demonising trans people is not the answer. Women have enough to be scared of already, let’s not give them another reason to fear without reason.
Bethan Tanner
Caerphilly
The cult of Scientology
Regarding your story about the Church of Scientology, the same sort of things happened to former Scientology members in California (“ ‘I’ve been getting 100 messages a day’: Church of Scientology accused of intimidating UK critics”, Investigation). This is not a religion, it is a cult founded by a mediocre science-fiction writer because he thought he could make more money founding a “religion” than writing. Its beliefs are so outlandish as to be laughable, and from what I’ve read of its adherents’ activities in California, it is all about having complete power over members’ lives. This cult should never have been allowed to gain a foothold as a “religion” in the UK.
Rosemary A Fletcher-Jones
New Milton, Hampshire
Suffragette’s city
I am the great-great-niece of Elsie Inglis, whose strength and fearlessness are endlessly inspiring to myself, my family, and hundreds of others who know her work (“‘A cultural embarrassment’: anger as male sculptor commissioned for statue of suffragist”, News, 16 March).
When she asked the War Office if female doctors could serve in frontline hospitals during the First World War she was told “my good lady, go home and sit still”. Instead, she raised the equivalent of £53m in today’s money and set up 14 hospitals across Europe. What set Elsie apart was her perseverance, her courage, her self-belief, her persuasiveness and her ability to inspire thousands of others to follow her in her mission – saving countless lives in the war as a result. I have walked down Edinburgh high street with a small hand tucked in mine and I want my daughters to take inspiration, as I have, from Elsie’s fearlessness. At a time of unprecedented global challenge, women as unstoppable as Elsie are needed more than ever.
Tamsin Lejeune
London E5
Chaste scenes can be sexy
Barbara Ellen’s article about Gwyneth Paltrow and intimacy coordinators makes the valid point that when you are rich, powerful and well established you might not need what younger, more vulnerable actors do (“#YouToo, Gwyneth Paltrow? Intimacy coordinators make sex scenes safe for all, not just A-listers”, Comment).
The easiest way to deal with the problem is not have scenes that require intimacy coordinators. I’m not advocating going back to the Hays Code (one foot on the floor). It can be done – surely no one can deny that the love in Casablanca or Brief Encounter was intense, moving and realistic, yet they hardly took their raincoats off.
Glena Chadwick
Charlbury, Oxfordshire
Age cannot wither the Bard
Kenan Malik exposed the narrowness and parochialism of much modern academic thought which claims that the plays of Shakespeare must be subjected to the nonsense of decolonisation (“Why decolonise Shakespeare when all the world’s a stage for his ideas on injustice?”, Comment).
Those works that cannot reach across the divides of time are laid to rest. That is not a fate ever likely to befall our greatest ever playwright’s productions.
No one can come away from exposure to the Bard without being thrilled by his language and uplifted by his intuitive grasp of the human condition.
Denis Bruce
Bishopbriggs, East Dunbartonshire
All about the goals
Jonathan Wilson says, “Qualifiers matter only in as much as they have to be negotiated” (, Sport). I have to disagree. Wilson is paid to watch football, but I have to pay to watch it. My return on my investment is centred on the hope that I will be entertained, see plenty of goalmouth action and possibly goals to boot. He goes on to say that England could have won 10-0. Oh joy, if that had happened.
Barry Johnson
Sheffield
Too late to make hay
In last week’s Speedy crossword, the answer to 6 down – “autumn agrarian activity” – is haymaking. In 50 years of farming, midsummer was the only sensible time I made hay. You need an agricultural adviser, may I be considered for the job?
Robin Mills
Cerne Abbas, Dorset
Reaping what your sew
Your week’s television highlights (New Review) advise that Monty Don will be “sewing” broad beans on Gardeners’ World. Pollinators, presumably, will include sewing bees?
Shaun Wragg
Coleraine, Northern Ireland
