A Letter to GoJ - Sex Matters, the Word Woman Matters

The language of gender identity ideology arrived on Jersey's shores this January via a campaign to promote cervical screening to women. It was very successful but for all the wrong reasons - notably a Government of Jersey twitter post that got over 3 million views via a twitter storm (there are only 103,000 residents in Jersey). Today I wrote to Jersey's Minister for Health & Social Services and the Director of Public Health and the Director of Communications at Government of Jersey. I told them that the messages used were dehumanising, illogical, sexist and confusing and asked them to make future messages clear and use the word woman. Below is the full letter.

Dear X,

Now that the dust has settled on the twitter-storm I want to write to you to express my genuine concerns about January’s cervical screening awareness campaign.

Let me start by saying that people who identify as trans deserve tolerance for how they present and lead their lives, empathy and of course access to non-judgmental healthcare.

That said, I am very concerned that Government of Jersey has adopted the language of gender identity ideology in this campaign. Deliberately disguised as inclusion/be kind/be tolerant this extreme ideology seeks to erase the rights of women and gay people and pushes many young people onto unproven, damaging medical pathways. That statement sounds dramatic but unfortunately it is true.

About the January campaign: As a woman, I was targeted with many of the adverts online, by radio and through the twitter posts.

The language used in all the adverts was dehumanising, illogical, sexist and confusing.

To illustrate, the first adverts I was targeted with called to: ‘Islanders who are female or have a cervix’. This message is:

· Dehumanising – we are no longer women but a collection of biological features living on the Island

· Illogical – I can’t have a cervix or be female. Only female people can have a cervix.

· Sexist – Why is the word woman forbidden? The word woman is the simplest, clearest way to address us.

· Confusing – For women for whom English is not their first language or those with learning difficulties this message is confusing and the call to action easily missed – thereby excluding them.

Additionally, in the trans specific message women were referred to as ‘People who were assigned female at birth’. This phrase is deliberately used to undermine biological facts. People are either born male or female and our sex is unchangeable. It seems silly to have to state that, but many gender identity ideologists dispute these facts.

Amazingly it seems necessary to remind ourselves that biological facts matter, differences in sex matter (regardless of how people may feel or label themselves) and that clear, accessible health messaging saves lives.

Please will you ensure that all future messages are clear and those targeting women refer to women.

Because gender identity ideology presents so many challenges to existing protected rights, I am enclosing Helen Joyce’s book Trans. It is a compassionate and fact-based introduction to how gender identity ideology crashes into reality and the implications for everyone. I strongly recommend you read it before adopting gender identity ideology language in future communications.

Yours sincerely,

Rachel Harker