Mick Hartley

It's quite the fashion now, it seems, for gender activists to accuse their enemies of being fascists and far-right accomplices. Judith Butler, in her recent Guardian interview, declared absurdly that "the anti-gender ideology is one of the dominant strains of fascism in our times". And now here's Mridul Wadhwa, the trans head of the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre:

Women who oppose plans to make it easier to change gender have given a platform to “fascists who want to eliminate trans people”, according to the head of Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre.

Mridul Wadhwa, 43, a trans woman who was appointed chief executive in May, accused those protesting against the Gender Recognition Reform Bill of legitimising far-right discrimination of trans people.

For Women Scotland, a women’s rights group, organised a demonstration outside the Scottish parliament this month to oppose changes that would allow people to legally identify as another gender without the need for a medical certificate. They warn it would diminish women’s rights, particularly in relation to gender-specific spaces such as toilets and changing rooms.

Last month Wadhwa claimed “bigoted” victims of sexual violence seeking help from the charity should expect to be “challenged on their prejudices” in an apparent comment on trans rights and women-only spaces.

[Covered here.]

Speaking during a webinar organised by the Sheena Amos Youth Trust, a Sheffield-based LGBT rights charity, she said: “In the last few weeks . . . those who started off by saying that they have legitimate concerns about the reform of the Gender Recognition Act [GRA] and what that means for women’s spaces, more and more of them . . . [are] exposing themselves as being on the right and being very comfortable associating with fascists and those who would want to eliminate anybody who is not cisgendered [a person whose gender identity matches their sex assigned at birth] and white in our society.

“There was a protest outside the Scottish parliament . . . organised by those who oppose GRA reform, but also by those within that group who oppose the existence of trans people.”

She accepted there was no evidence that the organisers were directly linked to fascist organisations.

For Women Scotland rejected Wadhwa’s “shocking comments”, including “the appalling proposition that rape victims need to learn not to be transphobic”.

Writing on Twitter, the women’s rights group added: “Then the disgraceful suggestion that the demo last week was joined by ‘fascists’. We have comprehensively debunked this lie . . . a desperate smear that Wadhwa should know will be used to justify harm and doesn’t care.”

There is, of course, absolutely no evidence that anyone is trying to eliminate trans people. They – the gender-critical feminists – are just complaining about the threat to women-only spaces posed by "trans women are women" activists. But the activists hope that shouting loudly about "fascists" might somehow fool some of the people some of the time, and cover the desperation of their arguments.

It's a shame that the Times reporter felt it necessary to provide that definition – "a person whose gender identity matches their sex assigned at birth" – of "cisgendered". It's assuming that these ridiculous conceits about gender identity, and sex being "assigned at birth", are something other than absurdities. But then I suppose there's no sensible way of defining "cisgendered" without descending into trans-speak.