Mick Hartley

Jolyon Maugham, director of the Good Law Project (GLP) and vocal defender of all things trans, has come under fire recently from his former trans colleagues. Jo Bartosch has the details:

Earlier this week the progressive pack ripped into the tax lawyer, accusing GLP of harming “sex workers” by partnering with barrister Charlotte Proudman’s Right to Equality Project (RtE). Proudman, who has represented sex trade survivors, has been clear that criminal sanctions must be enforced against pimps, punters and traffickers. 

She advocates for what has become known as the “Nordic Model”, where the women (and some men) in prostitution are offered help to rebuild their lives whilst those who profit from their exploitation are held to account. Yet to the moronic mob who crow “sex work is work”, such an approach stigmatises those they call “sex workers”. For them it is stigma, rather than violent men and substance abuse, which causes harm to the vulnerable.

Why are trans advocates so horrified by Maugham's apparent betrayal?

There is a long and deep connection between those pushing for the full decriminalisation of the sex industry and transgenderism. From the aforementioned Shon Faye, who dedicates a chapter in his book on trans issues to the decriminalisation of the sex industry, to Jane Fae, who first shot to prominence as a “defender of extreme pornography”, the overlap between the causes is almost complete. This is even evident in the slurs used to discredit opponents — “SWERF” (“sex worker exclusionary radical feminist”) and “TERF” (“trans exclusionary radical feminist”). Perhaps at heart this is because both prostitution and transgenderism depend upon the sexualised objectification of women. It also takes a similar athletic leap of logic to argue that men are the most oppressed kind of women, and that legalising prostitution makes women safer. For these reasons the twin mantras “transwomen are women” and “sex work is work” are foundational tenets of today’s progressive clique….

Today Maugham finds himself cancelled by many former allies, uncomfortably sitting on the same side as those he purports to revile. It’s perhaps a little early to invite the tax lawyer to the dark side, but it would take a heart of stone not to laugh.