RECENT events have left women who fight for their sex-based rights in trepidation as to what will happen next.

Helen Joyce, director of advocacy at human rights charity Sex Matters, said after the election result: “We look forward to working to help Keir Starmer’s government strengthen sex-based rights in order to protect women and children.

“Labour has pledged to support a broad range of rights for women, but it will only be able to deliver if it has the courage to be clear that sex is real and that it matters.

“If the new government gives in under pressure to obfuscate sex-based language and data, its goals will be unachievable.

“It is blindingly clear that sex and gender cannot be dismissed as a fringe issue. Women’s sex-based rights came up repeatedly throughout the election campaign, while several polls showed strong support for protecting and strengthening them, right across the political spectrum.”

Earlier in the week, Joyce was speaking at an event in Swansea University, alongside Professor Jo Phoenix and Maya Forstater. All three are renowned gender critical campaigners. Joining them was employment barrister Akua Reindorf KC.

Reindorf said that conflicts between the Equality Act (EA) and the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) led to situations of Byzantine complexity.

The confusion is reflected in campaign group For Women Scotland’s current case, to be heard in the Supreme Court this November. They want “sex” to be clarified in the EA as “biological sex” and not “acquired gender.” They claim that the latter interpretation leaves the equality law “opaque and unworkable” for women.

Reindorf said: “The impact of the GRA on the EA is very far-reaching, and very, very confusing. My personal view is that it’s unsustainable. It has a very significant impact on sexual orientation discrimination, and arguably means that the categories of lesbian and gay man aren’t even sensible categories. Under the EA now, a lesbian is a biological woman, or a transwoman with a GRC (gender recognition certificate) who is attracted to biological women and to transwomen with GRCs — but not to transwomen without GRCs.”

Forstater responded that Sex Matters did not believe that a GRC changed biological sex, for the purpose of the EA. She wanted a focus on the EA, she said, “because that’s putting the focus on women’s rights.”

Their demand was for a section of the GRA to be repealed, so that in no longer claimed that sex could be changed “for all legal purposes.”

Joyce made the point that, during the election campaign, when someone asked a politician, “Why do you not care about women’s rights?” they responded by talking about “trans rights.”

What was needed, she said, was clarity, and offered the scenario, “This woman needs to have an internal vaginal exam, and she has said she is only willing to have it from a woman. This man has a piece of paper, saying he’s a woman. Does he have the right to walk in and stick his fingers in her vagina? We have to have an answer to that.”

The event, at the university’s Taliesin arts centre, drew a small number of protesters. At the time of going to press, police said that a 22-year-old woman had been arrested on suspicion of assault, though not yet charged, and on bail.

Swansea University boasts a code of practice setting out the conduct and procedures for anyone attending or organising activities and meetings on its premises.

It is a breach of the code to prevent or disrupt informal discussions based on the views or beliefs of participants, and to harass participants.

In February this year, a copy of Helen Joyce’s book Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality was removed from display in the library, after a single complaint.

At the time, women’s group Merched Cymru said: “We’ve had a couple of serious issues with gender activists staging threatening anti-women protests at events at the university, so we weren’t surprised when we heard a rumour that Trans had been removed from a library display. It’s just part of the pattern that we’ve come to expect from Swansea University.”

Several women and men at the event were relatively new to the issues. One woman told me: “I came with an open mind. I liked the fact this was put on by a group called Outspoken Women. I didn’t expect to see these protesters — what are they shouting about? I don’t think I really felt like an outspoken woman when I got here — but I will be, now!”

A man leaving the event stopped me, and asked: “Would you quote me? Just say I’m an elderly chap who believes in women, and in freedom of speech. What has struck me — apart from the eloquent speakers and the women who asked questions — is the bravery. You all ran the gauntlet, as if you were all so used to it. I’d like to shake every single one of you by the hand.”