UKIP equalities chief: Transgender political correctness ‘is going way too far’
UKIP’s new equalities spokesman has said that transgender “political correctness” is going “way way too far”.
Former British Army officer Henry Bolton recently became the fourth leader of the the pro-Brexit UK Independence Party in a year.
The new party leader has since appointed his new top team, giving Cllr Star Anderton the newly-created role of “Equalities spokesman”.
It’s the first time that UKIP has had a dedicated figure relating to equalities issues.
In her first statement in the role today, Anderton put out a release capitlaising on reports that the UK government had used the term ‘pregnant people’ instead of ‘pregnant women’.
Prime Minister Theresa May has denied claims that the government has outlawed the term ‘pregnant mother’, with her spokesperson insisting that the term is still acceptable and that the government was simply “recognising that transgender people can be pregnant”.
But in her release, Cllr Anderton blamed a “tangled web of competing special interests”.
Cllr Anderton said: “This is a complete tangled web of competing special interests, but the Prime Minister has got to be correct in saying that the term pregnant is relevant to birth females.
“To open up the term as ‘pregnant people’ is political correctness going way way too far.
“There have only been a couple of pregnancies whereby a female, who has partially transitioned to being male, decided to have a child prior to undergoing the remainder of the transition to being male.
She added: “Why do we have to have so many labels & non gender specific terms when first and foremost we are all human?
“As this is about human rights then it obviously has the intention to cover all humans so to be bogged down by semantics is a waste of taxpayers money!
“All humans should be treated equally under the law!”
New UKIP leader Henry Bolton previously said that equality has gone “too far”.
He told press: “Quite honestly, I think it is getting a bit far when we are encouraging children in some cases to question their own sexuality.
“I think that is certainly going too far.”
Asked about trans people, he said: “What I have a problem with is that we should all have a choice in that debate.
“If somebody feels it has gone too far they should be free to express that concern.
“What concerns me more than anything else at the moment in that debate is that there is an effort to silence any dissenting voice and I don’t think that is in keeping with the principle of freedom of speech.”
Elsewhere at its party conference, UKIP unveiled a new website encouraging people to ‘come out’… for Brexit.
The struggling party has churned its way through a string of leaders in the past two years – with the reigns passing between Nigel Farage, Suzanne Evans (whose acting leadership was revoked before she even took up the post), Nigel Farage, Diane James, Nigel Farage, Paul Nuttall and Steve Crowther.
Mr Bolton won just 29.9% of the vote in the race, but was declared the winner in a wide field that included far-right candidate Anne Marie Waters, the party’s gay former Deputy Leader Peter Whittle, and controversial London Assembly Member David Kurten.
Ahead of the conference, Support 4 The Family issued a survey to leadership candidates asking whether they would agree to abolish same-sex marriage, ban LGBT sex ed in schools, and whether gay people can be ‘cured’.
While Mr Bolton did not respond, Mr Kurten – backed by influential Leave.EU donor Arron Banks – made comments linking homosexuality to childhood sexual abuse in his responses to the group.
He said: “The latest scientific studies show that incidence of homosexuality in adults decreases with age, so it is unlikely to be fixed at birth.
“Study after study also shows that the incidence of homosexuality is much higher among people who have been sexually abused as children. This is an issue which needs to be addressed but is not because of political correctness.”
Elsewhere in UKIP news, former leader Nigel Farage headed to the US last month to rally support for the most homophobic Senate candidate in modern history.
Meanwhile, a retired bishop who has defended gay ‘cure’ therapy was also given a prime speaking spot at the party’s conference.
Former Bishop of Rochester Michael Nazir Ali, a notorious opponent of LGBT rights, will address party members
He has defended gay ‘cure’ therapy, and has said of gay people: “We welcome homosexuals, but we want them to repent and be changed.”
In 2012 the bishop signed a letter to back a therapist who was found guilty of professional malpractice last year after offering ‘gay cure’ therapy.
The bishop said of gay cure therapy: “We believe that people who seek, freely, to resolve unwanted same-sex attractions hold the moral right to receive professional assistance.
“Whether motivated by Christian conscience or other values, clients, not practitioners, have the prerogative to choose the yardstick by which to define themselves.”
He claimed of same-sex parenting: “This is social experimentation. It’s one thing for a child not to have a mother or father through tragedy but it is another to plan children to come into the world without a father.
“The results of ‘father-hunger’ can be seen in [lack of] educational achievement and on our streets, where it contributes to delinquency.”
The bishop also criticised Sir Elton John for raising children with his husband David Furnish.
