Qwoke Youth and Wise Elders - the Quaker Gender War

This post starts with a long, negative criticism of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and, I’m glad to say, ends with a positive affirmation of where we could be heading.

The bad old news is that many Quaker Meetings have taken decisions over the last few years not to hire their meeting rooms to people who wish to discuss gender issues.

What I mean by gender issues is, firstly, the idea that men are not women. Secondly, in my view, the greatest and most avoidable medical scandal in 21^st Century Britain is the maiming and sterilisation and lifelong medication of vulnerable children and young adults by the transgender medico-pharmaceutical industry, aided and abetted by Mermaids and Stonewall and others, including, in our own small way, British Quakers.

The fact that my views about sex, gender and the harming of children are barely tolerated in Quaker Meeting Houses is, in my view, a deplorable betrayal by Quakers of our widely acclaimed Testimony to Truth. I believe we have also lost our widely acclaimed courage to Speak Truth to Power (and Speak it to Transgender Ideology Bullies).

The problems started in 2017 when Woman’s Place UK (WPUK) began trying to hire venues to hold meetings to raise awareness of the dangers of transgender self-ID - which was the main plank of Theresa May’s government consultation about reforming the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) 2004. Self-ID caused consternation on mumsnet and grassroots women’s organisations sprang up to challenge the the idea - amidst a deafening silence from traditional women’s groups like the Fawcett Society.

WPUK was one such group and they sought to hire venues around the country including Quaker Meeting Houses. Note: a Quaker Meeting House is formally known as a Friends Meeting House (FMH for short).

The GRA reform was consulted on and eventually - largely thanks to the efforts of WPUK and their allies - kicked into the long grass by Liz Truss, when she was in charge of Women and Equalities. Compare and contrast this GRA reform experience in England and Wales to the Nicola Sturgeon car-crash – or rather, scuttling of car-ferries – in Scotland earlier this month. (Yes, I know Truss has gone too, but that is because she was an economic idiot. At least she knows what a woman is.)

But WPUK’s experience since 2017 was that many of their meetings that were scheduled to be held at FMHs were protested, threatened, disrupted or cancelled entirely. WPUK has published a list at womansplaceuk.org/2021/10/27/record-womans-place-uk-meetings and notable examples include:

Cambridge FMH, 23 November 2017, went ahead despite threat

First on the list is the threat to the WPUK meeting at Cambridge FMH on 23 November 2017. It went ahead but attracted a message on Facebook, “If Isis only blow up one event this Christmas…”

Manchester FMH, 17 January 2018, protests

The WPUK meeting went ahead despite protests.

Oxford FMH, 25 April 2018, protests and disruption

This was the second attempt by Oxford women to organise a meeting after the one at the University in January 2018 was cancelled under pressure from trans activists. Disruptive protests were held outside the 25 April meeting: www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/04/26/quakers-caught-terf-war-oxford-university-protesters-hosting

Brighton FMH, 2018, cancelled

www.gscene.com/news/quakers-cancel-anti-trans-group-meeting

Norwich FMH, 2019, disrupted

www.norwichquakers.org.uk/post/norwich-meeting-s-experience-of-conflict-around-transgender-issues-january-2019-january-2020  

Liverpool FMH, cancelled at last minute

Meetings other than those by WPUK have been targeted in the same way. Pre-Covid, Liverpool Resisters had booked a meeting at Liverpool FMH. Under pressure from trans activists, Liverpool Quakers cancelled it at the last minute.

The Cancel Culture Problem with Quakers

The problem for Quakers was baked into the cake of our faith by the trans-non-binary-statement of Young Friends General Meeting (YFGM) in 2019. Their Minute of February 2019, section (a) Trans and non-binary inclusion states:

“In particular, we note our disagreement with the [Quaker Life & CC] position that “the critique of transgender identities in the political sphere is not necessarily transphobic”.

The double negative here is unhelpful and confusing. In short, YFGM is saying that if anyone wants to talk about transgender identities, he/she will be transphobic if YFGM thinks so. This is a clear intent to shut down difference of opinion. And in the name of tolerance and inclusivity. What chutzpah!

Further, FYGM state at (b) YFGM Value Statement on Trans and non-binary inclusion that

“As Friends — both trans and cis, binary and non-binary — we affirm that there is no conflict between trans inclusion, feminism, and liberation from gender roles and stereotypes. We do not support the use of meeting houses to host events which claim otherwise, and we hope that Meetings will decide not to host these events in future.” (emphasis added)

In other words, YFGM was urging Quakers nationwide not to host events like the WPUK ones mentioned above.

It has been apparent to me for a few years that this conflict is largely (but not entirely) an inter-generational one, both in society as a whole and in Quakerdom. I believe that explains why the centres of Quaker power – Woodbrooke, BYM, Friends House – won’t really grapple with the conflict: we are an ageing Society; if we are to survive into the next generation, we need new, young members; we cannot afford to alienate them by saying transphobic things like men are not women.

The Good News (is the tide turning?)

London Quakers have been holding sessions on sex and gender for one or two years now - regardless of YFGM urging against this, please note. 

I was fortunate to be invited to attend the London Quakers meeting at Friends House on Sat 18 Feb 2023. It was the fourth in the series and, as far as I’m aware, it was the first to happen in person and face-to-face. It was like a breath of fresh air. It makes such a difference to meet in real life and do the things you never do on Zoom, like sit down for lunch together.

For me, the day - 10.30am to 4pm - was a chance to get off my chest all the queries and quibbles, niggles and complaints about Genderism within Quakerdom that have been bothering me for over a year.

At last, here was a space where people were willing to talk about the ideas rather than how or when to express them, including the ever-present subtext to not express them at all. In other words, the meeting was able to deal with matters of substance rather than matters of form.

I left feeling hopeful that, with the possibility of further dialogue like this, Friends may yet find harmony within our own Society amidst a wider society where the dialogue has turned so toxic that most people try to avoid it entirely.

That still leaves the question of how to address the authoritarian and censorious position of the Young Quakers, however. We are not out of the woods yet.