Letters - 29 September 2023
From Anti-Boycott Bill to Trans children
Anti-Boycott Bill
Thank you for highlighting the Anti-Boycott Bill to us in the 15 September edition of the Friend.
It is something, I agree, that we should be very worried about.
Taking away the local voice and choices of local government and other public bodies is, I think, undemocratic.
Can I suggest that Local Meetings and Area Meetings across the country put this on their agendas?
As Quaker groups we could contact local representatives and ask what help we can be.
I hope these bodies will be complaining but maybe they can do that before they are asked to do so?
Barbara Mark
Peace and disarmament
As a Quaker, I was disturbed that Keir Starmer, leader of the Labour Party, has chosen to abolish the post of shadow minister for Peace and Disarmament, which at present has been held by Fabian Hamilton MP.
It seems to me that this post should be supported.
Surely, in a party that aspires to government, we need a dedicated voice for peace and disarmament?
We need a government which focuses on our obligations under international law and existing United Nations treaties, for example, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which the UK is a signatory, where the nuclear armed states agreed to ‘pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament’.
Rae Street
Trans children
I share the concerns of Lydia Vulliamy (15 September) with regard to the rights of biological women.
In addition we should consider the rights of children, most of whom now receive a lot of information on being trans and may well believe that it is a simple choice they can make for themselves.
If that ‘simple choice’ results in everyone around the child treating them as if they are not their real sex, the child is, in effect, being coached to believe it, and to believe that their natural puberty must be prevented.
To prevent puberty requires harmful medication, some variety of which is likely to be lifelong, and perhaps also surgery – for example, the prospect of a double mastectomy for girls who wish to present as boys or as non-binary.
Children should have the right to live a life free of unnecessary medical treatment, yet they are denied this if they believe the fiction of ‘being in the wrong body’.
Do Quakers really want to support every aspect of transgender identity, as we seem to be doing now?
Moyra Carlyle
Comments
I cannot imagine The Friend printing the ignorance, prejudice and unfounded fearmongering of Moyra Carlyle, if it related to any minority other than trans people.
By Abigail Maxwell on 3rd October 2023 - 19:08
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