The Trans Agenda picks up the pace

I read the papers, so you don’t have to…

Sunday 3rd May 2026

Previous editions

• Saturday 25 April – Sunday 26 April 2026

• Monday 20 April – Friday 24 April 2026

This week was much busier than the previous week and what is really obvious is how much harder they are going in the Scottish papers, particularly the Mail. This week, while the Mail had 12 articles, eight of those were in the Scottish edition, alone.

The Telegraph also continues to have fewer articles than I’ve come to expect, dropping down from the five last week to just two this.

Monday 27 April – Friday 1 May (number of articles mentioning or about trans people)

Search terms used on Pressreader.com – trans OR gender OR transgender OR biological
Search terms used on The Times epaper – None, paper searched manually.

Total count: 29
Average per day: 5.8
Last week average: 3.6 (18)

• Times 4

• Guardian 2

• Mail 12 (8 Scottish, 3 English, 1 Irish)

• Telegraph 2

• The National 5

• The Herald 2

• Belfast Telegraph 2

The Times (4)

Singer cancelled by ‘confused young’, by Sanchez Manning (29 April)

[source]

• This is the first of two articles this week about Rosin Murphy being cancelled for being anti-trans. The other is in the Telegraph that you can see below. “Being cancelled is hard,” Murphy said on the pages of The Times, who were reporting her comments from a speech at an event at Parliament. Cancelled, eh?

Badenoch: Don’t punish gender-critical nurses, by Jonathan Ames (29 April)

[source]

• “Kemi Badenoch has called on regulators to drop disciplinary action against nurses who have raised public concerns about working with transgender staff.” She is pressuring the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). It is, of course, the Darlington Nurses and Jennifer Melle, both cases which have had masses of coverage in the right-wing media.

University wins appeal against record fine over free speech, by Nicola Woodcock (30 April)

• Same story as you can see below in The Guardian’s coverage, except from the GC angle.

Accuser ‘determined to see Father Ted writer convicted’, by NO BYLINE (1 May)

• There is more on this story below under the Belfast Telegraph section. Graham Linehan was appealing his conviction for criminal damage.

The Guardian (2)

Sussex University wins high court free speech case against watchdog, by Richard Adams (30 April)

[source]

• A humiliating defeat for the Gender Critical cult as the High Court not only overturned the obscene £585,000 fine that was issued after Kathleen Stock quit her job, they eviscerated the Office for Students (OfS) for their behaviour which had been “biased towards punishing Sussex as an example to other universities.”

  For a more detailed understanding of this case and ruling, please see this statement from the Feminist Gender Equality Network. Further pieces with even more in-depth reporting are being worked on and will be linked in future editions.

  This article doesn’t go into Stock’s behaviour but then, they never do. It also says, “Stock resigned from Sussex in October 2021, shortly after she had been told by police to stay away from campus following a series of protests, and feared her 18-year career at the university had been “effectively ended” after Sussex’s branch of the University and College Union called for an investigation into institutional transphobia. Stock had said she believed gender identity did not outweigh biological sex “when it comes to law and policy”, and people could not change their biological sex.” Note the sympathetic framing while not giving any examples of what students were protesting.

Embarrassment for education regulator highlights its bigger failings, by Richard Adams (30 April)

[source]

• An ‘analysis’ piece on the story above. A decent overview, but closes, “But there is some good news. The OfS’s bumbling largely took place under previous management. Lapworth recently stood down as chief executive, to be replaced from June by Ruth Hannant and Polly Payne, two experienced civil servants. Their challenge will be to do some regulating where it’s needed, and rebuild the OfS’s relationship with the sector.” ‘Bumbling’

Daily Mail [inc Scottish & Irish editions] (12) (8 Scottish, 3 English, 1 Irish)

SNP slammed for supporting ‘extreme’ trans rights group, by Tom Gordon (27 April, Scottish)

[source]

• John Swinney and a load of others have signed a pledge that was produced by a group called ‘Out for Independence’, which views itself as the ‘official LGBTQIA+ wing of the SNP’, to ‘fight for trans bodily autonomy’ and ban conversion practices. For Women Scotland are angry (when are they ever anything else?). “It is clear that the SNP have learnt nothing from the past five years, and it is very disappointing to see so many sign up to the demands of this extreme pressure group,”’ Marion Calder told the Mail. She believes a trans-inclusive conversion therapy ban would be a ‘Trojan horse’ to stop people even talking to trans kids about being trans. The usual nonsense.

Scottish Labour vows to tackle women’s health crisis, by Tom Gordon (27 April, Scottish)

[source]

• Penultimate paragraph, “Labour says it will also commit the NHS to delivering single-sex wards based on biological sex. Scottish leader Anas Sarwar said: ‘Too many women have been let down by systematic failures. Under the SNP, women’s healthcare has been allowed to fall even deeper into crisis.’”

Don’t swap school uniform for sportswear, by NO BYLINE (27 April, Scottish)

[source]

• Letters about replacing school uniforms with tracksuits. Patricia Dunworth writes, “As a former teacher of teenage pupils, I am strongly in favour of school uniforms. There are obvious advantages: financial, lack of competition over appearance, the creation of a sense of belonging. I would further argue that teaching of the biological differences between the sexes should be appreciated, respected and valued. I’d suggest girls should wear skirts of at least knee length, and boys should remain in trousers and collared shirts, with blazers or gilets and headgear in matching colours. The students might grumble but school uniform can foster respect and pride.” Feminism, eh?

Devolution remains an extraordinary act of self-harm… but we still have the power to do something about it, by Stephen Daisley (27 April, Scottish)

[source]

• “The issuing of the Section 35 order against the Gender Recognition Reform Bill was a dramatic moment because Holyrood so rarely faces consequences for straying into reserved matters. Time to create some more consequences.”

Sarwar: We’ll enforce single sex jail spaces, by NO BYLINE (28 April, Scottish)

[source]

• Scottish Labour has pledged to remove “all biologically male” prisoners from women’s prisons within days if elected, saying it would immediately implement their bastardised understanding of the Equality Act following the Supreme Court’s April 2025 ruling. Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said: “We will stop using taxpayers’ money to challenge women, and we’ll get on straight away with implementing the Equality Act and making sure we’re protecting single-sex spaces based on biological sex.” Scottish Labour, protecting spaces, not women.

Men like Polanski and Swinney like to think of themselves as great leaders – but they’re just two chancers making it up as they go, by Euan McColm (29 April, Scottish)

[source]

• Full page of nonsense that opens, “YOU’VE got to hand it to him: Zack Polanski certainly knows his audience. The leader of the Green Party in England and Wales understands, perfectly, what makes his voters tick and, boy, does he give it to them.

  “Reckless anti-Israel rhetoric? Check.

  Cruel dismissal of women fighting for their rights against the demands of crank trans activists? He’s your man. “

Blow for free speech as trans row university’s £585,000 fine quashed, by Eleanor Harding (30 April, English)

[source]

• Same story as above, but the extra anti-woke version. Claire Coutinho, “Tory equalities spokesman” quoted calling on OfS to appeal.

Is it Harry Potter and the spectre of Sturgeon?, by Richard Eden (30 April, Scottish)

[source]

• Eden asks if JK Rowling might feel marginalised in the upcoming elections because Nicola Sturgeon, who isn’t running, defends trans people and there is a rapist in prison who identifies as trans. Or something.

Scottish The fanatics hellbent on tearing the UK apart for ever, by Stephen Daisley (30 April, English)

[source]

• Right-wing rambling under a subhead of “Greens want to abolish prisons, ban homework and throw open borders — and they’re as rabidly pro-independence as the SNP. Now many fear next week’s poll could forge an unholy alliance” that also says, “The incumbent, Angus Robertson, is a senior minister in the SNP government. He wants to rip Scotland out of the UK – then take it straight into the European Union. He is for tax-and-spend, backs transgender ideology and once called on the UK to boycott the Eurovision Song Contest because Israel was participating.” Sounds great to me!

Unholy alliance, by Stephen Daisley (30 April, Scottish)

[source]

• Same nonsense as above just with a different headline.

Green alert, Letters (30 April, English)

[source]

• Mr D Hartley from Solihull playing right-wing bingo in the letters page of the Mail, as he talks about Muslims, rape gangs, asylum fraud, “Greens think men can be women, and critics of that idea get demonised”, complains about attacks on the rich and landlords, and “legalising prostitution”. He adds, “Former deputy leader Dr Shahrar Ali [whopper of a GC], who was thrown out of the party, feels it’s now a real danger to society with its unholy alliance of unintegrated Islamists and gender fantasy bigots. He believes Greens now have hard Left groupthink instead of reasoned debate. They have ditched freedom of speech for authoritarian identity politics.” Did he cover everything?

Linehan was ‘proud’ that he grabbed a trans activist’s phone, by Mathilde Grandjean (1 May, Irish)

[source]

• I cover this article below under Belfast Telegraph as it’s the same story by the same journalist.

Daily Telegraph (2)

Roisin Murphy laments censorship of the arts, by NO BYLINE (29 April)

[source]

• Rosin Murphy would deny that she’s been radicalised. The Telegraph call her ‘cancelled’ on the pages of their own newspaper, without seeing how stupid that is. She was speaking at a recent event at Parliament, saying, “The creative soul of this country has always thrived on discomfort, on the freedom to be wrong, to offend…

  “Without that freedom, we don’t get better art, we simply put artists into a chokehold” The Telegraph also report she said “artists were to frightened to say what they truly felt for fear of losing their funding.” Just this week, she could also be found on social media telling a trans person, “Minorities have to negotiate their rights with the majority. You are not good negotiators”

I’m more pessimistic after decade as first lady, says Brigitte Macron, by Vivian Song (28 April)

[source]

• From the Telegraph, one of the absolute worst offenders when it comes to harming trans people, supporting the very people whose fellow travellers believe this crap: “Throughout Mr Macron’s tenure, Mrs Macron has been subject to conspiracy theories and false accusations she is a trans woman.

  “Earlier this year, 10 people, including an art dealer, a teacher, a computer scientist and an elected official, were convicted of cyber bullying, which led to a deterioration of the first lady’s physical and mental health.

  “Candace Owens, the conservative American podcaster, has also accused the French first lady of being a trans woman, spreading false rumours in the United States.”

The National (5)

Letters – Exclusion argument suggests that trans people are a threat (27 April)

[source]

• A lengthy piece in defence of trans people by Ron Lumiere, building on a spat in their Letters page last week between a GC and Tim Hopkins (thanks to the kind person on Bluesky who pointed out Hopkins used to be the Chief Executive of the Equality Network, something I’d missed). It is sharp, concise, clear and factual, unlike the claims from My Forsyth that he is replying to. Forsyth won’t care, as he demonstrates in his reply below.

Claim that Sarwar’s Equality Act pledge ‘panders to Anti-trans groups’, by Abbi Garton-Crosbie (28 April)

[source]

• Sarwar has been telling anyone who will listen he is a full paid-up member of the GC cult and will enact as much cruelty towards trans people as possible from the minute he is elected, if he is. Launching his ‘Women’s Manifesto’, he was joined by Carol Mochan, who was binned from her frontbench position for “breaking the whip to vote against Holyrood’s gender reforms that would have allowed transgender Scots to self-identify. Sarwar had whipped his MSPs to back the Scottish Government’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill in 2022, even voting for it himself.” How things have changed in Labour. Scottish Greens MSP Maggie Chapman is quoted defending trans people and questioned the SC ruling.

  “Trans people just want to live their lives in peace, but increasingly, they are being put under the microscope and demonised,” she said. “They are being scapegoated and vilified. Trans rights are regressing, and trans people feel more marginalised than they have for years.

  “It was not long ago that Anas Sarwar and his colleagues voted for gender recognition reform.

  “Yet we are now a long way from that consensus, with Labour pandering to anti-trans groups, and whipping up fear and prejudice.

  “The Scottish Greens will always stand with our trans siblings.”

Letters – New argument takes ideological social engineering too far, by Stephen McMurray (28 April)

[source]

• A lengthy GC reply to Ron Lumiere’s letter above from someone called Jim Taylor. Plus a reply from Forsyth himself doubling down on all the points he’s been corrected on. You’ll note that in this back and forth about trans people and women’s rights, no trans people or women have been heard, just cis men.

Too many journalists are missing the point, by Robert Allan Fochabers (29 April)

[source]

• Passing mention: “AHEAD of the final leaders’ debate, it struck me how out of touch the mainstream media is in Scotland. The BBC in Scotland, STV, Herald, Scotsman etc produce thousands of column inches and soundbites on their three favourite topics – ferries, trans issues and asylum seekers.” It adds, “Whilst the three topics above are very, very relevant to some individuals and should be dealt with, with fairness, integrity and respect, I would point out that as part of the Scottish population, 1.9% live on the islands, 0.36% identify as trans and 0.12% are asylum seekers.”

Sarwar apology call after ‘misogynistic’ attack by candidate, by Abbi Garton-Crosbie (1 May 2026)

[source]

• A Scottish Labour candidate send out a leaflet saying “As a father of daughters unlike the SNP and Green candidates, I am also unequivocal in supporting women’s rights to single-sex spaces. This includes saying loudly and clearly that biological males should not be in women-only prisons and spaces.” Leaving aside the hideous transphobia, Rashid Hussain’s political opponents in the race are cis women. Anas Sarwar has been called on to apologise for the misogyny just a few days after launching his own ‘Women’s Manifesto’ which pledged to go after trans women in the name of protecting women. Hussain, the National note, “was a last-minute replacement in the seat after Mohammed Ameen, 43, was charged with fraud.” Only the best of the best in Labour.

  Greens’ candidate, Holly Bruce, said in response, ““People in Glasgow Southside deserve better than this divisive nonsense. Trans rights are human rights and are part of my feminism. There are plenty of Labour members and supporters who feel the same way…I’d urge Labour to retract this shameful letter and apologise for ever issuing it.”

The Herald (2)

Round up the wildlife and ban golf: let Scottish Greens give us the dystopia we need, by Kevin McKenna (28 April)

[source]

• Passing mention in a nonsense column: “Nevertheless, I feel sure that were the Scottish Greens ever to win outright power north of the Border, Scotland could become the world’s first officially recognised dystopian wilderness. It’s plain to see that the world has gone down the pan in recent years and that an excess of cavalier behaviour by the ignorant, foul-mouthed, transphobic, horse-racing, dog-baiting, golf-playing masses is to blame.”

Inside the Catholic church hall where Scotland’s election came to life, by Kevin McKenna (1 May 2026)

[source]

• Passing mention in a nonsense column: “Anthony Carroll, the Scottish Greens candidate. This young man was entering a lion’s den where his party’s positions on trans rights and placing sexually violent men in women’s prisons would be forcefully challenged. Yet throughout, he handled these questions with great skill and forbearance, not to mention a measure of empathy and sensitivity too often lacking higher up in the Scottish Greens.”

Belfast Telegraph (2)

Legal threat to IFA bosses over trans women players, by Chris Lindsay (30 April)

[source]

• Sharron Davies has teamed up with the ADF, the high-profile super conservative Christian activist group that has done severe damage to the rights of women and queer people, to target sports groups in the UK. As well as going after Parkrun, a fun-run that’s open to everybody of any ability that doesn’t even have to be run, she is targeting sports organisations that have not capitulated to the lie that they are legally required to do so.

  The latest on the list of their targets is the IFA, seeking to ban trans women and girls from football in Northern Ireland. They have also targeted another nine organisations. The article says, “It comes a year after a Supreme Court ruling that only those born female should be considered women under the Equality Act,” which is just not true at all. In addition, the Equality Act doesn’t apply to Northern Ireland, something Davies & co brush past by saying, “while most parts of the Equality Act do not apply in Northern Ireland, the letter to the Irish Football Association explained that the For Women Scotland ruling is still binding across the UK”. It obviously can’t both not apply and apply.

Linehan ‘proud’ to damage activist’s phone, court told, by Mathilde Grandjean (1 May, 2026)

[source]

• This piece covers ‘feminist’ Graham Linehan declaring publicly that he is ‘proud’ of snatching the phone of someone who was 17 at the time of the incident, a fact that does not seem to make it into any coverage of this case. Linehan was appealing his conviction for criminal damage and was defended by GC KC Sarah Vine. Notably, the prosecutor, who is supposed to be on the trans person’s side, referred to Sophie Brooks as a ‘transgender activist’ rather than highlighting she was a child at the time of the offence. The journalist, Mathilde Grandjean, also referred to Brooks as ‘the activist’ in order to avoid using any pronouns for the victim. Vine, hilariously, accused Brooks of ‘misusing the justice system’ to take part in a ‘campaign’ against a ‘high-profile opponent’.

  The appeal continued on Friday where Linehan, who already admitted criminal damage and been convicted, eventually won out in having his conviction overturned.

NOTES

• “Men are receiving 60 per cent more new health funding than women under government plans to tackle gender-specific medical issues, an analysis by The Times has revealed.” (27 April)

• I did not see a single UK paper that I monitor, who care so much about women’s sport, cover the new “groundbreaking study” that found “no evidence that trans athletes are ‘a threat’ to women’s sports.” You can read about that on El Pais.

ADDITIONAL

• Assigned Media have done some analysis on US papers and their anti-trans coverage I’d encourage you to check out. The headline is that “The New York Times quotes trans people less often than other major news outlets”

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