The British Communist Party says it opposes the “new gender ideology” that has overtaken the United Kingdom at an exponential rate in recent years. They say that so-called “gender-affirming care” and medical interventions for children are not acceptable. 

A candidate for parliament in Scotland and a spokesman for the British Communist Party, Richard Shillcock, said in a statement to the group For Women Scotland that his party recognizes the reality of sex-based gender and said that the Communists would not support so-called “gender-affirming care” in nurseries and schools.

For Women Scotland describes itself as an organization dedicated to protecting “women and children’s rights,” which includes affirming that there are only two sexes and two genders. They say they want to foster more civil conversations about the issue and protect biological sex and legal protections for women in Scotland. 

“We stand in support of recognizing the nature of biological sex,” Mr. Shillcock says. The Communists are in favor of “defending sex-based rights and single-sex services and sports” and “changing the Equality Act such that ‘sex’ means ‘biological sex.’”

The Equality Act is a 2010 non-discrimination law passed by the last Labour government that clarified the government’s previous statutes related to not discriminating against anyone on the basis of sex. Mr. Shillcock says there should be “calm, comprehensive discussion of these issues.” 

“We oppose gender self-identification and the new gender ideology. We oppose all forms of conversion therapy applied to lesbian and gay people and we oppose including trans identities in such a ban,” Mr. Shillcock wrote. 

He continued, saying that the Communist Party supports the conclusions of the Cass Report, a government-sanctioned study that looked at the causes and effects of the rise of gender dysphoria and transgenderism in the United Kingdom. 

The lead author of the report, Hilary Cass, who previously served as president of the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health, found that there were a number of factors causing a sudden rise in gender dysphoria and the increased involvement of government-run hospital and medical services in transitioning minors to genders not aligned with their biological sex. 

The report found that the number of referrals to doctors for gender dysphoria has skyrocketed in just the last 15 years. In 2010, fewer than 250 children in the entirety of the United Kingdom saw a doctor to talk about medical treatment for gender dysphoria, which includes puberty blockers, other hormones, or sex-change surgeries. By 2022, that number had shot up to more than 5,000 per year, with the largest increase being among girls between the ages of 12 and 17. 

The Cass Report blames a lower threshold for medical treatment, social media-related mental health consequences, abuse, access to information regarding gender dysphoria, struggles with emerging sexual orientation, and early exposure to online pornography for the sudden rise in the referrals. 

“We recognise the Cass Report as authoritative and we oppose ‘gender-affirming care’ and ‘social transitioning’ in nurseries and schools,” Mr. Shillcock says.