British media must indulge gender ideology despite court ruling, says regulator
The UK’s media regulator Ofcom says British outlets must continue to accommodate gender ideology despite a recent Supreme Court ruling on the matter.
In April, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom ruled that the word “woman,” as mentioned in the Equality Act, should be defined by biological sex rather than “gender identity.” The decision was a major blow to gender activists and sparked violent protests by LGBT militants.
GB News has since written to Ofcom, asking the regulator to confirm that the definitions of “woman” and “man” are “settled.” Topics that Ofcom considers settled, like climate change, can be reported on as the accepted truth. But news media must report unsettled topics by giving airtime to both sides of the issue.
“We would be grateful if Ofcom could confirm that in light of the Supreme Court judgment, it is now a settled matter that the terms ‘man’, ‘woman’ and ‘sex’ can only be understood to mean biological sex, biological woman and biological man and, as a consequence, it is also a settled matter that a ‘trans woman’ is not a biological female, and a ‘trans man’ is not a biological male,” GB News wrote in a letter to Ofcom.
“Following the Supreme Court judgment we are of the view that (provided there is no deliberate intention to cause harm or offence), contributors should generally be able to use biological pronouns,” the news outlet added.
Ofcom: Not applicable to ‘wider debate’
However, Ofcom responded by arguing that the Supreme Court’s definition only applies to the Equality Act. The regulator said it does not believe “the judgment should also be understood to have effectively ‘settled’ wider debate about the appropriate meaning, usage and effect of such terms in all contexts outside the scope of the Equality Act, including in broadcast programmes in which issues relating to sex and gender-based rights are discussed generally.”
According to The Telegraph, Ofcom also stressed it “does not consider that it is helpful or appropriate to endorse the dogmatic propositions” expressed by GB News—namely that gender is defined by biological sex.
