Trans inclusion specialist Joanne Lockwood, who runs campaign group SEE Change Happen, has defended trans education in a clash with anti-trans former Conservative MP Miriam Cates. Speaking on right-wing news channel GB News, Lockwood, who also hosts the Inclusion Bites podcast, argued that it is sen
Trans inclusion specialist Joanne Lockwood, who runs campaign group SEE Change Happen, has defended trans education in a clash with anti-trans former Conservative MP Miriam Cates.
Speaking on right-wing news channel GB News, Lockwood, who also hosts the Inclusion Bites podcast, argued that it is sensible for children to learn about gender issues. She said: “I think it’s important that our young people are educated on contemporary issues and what is going on in the world.”
“Your report earlier about the Holocaust, LGBTQ+ people were victims of the Holocaust. When people are hearing this in the news, about various different gender identities, it’s important they get time to understand the way of the world.
“Just because the government across the water wants to erase trans people, the reality is, we need to know about this.”
Controversial ex-Tory MP Miriam Cates, who lost her seat in the 2024 general election, said: “It’s not about erasing transgender people – it’s about telling the truth to children”, she said.
“There are only two sexes and people are not born in the wrong body, so why teach children this at school?”
Lockwood said much of the messaging around gender issues is ‘scaremongering’, citing the suggestion there are around 100 genders.
She reiterated the importance of children learning ‘contemporary’ issues, saying gender ideology is among them.
“It’s important to understand that people who are trans exist”, she said.
“In the same way, we talk about sexuality – being straight, being non-trans. This is the language they’re picking up. We can ignore it or they’ll do their own discovery.”
This is not the first time Cates has expressed anti-trans views. In 2021, she said that LGBTQ+ rights charities Stonewall and Mermaids taught “dangerous and contested extreme ideologies that don’t have a basis in science”. In one speech in 2023, she offered ‘anecdotal observation’ that, for some men, “trans porn led them into the trans arena”.
