The problem with the Brit Awards' decision to scrap gender-specific categories

What's special about men and women? According to the recent decision of the Brit Awards, not very much, because they have now dropped all gender-specific categories from their awards programme. Indeed, they have gone further, singling out for particular condemnation the 'exclusion' of non-binary artists.

We must be as inclusive and as relevant as possible, they announced sanctimoniously. So, goodbye 'Best Male' and 'Best Female'; hello superlative gender-neutral singer, artist, performer and all-round good egg!

Goodbye Peter and Jane, and hello 'Petane'. Which, agreed, doesn't make much sense, but neither does the insane drive to remove all trace of biological difference from human interaction and activity – especially if, when it suits them, activists are also trying to change the status quo to promote 'diversity'.

Under pressure from transgender activists, similar social reconfiguration is happening everywhere, of course. The transgender prison population in England and Wales, for example, has reportedly increased by a massive 20 per cent between 2019 and 2020, with the majority of such inmates identifying as female.

The true number of prisoners claiming to be transgender is actually thought to be far higher, as those with a gender recognition certificate (GRC) – official acknowledgment that they have changed gender, which can take up to five years to obtain – for the most part serve out their sentences in prison wings specific to their chosen gender.

Those without the necessary certification, however, are increasingly demanding the right to serve out their sentences in female prisons. Many self-identifying as female, however, have not undergone and/or are not in process of receiving reassignment treatment, and retain fully functioning male genitalia.

It is then hardly a surprise that sex attacks in women's jails have significantly increased in the last couple of years. Given it is known that 60 per cent of transgender prisoners identifying as female have been convicted of sexual offences against women - including 27 convicted of rape - how can these men argue they want to identify as women other than to gain access? And, in light of that, how can such transfers even be contemplated, let alone allowed?

As it is, with clear evidence that sexual conviction rates for transgender prisoners are far higher than comparable rates for male inmates, we can draw two extremely uncomfortable conclusions. Firstly, that male prisoners who identify as female are more than twice as likely to have committed a sexual offence. Secondly, even claiming they are transgender, such men are highly likely to remain sexually predatory, placing female prisoners in jails where they might be placed at significantly high risk of sexual assault.

All the evidence, in fact, points to the conclusion that such attempted biological confabulation is not only wrong, but inherently dangerous. Despite what is so stridently maintained – by the Brit Awards panel amongst others – there are significant differences between men and women, and transgender identification may blur the lines, but it most emphatically does not remove them.

Attempting to hold otherwise, far from being 'inclusive', is highly discriminatory, and favours neither sex. Indeed, it is supremely unfair to those who remain clearly 'biologically gendered', in the process emasculating men and denying respect for women, while jeopardizing their safety.

Not for nothing has Satan been called the father of lies, and his main objective has always been to separate men and women from God and force us into subjection to himself. The delusion of biological equivalence prevents us from becoming fully what God has made, and intends us, to be.

Right at the beginning of creation, God made us male and female, in his own image. Creating Eve from Adam's rib, He made us in such a way as to complete and complement each other. But He made us different and for a purpose that both transcends and helps us realise our full humanity. The ever more frenzied protestations of those who seek to deny the glory of our creation can lead only to increased emotional and psychological confusion. We are all on the path of becoming, and whatever our stage of development, every individual is worthy of respect and love – because God loves all equally. But it helps no one to affirm the delusion of equivalence.

It was famously said in antiquity – a quotation often attributed to Euripides, though the exact source remains unknown – that those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad. Satan wishes to destroy, and his lies generate madness. But our ultimate happiness and fulfilment lies in difference.