Founder of notorious anti-trans pressure group named in Queen’s birthday honours list
Stephanie Davies-Arai of Transgender Trend. (Transgender Trend)
The founder of notorious anti-trans pressure group Transgender Trend has been awarded the British Empire Medal in the Queen’s birthday honours.
Stephanie Davies-Arai is the founder of Transgender Trend, which claims there is no “evidence that children really are trans” and that “gender identity ideology” is harming children.
The group made headlines in 2018 for creating a schools resource pack that claimed it is better to refuse than to affirm the gender of trans children. Stonewall condemned the pack as a “deeply damaging publication” that “masquerades as professional, ‘evidence-based’ advice”.
Arai was awarded the British Empire Medal in the Queen’s birthday honours, announced on June 1, the first day of Pride Month.
Transgender Trend said she had been honoured for “services to children”.
The group, which has previously denied the trans suicide rate and is critical of groups like Mermaids, was founded by Davies-Arai in 2015.
Transgender Trend’s schools resource pack featured several stickers which contained such rhetoric as: “Children confused about their sex usually grow out of it.”
After it was released in 2018, LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall urged schools to ignore it as it was “packed with factually inaccurate content”.
“The idea that listening to young people and taking steps to make them feel included might encourage them to be trans is quite simply a myth,” Hannah Kibirige, Stonewall’s former director of education and youth, said at the time.
“Most teachers would agree that effectively supporting any young person begins with listening to them and understanding their experiences and needs. Supporting trans young people is no different,” she added.
Davies-Arai has previously collaborated with other ‘gender critical‘ pundits, such as Father Ted co-creator Graham Linehan and journalist Helen Joyce.
The British Empire Medal (BEM) recognises meritorious civil or military service.
Honours are decided and announced by the Cabinet Office, though members of the public are able to make recommendations.
Prime minister Boris Johnson said of the Queen’s birthday honours list: “I pay tribute to all of this year’s winners. Their stories of courage and compassion are an inspiration to us all.”
Among the 1,134 people who received an award, 304 received a BEM. Additionally, 4.6 per cent of the awarded individuals are LGBTQ+.
