EXCLUSIVE I almost wept with relief when Kemi Badenoch spoke out against the ‘epidemic’ of gay children being encouraged to change gender, writes author HELEN JOYCE

Recently I received a panicked call from a father who had been arrested and held overnight in a police cell.

His ‘crime’? His teenage daughter had told her parents she was attracted to girls… and now identified as a boy.

When her parents questioned this, pointing out that being a girl was no bar to liking another girl, she telephoned the police and told them she was in imminent danger. The police were soon knocking at the family’s door.

Unbelievable as it may seem, this is just one of the many horror stories I hear daily, courtesy of my work for Sex Matters, the campaigning organisation established to protect sex-based rights.

Such accounts pour into my inbox every day from desperate parents whose confused adolescent children have decided they are living in the ‘wrong’ body.

Some of them are merely going through the confusion that marks our often tumultuous teenage years. Many of them are gay but struggling to accept, or even understand, their sexuality.

I almost wept with relief when Kemi Badenoch (pictured) spoke out against the ‘epidemic’ of gay children being encouraged to change gender, writes author HELEN JOYCE

Helen Joyce is the author of Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality

What they need is to be nurtured, told they are loved and allowed to explore their identity without judgment. Instead, all too many are told they are transgender. Some are placed terrifyingly quickly on a medical pathway to irreversible physical changes.

READ MORE: Kemi Badenoch tells MPs the ‘threat to many young gay people’ is no longer ‘abhorrent’ conversion therapy based on sexuality but now ‘relates to gender identity’ as Cabinet minister pledges to ‘address issues’ through new draft laws

It is little short of child abuse — in some cases motivated by by what I would label blatant homophobia.

This is why I almost wept with relief on Wednesday when I learned that women and equalities minister Kemi Badenoch had bravely spoken out on the subject.

In a thoughtful but passionate speech to the Commons, Ms Badenoch drew attention to what she rightly described as the dangerous ideology that has led to an ‘epidemic’ of young gay or bisexual youngsters — many not yet old enough to vote or drive a car — being told they are transgender and given drugs that can lead to sterilisation and other irreversible damage.

It was, the minister rightly said, a new form of ‘conversion therapy’ — a phrase that traditionally referred to cruel attempts to turn gay children straight.

Bravo, Kemi. A generation of young gay people and others who do not conform to gender stereotypes — such as tomboys or ‘effeminate’ boys — are at risk from the trans-rights fanatics.

This is no exaggeration. My work seeking to defend the definition of sex in law and policy-making means that I know all too well the speed with which the very organisations that should protect our children —among them our schools — are swift to ‘trans away the gay’, often behind the backs of loving and supportive parents.

How did we get into this Orwellian state?

Surely we cannot have forgotten the long-standing suffering of gay people, whose love was outlawed for centuries across the world — and in many places still is — many of whom paid with their lives simply because of who they loved. Homosexuality was decriminalised in this country only in 1967 and widespread prejudice continued for many years afterwards. Just over half a century later, it feels as though we are moving backwards again.

The pressure to conform during adolescence can feel overwhelming. Even in these ‘progressive’ times, many youngsters feel a deep-seated unease, even shame, about their sexuality. It is tragically easy to convince boys or girls who feel they do not ‘fit in’ that ‘transitioning’ will be the solution to their problems.

It is a seductive promise — but all too often a false one.

In fact, there is strong statistical evidence to show that if you are ‘gender non-conforming’ — for example, a boy who plays with dolls and hates everything traditionally masculine — you will very likely grow up to be same-sex attracted. That is, unless the trans lobby and their acolytes get to you first.

‘A generation of young gay people and others who do not conform to gender stereotypes — such as tomboys or ‘effeminate’ boys — are at risk from the trans-rights fanatics’ (stock photo)

The outspoken gay actor Rupert Everett spoke eloquently about this in an interview in 2016, in which he revealed he had desperately wanted to be a girl when he was a child — and thanked God that he hadn’t grown up today. ‘I’d be on hormones, and I’d be a woman,’ was how he put it.

‘After I was 15 I never wanted to be a woman again… It’s nice to be allowed to express yourself, but the hormone thing, very young, is a big step.’

Yet it is a path that, courtesy of brave whistleblowers, we now know our children have been sent down all too often.

And I believe much of the harm can be laid squarely at the feet of the gay rights organisation Stonewall’s wholesale embrace of the trans cause.

For many decades, Stonewall was a mighty charity that did wonderful things for lesbians, gays and bisexuals — the ‘LGB’ of its banner.

By 2013 — the year gay marriage passed into UK law — its work was all but done.

Then, in 2015, under the tenure of then chief executive Ruth Hunt (and following years of extensive and stealthy lobbying by trans activists), it added ‘T’ for ‘trans’ to its masthead — and in doing so, I believe, turned against many of the original constituents whose rights Stonewall were established to protect.

How can it be otherwise, when you consider that this same organisation now tells lesbians they must accept a male who ‘identifies’ as a woman as a potential sexual partner?

This bizarre state of affairs is becoming all too common.

When Jenny Watson insisted that only ‘adult human females’ could attend her lesbian speed-dating event earlier this year, she faced the full fury of the trans-rights activists.

‘If you are male, please refrain from coming to the events — you are not a lesbian,’ Jenny posted on her website.

She had to resort to making this plea after previous events, in which one male-bodied trans woman clad in purple Lycra had turned up and was seen sporting a visible erection.

Following Jenny’s post, trans activists made it their mission to shut down the event and ruin her livelihood.

Well, Kemi — in her way — has stood up to this nonsense.

On Wednesday, the gay Labour MP and former minister Sir Chris Bryant felt able to sputter through her speech in the Commons, subsequently declaring that Ms Badenoch’s rhetoric had left him feeling ‘less safe’.

Bryant did not clarify why this was, and I would be fascinated to know. For while there is no doubt that homophobic crime still exists, the truth is that alongside the women who now have to fight to protect female-only spaces, the greatest danger faced by young gay people is the relentless march of trans rights.

It has led to the most vulnerable members of our society being encouraged to take hormones and mutilate themselves rather than accepting themselves as they are — and Ms Badenoch should be applauded for doing everything she can to stop it.

Helen Joyce is the author of Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality.

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