Graham Linehan isn’t alone in deserving an apology

It’s hard to say you’re sorry; even harder to admit that you’ve changed your mind. So a slap on the back is due for author John Boyne after he offered the screenwriter Graham Lineman both yesterday: “Without equivocation, without excuses, and without evasion: you were right, I was wrong, and I apologise.” 

Boyne’s mea culpa is a very rare and special thing – a cancellation apology. Back when Linehan was first boycotted and blacklisted for speaking out against transgender ideology (particularly gender transitioning for children), Boyne joined the multitude within the art world in spitting on his name. In an article for the Irish Times, he described Linehan as “someone masking intolerance by promoting himself as a champion of women”. The attack came as Boyne was promoting his own book about a transgender sibling, making it opportunistic as well as harsh. But with this all in mind, his about-turn is all the more commendable. 

For Boyne, the camel’s back appears to have been broken by a Facebook post penned by fellow Irish artist Róisín Murphy – or rather the response to her leaked comments on medical interventions for transitioning children. “Little mixed-up kids are vulnerable and need to be protected,” Murphy wrote on her page, describing puberty blockers as “f-----” and “absolutely desolate”. 

Murphy was labelled a bigot and transphobe, with the rumour mill working hard to suggest that her new album or her record deal might be in danger. As many do in weak moments, Murphy backtracked – posting an ill-advised apology declaring that she would “now bow out of this conversation within the public domain”. Boyne apparently recoiled at the sight, and wasn’t alone in doing so. 

Watching the public humiliation and vilification of women like Murphy, J K Rowling, Kathleen Stock or Joanna Cherry has proved to be the tipping point for others. Apologies like Boyne’s matter because they prove that chinks of light are being let in to what was previously a sealed-off area of debate. Criticising or even questioning issues relating to gender ideology was enough to have you treated with suspicion. Talking about women-only spaces or encouraging kids not to hate their bodies was shut down as being intolerant or worse. 

Now, while we’re at it, we could do with a few more apologies. If it’s true that Sir Keir Starmer has figured out who has a cervix, he should probably rediscover where his guts are and publicly apologise to Rosie Duffield and female gender-critical activists within his party. 

Nicola Sturgeon might have her hands full at the moment, but an apology for claiming that gender-critical campaigners were using “women’s rights as a sort of cloak of acceptability” and were “deeply misogynist, often homophobic, possibly some of them racist as well” wouldn’t hurt. 

But apologies won’t be enough to alleviate all the damage. At the moment, tweeting about transgender activism can lead to accusations of transphobia. Dissent from workplace training on gender ideology or the use of pronouns can leave you isolated and sneered upon. People have lost work because of their views on trans issues. Entitled snots at one Cambridge college called for the suspension of their porter Kevin Price, who had refused to sign a statement declaring “trans women are women” during a council meeting outside the university. From organisations disappearing gendered language like “mother” or “pregnant woman” to government cowardice on protecting free speech online and in the real world, the censorship of gender-critical views has got to stop. 

Yes, small victories have been achieved in recent months, with light shone on the Tavistock’s bad practice and on teachers pushing pronouns in classrooms, but the change we need is much more fundamental. We must be able to interrogate the notion of gender ideology itself – not just voice our concern at the medicalisation of kids. Rather than merely apologise to people like Linehan for the way he has been hounded for his views, we need to debate what he says openly. 

Do we believe in self-ID, or is defending the biological differences between men and women more important than protecting some people’s feelings? Most of us understand where public sentiment is likely to be on the issue of sex and gender. The question is, who is going to be brave enough to say it?