Helen Joyce

Hey everyone - my paperback's out! With new foreword and afterword! Buy, read, share, gift - and let's keep this conversation going! blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/produ…

I agree with every word of Anne Fine’s introduction to this report.👇

Matthew Heath should have been on trial yesterday for the harassment of Stephanie Hayden. Farcical scenes at court mean the trial couldn't even begin. My write up of the events: genderblog.net/legal-gengar-t…

VV important Emp Trib coming up on Monday, scheduled for a 4-week (!) trial in Leeds. Tempest v Environment Agency/DEFRA/Rural Payments Agency. It'll test whether any manifestation of GC beliefs in the Civil Service is allowed. 4 weeks of Jane Russell... crowdjustice.com/case/seen-chai…

POLICE CHIEFS FAILING WOMEN How many of our UK police forces quickly implemented the latest guidance from the NPCC that allows men to ask that a police woman strip search them? WRN conducted an FOI campaign to find out ⬇️ The NPCC guidance has been challenged by @SexMattersOrg at the High Court. 🧵1/

It's quite shocking to see so many MPs totally heartbroken over scenarios in which, were a boring adult human female the one saying "I don't feel safe", they'd just fire off a template email telling them that's not a legitimate feeling

“That thousands of girls and young women in the UK have had healthy breasts cut off in an effort to look like men is a tragedy.” @HJoyceGender @GabriellaSwerl writes for @Telegraph on Lush’s harmful and deeply offensive campaign glorifying mastectomies. telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/06/1…

Ben Cooper is a prince among men. So grateful for his brilliant advocacy work, and proud to know him.

“The claim that trans-identifying men don’t have to be excluded from women’s single-sex facilities by law is totally false.” @DerryBanShee in @Telegraph on Association of Green Councillors guidance which misstates the law. telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/06/1…

@soniasodha @Aletheia_70 It's funny how some people are allowed to worry about who they share a space with and others are just meant to get over it

@alexmassie Do _they_ get to do any mind-changing ever? Sorry, silly me, of course not

Very excited by this year's Edinburgh Book Festival theme: "We're Better People Than You".

135 British MPs are fighting guidance that would deny ‘Paula’ the right to enter women’s and girls’ changing rooms.

@goryrory @GoodLawProject It’s hypocritical for the Good Law Project to attack Sex Matters for seeking judicial review of the lawfulness of a public authority’s policy. The GLP seeks to use the law in exactly the same way to further the causes it supports. Sex Matters passed a standing test the GLP failed

Not satire. A biologist reports on the latest insights from fat studies:

Glad to have been part of this @SexMattersOrg JR, along with @PoliceSEENUK, for @WomensRightsNet. The proposition that the police, with a member of the public, can jointly agree to participate in an unlawful act by providing 'consent' is dangerous and absurd imv.

We were in the High Court today for the hearing in our judicial review against National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) abusive searching guidance. This guidance permits a detainee to be strip-searched by an officer of the opposite sex on the basis that both the detainee and officer “consent” to this. We think this is unlawful. Under “PACE” – the main law governing police conduct – strip searches MUST be carried out by an officer of the same sex. This protects officers as well as detainees. Our argument is simple: PACE is the only lawful basis for police searching, and it doesn’t permit opposite-sex searches that go beyond outer wear. Opposite-sex searches are unsafe and unlawful treatment of vulnerable detainees. We also think the guidance is discrimination against and harassment of female officers. Judgment was reserved, meaning it will be handed down at a later date. Pictured (from left to right): Cathy Larkman (@JackMerched), retired superintendent and policing lead for @WomensRightsNetwork; Sex Matters’ @hjoycegender, @mforstater and @derrybanshee; and Rachel Fletcher, Chair of Police SEEN (@PoliceSEENUK, a network of serving police officers).

These MPs saying the law as it stands is 'unworkable' presumably think that it's 'workable' to have 'single-sex' facilities which are mixed-sex but are labelled single-sex. theguardian.com/society/2026/j…

@nickwallis FFS

Proceedings can be remedied short of a stay. Remedy is an adjournment. Directions will be made to ensure D can have a fair trial. I understand reservations about P, but I believe these directions will be complied with. Trial will continue at this stage.

Good morning and welcome to Stratford Magistrates Court Number 2. We are supposed to be here to report on R v Heath. Live tweets follow.

@MrTCHarris 100%

@HJoyceGender I bet the "trans joy" event involved everyone there being absolutely fucking miserable and angry.

I'm happy to report the Durham Union event went very well, lots of good-faith questions from the floor and to the best of my knowledge nobody expired because of my presence in Durham. I don't know how the SU's alternative “welfare-focussed” event to “celebrate trans joy” went. Also well, I hope. It sounds dull, but each to their own.