Rich Spencer

Photo Dweeb, some-time lefty agitator, geek, occasional gamer and arty-type. Photography stuff at @Rich_Photo

[Ms.Angel @kuddlebug4]

I present to you: A cunt that never shuts up

[Rich Spencer @freeboprich]

@kuddlebug4 Christ on a bike, are your legs made of elastic?? How do you move like that?

[Rich Spencer @freeboprich]

@kuddlebug4 @Poypiy23 Fuck yes

[Daniel Lismore @daniellismore]

How Anti-Trans Groups Are Trying to Erase People Through Data

Most people think the current backlash against trans people is about toilets, changing rooms, or sport. That is the argument presented in public. What is actually happening underneath is quieter, more technical, and far more consequential.

A newly published peer-reviewed academic study shows that anti-trans groups in the UK are now focused on something far more powerful than opinion or protest. They are targeting data itself.

The paper, Trans-exclusionary data activism in the UK, published this month in the Journal of Gender Studies, is the first major academic analysis of how organised groups are attempting to exclude trans people from official statistics, policy frameworks, and public records. Not by arguing openly that trans people should not exist, but by redefining how people are counted.

This strategy has a name. Trans-exclusionary data activism.

The language used is deliberately technical. Terms like “data integrity”, “biological sex”, and “accuracy” are deployed to justify narrowing sex and gender categories in ways that make trans, non-binary, and gender-diverse people disappear from datasets entirely. If people are not counted, they become easier to ignore.

The study analyses publicly available materials from 2019 to 2025 linked to groups such as Sex Matters, For Women Scotland, and LGB Alliance. While these organisations differ in tone, the research shows they share a common objective: to force all official data to record sex assigned at birth in all circumstances, regardless of whether that information is relevant to the purpose of the data being collected.

This is where the contradiction becomes impossible to ignore.

Many of the same activists who insist that “biological sex” must always be recorded lost their composure when sex markers were removed from BMI calculations in healthcare systems. BMI does not meaningfully change based on whether someone is male or female. It is a blunt population-level measure based on height and weight, and sex adds no clinical value in most contexts. Medical professionals have said this for years.

Yet the removal of sex from BMI calculations triggered outrage.

If this were genuinely about data accuracy, there would have been no issue. The science was clear. Sex was irrelevant to the metric. But the reaction revealed something else. For these groups, sex is not about usefulness, context, or evidence. It is about enforcing a category, even when that category does not improve outcomes.

That is not evidence-based data practice. It is ideological enforcement.

Modern data science does not work by forcing one variable into every dataset. Different data exists to answer different questions. Healthcare data may need information about hormones, anatomy, or treatment pathways. Employment and education data may need information about lived social identity. Public health data often focuses on risk factors unrelated to sex entirely. Good data is contextual. Poor data is ideological.

The study identifies three core tactics used by trans-exclusionary data activists. First, prioritising the collection of “biological sex” data in all circumstances, even where it degrades the usefulness of the data. Second, manufacturing controversy by claiming datasets are “corrupted” simply because trans people are included. Third, promoting the false idea that inclusion itself makes statistics unreliable.

None of this is supported by statistical science.

Large datasets routinely include minority populations, overlapping variables, and complex classifications. That complexity is not a flaw. It is how reality is captured. The claim that trans inclusion breaks data is not technical. It is political.

Why does this matter?

Because data drives policy. Policy drives funding. Funding determines who receives healthcare, protections, and services.

[Rich Spencer @freeboprich]

@goonfreakoff Hi x

[Rich Spencer @freeboprich]

@beccabear63 Outrageously pretty 🥰💗💖

[Rich Spencer @freeboprich]

Thank f*** someone said it, and let's not forget the interminable dirge of "Wonderwall" which gets dredged up for every open mic night or pub karaoke for the rest of time.

[Cassetteboy @Cassetteboy]

With luck this should be our last anti-Tory video for a long long time

[Rich Spencer @freeboprich]

Hey @Sajidah I’m lending you my vote with @MVTFWD to #GTTO, but my top issue is Equality & Inclusion. Is this a priority for you?

Please fix politics so I won’t have to vote tactically next time.

Tactical voter? Tell us your top issue here:
https://t.co/CUbz837Sr2

[Doctor Who @bbcdoctorwho]

Incoming transmission. #MessageFromTheDoctor #DoctorWho

[Channel 4 Dispatches @C4Dispatches]

“If you are irresponsible enough to think that you don’t mind if you get the flu, remember it’s not about you - it’s about everybody else.”

Intensive care specialist Professor Hugh Montgomery explains why this coronavirus is different from the ordinary flu.

[Rich Spencer @freeboprich]

Check out what happened in #Quiplash2 #JBPP3 https://t.co/YFvQDPIzVv

[Rich Spencer @freeboprich]

Check out what happened in #Quiplash2 #JBPP3 https://t.co/YFvQDPIzVv

[Rich Spencer @freeboprich]

This deadly t-shirt was made in #TeeKO. Get it for your torso: https://t.co/L5GptmQdqS

[Rich Spencer @freeboprich]

Look who survived #triviamurderparty! https://t.co/YFvQDPIzVv

[Rich Spencer @freeboprich]

@watchmyxanny I'm guessing you've never heard of @amandapalmer then?

[Rich Spencer @freeboprich]

#hmvDarkMaterials

[hmv @hmvtweets]

To celebrate the release of #HisDarkMaterials & #hmvBluMonday. We are giving away all this 👇

Prize 1 #Steelbook also includes signed #PhillipPullman artcard.
Prize 2: His Dark Materials Blu-ray

To win: RT with #hmvDarkMaterials

UK Residents only.

Must be following too!

[Rich Spencer @freeboprich]

https://t.co/q3ZT402Iso

[Rich Spencer @freeboprich]

https://t.co/8MwdTRescU