A trans-identified male has been appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer for a prominent womenâs health charity in England, prompting o
By Shay Woulahan. November 13, 2023
A trans-identified male has been appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer for a prominent womenâs health charity in England, prompting outrage from womenâs rights advocates. Endometriosis South Coast announced on social media yesterday that âStephâ Richards had been hired as their new Chief Executive Officer.
According to the World Health Organization, endometriosis is a disease in which tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus. This tissue thickens, breaks down, and bleeds with each period, but, as the blood has no way to leave the body, it becomes trapped. It is often associated with fertility complications and severe pain, and sometimes requires surgical intervention. By definition, endometriosis can only impact females, and it is estimated that more than 10% of women are affected.
But despite it being a sex-specific disease, the Portsmouth-based charity Endometriosis South Coast boasted appointing a male to its top role.
Richards, 71, is a womenâs officer with the UKâs Labour Party and, earlier this year, received the Inspirational Women of Portsmouth Awards (Elder) 2023. He has repeatedly come under fire on social media for attacking women who express criticisms of gender ideology, with his most recent controversy occurring in October after he posting that he had accosted a woman in public for wearing a t-shirt displaying the dictionary definition of the word âlesbian.â
âI saw a woman wearing an âAdult Human Femaleâ T-shirt today. Now, I am always willing to discuss trans and womenâs rights, so I went up to her, told her I was a trans woman and asked if we could talk,â Richards posted on X on October 14. He then went on to shame the woman for refusing to engage with him in public and attempting to keep her distance from him.
âShe REFUSED, even though she was with 2 mates. So much for âno debate,'â Richards complained.
Womenâs rights advocates quickly called Richards out for harassing a woman, later revealed to be academic Julia Long, in public.
Following Richardsâ appointment to the role with Endometriosis South Coast, many began dredging up other disturbing comments he has made on social media over the years in which Richards appears to show a genuine disdain for respecting womenâs single-sex spaces.
In 2021, Richards wrote: âSee me in the changing room, see me in the loo, see me in the supermarket buying flowers. See me in the swimming pool, see me in the pub, see me on the sports field taking part in games. See you in hell if you are a #TERF â nothing will stop me strutting my stuff!â
âTERFâ is an acronym standing for âtrans exclusionary radical feminist,â but is often applied to any individual who opposes the belief that males can self-identify as women. The term is sometimes accompanied by threats of violence.
Some have also now identified Richards as having protested a womenâs rights conference, shouting down women who were attending Europeâs largest feminist conference, FiLia.
On his blog, Translucent, Richards has criticized womenâs organizations for campaigning for womenâs single sex spaces in healthcare settings.
In his latest post, Richards said that hospital wards had been âweaponizedâ by some with a âtrans-exclusionaryâ agenda. He continued: âOften referred to as âsingle-sex hospital wards.â Other alleged issues involve prisons, refuges, changing rooms, and even toilets, now all becoming a matter of public discussion.â
Richards argued that when trans-identified males are placed on womenâs hospital wards they are not a problem and privacy is still afforded to female patients because âthatâs what bed curtains are for.â He has also advocated for men to be allowed to self-identify into womenâs sports, and for male convicts to be housed in womenâs prisons.
Further writings on his blog reveal that Richards was fascinated by the idea of wearing womenâs clothing from a young age, and came out as a cross-dresser to his ex-wife after decades of marriage. He described it as âfunâ to fantasize about being her âsister.â The apartment that they lived in with their children also reportedly became a place where other men would come to cross-dress in secret.
His wife eventually left him and later passed from cancer.
When writing about âwhyâ he is transgender, Richards theorizes that he wasnât exposed to enough testosterone in the womb and leaving him with a âfemale brain,â a concept which has been widely debunked by researchers.
Richards is also a proponent of the use of puberty blockers to chemically castrate children who believe they are the opposite sex to prevent them from developing secondary sex characteristics. Richards has argued that childhood, as well as womanhood and manhood, is a social construct.
Among his more egregious comments, Richards told a survivor of alleged child sexual exploitation to âgrow upâ after he began speaking publicly about his experience with staff at a prominent LGBT charity.
Sam Cowie previously spoke to Reduxx last year about his experience at LGBT Youth Scotland, revealing the organization had a culture of predatory adults preying on underage members. Cowie told Reduxx he was âgroomedâ by older men at the charity, who would provide him with special privileges, cigarettes, and alcohol.
On X, Richards responded to one of Cowieâs posts about LGBT Youth Scotland, telling him âno one groomed youâ and to âgrow up. The reply has since been deleted.
Since announcing Richardsâ appointment, Endometriosis South West has received an outpouring of criticism. At the time of this writing, the charityâs post announcing their new CEO has only 133 âlikesâ compared to a 1.3k quotes and comments of an overwhelmingly negative sentiment.
Many women who suffer from endometriosis have voiced their disapproval at Richardsâ appointment to the role.
âThis time last year I was just out of hospital having nearly died from a complete bowel obstruction as a result of untreated endometriosis. By appointing this woman hating man you are mocking every single woman who has and is suffering from this bastard condition,â one woman wrote, responding to the charity on X.
âAs a woman who suffered with endometriosis for decades, I simply cannot fathom why youâd think this appointment is appropriate,â wrote another.
In their announcement, the charity also posted a graphic of Richards which included a quote from a woman alongside his photo. As a result, many have criticized the charity for seeming to deliberately mislead people into thinking the quote should be attributed to Richards.
They later posted a correction explaining the quote did not come from Richards, but from a âperson the charity supports.â
The issue of gender ideology guiding policy at Endometriosis South West appears to be a longstanding issue.
According to their website, endometriosis âdoes not discriminateâ and impacts âone in 10 people,â using gender-neutral language to refer to females impacted by the disease.
The charity was founded in 2019 by Jodie Hughes, who appeared on The GenderGP podcast in 2021 in an episode entitled âendometriosis doesnât just affect women.â During the interview, Hughes argues that because âtrans men and non-binary peopleâ can also have endometriosis, it is incorrect to classify it as a womenâs issue. Hughes was interviewed by Gender GP founder Helen Webberley.
Webberley has been investigated by the UKâs General Medical Council (GMC) for running an illegal gender identity clinic with her husband, and providing hormones to children as young as 12 years old. One child that was illegally provided with cross-sex hormones by Webberley, Jayden Lowe, went on to commit suicide.
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