The granting of rights and privileges of the opposite sex to transgender individuals would infringe on the rights and protections of women, a meeting at the House of Commons has been told. The argument was offered in response to a Government proposal released this summer to allow people to change their official sex to whatever gender they identify with. A previous parliamentary committee had heard only one side of the argument, drawing the bulk of their evidence from transgender activist groups, because, it was said, people with contrary views were bigoted and their opinions had no validity. At this meeting however, it was pointed out that the advance of transgender rights often comes at the expense of women’s rights. Caroline Flint MP, a Labour minister from 2005 to 2009, spoke of the emerging environment of competing rights in which women were on the losing end. Miranda Yardley, herself a transsexual, pointed out: ‘The endowment of rights to males as females compromises the privacy of females . . . and particularly will affect those women who are economically disadvantaged or victims of male violence.’ Women’s group representatives described the chilling effect of trans-activism on women’s organisations who cannot publicise meetings for fear of attack.