For the second time in her political career, Gemi Patenoch took charge of the Ministry of Equality (now combined with the Women’s portfolio) amid criticism from the LGBT+ public. He was nominated on Tuesday (25). By Rishi Sunak, the new Prime Minister of England.
Opening her speech in Parliament, Badenoch hit out at Ben Cohen, CEO of trans magazine Pink News, calling her “anti-transgender”.
“As we begin a new era of equality, what I want to say is that equality law is a shield, not a sword. It’s there to protect all kinds of people, young or old, male or female, black . . . or white, gay or straight,” Patenok declared.
He also insisted that he would implement a “compassionate egalitarian strategy” and not be “distracted by people using Twitter to insult or accuse MPs”.
The activist press alleges that Badenoch worked to close Tavistock, a transgender children’s hospital in England, and maintains a strong dialogue with Keira Bell. The young woman, who regretted her gender transition at 16, switched to her birth gender and sued a British clinic.
England’s National Health Service (NHS), in addition to closing Tavistock, It plans to ban surgeries and hormone treatments on under-18s, creating new guidelines for doctors.
Pink News cites Badenoch as one of the main spokespeople for these changes, along with the British charity advocacy group LGB Alliance, which is considered transphobic by activists despite its stated goal of protecting the rights of gays, lesbians and bisexuals.
The minister has also come in for criticism on other issues. In a speech that caused a stir online, Padenock questioned some of the anti-racist movements. “An ideology that sees my blackness as victimhood and their whiteness as oppression violates the law,” he declared.
He has repeatedly stressed that he is committed to reducing carbon emissions on the climate agenda, “but not to the point of bankrupting the UK to achieve this goal”.
A worker’s dream
Born Olukemi Olufundo Adegoke into a Nigerian family, the minister has been called “Labor’s worst nightmare”. Patenoch joined the Conservative Party in 2005, aged 25, and is now described by The Guardian as “a rising star” for the Conservatives.
The daughter of doctors from Nigeria, she lived in the African country until she was 16, then traveled through the United States before settling in Great Britain. Before entering college, she made sandwiches in a hammock. fast food.
Married, mother-of-three and engineer by training, Kemi Patenoch held various positions in the Conservative Party before being elected deputy leader in the east of the country in 2017 by Saffron Walton.
He was Minister of State for Levelling, Housing and Communities and Equality (where he was Under-Secretary) from September 2021 to July this year. That month, he left the executive to run to succeed Prime Minister Boris Johnson, but failed to make it to the final round of the Conservative Party contest.
She then took up the role of Secretary of State for International Trade and Chair of the Board of Trade on September 6 under Liz Truss’s lightning-fast government until she was appointed to the Ministry for Women and Equalities this week.
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