Talking to the enemy

I’m debating Helen Webberley at 9pm UK time. Wish me luck!

It’s a few months since a PR for Helen Webberley got in touch to say that she would like to do an event with me. If you have had the immense good fortune not to have come across Webberley before, she’s the founder of an online puberty-blockers and hormones mill called GenderGP; she and her husband faced fitness-to-practice hearings after other, less extreme gender clinicians complained about their slapdash and extreme prescribing practices; he lost his licence to practise; she kept hers upon appeal but has since let it lapse. Now GenderGP, which is based in Singapore but blocked by its government from prescribing to locals, offers online consultations and other services like voice training, and arranges for others to fill those prescriptions. I won’t say more here about what I think about this business model, but may return to it down the line.

I honestly thought the PR contact was a setup: that the assumption was that I would refuse and Webberley could then crow that for all that I insisted on the importance of free speech and open debate, when given the chance to go head to head with someone who disagreed with me, I backed down. Instead conversations about where and when continued. After a few delays it’s ended up happening this evening.

Times Radio were keen to host it, and it’s being broadcast live. The show will run for an hour, hosted by Jo Coburn, including intro and ad break. You can watch live on the Times Radio YouTube channel.

It seems that Webberley is doing the publicity rounds, presumably because she has just announced that GenderGP is now active in America. A debate with Julie Bindel on a podcast called the Hodge-Cast was recorded last weekend; it’s airing this evening at 6pm UK time on the show’s YouTube channel (the timing is a coincidence — neither the host nor Julie knew about my interview having been booked to go live that evening). Webberley also went on GB News, interviewed by Ben Leo — the interview has rightly gone viral after an impressive performance by Ben. His parting description of Webberley as “borderline evil” is all the more effective for being understated.