Latest news with #TransphobiaandBiphobia
Japan Today
15-06-2025
- Politics
- Japan Today
Britain appoints first female head of MI6 spy agency
FILE PHOTO: The MI6 Vauxhall Cross building raises the Rainbow Flag to mark its support for the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia in London, Britain, May 17, 2016. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo By Suzanne Plunkett Britain on Sunday named Blaise Metreweli, a career intelligence officer, as the first female head of the Secret Intelligence Service, the foreign spy service known as MI6. Metreweli, 47, who is currently MI6's head of technology, known as "Q", joined the Secret Intelligence Service in 1999, and has spent most of her career in operational roles in the Middle East and Europe, the government said in a statement. Richard Moore, the current chief of MI6, will step down in the autumn after a five-year tenure. "I am proud and honored to be asked to lead my service," said Metreweli, who takes on one of the most powerful jobs in Western intelligence and will be known by the code name "C". MI6, founded in 1909, joins the other main British spy agencies, the domestic spy service MI5, and the intelligence communications agency GCHQ, in having appointed a female head. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who is currently in Canada for the G7 summit, said Metreweli's appointment comes when Britain is "facing threats on an unprecedented scale". "I know Blaise will continue to provide the excellent leadership needed to defend our country," he said. Metreweli's biggest challenges are likely to be dealing with Russia, China and Iran. Britain's spy agencies have accused Russia of waging a campaign of sabotage across Europe to scare other countries off from backing Ukraine in its fight against a Russian invasion. Moore in 2021 said China was the single greatest priority for his spy agency, while MI5 said last year that Iran had been behind 20 plots to kill, kidnap or target dissidents or political opponents in Britain since 2022. MI6, depicted by novelists as the employer of some of the most memorable fictional spies, from John le Carré's George Smiley to Ian Fleming's James Bond, operates overseas and is tasked with defending Britain and its interests. Metreweli previously held a director-level role in MI5, and studied anthropology at the University of Cambridge, the government said. MI5 has had two female bosses, starting with Stella Rimington in 1992. Eliza Manningham-Buller ran MI5 between 2002 and 2007. In 2023, Britain named its first female director of GCHQ. Metreweli's appointment comes three decades after the actress Judi Dench first played a female boss of MI6 in the James Bond film "GoldenEye". © (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2025.
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Thousands attend trans rights rally in Belfast city centre
Thousands of people have attended a trans rights rally in Belfast city centre. The March for Trans Rights was held on the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia. Organisers said the recent Supreme Court decision to legally define a woman by biological sex at birth for the purposes of the Equality Act was a huge attack on trans rights. The ruling has major implications for single-sex spaces in Great Britain, such as female changing rooms and toilets. The court had been asked to decide on the proper interpretation of the 2010 Equality Act, which applies across Great Britain but not in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland's Equality Commission has said it hopes to publish new formal guidance in June in response to the ruling. The commission said it would "advise all employers and service providers, including councils, to review any policies that the Supreme Court judgment may impact on". In recent days, Education Minister Paul Givan said he has asked officials to ensure his department is complying with the ruling. Alexa Moore, the policy, campaigns and communications manager at the Rainbow Project, said trans people have seen a "regression in our rights" across the UK and Northern Ireland. "We've seen with the puberty blocker ban that was instituted last year and now with the recent Supreme Court judgement on the definition of sex and the Equality Act," she told BBC News NI. "It's really an attempt in Northern Ireland to roll back rights and protections for trans communities and that's why people are out on the streets today." She added that the event saw "countless women's organisations and women just generally from the community out in support of trans people". "We're very clear, trans rights and women's rights are not in opposition, they are linked and you can't have one without the other." Autumn Hendrix said that trans people paved the way for him to live as a bisexual man. "It's just so important that we stand up for them." Tanya De Boer, who attended the event with her family, said the more people who are not trans stand up for this cause "the better, because they are a minority". She said she brought her kids to show them that "everybody deserves equal rights". "Individuals that don't identify with their assigned sex at birth should get to live a happy, healthy, inclusive, free life and restricting that is wrong," she added. "We want to be here to speak up for those people." A separate anti-LGBT rally took place outside Belfast City Hall at the same time. A few hundred gathered behind the main stage of the trans rally. Police kept both protests segregated. Belfast Pride latest to ban political parties from parade Protests held as puberty blocker ban extended to NI
