The founder of Transgender Trend, Stephanie Davies-Arai, was shortlisted for this year’s John Maddox Prize, a joint initiative of the charity Sense About Science and the science journal Nature, which “recognises the work of individuals who promote sound science and evidence on a matter of public interest, facing difficulty or hostility in doing so.”

We congratulate the well-deserved winners of the Maddox Prize 2018: Professor Terry Hughes and Britt Hermes, for their work in very different areas, coral reefs and naturopathy; both have faced a barage of threats and smears and attempts to discredit their work.

We are enormously grateful to the 2018 judging panel for their decision to shortlist Stephanie Davies-Arai for this prestigious science award. The judges commented on the ‘difficulty of talking about’ the work of Transgender Trend and the challenges in doing so. Our gratitude also goes to Andy Lewis for his nomination of Stephanie; in his own words:

It was an honour to nominate ⁦@cwknews⁩ for the #MaddoxPrize where she was shortlisted for her work putting evidence-based thinking into educating schools about transgender issues. pic.twitter.com/t5fSStrbng — Andy Lewis (@lecanardnoir) November 14, 2018

Statement from Stephanie Davies-Arai:

“I am proud and honoured to have been shortlisted for the John Maddox Prize 2018 and I thank the judges for this acknowledgment of my work. I believe that children and young people deserve nothing less than our dedication in ensuring healthcare and education policies which are based on robust scientific evidence. Through Transgender Trend I will continue with my commitment to disseminate clear, factual, research-based information to support parents and educators in making fully-informed choices regarding the children in their care, despite the continued allegations that we are a ‘hate’ group.”

The description of the selection process which we heard at the prize-giving reception on November 14 at the Wellcome Institute in London shows what an incredible honour it is to have been shortlisted:

“136 very serious nominations from 36 countries on subjects as diverse as climate, transgender interventions, vaccines, psychoanalysis and diet. The letters that come with ideas of nominations are moving. As judges we have a very difficult time in ever casting some of those aside because they are incredibly moving and describe lives dedicated to what we would describe as public good and public service, communicating difficult issues at times when people really need to hear them.”

In their article announcing the winners Sense About Science included this comment from the judges:

At Transgender Trend we believe that facts can never be transphobic, that the school curriculum must be science based and that public debate on this issue must be facilitated without fear. The honour of being shortlisted for this prestigious science prize we see as a validation of everyone who is risking defamation, bullying and their very livelihoods by speaking out to establish evidence in the face of ideology.

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