Josh / Jess Bradley
Josh / Jess Bradley, a male who identifies as a ‘non-binary trans woman’ and the first National Union of Students (NUS) trans officer was reported in the Mail on Sunday on 29 July 2018 as having been suspended over allegations that “she posted explicit photographs on an online blog”.
Due to the nature of the photographs and images in question, particularly those appearing to represent minors, we have chosen not to link to the whistleblower source. However, as it is pertinent to Bradley’s activism for self-identification of gender and access to women’s spaces, other posts on the blog appear to incite others to expose their genitals/masturbate in shop changing rooms and other public spaces. An investigation has been instigated by the NUS and Bradley posted this statement.
Screengrab of Hornsey & Wood Green Young Labour Twitter feed
As Bradley, 29, very recently represented the NUS at a Young Labour event which may have included minors we must presume that, in light of the allegations, both the Labour Party and the NUS have immediately followed established safeguarding procedures designed to protect children and vulnerable adults, as per their statutory obligations.
Bradley is the founder and (until April 2018, listed under birth name Josh Bradley) a trustee/director of taxpayer-funded Action For Trans Health (ATH), an organisation The Times & Daily Mail investigated and held Bradley accountable for extreme views published in the ATH Manifesto such as provision of free cross sex hormones on demand to children and the release of all transgender prisoners.
Screenshot via Twitter
As director of Action for Trans Health, Bradley was the first to give evidence at the government’s Women & Equalities Committee Transgender Inquiry (see Witnesses listed on page 90) and as such has been an influential voice in the formation of deeply controversial proposed legislation regarding self-identification of gender identity. No women’s organisations were invited to give evidence to the Inquiry and as one Twitter user (left) succinctly points out, if people born male can self-identify as female and effectively access women’s safe spaces on demand, then the potential risk of sexually violent abusers (the vast, vast majority of whom are male) abusing such legislation to access vulnerable female people will be substantially increased.
Screengrab of ATH endorsing a violent threat by Tara Wood, subsequently convicted of assault
In addition, as the first NUS trans officer, Bradley has used the union’s platform to slur women trying to meet peacefully to exercise their democratic right to discuss legislation that affects them as ‘transphobia’ and downplay the violent assault a trans activist named Tara Wolf/Wood was found guilty of perpetrating against a 60 year old woman. The Daily Mail also covered Bradley’s comments in this article. Other articles authored by Bradley on the NUS site name UK health services as institutionally transphobic and call for the immediate release of all prisoners imprisoned for public protection (IPP) who have served their original tariff. This would include extremely dangerous and violent sex offenders like rapist taxi driver John Worboys and transvestites Mark Lazarus and Gary Marie.
Screengrab of Sky News article
Despite claiming not to be a public figure, Bradley was recently interviewed by Sky News regarding the current debate over self-declaration of gender identity – the article and a clip is available here.
The Sun also ran the story of Bradley’s suspension with the subject revealed only as ‘a union official’ after receiving a letter from Carter Ruck, the UK’s leading libel and privacy solicitors. Bradley is reportedly employed on a salary of c£24K by the NUS so is unlikely to be able to afford to engage such a firm. The NUS, in turn, has been funded by tax payers to the tune of £50 million in the past 5 years, according to the Tax Payers’ Alliance.
According to the NUS website and an organisational Twitter account, Bradley also co-founded the Trans Equality Legal Initiative (TELI), an organisation which states on their website that “strategic litigation is a very important tool in the advancement of trans rights”. A note at the end of this article (archived here) also lists Bradley as one of TELI’s prisons co-convenors, alongside Michelle Brewer, Barrister at Garden Court Chambers indicating they have worked closely together – indeed both were on the speaker panel at the Linklaters/Garden Court Chambers-sponsored TELI conference in 2016. Mermaids’ (since thoroughly debunked) statistics regarding suicide in trans youth were also presented during the conference. Brewer was subsequently invited to speak on self-declaration of gender identity at the Women’s Equality Party (WEP) conference and the WEP leader, Sophie Walker, has (unsurprisingly) been criticised for the decision not to include speakers on the panel who can represent concerns women have with self-ID, as a counterpoint to Brewer.
The Press Gazette report Bradley’s suspension from the perspective that Carter Ruck informed the Mail & Sun that publication would be a breach of privacy, with reference to the recent judgement on 18 July 2018 that the BBC breached Cliff Richard’s privacy by revealing that he was under investigation by police for a historical allegation of sexual assault.
Further reading on the risks inherent in gender self-identification for women:
The Economist https://www.economist.com/open-future/2018/07/03/a-system-of-gender-self-identification-would-put-women-at-risk archive
See also these three Mumsnet threads detailing Bradley’s connections to policy makers and other trans activists.
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3321764-Jess-Bradley-suspended-Part-II
Update August 2019
A Twitter user (@ripx4nutmeg) notes that Private Eye followed up with the NUS a year after Bradley was suspended from post to ascertain the outcome of their investigation and – amazingly – discovered there appeared to be zero consequences whatsoever as Bradley’s salary had likely been paid for the duration of the suspension until a new trans officer was elected almost a year later. The article hints at an ‘external’ (police?) investigation and it is understood that Bradley’s PhD place was withdrawn by the University of Manchester following the allegations.
Private Eye contacted the NUS to find out how much it had paid trans officer Jess Bradley during their suspension for filming themselves masturbating in their offices and outside schools. The NUS refused to answer but has said it won't be taking any further action against Bradley pic.twitter.com/oqSBxg8Udj
— ripx4nutmeg (@ripx4nutmeg) August 24, 2019
Image via NUS website
Media reports
Daily Mail http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6003331/Britains-official-transgender-student-officer-suspended.html archive
Gender Trender https://gendertrender.wordpress.com/2018/07/30/first-elected-nus-trans-officer-jess-bradley-suspended-under-investigation-for-alleged-public-flashing-indecent-exposure/ archive
The Sun https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/6883375/sun-barred-exposing-union-official-flasher-cliff-ruling/ archive
Press Gazette https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/sun-and-mail-on-sunday-face-first-gagging-attempt-by-lawyers-citing-sir-cliff-privacy-win-against-bbc archive
Manchester Evening News https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/jess-bradley-suspended-nus-statement-14972542 archive
Attitude https://attitude.co.uk/article/first-ever-national-transgender-nus-officer-has-been-suspended/18673/
Previous media reports
"Non-Binary genders still not recognized, Age limit still not lowered… The Gender Recognition Act is a reasonably simple administrative change that affects only a small group of Trans people… " @JBPersonalBrand @nus_trans @SkyNews pic.twitter.com/qxbIiAwYCt
— NUS UK (@nusuk) July 19, 2018
Sky News https://news.sky.com/story/bitter-ferocious-debate-who-gets-to-be-a-woman-11441516 http://archive.is/ORKuj
Huffington Post (blog by Bradley saying ‘There’s No Such Thing As a Real Woman’) https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/jess-bradley/trans-women_b_15486434.html archive
Daily Mail http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4914582/Radical-transgender-group-says-FINE-punch-women.html
Fairplay For Women https://fairplayforwomen.com/mermaids-tg-lying-unprofessional/
Video of Bradley performing in The Vagina Monologues at Manchester University in 2015 “Maybe my vagina looks like a penis. And that’s ok”
As an advocate for public nudity
Manchester Evening News https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/art-buff-join-in-the-naked-tea-871089