Communications Co-Ordinator / Spokesperson at Gendered Intelligence
HOW HE SEES HIMSELF
AS AT 8 MAY 2024
LINKED IN PROFILE
A conversation with Cleo Madeleine – PODCAST BIO
QUEER, TRANS, WOMAN
1 hr 15 min. Recorded on 14 August 2022.
Cleo’s pronouns are she/her, and she is queer, trans, and a woman. Find out what that means to Cleo in this episode.
Join us as we briefly go down a rabbit hole of queer history and time, talking about the entanglement of sexuality and gender, linguistic limitations, the intersection of history, language, and identity, what is left out of history, the construct of normativity, levels of activism, and the many ways things can get lost in translation.
“I don’t think that we as queer historians – or as queer readers of history – should say conclusive things…what it does is rather than liberating queer history, it projects our hard-won political ideas of ourselves back onto it.”
About Cleo
Cleo Madeleine is a researcher, activist, and poet based in Norwich, England. She has a PhD in queer historiography from the University of East Anglia and works for the trans-led charity Gendered Intelligence. Outside of work she likes linguistics, dancing, and kissing; she isn’t very good at any of them.
You can find Cleo on Twitter @quidtumcicero.
HOW OTHERS SEE THEM – BACKGROUND DETAILS
Cleo Madeleine.
STILLTISH – 18 DECEMBER 2023 – GENDERCRITICALWOMAN
C radio 4 invited Cleo Madeleine, a trans-identified man, to debate Stephanie Davies-Arai on guidance for schools on dealing with children who identify as “transgender”. Stephanie is the founder of Transgender Trend and Cleo is a former employee of Gender GP who now works for another transgender lobby group, Gendered Intelligence.
The programme is called Anti-Social.
Straight off the bat Madeleine claims that he was badly impacted by Section 28; which he claims banned discussion of homosexuality and gender identity.
Madeleine is in his thirties and Section 28 was repealed twenty years ago. This is the text of section 28. It is focused on homosexuality. It makes no reference to “gender identity” which was not a thing at a time. Moreover, despite identifying as “queer”, “Cleo” is in fact a heterosexual in a relationship with a woman and, as we shall discover in a later interview, he was only ever theoretically bisexual. The interviewer should have picked him up on this.
The interviewer interrupts Stephanie when she describes her own experience of being uncomfortable with her sex to challenge her that her gender dysphoria wasn’t persistent. He also interprets her statement about not closing off options for children, but providing them with support, as basically meaning “suck it up kids”. I also detect a not of disparagement when he questions Stephanie about a comparison to other identities adopted by teenagers, such as goths. I am aware that I am not an impartial listener so it would be interesting to hear if I am being hyper vigilant in respect of the presenter’s perceived bias.
There follows a good discussion about identity formation with a segment where Hannah Barnes discusses what research is available on the effects of social transition. She makes the interesting observation that one side thinks it’s a problem if children, who socially transition, progress to a medical pathway because the very act of affirming the child may be influencing the outcome. The opposite perspective sees this as proof positive that the child was really “trans”.
Cleo expresses his frustration, with both Barnes and Stephanie, that discussion of social transition always leads to discussion of medical pathways. Cleo points out that most of these children will not be legally able to access medical interventions. It is important to point out that in the NHS we are still prescribing puberty blockers to children as young as ten and we don’t know what reckless prescribing goes on in the private sector.
Stephanie also makes the point about the link between social transition and the medicalised pathway and contrasts it with the former standard protocol of watchful waiting. Cleo is again frustrated and points out that doing nothing is not a neutral act.
Here is what the CASS review had to say on the topic.
Next up Geoff Barton a teacher and general secretary of the association of schools and colleges. He also points out the kind of guidance they gave schools which seemed based on common sense. He did point out that some teachers felt it did not go far enough and favoured hiding the child’s identity from the parents. Most of his advice was pragmatic and sensible but I do have a worry about girls placing themselves at risk in a mixed sex changing room which he describes as “gender neutral”.
Toilets
Stephanie on mixes sex toilets and the impact on girls and their right to single sex facilities. Cleo finds this patronising.
Stephanie corrects Cleo in that there have been incidents where girls have been placed in harms way, in mixed sex facilities. Cleo argues that the children should be listened to and Stephanie explains that safeguarding is the responsibility of the Adults and children can be reluctant to speak out about a desire for single sex facilities, for fear of being labelled a “transphobic bigot”. Cleo again expresses a frustration with the reference to safeguarding, claiming gendered intelligence has fifteen years of safeguarding experience. I would say they have a track record of riding a coach and horses through the fundamental basics of child safeguarding.
We are in a dangerous place when raising safeguarding is being labelled a right wing conspiracy by members of the House of Lords. 
. I give you Lord Cashman.
And this delicious rejoinder
Now we here from Michael Moran on the legal context. He proffers a compromise that maintains single sex facilities whilst also providing gender neutral spaces for those students are uncomfortable in spaces that match their biological sex.
Cleo is not happy with this compromise:..
CLEO MADELEINE 2
STILLTISH – 19 DECEMBER 2023 – GENDER CRITICAL WOMAN
You can read part one here which covers an interview Cleo did on BBC Radio 4 along with Stephanie Davies-Arie and which also had contributions from Michael Foran, Hannah Barnes.
So (clinically) fascinating did I find Mr Madeleine I decided to do a further bit of fossicking. A look at his linkedin shows he is an ex employee of Gender GP of Webberley infamy. Mr Webberley has been struck off and Helen has had length suspensions but, amazingly, retained her medical licence. Madeleine also has a PhD in queer historiography and now works for Gendered Intelligence.
I soon came across him on a podcast called 50 shades of Gender.
In this interview we learn that he is a heterosexual man, with a background in theoretical bisexuality, which enabled him to claim “queer”. Here, in his own words
If you can tolerate the endless navel gazing it’s worth a listen for the narcissist , self indulgent twaddle, with a veneer of intellectual probing. Here he toys with idea of lesbianism but since his girlfriend doesn’t identify as a woman I assume this was rejected.
And this gem which he utters without a smattering of self awareness whist actual women are being reduced to dehumanising terms such as “bleeders” and “uterus havers”. Women also need a name for ourselves you can have “common pricker” which was the name given to witch hunting men, or,if you prefer, just “prick”
Here is another interview on Politics Joe. The interviewer is female and fully deserving of the handmaiden label.
The editor chooses to lead with Cleo explaining why “trans” people are having a really hard time right now. Like a lot of these activists he is not bright enough to see that the claim for men to compete against women is over reach. And yet, he can’t admit that men are not women on any issue because the whole edifice will come crashing down. Cleo here has built his life on a lie and who knows how many years he has been on harmful medications.
He expresses the view that feminists are being driven into the arms of the far right, conveniently omitting that, in the U.K. at least, there is a major women’s organisation that came out of left wing trade unionism.
He is more comically out of his depth on the sport issue even claiming that if the exclude men from female sports they would have to ban Michael Phelps and any tall women. He excels himself when he appears to rely on Tranada for research to back up his claim.
No, pet, but we do segregate athletes by sex for host of reasons. Here are just a few.
He even uses the intersex gambit and seems to think Caster Semenya is female! I would only recommend you watch the whole thing if you have low blood pressure. The interviewer is a simpering fool who displays an incredulity at the women fighting back. Here she is arguing with Piers Morgan after female students lost out to two men in the women’s cycling event.
Madeleine locks his twitter account but this is how he describes himself and he has a link to his podcast.
The podcast doesn’t appear to be current anymore but I found this episode with a special guess who seems to have a side hustle in finding fascism everywhere….