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AIBU?

to let you know how men use the Equality Act to undermine women's spaces

353 replies

pisacake · 25/11/2017 15:10

This is Liam. Liam was a 17-year-old Harry Potter fan (photo here from his Twitter).

twitter.com/iamLilyTM/status/639376063655739392

Liam doesn't appear to have too much interest in running, but nonetheless got very upset that there are women-only runs, in addition to the thousands that are open to men.

He thinks this is similar to apartheid, or Rosa Parks being told to go to the back of the bus. twitter.com/iamLilyTM/status/637324189733666816 (August 2015)

Being kept out annoys Liam. (And a lot of other MRAs alike who get REALLY angry at not being allowed to join, despite their being literally thousands of other places to run.)

But wait! An idea! If Liam says he is a girl, he will be able to go wherever he likes including all those women-only runs he was so cruelly rebuffed from.

After all, at one time the Race for Life was able to be kept relatively man-free, as Cancer Research said:

<a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120528181520/raceforlife.cancerresearchuk.org/utilities/faqs/who-can-enter/index.html" rel="nofollow noindex" target="_blank">web.archive.org/web/20120528181520/raceforlife.cancerresearchuk.org/utilities/faqs/who-can-enter/index.html

"Under the Gender Recognition Act 2004 we are happy to accept entries from individuals who possess a female birth certificate or gender recognition certificate. However, as Race for Life is a female-only event we have a promise and responsibility to our female supporters to ensure our Race for Life events are represented by women only. Therefore, if you do not have either a gender recognition certificate or a female birth certificate, we are afraid you will not be able to participate in Race for Life. "

But this didn't last long! The Equality Act 2010 came along and it said

"A person has the protected characteristic of gender reassignment if the person is proposing to undergo, is undergoing or has undergone a process [of changing gender]". So anyone who is even THINKING about changing gender is protected, and you better be careful about crossing them.

So Raceforlife quickly deleted the requirement for a GRC, and just to confirm this.

twitter.com/CharlotteMedler/status/604486954785357824

"Hey @raceforlife what is your opinion on pre-op women running? Does having a wang mean I can't do it? Let me know, pls."

The reply:
"hello, transgender women are welcome to take part in our events, so we'd love to have you :)"

Message has got through loud and clear to Liam, a few months later Liam says he is a girl called Lily (this declaration isn't really accompanied by any action, though he has had one Gender clinic appointment, where he got some handouts about hormones).

He tells his school. Some people, including his younger sister, are unhappy about his behaviour.

But not to worry, he looks up 'solicitor' on Google, and finds a firm of solicitor who represent teenage Harry Potter fans wanting access to women & girls spaces, completely for free! www.buzzfeed.com/patrickstrudwick/this-trans-teen-threatened-her-school-with-legal-action-to-w Awesome! Free lawyers!Totally no consequences!

Emboldened, he moves on, with his MRA activity, getting a woman kicked kicked out of a neighbouring constituency Labour party:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5087503/All-Labour-officials-local-committee-resign.html

Then he's elected women's officer in his own CLP.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/trans-teenager-lily-madigan-voted-in-as-a-labour-women-s-officer-mwchkhzq8

Then people point out that he seems to own a Twitter account with blowjob, rape, Jimmy Savile & curry jokes. He says it's fake then it's pointed out it's dated 2013 so unlikely to be, and finally he blames his younger brother for the acocunt and says his family is racist, sexist and homophobic and that's why he has moved on from them.

www.kentlive.news/news/kent-news/transgender-labour-womens-officer-rochester-817234

Said brother is not impressed and calls him out publicly for throwing him under the bus

twitter.com/madigan_smurf/status/933760359810428928

Lily/Liam is a big fan of Jeremy Corbyn, who for his own part has said that, as a genuine 100% authentic transwoman, Lily/Liam can do whatever he wants. www.facebook.com/MedwayLabour/posts/1506650112756340

As if all these weren't enough, he's now being sponsored for a Women in Leadership programme in by Tris Osborne, a (male, natch) Labour candidate in Luton. twitter.com/cllrtrisosborne/status/934368405993508864

Rosa Parks eat your heart out eh? Look who's got the last laugh now! Silly women wanting a race without men in it!

to let you know how men use the Equality Act to undermine women's spaces
to let you know how men use the Equality Act to undermine women's spaces
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pisacake · 25/11/2017 15:18

Now Liam/Lily (aged 19) is charged with representing the interests of women in his constituency.

Because even though the Women's Officer is required to be a woman, Liam says he is one, and under the Equality Act that's enough (you can make exceptions, but they have to be justified, and it's never a requirement to make exceptions - the wishes of men like Liam rank higher).

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picklemepopcorn · 25/11/2017 15:21

Sad times. It's like a morality tale. Dark and twisted.

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TheGoalIsToStayOutOfTheHole · 25/11/2017 15:21

All ridiculous, but the natural conclusion of a country where apparently men are actually women Hmm

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Apileofballyhoo · 25/11/2017 15:25

This is so depressing. I can see that people should not be discriminated against on any basis. But I can't just decide to be something I'm not in order to access whatever it may be.

How about a fully able-bodied athlete entering a wheelchair race?

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BeyondAssignation · 25/11/2017 15:25

Liam mus really want to run that 5k in pink for cancer!

Stunning and brave.

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FlaviaAlbia · 25/11/2017 15:28

The arrogance comes though loud and clear doesn't it?

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Superlandlady · 25/11/2017 15:30

Thanks for putting the timeline of this story together pisacake, helpful for those who've only read snippets. x

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AlternativeTentacle · 25/11/2017 15:33

Tris Osbourne apparently thinks that science and evolution have changed so much that men are now women. I have requested the scientific paper on this and am still waiting.

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cromeyellow0 · 25/11/2017 15:37

Nice sleuthing, pisacake!

I don't understand this implication of the 2010 Equality Act. I see that a man is protected against discrimination for proposing to transition, in the sense that he can't be fired by his employer for example. But I don't understand the interpretation that a man who proposes to transition immediately becomes a woman for legal purposes. Surely that still requires a GRC?

Is this just a case of gold-plating the legal requirements, as bureaucracies do with health and safety? Or are there specific legal decisions mandating this extreme interpretation?

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Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 25/11/2017 15:43

That's stunning. I knew some of that but not the whole of it. I wonder what Jeremy Corbyn makes of it if he is being kept abreast of all this murky stuff coming out now. Big PR miscalculation, to put it mildly.

I've no idea what poor Jo Cox thought about the trans issue, but I wonder if this is what her family and friends were aiming for when they set up the Women in Leadership programme.

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WhatALoadOfOldBollocks · 25/11/2017 15:43

Thanks for putting the timeline of this story together pisacake, helpful for those who've only read snippets. x

Seconded. I've only heard bits about him but I was shocked and angered just reading them. He's dangerous and strikes me as someone who just wants to cause trouble, and I'm really disappointed in the Labour party over this. He is not a woman, he's a man, and at 19 he's bearly that, so WTF is he a "women’s officer". No. Just No! Angry

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OlennasWimple · 25/11/2017 15:45

Has he entered the Race for Life yet? Hmm

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W8what · 25/11/2017 15:45

oh come on guys he’s just expanding the bandwith of what it means to be a CLP womens officer..... you transphobes..... you are LITERALLY KILLING HIM! Besides, he’s got a pick jacket and pink hair.....thats how you know he’s a woman...

The jimmy saville and rape jokes shudder most women i know don’t find child abuse funny...i don’t know how Labour is tolerating this.

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VioletHaze · 25/11/2017 15:46

Jesus, this post is depressing. Also, what the fuck does the fact that she is/was a Harry Potter fan got to do with anything? Weird side bit of sneering.

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Thegirlinthefireplace · 25/11/2017 15:47

You've documented all that wonderfully Pisa. MIT steal it in my little stash of feminist arguments I keep to hand if you don't mind.

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pisacake · 25/11/2017 15:49

VioletHaze, it's just a bit of background on this man (he, not she, sorry).

OP posts:
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WhatALoadOfOldBollocks · 25/11/2017 15:50

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

pisacake · 25/11/2017 15:51

Thegirlinthemfireplace, np. Here have a couple of archive links for posterity, in case he zaps the Twitter links in the OP:

archive.is/pv9o7

archive.is/ShsQy

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CuriousaboutSamphire · 25/11/2017 15:52

... it seemed to make a weird synchronicity with the lawyers he chose to represent him?

It's called irony, dark humour, trying to remain sane whilst the world around you goes to hell in a handbasket...

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OlennasWimple · 25/11/2017 15:53

I hope a journo like Janice Turner or Andrew Gilligan is doing the same research (or reading this)

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CuriousaboutSamphire · 25/11/2017 15:53

Sorry that was to Violet!

You lot type very quickly Smile

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DJBaggySmalls · 25/11/2017 15:56

On Twitter today, people are posting about countries that already have gender self ID and how you dont hear about trans men attacking women from those countries.

I've been explaining why it can't be reported, and why 'women goes into womens toilet and hits other woman' isnt considered news, but I dont think its really sunk in.
I mean, there are people who still think the women at Speakers corner and anarchist Bookfair were asking for it, so what can you say to that?

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PovertyPain · 25/11/2017 15:58

Really violet? You don't have a problem with a man in a post meant for women and getting a grant meant for a woman, that was created in memory of a woman that was murdered by a man?

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ButchyRestingFace · 25/11/2017 16:01

Oooh, you've deadnamed him. We're all fucked.

Expect a trans fatwa to be declared against MNetters at any moment.

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LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 25/11/2017 16:01

Thank you, pisacake.

How difficult is it to understand that women's spaces are for women/girls? If you have a penis then you don't qualify, you just don't.

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