Karen Ingala Smith in Parliament now on single sex refuges

*As for sex toys on train James. Well James was really looked like trying to intimidate Janet by staring at her•

Well to be fair, James was probably feeling rather ‘frustrated’, what with not being able to watch porn/buy sex aids, on James’ way to a discussion on the rights of abused women. The poor ‘most oppressed’ type of person that James is, compared to those silly complaining women with their * privilege. So sad.

Porn shaming? Since when did it stop being appropriate to shame anyone watching porn (or looking for sex toys) in a public place?

Agree on Janet. She was awful. Women’s aid and doesn’t even know what a woman actually is

It was good to watch. Karen was awesome. She was taking any of the TWAW shite from anyone

Imagine women’s ai£ not having a policy.

And when Karen told the Scottish woman. NO I don’t accept that language and yes I do have a problem with that language

As for sex toys on train James. Well James was really looked like trying to intimidate Janet by staring at her

Anyway. It was good to see Karen standing up for the adult human females who have to go to a refuge and centring them

Janet McDermott just seemed utterly vapid. Couldn’t make a concise point about anything and fawning over the man sat next to her.

I was just waiting for her to suggest trust falls and singing Cumbauya as measures to combat women’s unease - useless.

Janet McDermott smiles, giggles and plays with her scarf as she sells women down the river to the man sitting next to her.

Watching this now. Janet McDermott is very irritating. She waffles but with nothing useful to say.

Thanks for clarification

And what is the constant talk of BME women...it's not the fucking same!!!

To be fair, some of the discussion around BAME women was to do with the important Southall Black Sisters court case in 2008 - back when EHRC were still doing useful stuff:

southallblacksisters.org.uk/campaigns/save-sbs-campaign-2008/

The case was important for all specialist services including single sex services. IMO it put a major brake on local authorities just funding the cheapest, most 'inclusive' bids.

Some of the discussion was more of the same old 'TWAW like black women are women' racist BS, however. I think it was the WA woman who said the important thing about SBS was that BAME women had a choice to go to specialist BAME women's services or mainstream women's services, with the implication that tw should have the choice to use women's services or specialist trans services.

Angela [didn't catch her last name] ....

That would be Angela Crawley, SNP, a lesbian. She won her seat narrowly in the last General Election.

In March or April, when the SNP were reported to be split on the question of whether TWAW, Crawley tweeted a photo of the Trans Flag and the words "Trans Ally". She wrote words along the lines of : "To be clear, I'll just leave this flag here"

In other words, she declared that she favoured the side that asserted that TWAW and did not stand with Joan McAlpine.

She got flak for that tweet. People expect a member of the Select Committee to be impartial, questioning and open-minded - not a friggin' ally of one side or the other.

She looked and sounded out of her depth in the session, I thought.

Callmejudith - yep and lesbians. Even Janet who said she was a lesbian.

Karen Ingala Smith was magnificent and awesome. So clear, so logical, so consistent. She had prepared extraordinarily well.

I want to be like her when I grow up.

I thought Sarah Champion was simpatico, but I couldn't work out what Angela [didn't catch her last name] was trying to get at. I suspect she's drunk the TRA kool-aid.

Yes, James being on that panel probably thought it was going to be a women's space and failing to realise that the mere fact of James' presence means it can never be a women's space and immediately becomes a mixed sex space. [Obviously, James was spectacularly unable to intimidate KIS, who was brilliantly assertive. Thank you Karen!]

This is something that these AGP males always fail to understand. They can never be in a female space by virtue of their presence. The only time any space is female space is when there are no males of any kind within it. Their fantasy is unattainable on so many levels.

Jess Phillips worked in business development, not front line services. Her job was bidding for funding, so no, she would not need to do anything with victims from her head office desk.

And what is the constant talk of BME women...it's not the fucking same!!!

Jemima I thought that was odd too. Jess Phillips said she'd never done a police check on a victim. Does DJ only do them on TW then?

By odd stuff I'm particularly thinking of the exchange around the police checks and no immediate referrals (refuge for vulnerable women??) and the part where part where DJ needed several prompts to click that the question of impact also involved the impact of the TW on the women in the refuge rather than just the TW

I would like to know what the meeting would have been like without DJ

Me too. Particularly Janet.

Can't be often that a volunteer to resents an organisation in a parliamentary committee and yet Janet, the experienced professional seemed to be tripping over herself to not to say the wrong thing whereas DJ said some pretty odd stuff, yet with complete authority

Callmejudith

I thought it was very noticeable the impact that this had on the discussion.

With the exception of KIS they are all TERRIFIED of using the wrong language

Thank you OP, I had no idea this was happening I've just watched the whole thing.

I would like to know what the meeting would have been like without DJ

BettyFloot that's so deeply moving - women survivors and their concern and empathy for others

Apologies, I was referring to Diane James (DJ)

Diana James, Volunteer, Cornwall Refuge Trust Women’s Refuge & Norda House Men’s Refuge

Remind me who MJ is? I get them muddled up watching on a small phone screen

MJ was very hard to take seriously on any level, especially watching whilst knowing what MJ had been thinking about on the journey. Many of MJ's points were well off and it made me wonder exactly what MJ's volunteer role is, as MJ seemed to have no clue about refuge operations, referrals, risk assessment, safeguarding and so on.

SpartacusAutisticusAHF I had the same thoughts. I think the transcript will be useful as there were a number of points made which rang bells for me.