What should a politician say re: TWAW

Bellini and Pacific have some good responses.

I'd add to it - for the braver among them - that they could say lobby groups' interpretation of the GRA and pushing of those interpretations have harmed women and children. And that the harm to women and children is unacceptable.

I'd say the law about single sex spaces needs to be made very clear and that no one must ever be afraid to apply safeguarding rules because they fear being called transphobic for doing their job.

I'd say that a free press is vital to a functioning democracy and that I've been saddened to see the press seemingly worried about reporting the truth. That plain English needs to have a comeback and that children need facts, not dogma in their education.

Finally, that pushing at edges and stretching (what's already poorly drafted law) has been bad for trans people who have had AGPs setting up camp. But I doubt any politician would go there - the expansion of the trans umbrella to include just about anything is too complicated an area to get across in an interview and the pileon would be too much.

Pacificstate, your answer is absolutely brilliant.

Because ‘sensitive to TW’ isn’t going to be enough for the PLP or the wider Labour Party.

They could just say 'I define 'woman' as 'adult human femnale', like the dictionary. Transwomen are transwomen: they are called transwomen because they are not women.'

Sooner or later they're just going to have to stand up to the TRAs. Might as well get it all over and done with quickly, like ripping off a plaster. First politician to do it will get a standing ovation from 51% of the population.

Thanks tabby. I missed my calling as a SPAD 😂

Interesting piece by Isabel Hardman on this www.spectator.co.uk/article/labour-is-falling-into-the-tim-farron-trap-on-sex-and-gender

What did politicians think was going to happen when they made laws allowing men to get female birth certificates? When they made an arse of an act that made it ambiguous at best to give women and girls space away from men?

They made the laws, they should be able to justify it without my help. Otherwise what are we paying them for?

Pacific - that’s good.

What do you think they should say? Even if they think it, they can't just say 'Adult Human Female' or 'No' to those questions because they'd probably get an aggressive follow up question.

Yes they can say 'adult human female'. It is normal for politicians to get aggressive follow-up questions. If they are too fragile or cowardly to tell the plain honest truth, or to face questioning over their views/policies, they shouldn't be in politics.

They could say 'you know, the reason you're all asking us this question is because we politicians, as a group, have been trying to avoid talking about this issue as much as possible. We took our eye off the ball and didn't pay attention. That stops now. There's a serious debate taking place now about how we ensure trans people and women all feel safe, respected and heard, and I personally am going to go all-out to take that debate seriously. So, in terms of your original question: most people think a woman is an extremely straightforward concept - that it's someone of the female sex, and that trans women who have lived long and consistently as women are also to be accepted as such in social and legal situations. But the public knows that this is really a debate about safety and fairness, not definitions, and we've ended up arguing about definitions because politicians of all parties have failed to properly engage with the conversation the public has been having.'

Legally, yes, and we support that. In actual literal fact, no. Women are biological adult females.

They can’t say this without offending aggressive activists, but you can rarely say anything without offending aggressive activists.

Why don't they just say what they really think? They're grown ups in power. As long as they're respectful to both sides, the majority of the electorate will be supportive. It would be refreshing to hear what politicians really think instead of what they are told you say.

They should say that TWATW who have very specific social and health needs which are different (note different not less than) to those of women, there should be a range of policy interventions designed to safeguard and protect TW that do not come at the expense of women and girls access to single sex spaces and services.

They should say TWATW. Trans people deserve care and support but not at the expense of women's identity, security and fairness.

I things would be much better if they were worried about offending women, and therefore gave factually correct answers, such as adult human female.