New Statesman - Inside Labour's clusterf*** on trans rights

Firstly, the assumption that women's rights are a low priority nice-to-have, to be addressed once every other problem in the world is sorted, when instead, they are fundamental to the solving of those problems, as well of being an issue of equal moral value to poverty etc. We've been hearing this since the first campaigns for suffrage - 'Pipe down, Ladies - we'll get to you once we've solved the economy, war, famine, nuclear fusion and razor rash this absolutely. I've seen quite a few posts today berating posters for wanting to be concerned about sex based rights and be called privileged and cruel and the 'you'd be happy for people to die' wouldn't you trotted out.

That article is really quite remarkable in how little it actually focuses on women or women's rights. Vaginas and penises get quite a few mentions. Trans rights quite a few mentions. Labour's sorrow that 'people aren't happy about LGBT+ rights being talked about' is mentioned. As is the over used trope (autocorrected to tripe there which seems rather apt) about there being other things to worry about.

A couple of mentions of 'single sex spaces' without any discussion about what that means, the legislation behind it or the impact of the erosion of such spaces.

As I said, quite remarkable. Just not in a good way.

do you think any of the political parties wander over here and read our rants? or are we just seen as extremists to be ignored?

^Women are constantly trying to explain how uncomfortable they are having to defend their rights and access and equality and they are really upset. No one gives a fuck.

Really no energy left to give to help Labour politicians through the trauma of trying to face up to the fact they are behaving like a bunch of snooty metropolitan misogynists.^

So much this....

😆😂🤣

I lufs it.

And everyone is aware of the competing tensions the party must manage: the squeamishness they feel talking about genitals, the concern they feel about causing hurt to the trans community and the desire to say something pithy and with common sense

women's rights and feelings are nowhere in the list of competing tensions then?

it fucking shows

fuck you labour

They still don't get it. They are saying the access issues can be handled on a case by case basis. No they can't and they need to understand why.

Personally I will never forgive or forget Lisa Nandy's cruelty towards women and girls, and that of those who have enabled her for so long to spew her bilge about prisons.

Labour should be piling on to the Government about prisons, school indocrination, refuges and hospitals/Annexe B like a tonne of rocks. But Labour isn't. Unforgiveable.

So the Tory Government says words (but doesn't actually act) while Labour does neither, and actual ordinary women have to privately crowd fund millions of pounds to protect our liberty.

They also see it as a diversion tactic when voters are breaking down in tears about the cost-of-living crisis in focus groups and never bring up trans issues in such settings

This perfectly encapsulates Labour's incompetence on the issue.

Firstly, the assumption that women's rights are a low priority nice-to-have, to be addressed once every other problem in the world is sorted, when instead, they are fundamental to the solving of those problems, as well of being an issue of equal moral value to poverty etc. We've been hearing this since the first campaigns for suffrage - 'Pipe down, Ladies - we'll get to you once we've solved the economy, war, famine, nuclear fusion and razor rash'.

Secondly, the lack of awareness about why the issue is rarely raised in focus groups. Labour has been at the forefront of the No Debate movement. Its flying monkeys launch at anyone who dares to speak up for women in the mildest way - as Rosie Duffield knows to her cost. What a fucking shock that women aren't going to volunteer for a public shaming for transphobia, at the hands of some green-haired focus group convener.

Unluckily for Labour, the ballot box is still private.

. I think if people knew how uncomfortable Labour politicians are defending LGBTQ rights they’d be really upset.

Yes but not as uncomfortable as they seem to be about defending women's rights.

Labour don't really get it do they. quote from the article
the squeamishness they feel talking about genitals but Lisa Nandy and co are quite happy for female prisoners to be housed in the same cell as a TW with male genitals, with a high chance that TW with male genitals has been charged with rape.

^Note to self, pay more attention when editing a longer rantier post.

It still frames it as trans rights but what's actually the problem is women's rights. That's what the problem is.

And from a Labour insider:

I think if people knew how uncomfortable Labour politicians are defending LGBTQ rights they’d be really upset

My heart bleeds, pal.

Women are constantly trying to explain how uncomfortable they are having to defend their rights and access and equality and they are really upset. No one gives a fuck.

Really no energy left to give to help Labour politicians through the trauma of trying to face up to the fact they are behaving like a bunch of snooty metropolitan misogynists.

you can make any position sound ridiculous if you start asking about penises and cervixes

And that would be because it is ridiculous.

Look. It's really easy.

Everyone gets to be whoever they want to be. It's great. Go for it. The boundary however is other people's rights. Don't be a dick and try and take rights and access off others and frankly no one cares what anyone wears, the length of their hair, or the choice of their name.

One useful outcome of the "can a woman have a penis?" question being asked of politicians is that some of the journalists reporting on this are political correspondents rather than media or society correspondents, and the political correspondents seem to be far more hard-nosed about what voters hear when politicians speak.

Even here, the journalist, Ailbhe Rea, who's a she/her, is including stuff like this in her report:

The Sun dubbed the Labour leader a “todger dodger,” to the great amusement of those in his office.