Local elections and sex/gender/trans issues

I thought canvassing was illegal on actual voting day ?

That's what I have done previously but now that the Conservatives have taken a more active position in favour of sex based rights and Labour have taken a more active position against sex based rights, I want to make a stronger stand against Labour and for women as a sex class by voting conservative.

Genuinely furious with Labour for putting me in this position tbh.

Just had a young women conservative at my door doing a ' Get the vote out' thing. I told her I had given both my votes to the Conservatives candidates due to them and the party being best on protecting women's sex based rights, and that was the single issue that I voted on. She replied that that was the reason she is now a conservative too.

I'm in an area with an all Labour council, a labour MP and a labour mayor. I have spoilt my ballot paper (for the first time ever) and written "Respect my sex if you want my X" several times in red pen. I despair at the current state of politics.

I have 3 Tory councillors in my ward who always comfortably win. But my council is Lib Dem and my constituency is Tory held but marginal. So I spoilt my ballot and wrote an essay to Lib Dems & Labour mentioning Respect my Sex and self-id plus a more local issue.

First time I’ve not voted but this seemed a much better way to get the point across. Felt good.

If the status quo is the EHRC saying that single sex spaces can be legal, and a Labour government could mean all single sex spaces abolished - meaning that traumatised or religious women or women who just don't want to share with male bodies are entirely excluded from public life - then maybe some women feel it is the least worst option.

It's possible to think that the status quo, while worse than any other time in living history, is better than Gilead, which is what we'd get if the other side got in.

I am free to criticise Boris Johnson. I don't get thrown in jail for doing so. There have been concerted efforts to throw women in jail for recognising biological sex, for refusing to lie about what their eyes are telling them, for refusing to submit to someone else's ideology. And that's under a government that is generally in favour of 'personal responsibility' and freedom of speech. Imagine what it would be like under a government who forces women to chant 2+2=5 and if they don't expels them from the party.

Or terrified of the alternative?

How can voting for the current government send any other message apart from that you are happy with the status quo?

It's between Lib Dems and Labour here with Lib Dems currently holding all seats but apparently tight with a very low turn out. Canvassers from both parties have been at the door this afternoon & admitted the subject of gender ideology has come up a lot. I feel spoiling my ballot paper might actually make a few pennies drop if a lot of other women do the same here - papers spoiled might be greater than the margin between some candidates.

I had no idea what to do but ended up voting labour plus a whole essay on respect my sex or it is the last time I vote for you. Which has probably invalidated the vote anyway. I feel completely unrepresented and a bit miserable about it.

If you vote Tory you are absolutely not helping women. At least be honest with yourself
Exactly this. I’d choose to spoil my ballot before I chose to vote for them.

I will vote tory as the clearest way of letting other parties know that this issue is losing them votes.
Do you honestly think this is the message they’re going to take from it? That message is not clear at all. They won’t know the specific reason they lost your vote.

Laughable to try to pretend coming at this from a feminism stance. I find this type of 'feminism' abhorrent

We all get to decide what is important to us as feminists. Even if people try to undermine it, they are not correct.

The Tories are in power NOW. They're doing zero about womens' rights. Men are still in womens' prisons, etc. They're not doing anything about that either. Amongst many other things. Laughable to try to pretend coming at this from a feminism stance. I find this type of 'feminism' abhorrent - all about supporting shitty men as long as they say 1 right thing, with no evidence whatsoever that theyll follow through with action

But this argument seems to suggest we live in an adequate world with someone we actually want to vote for. And we don't. We all know we are voting for least worst.

And the fact is, which party is it that we are most likely to see halting the march to the increased replacement of sex with gender, and perhaps even reversing damage done. The tories have halted on self - id, halted on conversion therapy, Priti Patel has spoken to police about recording sex accurately. The Labour party will press ahead with self - ID and further replacement of sex with gender.
The utterly depressing fact is that if you want to see prisons as single sex again we are far more likely to be able to successfully lobby the Tories for that than Labour. There's not a hope of achieving that with Labour. There might be with the Tories. And that's depressing but true. And the people who are responsible for that are Labour activists and the Labour leader and co. Hold your rage at them, not at those of us who are trying to find the best people to influence in an absolutely dire situation.

Spoiled my ballot last time. Very pleased to see an SDP candidate in our ward this time round so have just put my x in that box. Thanks for alerting me to them fellow vipers

Shedcity

Didn’t the tories vote against making misogyny a hate crime
and against a register for stalkers and domestic abusers
tory mps are also getting away with harassing women
and they have repeatedly been racist and generally disgusting to most groups, particularly those (including women) from
poorer backgrounds

If you vote Tory you are absolutely not helping women. At least be honest with yourself

Exactly.

• The Tories are in power NOW. They're doing zero about womens' rights. Men are still in womens' prisons, etc. They're not doing anything about that either. Amongst many other things.

Laughable to try to pretend coming at this from a feminism stance. I find this type of 'feminism' abhorrent - all about supporting shitty men as long as they say 1 right thing, with no evidence whatsoever that theyll follow through with action.

Corruption is attractive to some people so the order of chaos suits them down to the ground

Not on your bloody nelly. As I said, the only party in my area that has said it knows what a woman is is the Tories. Although not my actual MP who wrote me a lovely letter about how much he was looking forwards to putting men in women's spaces.

@Pinklimey it you CAN vote for someone who puts men in women’s spaces?

I'm a multi-issue person. The Tories may know what a woman is but their current record on human rights and corruption means I cannot vote for them.

Didn’t the tories vote against making misogyny a hate crime

There are perfectly good reasons for not wanting a nebulous term like misogyny to be enshrined as a hate crime. The whole concept of hate crime is problematic but unfortunately we are stuck with it for now. Better not to expand it further.
It might be worth exploring alternatives.

I'd rather have better funding for police forces to tackle actual crime in general (instead of throwing it on rainbow cars and chasing down women for ribbons and stickers).

Didn’t the tories vote against making misogyny a hate crime
and against a register for stalkers and domestic abusers
tory mps are also getting away with harassing women
and they have repeatedly been racist and generally disgusting to most groups, particularly those (including women) from
poorer backgrounds

If you vote Tory you are absolutely not helping women. At least be honest with yourself.

i say this as someone in a similar position who cannot bring myself to vote for labour now.

Of course the Tory Party are doing it to get votes - that's what politicans do. But Labour could end this any time they wanted by making a clear declaration that they will uphold women's existing legal rights. The longer they put off doing it, the worse they look.

Well, I don't know what is in the hearts and minds of Tory MPs who support sex based rights, or in the minds of of Labour MPs who are ending sex-based services and rights. But I do know that I would rather have someone supporting women's rights out of cynicism that someone destroying them out of principle.