Naomi Cunningham's speech to the Scottish Parliament

Also worth noting in serious case reviews, why are there so many situations in which eager, helpful, kind female staff were very successfully groomed by male people in the situation the staff were assigned to, and ended up actively enabling the male person's abuse.

An awful lot of progressive thinking and niceness is very often involved, instead of basic grown up critical thinking and a capacity for professional distance.

Naomi is a force of nature. Brava!

Well done Naomi. She is one of the smartest and most articulate women I know.

Thanks for sharing the clip OP.

Artichoke-
And think about male socialisation. And the absolute lack of understanding or care for how women feel in this situation because male people have needs .

This is such a big part of this problem. It's the way boys are socialised, we need more social sciences awareness in people who work with kids BUT they spend 85% of their time in families, why is this still a mess....

It's not the first time crossdressers have been discussed in the Scottish Parliament. They are specifically protected under the Hate Crime Act that went through Parliament last year. When giving evidence to the Committee, Susan Smith from For Women Scotland said:

"The other issue is that, at one extreme, crossdressing can be dress sense and at the other it can be a paraphilia. It is listed as such in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Sometimes it is accompanied by a crossover with other indicators for offences. Therefore we get the quite bizarre situation where something that might be done for purposes of arousal is being protected under a hate crime law."
Col 13: archive2021.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/report.aspx?r=12973&mode=pdf

And, of course, women were not listened to and the Act was passed with crossdressers protected, but not women.

@MaudeYoung very true. Wishful thinking to be asked.

It feels like time to bring out this annual posting, if noone else has!

For any newer readers thinking 'erotic cross dressing', hmm Naomi, that seems a bit of a reach....

Tara Hewitt, trans EDI adviser to the NHS, giving a talk to a room full of cancer healthcare professionals back in 2016 explaining who falls under the trans umbrella: watch at 5.30 if you don't have time for the whole talk (though believe me, it's a jaw dropping watch in many places) confirms it includes that those who fetishistically dress (Tara refers to these people generally being associated with men wearing women's underwear, because Tara can't think of examples where women like to wear boxer shorts for a kick - ' you don't say, Tara'! And also 'men' 🤔).

Maryhill and Springburn?

The other is rainbow greens co convener i think

Here is one of the smirking audience members lgbtlabourscotland.laboursites.org/2019/06/20/47/

@Musomama1 "... there are, always have been and always will be erotic cross dressers, and women are being asked to be co-opted into a fetish."

We are not being 'asked'; we are being told that we will be co-opted as extras in their fetishistic fantasies, whether we like it or not.

The issue of the consent of women is not on their agenda. The consent of women and girls is irrelevant when it comes to this political agenda for men and their behavioural desires.

An image speaks a thousand words. Bless you, kids. Boy, what an own goal.

'Finding their satisfaction', am I a bad person for how I interpreted this?

Thanks, just watched that.

Beautifully put, and illustrated

It's the public seating area behind the invited speakers. Committee itself is sitting on a horseshoe formation so the speakers are facing them. Those two people were there as members of the public, not invited to speak.

How did those people happen to be sitting behind Naomi? I don't know how the room was laid out. Were they people who were going to speak next? I'm not on Twitter, so can't work out the context.

Because I would have felt extremely uncomfortable with the group of them right behind me. It's as Tasteful said, it's a visceral thing. It's part of our survival instinct.

It was several years ago that Miranda Yardley penned an article called 'where have all the cross dressers gone?'

Anyone just supporting this through well meaning naivete should watch that clip and decide for themselves.

Great speech, something talked a lot here on Mumsnet and a massive elephant in the room. As some would say, good optics with the persons sat behind her just illuminating it all.

And this is just the common sense of it, there are, always have been and always will be erotic cross dressers, and women are being asked to be co-opted into a fetish. I heard someone say the other day 'I'm not giving away freebies'.

Things have really reached a pretty pass when we have to remind people that cross-dressers exist. The SJW mindset involves a lot of wilful naivety. Good on Naomi.

And now link this to the male response to 'metoo' -

that a pat on the bottom, or just looking, or whistling at women's bodies is just harmless, it doesn't hurt anyone, it's not like you've assaulted them or anything, and it's just what males do innit?

And think about male socialisation. And the absolute lack of understanding or care for how women feel in this situation because male people have needs .

It is going to have to be faced upto:

To what extent is it going to be acceptable to involve non consenting people in personal sexual experiences?

And how do you put a line down because this is making non consenting use of other people's bodies. Whether you wish to be in a female toilet because you find the sounds of women peeing and unwrapping tampons to be a highly charged sexual experience, or whether you wish to be in a female toilet because you wish to see yourself as a female among other females who are in a state of vulnerable undress as they only are around other females you are still using those female people's bodies for your personal desired experience and to meet your personal needs. Without care for the impact your use of them may have.

I don't want to be a non consenting prop in the life of someone deemed of a higher status and greater importance than others, in this unequal powered relationship. It's not ok to use women like this.

Yes, I went right off Grayson Perry when I read an interview in which he was so happy about getting a hard-on in public. I just want men like that to go away and leave us in peace.