Alex Sobel (Labour Shadow Cabinet) visiting Mermaids

I'd be willing to join you in that @teawamutu

I live miles away, but I'll happily chip in for some leaflets or posters come the next election. In fact, I think someone like SFW or Resisters should do that in all the constituencies where the MP has made misogynistic statements: Nandy, Rayner, Thornberry, Lammy, Whittome, Nokes et al. Be lovely to see them trying to explain themselves to their actual voters.

His response enrages me no matter how many times I've read it. I wish this could be plastered across his constituency for all women to see. I will never understand why women would support him with his clearly misogynistic views.

Look at this....
The woman said she didn't want to "share a shower"
Sobel said "you don't want to share a toilet, evil bigot"

There's a massive difference (no matter where you stand on toilets as mixed sex spaces)

He's such a slimy misogynist.

From this article in Alex Sobel's local newsapaper:

"The charity [Mermaids] empowers thousands of people with its secure online communities, local community groups, helpline services, web resources, events, and residential weekends."

No, nothing dodgy there...

He's my MP too, Ive seen him at afew local things. Always thought he was a slimy bastard!

Someone posted a screenshot of this exchange.

^You have just lost my vote, and I suspect, of those of many mothers and
grandmothers in West Yorkshire.
Do you want your daughters to share a shower with a male-bodied
stranger just because that person believes they are a woman?^

Alex Sobel’s answer
^I don't need the vote of bigots thanks. Gender Neutral Toilets have
existed for years and there's no evidence that they are any more or less
safe than segregated Toilets. You're just looking for an outlet for your
bigotry. Please look elsewhere.^

Imagine calling her bigoted for her view that she wants single sex showers.Imagine telling a potential voter to look elsewhere.

Had a letter from the local Lib Dems imploring me not to let the Tories get away with the lies and to rejoin the party

What, to support the LibDens in their lies?

So frustrating to feel politically homeless because anyone you might support has a committed policy of lying.

@MajorieEks yeah. I hate not voting. I can imagine spoiling my ballot with 'I wanted to vote libdem but I'm a gender critical feminist and they told me not to'. But if Raab kept his seat by a couple of hundred votes, I'd kick myself. Sigh.

An MP who tells people not to vote for him....there really are no words.

I view any man who is so intransigent about women's right to have I boundaries with deep suspicion

Just write to your MP and/or party asking their position on the issue. State your own case in a paragraph. Say perhaps, if they don't reply seriously they will have lost your vote.

A lot of labour policies look pretty self indulgent to a working class person,

pacificstate I’m in the same position. Had a letter from the local Lib Dems imploring me not to let the Tories get away with the lies and to rejoin the party but I can’t bring myself to help them campaign as I previously did. They know why I left but there’s been no acknowledgement of my concerns about women’s rights.

Will probably just spoil my vote at the next election

I sympathise with the urge not to vote Tory - I've never done it and I'm not sure I could look any of my family or my partner in the eye if I started now. But voting for parties or candidates who have explicitly told GC feminists to get fucked is a bit of a red line for me as well. I can cope with them disagreeing with me, but the performative contempt - positioning GC women voters as nothing more than a disposable prop in their campaign to be seen as 'progressive', whatever the fuck they mean by that - is something I can't forgive. To be fair to labour, unlike the libdems they haven't done this at a national level. But I could never vote for Sobel if I was in his constituency. That guy can fuck off.

If anyone has any advice for someone voting in Dom Raab's constituency ('feminists are obnoxious bigots') where the only realistic alternative is a LibDem ('gender critical feminists aren't welcome as members'), I'd be glad to receive it... 🤷🏻‍♀️

Exactly. They want you to cling to the 'Tories are always dreadful and are nasty people myth' so they can get away with hoovering up your rights. I will never forgive this Labour front bench (or most of the current back benchers either). Labour is the party of misogyny - it has been so for a long time.

Women MPs are bullied, women voters ignored. And they ignored Yvette Cooper who I don't particularly like but she is a very capable parliamentarian in favour of Corbyn and in 2nd place the fashion-following Andy Burham in 2015. there is no hope for a woman leader (and less hope for a woman leader who is prepared to say what a woman is!).

That'll be me too for the next two general elections probably until Labour have had a serious clear out.

I'm still not clear on why you think Labour, with the people they've got right now leading the party, would be any better. I'm sure they'll bleat talk about how they're going to fix everything. I'm also sure they won't.

Basically, both sides are equally shit and neither knows how to run a country, but with Labour there's the extra disincentive of trashing women's rights.

Of course plenty of working class people voted Tory.

Yes, and many of them are what you would consider poor. They won't vote Labour for ideological reasons, that they don't believe in its goals. Like you don't vote for the Tories because you don't believe in their goals. This is not a moral equivalence, just realism.

I don’t see what choice we have but to vote Tory. All women will suffer from the loss of our rights, safe spaces, mixed toilets etc. Labour needs to rethink - Starmer is a coward. I’ve never voted Tory in my life but incompetent can be recovered from faster than getting our rights back.

I think I mentioned that I did take it up with him? Essentially though, while I might not choose to vote for AS I would look at each candidate where ever you live and take a pragmatic approach.
Of course plenty of working class people voted Tory. Lots of working class people do alright for themselves - being working class doesn’t necessarily equal poor or vulnerable. But increasingly more and more people are becoming vulnerable and the thought of the Tories getting free reign to continue trashing our country fucking terrifies me. It’s not a clear cut choice of “ knows what a woman is” and “ is in thrall to nutters who want to harm children” . Absolutely go and see your MPs, write to them, protest. Half the time they are just spouting half understood slogans, they know very little about a lot of things.

Misogynistic twonk who actively tells women not to vote for him if they are interested in protecting women's rights.

He needs the student vote, not us pesky female people.

I've not forgotten his 'bigot' tweet. If I lived in his constituency I wouldn't vote for him because he's an idiot who lacks critical thought. And yes, always voted Labour. Some things are beyond politics.