Beth Rigby interviews Iain Anderson

The lack of empathy shouldn’t surprise me by now but the bare faced disdain for women who need single sex spaces still stuns me.

This! And thanks for the full nonsensicalSW statement, Boiled.

Just watched the whole thing - the man is a total idiot.

https://twitter.com/MForstater/status/1682463964163198976?t=9gAU-xRj5aCQteuFoiLgNw&s=19

Apparently there was a longer version with another picture -. Presuming he was asked for this to be cut.
Transwoman breastfeeding is just like 1st woman breastfeeding in parliament.

His facial leakage was something to behold.

Funny how he got really angry and aggressive looking around the point that JK Rowling was mentioned, though, none of the fake smiles and charm at that point.

https://twitter.com/simonjedge/status/1682486572090900482?s=19

"a literal handful of trans women"

I think they mean a metaphorical handful of trans women, no?

He's Scottish - we use the word folk a lot up here, in normal conversation about normal people doing normal things.

Eg
I'm going to my folks for the weekend (I'm going to my parents house)

Everyday folks, doing everyday things.

It MIGHT be an adoption of the American phrase by him, but I wouldn't discount it being a perfectly normal word for a Scot to use instead of "people".

I like it in my context, and refuse to allow its association with the rainbow mafia to steal it from me.

Nope. Very political. He'd already decided what he wanted to say. He was going to say it regardless of what he was asked. In a calm, reassuring and authoritative tone.

Put it in transcript and it will sound even more utterly ridiculous.

It's because he found himself in a logical cul de sac and had to admit the truth of it.

"Genderborg to TERF Island
Genderborg to TERF Island
Genderborg to TERF Island
We have assumed control
We have assumed control
We have assumed control"

That statement is magnificent. "Please do not listen to anything said by our Chair of Trustees. He is not in charge. We are."

Yep. Spot on interpretation.

This bit sums up their position on single sex spaces. I really wish this could be tested in court properly because I don't believe it. I think they're wrong.

They say the bar for excluding tw from female spaces is very high.

There has to be a very specific set of reasons to exclude trans women from single-sex spaces. Although we dearly wish that no single-sex spaces wished to exclude trans women, trans men or non-binary people, we also recognise that, for the minority of spaces that want to, it is probably not a particularly safe service for those trans people to access.

So their reason for it being legal to exclude tw is not because women need that sometimes but because women who want to do that are nasty bigots who will make tw unsafe anyway.

As Beth Rigby pointed out, in 2015, we recommended for the removal of these clauses in a submission to a parliamentary inquiry based on consultation with trans people at the time.

It is really important to say that we do not advocate for the removal of the single-sex exemptions in the Equality Act. When the Equality Act was first introduced, Stonewall did. That was because we were worried that they would be applied in a blanket way and would be used to wholesale exclude trans women from many single-sex spaces. We know that that has not been the case.

The bar set in the Equality Act, which is that trans women and trans men—although it is mostly used around trans women—access to women’s spaces should only be restricted as a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim, is very high. There has to be a very specific set of reasons to exclude trans women from single-sex spaces

Hmmm....

By issuing a press release, presumably journos at the Telegraph, Daily Mail and (fingers crossed) Observer are now more able to write a piece or two.

What a super day for Stonewall

they're going to be on the hunt for a suitably militant TRA to replace IA before
the month is out,
surely?

in a nutshell

Just watched the clip, he doesn't answer the questions at all does he.

That statement can be paraphrased as:

"We are very sorry if IA's inept interview gave the impression that Stonewall gives a fuck about women. Please be assured that there is no space or service that we will not fight for men to be included in."

I imagine he's currently locked in a store room in their offices somewhere.

It was obviously very stressful in the Stonewall offices today. We won't be seeing IA doing any more interviews any time soon.

The fact that's it's taken all day to sort it says it all!

That statement is very long for a clarification… it’s almost as if Stonewall have concluded that their chair made a complete twit of himself!