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Green Party Deputy Leader on being 'gender critical'

129 replies

ArabellaScott · 07/10/2023 14:31

https://thecritic.co.uk/it-isnt-easy-being-a-gender-critical-green/

'The Deputy Leader of the Green Party Zack Polanski also thinks people with gender critical views aren’t welcome in the party. He’s made it clear that “those members who claim that trans women are men and trans men are women – should not have a place in the Greens.”'

Quoting this interview from earlier this year:

https://leftfootforward.org/2023/03/zack-polanski-interview-transphobia-is-not-welcome-in-the-green-party/

'... he says that the small number of members who take a contrary view to the party’s policies on trans rights – specifically those members who claim that trans women are men and trans men are women – should not have a place in the Greens. He says: “I’m really clear that if you want to misgender someone then that is transphobic and transphobia is not welcome in the Green Party.”'

sounds like potential discrimination, to me.

I'd also add that saying a 'small number' of members are 'gender critical' is a deliberate distortion.

It isn’t easy being a gender critical Green | Nathan Williams | The Critic Magazine

This weekend the Green Party is gathering for its Autumn conference in Brighton. Given the increasing urgency of the climate crisis and the appalling record of the current government you might think…

https://thecritic.co.uk/it-isnt-easy-being-a-gender-critical-green

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IcakethereforeIam · 07/10/2023 14:51

@ArabellaScott I've just posted the article on the Shahrir Ali thread! I enjoyed reading it. I'm glad it's got it's own thread.

Original poster
ArabellaScott · 07/10/2023 14:35
  • a reminder that 'gender critical views' are protected in law. You can't discriminate against someone for holding them anymore than you can discriminate against someone for being Christian, Jewish or Muslim.
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Original poster
ArabellaScott · 07/10/2023 14:34

There's lots in this article. I'm just picking out some of the most pertinent bits:

'Chesca Walton, one of the co-chairs of Green Party Women, was to tweet: “Expressing Gender Critical views is transphobia. Like any form of hatred, transphobia has no place in a modern political party“.

https://x.com/chescawalton/status/1686700471124402177

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Original poster
ArabellaScott · 07/10/2023 14:33

An account of further allegations of discrimination within the party:

'Does the party discriminate against, harass, or victimise gender critical members? That was something that Green Party Women (GPW) set out to find out. In August, GPW held a special meeting inviting members to describe their experiences of holding gender critical views in the party. What followed was a harrowing litany of accounts from women (and a few men) who had faced waves of abuse and harassment for expressing their honestly held (and to most people uncontroversial) beliefs. These women have faced insults, threats, censorship, deselection, and expulsion. Equality and Diversity officers in the party were told they couldn’t set up groups to hear differing views because that would be “transphobic”. People with inside knowledge of party committees told of how the processes had been abused in order to target GC members. One member even described being physically assaulted at multiple conferences. Many struggled to hold back tears as they told of the abuse they had received from fellow Greens despite years of loyal membership.'

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