Ask your general election candidates what a woman is: results

What a terrible position to be in @FunZebra
and why does your Conservative candidate live so far away? As they are the only Party prepared to revise the Equalities Act and protect women they aren’t giving women much choice in your area. Is there any reason why there isn’t someone more local….ie are you very rural or something?

I e-mailed all my local candidates except for the Conservative & Reform UK guys. I've had responses from the Labour and Lib Dem candidates.

The Lib Dem response was sent within hours of my message, not the standard cut and paste response, a bit wishy-washy - lots of irrelevant stuff about trans people in history, Hjra in India etc etc. Other than that, it could have been worse. Seemed to go along the lines of third spaces, but didn't give the sense that he's actually really grasped the full extent of the problems, and he spent far too much of it talking about trans people and not addressing my specific questions.

The Labour Party candidate (who was our MP, and is highly likely to be so again) gave a much better response than I was expecting, and gave me some hope. The main focus of her response was healthcare (that is her area of particular interest), and she managed not to use any of the usual cliches, and confined her reply to talking about women and girls, rather than trans people.

@AlexandraLeaving that sounds positive. If I was in a constituency with a Rosie Duffield type labour candidate I would vote for them despite the party view.

I believe the readership of this board is fairly wide…

Thanks @AlexandraLeaving that sounds very encouraging. I'm so jealous 😫

I doubt she'd get attacked by any GC person reading this thread. But I suspect that's not who you had in mind.

Our local Labour candidate (hoping for re-election in a v marginal Inner London seat) was at the railway station as I walked past tonight so I stopped to ask her - not for a definition of what a woman is, but about what her stance was on women’s rights and the protection of single sex spaces. She said she absolutely understood the importance of protecting single sex spaces and, while she didn’t want any group to feel vulnerable or marginalised, she was clear that there was a need for single sex spaces in certain circumstances.

I asked whether she was convinced her party colleagues and, in particular, the leadership felt the same. She said she thought they did, and said she thought there had been a sea-change of thinking and that things were at last moving in the right direction. She thought, while it was important to respect people’s pronoun preferences, there needed to be a review of the Equality Act, and some legal clarity about what key words mean. I said we also needed clarity in general conversation too, so we all knew what the word “woman” meant. We talked briefly about the importance of clarity in that regard especially for Muslim women and those who are rape/abuse survivors so that they know “women only” means “single sex female” - she agreed: “otherwise people will self-exclude and that is not right”.

I pressed her on whether she was sure this was what the leadership was intending. She said obviously she cannot predict or guarantee absolutely, but she was confident. I then asked whether she could guarantee what she would press for, and she assured me she could, and would continue to be a supporter of women’s rights.

I asked her whether she thought Rosie D would be treated better in future, because her treatment by the party was shameful. She said she met Rosie and Tonia A frequently and simply could not understand the way they had been treated. I appreciate that is not quite answering my question, but I thought it was encouraging.

She has been an excellent constituency MP, and I think this gives me enough reassurance to vote for her as an individual. I’ve always been (quite far) left of centre and would have described myself as a natural Labour voter up until women’s rights started to be so fundamentally undermined by unthinking implementation of transmania.

Am deliberately not naming her, given that I don’t want to risk others reading this and going to attack her.

9 candidates. 3 independent - 1 hasn’t bothered publishing anything about why they are standing, 1 hasn’t replied, 1 is anti-abortion and that’s it.

Labour - TWAW
Tory - lives 150 miles away. Won’t get in.
Plaid - TWAW
Greens - TWAW
Lib Dem - TWAW

i have literally nobody to vote for.

My Labour candidate needed a follow up but then emailed back the same day.

It wasn't exactly a bad reply - no sign of any copy n' paste, nothing about being kind and it was a specific answer to some specific questions about single sex spaces and the Equality Act. But at the end of the day they just re-iterated Labour statements and swerved my question about what the GRC actually did.

It might have been enough a year ago.

I feel sad about it but, unless Starmer agrees tomorrow to clarify the EA, I'll vote for the independent - and I know I'm lucky to have an independent.

I had a response from the Lib Dem candidate in my constituency today. It’s a marginal seat where either Lib Dem or conservatives will win.

He said this:

‘I do recognise a difference between sex and gender, and understand the importance of sex remaining a protected characteristic. That doesn't mean that I don't recognise the persecution and suffering of trans people, and want to do all I can to ease it.

Regarding the concerns you raised, I believe in solutions that respect everyone's privacy and safety. The issues of women's safety aren't resolved cleanly through 'sex' based segregation either: I'm sure many women would be alarmed and could feel unsafe if someone born a female, but who has undergone transition and passes as male, were to be forced to use a women's changing room.’

And some bits about he will use his judgment and not just blindly follow the party line. I’m not convinced. The issue of women who have transitioned feels like a red herring to me - in my view we should start with single sex spaces which address the actual (not just perceived) risks to women and girls from men. I take the point that there may be some women who are alarmed at what appears at first glance to be a man in the women’s facilities but is in fact a trans man. I guess the answer to that is third spaces. I don’t think we can get into the realm of who passes or doesn’t, or who fits in with the sex stereotypes or doesn’t - it all gets hazy and risky again if we do that.

Like some PPs above, not sure what to do. I feel like spoiling my ballot, but as the seat is supposedly so close here, that could effectively be a vote for Lib Dem. So I might have to vote Tory.

Still no response from any other candidates, despite me sending a follow up email. I did catch some local LibDems councillors in town this morning and mentioned the lack of response from the candidate. I asked them whether she was of the opinion that single sex spaces and services should be determined by biological sex, adding that I knew what LibDem policy was. The male councillor said as far as he knew she was aligned with party policy. Could've sworn the female councillor gave me a sympathetic look as I left - I previously spoke to her on the doorstep during local elections and got the distinct impression she was not fully aligned with national LibDem policy.

The part missing from "define a woman" is "which 'woman'?"

It really only applies to males identifying as women. Biological women are defined as women with great consistency and don't get to define as anything else when it would be to their advantage. No rapist ever steps back and says "Oh, sorry, my mistake. Didn't realize you identified as a man." Promotions aren't suddenly handed to women because they've had enough of being overlooked and IDed as men. Nor, as in the gallows humour cartoon, would a witch set to be burned at the stake achieve a reprieve by saying, "No! Wait! You're making a terrible mistake!"

The problem lies not in the woman involved. It lies in everybody around her who treats women badly and knows exactly what they are without ever needing to define the word.

In situations where sex puts women at a disadvantage, it's a bit idiotic to pretend that the people causing the problem will stop because somebody else redefined "women."

I emailed everyone too. Fantastic and immediate answer from the Conservative, dreadful answer from the Lib Dem and nothing from the other five. It's probably neck and neck here between Conservative and Lib Dem.

So, 2 days to go. I live in what was a Tory safe seat but because of an awful MP and boundary changes then Labour are in with a chance.

The more I think about it the more I have no idea what I'm going to do. Anyone else?

No, that is not womanly. You should feel a little bit worried and seek guidance from a close male family member.

I mostly feel furious. Is that womanly?

My Labour candidate said that a woman is defined by how they feel.

Women that have the temerity to expect women to be seen as real people with real needs are scary to Labour. They can only cope with the ones that prioritise the penis people

Yes that’s what we thought.
And we didn’t look scarey………honest ☺️

@SavingTheBestTillLast that is so frustrating! But I guess if he’s too cowardly to answer the question to two constituents, he’s clearly going to be too cowardly to stand up for women if elected, especially if it means going against his party line.

🤣🤣
we stand together……so proud 😁

Excellent ambushing by your neighbour.

Labour called today. They weren’t actually going to ring the bell just stuff a leaflet through the door but I was painting the other side of the front door at the time so gave him something of a shock.

Don’t think he intended to have to speak to anyone but I recognised him as our candidate so
He asked if Labour would have our support and I said I was undecided ( a lie ) and wanted to know his and Labours thoughts re biological women and girls ( can’t believe I have to call us that these days ) safety and protections in terms of sports, work, refuges, changing spaces, safe spaces etc etc and how they propose to deal with trans women overtaking these.

He said
There are a lot of issues Labour are interested in and currently he’d love to discuss housing 🤯🤯🤯. Which is hilarious as we live in an area currently at war with all the new housing and lack of infrastructure and are desperately trying to protect what little farmland and green belt is here! He couldn’t have picked a worse discussion to have with me being an architect aswell.
After complete exhaustion on both sides over that he made to turn and leave and I asked again about women but he walked too fast away from me only to get cornered by my neighbour opposite pruning the blackberry bushes ( subterfuge I think ) and she launched into the same question for which he said ‘ I’ve just had a long conversation about this with your neighbour’ and got in his car!!! And drove off!!

So nothing! Too scared to say so obviously there’s no protection in the pipeline and it is just as the interview with Labour on the radio this morning said. Trans rights trump womens rights.

My Libdem said they aligned with Labours view but even they couldn’t clarify what that is and the Independent who I met at an event said it wasn’t a matter they would rock the boat over.

🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯
I can see women chained to the Parliament railings when / if Labour get in and they’ll still ignore us.
Labours women have to be Seen and Not Heard.

She said
Trans rights trump woman’s rights on the radio this morning.

What a Labour candidate is prepared to say to someone on the doorstep to get a vote is not what is being said publicly.
Sounds like someone desperate for a job come July

Indeed. I've no idea.