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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

At a 19yr Old Transwoman being elected a Labour woman’s officer

476 replies

bambambini · 20/11/2017 08:48

Seems the old WO stepped down after alleged bullying and accusation of transphobia. The new WO is a 19 yr old Transwoman - i think who made many of The allegations against the previous WO.

What experience has a 19 yr old TW got to hold this post - weirder than weird.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/trans-teenager-lily-madigan-voted-in-as-a-labour-women-s-officer-mwchkhzq8

OP posts:
SlowlyShrinking · 21/11/2017 07:35

No, you definitely didn’t

ArcheryAnnie · 21/11/2017 08:12

Nice that they shoehorned antisemitism in there to try and make themselves respectable - as if that would fool anyone, since the Momentum crowd who are pushing this nonsense are the chief antisemites.

shhhfastasleep · 21/11/2017 08:13

Well, Labour is shit at dealing with anti-semitism so maybe it is overcompensating...by being shit to women.

BeyondAssignation · 21/11/2017 08:22

I was wondering what fighting the eeevil terfs had to do with antisemitism

CodeineAndCornflakes · 21/11/2017 08:55

I know who I won't be voting for in the next election. It pains me as a British citizen who's always voted labour (even being overseas) to say that in the next election my vote will be going to whoever doesn't support this shit. Even if they are conservatives. That hurts.

My thoughts exactly- I couln't bring myself to vote for this raving madness.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 21/11/2017 09:13

Did you see the BBC documentary about Labour last night? I find the personality cult around Jeremy Corbyn extremely unsettling. I was a Labour Party member in the early 80s and came up against Militant Tendency. This is all so reminiscent of those times. I vividly remember a woman trying to recruit me to Militant. She was explaining why elections were overrated. Everything could be sorted out by community meetings. Local community leaders would explain the policies the national leadership had set and local people would discuss them to make sure they understood.

In theory I think there was an idea that local people could raise their own concerns and these would be passed up the line for discussion, but even at 19 I knew enough about totalitarian states to see how very unlikely it was that anybody would be able to do that safely. I walked away from Militant (and Labour, actually, for a long time, until they got rid of Militant) and I am horrified to see this retrograde trend.

Doesn't help that we saw The Death of Stalin recently, so these issues are already on my mind.

makeourfuture · 21/11/2017 09:21

Please let me remind of the terrible Tory cuts which have affected women most.

Things like cuts to social security, the public sector and legal aid. Child benefit, tax credits, the lowering the household cap on benefits. Mental health, the NHS.

All the local cuts that have come from withdrawal of national grants.

There is so, so much more, and so much more to come under this Conservative regime.

Elendon · 21/11/2017 09:22

Yes, I saw it GaspOde. I agree. It was deeply unsettling at times.

shhhfastasleep · 21/11/2017 09:23

It’s just Millitant Revisited. Wind people (usually young people) into a frenzy about unfairness and aim for enough naive people to vote you in.
I hate unfairness. I am old. I’m not especially naive. I’ve seen this shit before. Millitant Momentum are not interested in getting my vote.

NettleTea · 21/11/2017 09:26

fighting the evil Terfs is connected to antisemitism because of a new rule change that came in at conference, off the back of the anti-semitism enquiry, about hate speech and abuse.
I refused to vote for it, and the same individual who put Lily up to reporting Anne got in a right old state. I knew I was literally a turkey voting for Christmas. It was too much like thought policing, because it said that not only was actual abuse an expelling offense (fair enough) but if people thought that you even HELD BELIEFS that you were prejudiced against a big old list (which interestingly also included sex as a protected characteristic, along with gender identity) then off you trot,
Hastings and Rye had proposed an ammendment. Mainly on the anti-semitism thing, but it removed the whole 'belief' bit. I would have voted for that but they had enormous pressure to withdraw their motion. Their delegate Leah Lavern did an amazingly powerful speech at conference, but the rule change went through
TERF hunters are now using this rule change to get people reported. although I havent yet heard of anyone being expelled

AssignedPerfectAtBirth · 21/11/2017 09:30

I agree about Militant/Momentum. The 80s were fucking horrible with Militant and now the fuckers are back and 'woke'. Hate the fucking trot bastards. They were bullying misogynist fucks then and they are still

Elendon · 21/11/2017 09:36

I agree, Momentum couldn't give a shit about who votes and who doesn't. Plus they don't do graft either. They will ingratiate themselves to older women to do the donkey work. Make them feel special. It's abuse and it's also a tactic used within the core of the LibDems and Conservatives.

ArcheryAnnie · 21/11/2017 09:40

Agreed, makeourfuture. It's not like any of the other parties are any better on this issue.

HemanOrSheRa · 21/11/2017 09:59

Wasn't Jon Lansman an active member of Militant?

NettleTea · 21/11/2017 10:22

Im not giving up my membership. I will be damned if I let them take my party on this.

user1467297746 · 21/11/2017 10:55

the whole Trans thing is a mine field that could be abused by men for sure, but then again a genuine Trans person would have some idea after years what it does mean to be a woman especially if they started early enough. Not all women menstruate or able to have children but are 100% women.

From my experience a few years ago, I had a friend who went thru this and she (ex he) didnt raise any eyebrows anywhere after a couple of years since she was so young but still had a penis waiting for surgery, and she was absolutely terrified on walking into an open women's changing room and basically ran to change in a toilet cubicle in embarrassed shame.

So I do find all this instant judgemental thing hard to stomach because she patently wasnt there to intimidate, rape or be part of a spearhead of male invasion of female spaces - in fact it was she that was scared to death and just wanted to be herself and mind her own business.

On talking her she was painfully aware of how much she wasnt a woman despite how she felt on the inside. Seemed like the worst of both worlds since she wasnt able to pass as male particularly well either.

But there are other Transwanna be's who are kidding themselves and fooling nobody - there should be a way to deal with that situation.

I think I preferred it when Trans had to see a doctor etc rather than announce on a whim it seems.

But looking at the videos of this transWoman is quite cringey and basically this character needs waaaay more life experience before trying to represent anybody.

I personally wouldnt find this the issue that put me off voting labour. Much bigger things to worry about. Butter has doubled in price in the last year!

Puzzledandpissedoff · 21/11/2017 11:15

I vividly remember a woman trying to recruit me to Militant. She was explaining why elections were overrated. Everything could be sorted out by community meetings

I heard the same argument from a local Labour candidate ... though whether he was a Militant member I've no idea

Happily he wasn't elected, but perhaps that's the point; to such folk, it must be infuriating to see what they believe to be ignorant voters standing in the way of their dystopian project and the temptation to bypass them altogether is perhaps to be expected

makeourfuture · 21/11/2017 11:37

No one is suggesting removal of democracy.

Puzzledandpissedoff · 21/11/2017 11:50

I'm not so sure, makeourfuture; when someone says to you "we don't need elections anyway" it seems to suggest ambivalence towards the democratic process at best

I realise of course that this was just one candidate - and an unelected one at that - but I do wonder just how widespread his views are

Whizbang · 21/11/2017 12:01

Very disappointed but sadly not surprised. The misogyny within Labour has been well known for a long time and this appointment is the official confirmation.

Whizbang · 21/11/2017 12:02

Simple lesson we can learn here...if you consider yourself a feminist don't vote labour.

YetAnotherSpartacus · 21/11/2017 12:10

I'm a bit surprised by some of the ageism here. The issue for me is that a highly competent and properly appointed natal woman women's officer was ousted from office by a couple of natal male misogynistic thugs and replaced by one of the thugs, who happens to be a younger person. There are a zillion reasons why this person (Lily) should not be in the role they are in. They are not female and they (according to published accounts) partook in some nasty bullying. BUT, I see no problem with a CLP women's officer being a younger person. Young women are women and they face particular problems as women. Being a woman is not defined as being older, having had children and suchlike. Younger women can bring different perspectives and a richness to the role. Older women can still have their say and they can do much by mentoring the younger women. This is also about good succession planning.

brasty · 21/11/2017 12:14

It is true that an intelligent mature 19 year old is capable of this role. This man is neither.

Datun · 21/11/2017 12:16

It’s not so much this boy’s youth, all by itself.

It’s the fact that he is young and a boy. The two together are more than the sum of the individual parts.

A young girl would still have experienced being a girl. She has 19 years head start on a 19-year-old boy.

If the boy was 30, he would least have had the experience of talking to women, to make up for his own personal lack of female experience.

It’s the fact that he has no experience of being female, coupled with the fact that he has not had enough time to examine what it might be like for women.

FlowerPot1234 · 21/11/2017 12:16

brasty I agree. I have watched some of his posted videos, and even objectively speaking, I felt I was watching a young, extremely immature boy with some mental health issues.