to let you know how men use the Equality Act to undermine women's spaces

[pisacake]

This is Liam. Liam was a 17-year-old Harry Potter fan (photo here from his Twitter).

twitter.com/iamLilyTM/status/639376063655739392

Liam doesn't appear to have too much interest in running, but nonetheless got very upset that there are women-only runs, in addition to the thousands that are open to men.

He thinks this is similar to apartheid, or Rosa Parks being told to go to the back of the bus. twitter.com/iamLilyTM/status/637324189733666816 (August 2015)

Being kept out annoys Liam. (And a lot of other MRAs alike who get REALLY angry at not being allowed to join, despite their being literally thousands of other places to run.)

But wait! An idea! If Liam says he is a girl, he will be able to go wherever he likes including all those women-only runs he was so cruelly rebuffed from.

After all, at one time the Race for Life was able to be kept relatively man-free, as Cancer Research said:

<a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120528181520/raceforlife.cancerresearchuk.org/utilities/faqs/who-can-enter/index.html" rel="nofollow noindex" target="_blank">web.archive.org/web/20120528181520/raceforlife.cancerresearchuk.org/utilities/faqs/who-can-enter/index.html

"Under the Gender Recognition Act 2004 we are happy to accept entries from individuals who possess a female birth certificate or gender recognition certificate. However, as Race for Life is a female-only event we have a promise and responsibility to our female supporters to ensure our Race for Life events are represented by women only. Therefore, if you do not have either a gender recognition certificate or a female birth certificate, we are afraid you will not be able to participate in Race for Life. "

But this didn't last long! The Equality Act 2010 came along and it said

"A person has the protected characteristic of gender reassignment if the person is proposing to undergo, is undergoing or has undergone a process [of changing gender]". So anyone who is even THINKING about changing gender is protected, and you better be careful about crossing them.

So Raceforlife quickly deleted the requirement for a GRC, and just to confirm this.

twitter.com/CharlotteMedler/status/604486954785357824

"Hey @raceforlife what is your opinion on pre-op women running? Does having a wang mean I can't do it? Let me know, pls."

The reply:
"hello, transgender women are welcome to take part in our events, so we'd love to have you :)"

Message has got through loud and clear to Liam, a few months later Liam says he is a girl called Lily (this declaration isn't really accompanied by any action, though he has had one Gender clinic appointment, where he got some handouts about hormones).

He tells his school. Some people, including his younger sister, are unhappy about his behaviour.

But not to worry, he looks up 'solicitor' on Google, and finds a firm of solicitor who represent teenage Harry Potter fans wanting access to women & girls spaces, completely for free! www.buzzfeed.com/patrickstrudwick/this-trans-teen-threatened-her-school-with-legal-action-to-w Awesome! Free lawyers!Totally no consequences!

Emboldened, he moves on, with his MRA activity, getting a woman kicked kicked out of a neighbouring constituency Labour party:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5087503/All-Labour-officials-local-committee-resign.html

Then he's elected women's officer in his own CLP.

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

Then people point out that he seems to own a Twitter account with blowjob, rape, Jimmy Savile & curry jokes. He says it's fake then it's pointed out it's dated 2013 so unlikely to be, and finally he blames his younger brother for the acocunt and says his family is racist, sexist and homophobic and that's why he has moved on from them.

www.kentlive.news/news/kent-news/transgender-labour-womens-officer-rochester-817234

Said brother is not impressed and calls him out publicly for throwing him under the bus

twitter.com/madigan_smurf/status/933760359810428928

Lily/Liam is a big fan of Jeremy Corbyn, who for his own part has said that, as a genuine 100% authentic transwoman, Lily/Liam can do whatever he wants. www.facebook.com/MedwayLabour/posts/1506650112756340

As if all these weren't enough, he's now being sponsored for a Women in Leadership programme in by Tris Osborne, a (male, natch) Labour candidate in Luton. twitter.com/cllrtrisosborne/status/934368405993508864

Rosa Parks eat your heart out eh? Look who's got the last laugh now! Silly women wanting a race without men in it!

[PovertyPain]

That explains it, Pisa, 😄

How has it been explained that the issue of inheritance is exempt? What reasons have been given?

Because powerful men won't permit a woman to take their place. They know that tims/tifs are talking bollocks, but don't care because they, their wives or children, won't be affected in their ivory towers. It's not going to be a problem for as long as it doesn't impact on their lives. It actually shows how little politicians care about real people, especially women.

[MillicentFawcett]

@hackmum - I don’t think it’s about wool being pulled over eyes. The narrative is that if you say you’re a woman then you are. The moment you start questioning that, you’re a terrible transphobic.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

I wonder if somebody better at memes than I am (ie almost anybody) could do a compare and contrast thing on Twitter.

Woman says she's a man - establishment says 'That's nice, dear, but you're not a real man, of course, so your little brother will still become the Duke of Omnium with an automatic seat in the House of Lords'.

Man says he's a woman - establishment says 'Of course you are! Please have this women-only scholarship and do us the honour of competing for your country in your sport - we'll fast track you onto the national team, because your times are terrific compared to those mediocre ciswomen. And of course if you want to be a Woman's Officer in a political party, we'd be delighted. What better candidate could there be than someone who was male five minutes ago and is still male-bodied?'

[Battleax]

Because powerful men won't permit a woman to take their place. They know that tims/tifs are talking bollocks, but don't care because they, their wives or children, won't be affected in their ivory towers.

Which is why I think we should all be writing to the men-only establishments NOW to let them know that IF the GRA amendments go through, we'll be using them too.

That might sharpen a few privileged male minds and get conversation going in the reading rooms and on the golf courses.

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

I found these quotes very interesting

"Kristina Harrison, 52, a paramedic who was born male but transitioned 20 years ago, said that if the party really wanted to boost transgender representation, “the spaces and mechanisms really should be taken from men. They shouldn’t be taken from a fellow discriminated group. Yes, we need our own positive discrimination but it shouldn’t be done at the expense of women.”

"Another transgender woman, speaking anonymously for fear of reprisals, said: “I would not compete for a place on the Jo Cox scheme against women who had been socialised as girls. As a trans woman, my formative experiences were different and that needs to be recognised.”

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/trans-teenager-lily-madigan-applies-for-jo-cox-women-s-leadership-scheme-78vs7r2pj?shareToken=6ea7bc43791306a876d647e875072001

[hackmum]

Millicent: "I don’t think it’s about wool being pulled over eyes."

But surely people like Owen Jones can think? He doesn't have to go along, sheep-like, with this "transwomen are women" idiocy.

Gasp - excellent comparison. That is something we should tweet to OJ, actually. Does he support the right of women who identify as men to inherit over their younger brothers?

[PovertyPain]

At some time, in the future, a smart woman will say they are a man and end up taking the government to court for trans discrimination, when they are refused the right to primogeniture in the peerage. How are those in government going to defend this 'trans bigotry'? They will either have to publicly say that people can't 'really' change sex, which will cause an onslaught from the bullying activists or let a women claim primogeniture.

AND I CANT FUCKING WAIT! This will be the one and only time I will publicly support one of these fantasists. 😄

[AnotherSpartacus]

Which is why I think we should all be writing to the men-only establishments NOW to let them know that IF the GRA amendments go through, we'll be using them too.

I'm just waiting for the day when one of the teenage TIFs applies to Eton or one of the other all-boys prestigious public schools.

[Fairyflaps]

We could identify as men and apply for membership of the Savile Club, but I doubt they would admit us.
But the men only Savile Club are quite happy for a male member who now identifies as female to continue their membership.

Because if you are born male, you can have it all ways. That's how privilege works.

[MillicentFawcett]

Owen Jones is deeply misogynist. Men are so pro trans because, deep down, a lot of them really, really hate women. And I think the women who are supportive find it really difficult to come to terms with that fact. So it’s easier to be pro-trans. You don’t have to do any critical thinking,you get to feel like you’re being liberal and you don’t have to face the fact that your male friends will march and demonstrate and rally for every other marginalised group bar yours.

[Superlandlady]

There is some higher Rochester Labour group meeting on 5th Dec, I believe and I hope they will rule Liam's candidature out of order and replace him with the woman he beat (by 4 votes) to become Women's Officer.

Liam should concentrate on his college work. He only started at university a month ago, having left school in July.

[Battleax]

Which uni is he at?

[pisacake]

He's at the University for the Creative Arts' (no, me neither) Rochester campus.

[Superlandlady]

What a pity Princess Anne wasn't born first.

[Battleax]

Ah.

[OlennasWimple]

Poverty - the argument in the House of Lords when the bill was discussed was along the lines of it not being fair to the younger brother who had been expecting to inherit the hereditary peerage. Because obviously it's not unfair on women that they can't inherit

There is a similar restriction on adopted children inheriting titles, to avoid a situation where an older boy is adopted, thus "depriving" his younger brother of the title that "should" have been his

But also I suspect fundamentally the Lords didn't buy into the "born into the wrong body" narrative, and are content for the plebs to play at changing gender provided it doesn't affect the people who really matter in any meaningful way

[OlennasWimple]

Super - the act of succession was changed just before Prince George was born so that if he had been a girl she would have been eligible to sit on the throne.

It wasn't made retrospective, which I don't have a problem with particularly.

[CertainHalfDesertedStreets]

Aren't there already two possessors of penises on the Jo Cox programme?

An interesting statistic - possibly slightly skewed to the non-vaginaed compared to gen pop?

[OlennasWimple]

Yup, Certain. Which is why I don't think that LM will be barred from taking part on grounds of not being a woman. They might decide that being 19 - or some other criteria - makes LM less suited to the scheme that other applicants, of course.

[Bucketsandspoons]

I look forward to hearing more from Liam/Lily regarding his passion for fundraising for breast cancer, and how in his post as women's officer for Labour he intends to move forward issues regarding FGM (oh, sorry, no, we can't talk about that can we?) and abortion (whoops, sorry, no that's another no no, horribly cis sexist) and care for women in labour (oh no, not that one either), child care issues and return to work after children (whoops, nother one off the list), the two women a week who die through domestic violence at the hands of their partners and the risk of violence in public spaces (nope, that's transphobic too) ....

Or was his interest in breast cancer purely limited to on principle ensuring that any space currently created by and for women has to signal their surrender to and welcome of trans identified men? And by 'women's officer' does he really mean women, or is this a 'if it doesn't centre transwomen it's not my feminism' thing and so his work will be to centre and further transwomen interests only?

[CertainHalfDesertedStreets]

Maybe 'being a lying little bastard who popped his brother under a bus to cover up for making rape jokes' will exclude him?

Only kidding! Obviously it won't!

[CertainHalfDesertedStreets]

It's odd that he wanted to run against breast cancer. What with breasts being, like, literally violent.

[kooshbin]

Gasp0de - it's not much shorter, but how about:

Woman says she’s now a man. Establishment says, “That’s nice, dear, but you’re not a real man, of course, so your little brother will still become the Duke of Omnium with an automatic seat in the House of Lords.”

Man says he’s now a woman. Establishment says, “Of course you are! Yes, you can have this women-only scholarship. Yes, you can compete in the Olympics women’s teams. And, yes, you can continue to be a member of that men-only club.”

[MaryMaryQuiteLovely]

He's enjoying it. Owen Jones 'defending' him

twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/934379743260106752

twitter.com/madigan_lily/status/934464138511880192

[Mummyoflittledragon]

Bucketsandspoons
It’ll be because men can get breast cancer as well. The others need not apply.