Labour against transphobia group - thread 2

[QuentinSummers]

Follow on from
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3144285-Labour-Against-Transphobia-Facebook-group?msgid=75082467#75082467

Yes, I've just had that email, Bump - but I do get regular labour party emails, I think I signed up for them when Ed was running.

It's offering me a placard saying "We won't stop until women are fully represented" - which is a laugh, because the current thinking in the labour party is that anyone can be a woman, if they say so.

Mumsnet makes the Spectator.
blogs.spectator.co.uk/2018/02/jeremy-corbyn-has-a-new-enemy-mumsnet/

this is a follow-up to this article last week
blogs.spectator.co.uk/2018/02/can-we-have-an-honest-debate-about-gender/

Well done us.

Wow! We rock.

Jennifer James seems to be having a chip at Kirkup for that article. Link here but I'll also post some screen shots - twitter.com/msjenniferjames/status/963099051301498881

He’s painted himself into a corner, for sure, but Jeremy Corbyn believes TIMs are women as much as I believe in the existence of the tooth fairy.

Jennifers adoration of Corbyn shines through constantly. But surely she can see that he is really really wrong on this issue and that its totally fair (and actually a good thing) for publications to point this out. He may end up changing his mind/the labour stance. Especially with the huge drop in the polls from women voters

I wondered if he's spoken to her about her suspension?
I don't think he gives a toss about her, or indeed any women.
Her loyalty is not returned, for sure.

Jennifers adoration of Corbyn shines through constantly.

See, I can almost empathise with this. Almost!

I am (so over 'I identify as') a member of the hard(ish) left. My philosophical leanings tend heavily towards anarchism, and I'm definitely a socialist in every sense that matters, including a practical one. It's such a hard one to let go of, on an emotional level.

Having said that, I've never bought into the JC hype. It might have been the fact that, as an atheist, I inherently mistrust any Messiah figure - particularly one with these particular initials - or it might all be down to everything I do all day long being about dealing with complexity and my resulting suspicion of the 'simple' solutions offered by populism. Either way, JC just didn't work for me!

OTOH, I'd love to fall for the delusion that the words of the likes of Emma Goldman could become lived reality. I long for the kind of world she evoked in her writings, and I'd be willing to sacrifice to make it happen.

Long story short: JJ is horribly wrong on this one - but I can kind of understand where she's coming from and I have a very hard time condemning her for it.

But she's dead wrong on that one!

Urgh. Does JJ really think that JC doesn't know what it happening in the party, and he would stop it all if only was aware?

Seems very, um, naive to me...

There's an update on the GoFundMe account www.gofundme.com/fighting-for-female-representatives?viewupdates=1&rcid=r01-151854139015-09a61d28d5f44d5b&utm_source=internal&utm_medium=email&utm_content=cta_button&utm_campaign=upd_n

JJ has started the process of paying solicitors for first moves.

TERF I've never bought into the JC hype

I voted for him as leader but didn't go for the hype. Said "Um... he's not the messiah!" many times.

But right now, it's a very weird feeling to have to let go of that hope.

It strikes me as being the same process whereby one realises that that lovely bloke is actually an abuser... JJs presumably still in the denial stage.

really glad Jennifer has begun the process.
I'm hoping this will be resolved by next election 2019 so I won't have to think about it...I'm in denial.
If you are in an area with local elections in 2019 candidates are being chosen in the next few months.

There's a counter crowdfunder raising funds for unspecified trans groups including Mermaids. Not doing too well. www.gaystarnews.com/article/fighting-transphobic-feminists-with-crowdfunding/

A smarter move would be to list his chosen 'charities' and let people donate direct to avoid all those charges.
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Hey all. New here and not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I received an email last night from my local CLP branch of Young Labour about an upcoming event they're putting on featuring Lily Madigan, and I thought it might be relevant to this discussion. The text is copy and pasted below:

"New allegations of transphobia emerging from the Labour party seem to be emerging what feels like every other day. As [my CLP] Young Labour we are proud to say very simply that transgender women are women and transgender men are men. We need to fight back against the TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminism) culture which dates back decades.

We will be joined by:

Lily Madigan, the first trans women’s officer in a CLP, who’s election to this position has seemed to cause a lot of controversy. Roz Kaveney, a writer who’s work is best known for critical works about pop culture and being a core member of the Midnight Rose collective. Cayla Martin, a student at Brunel University London, who is the vice-president of the Brunel Branch of Labour Students."

I was furious to receive this for a number of reasons, not least because Lily Madigan continues to utilise a women's chair position to exclusively centre the trans narrative while purging women from the party and ignoring women's issues. But my initial reaction was mainly incredulous: really, your top priority is demonising radical feminists as public enemy number one? Why is LM's entire platform based on strawmanning radical feminist arguments and fighting "TERFs", with nary a word about the actual bigoted, homophobic MEN who do actual physical harm to trans people due to gender nonconformity? It's abundantly clear that this isn't even about actually protecting trans people anymore, it's just about silencing and censoring women.

Well you could argue that your CLP is at least being honest in their goals and motivations.....

Issuing an invitation to come and "debate" so we can seek out the party TERF's.

I am surprised LM has the time though tbh based on all the canvassing she's undertaking to rally against Nick Davis and the great "secret" plan where all TERF's presumably anyone whose asked any difficult questions or has disagreed with the LM narrative will "get what they deserve".

Maybe you could ask LM why not a single one of the120+ tweets made since being elected as women's officer as actually been about women's issues?

Oh yes - that will make you a TERF....

I agree, but don't even think it's an invitation for debate. It's just an arrogant blanket expectation that we will all accept the new 'party line' as outlined above, and we'll be talked at by LM and co as such. No desire to actually hear women's actual nuanced opinions or voices - easier to just brand us a TERFs, censor us and oust us from Labour altogether. Just ultra-terrifying to see a 'women's officer' so gleeful about losing women from the party.

Roz Kavena is tweeting endlessly about Miranda Yardley's "this is a man" tweets. Apparently it's a secret when a child is transed, no one would know ever that a girl had grown a beard or a boy had grown breasts unless Miranda told them this. No-one celebrates it with mermaid cake at school, it's all a hidden secret.

I get confused about the rules here.

Maybe you could ask LM why not a single one of the120+ tweets made since being elected as women's officer as actually been about women's issues?

I hate to say this but: don't, under any circumstances, do this unless you can definitely afford to be 'outed' and publicly shamed! LM is evidently flippant and has a proven track record of lashing out!

We are all going to end up in prison for breaking all the new trans laws.

There is a massive young man behind the counter in the co-op with eye make up and painted nails. I honestly don't care, I was a punk, it was scarier out there when I was a kid, people spat on you. It's the overwrought mummies and girlfriends and lefty dudes that are annoying though, it's like the whole MMR panic all over again, this they are all going to die of dysporia nonsense.

Just as the man said, there are 4 billion men, 4 billion women and no, we don't give a shit about your pronouns, suck it up.
So the law is an arse, my money is on getting rid of the stupid fallacy that is the GRA, as its the source of all this bollocks in the first place.

@TERFousBreakdown

Agree - I was being flippant.

In all seriousness I think the only possible course of action is not to attend and encourage other women in the CLP not to do so either.

There's nothing you can possibly say that's going to derail their agenda, so best reduce the audience for their Orwellian newspeak.

No, don't worry - I won't be tweeting at LM nor attending. Just so frustrated and baffled that they've strawmanned and villainised our argument to such an extent that anti-"TERF" emails and events like this are totally normalised and accepted. As if this rhetoric is in any way helping to protect trans people from actual violence, let ALONE promoting women's issues as a woman's rep should be doing.

@DarthArts, I'm actually all in favour of taking a public stance - after careful consideration of potential consequences and their impact.

It's not a bad idea at all, especially not coming from someone with a certain amount of gravitas and leadership potential. Seeing as veritable icons have been squashed by the oncoming TRA agenda steam engine, though, I certainly don't fancy my chances or those of my fellow mere-mortals!

It might be worth sending a copy of the email to Janice Turner and other gender critical columnists.

It's a very serious issue.

Women are being bullied out of the party and afraid to voice their opinions.

It's bizarre. There used to be informative discussions and debates at my CLP - over a wide variety of topics where the discussion of the merits of party policy was openly welcomed.

Post momentum world and anything but the "party line" on any topic (and especially self I'd) is more reviled than if you stood up and declared yourself Tory.

It's frighteningly cult like.

It's frighteningly cult like.

The word you're looking for, specifically in the context of leftist politics, is 'Stalinist'.

And, yes, it is!