Times article on Mayday resignations from Labour

[RogerAllamsFangirl]

Women quit Labour over transgender row

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/2df7acca-4cbe-11e8-820c-9146b8a57671

Not sure if this is shared with a token. If not, could someone else do the honours please?

Using the Times app so can't see the comments.

Article with share token:
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/women-quit-labour-over-transgender-row-jlxpgtp0c?shareToken=320403ac11fa7060c6dcfc8b7e9c5d72

Great to have coverage. What never seems to get mentioned is:

• the people signing strongly support anyone considering themselves trans standing for election
• labour's actions are subject to a legal challenge as they are 'ahead of the law' and believed to be illegal

A party spokeswoman said: “All women shortlists are and always have been open to all women, which of course includes trans women.”

Such Orwellian bullshit.

Is there a link to the letter?

A party spokeswoman said: “All women shortlists are and always have been open to all women, which of course includes trans women, and women with penises."

There fixed it.

Surely it should be:

A party spokeswoman said: “All women shortlists are and always have been open to all women, which of course includes any man who says he's a woman."

Yes that's better.

Here's the letter to the editor

GRASSROOTS LABOUR REVOLT OVER ALL-WOMEN SHORTLIST
Sir, We are dismayed at the Labour Party’s support for sex as a self-identified characteristic for all- women shortlists (AWS). This position has been outlined in a legal letter to Jennifer James (a member of the Labour Party who is preparing to take legal action against Labour over AWS) without any debate or consultation with women members. The letter states: “The party’s position, as stated above, is that its AWS are open to all women, including trans women; and that trans women do not need a gender recognition certificate to participate in an AWS.” We now face a situation in which any man can simply claim to be a woman and be included on all-women shortlists.

Sex is not a self-defined characteristic and it is disingenuous for Labour to pretend that it is. Self-identity — “I am what I say I am” — reeks of male authority and male supremacy. In contrast, women are rarely believed about the sexual violence we face or about harassment on the streets and violence in the home. We are rarely listened to, as this very issue demonstrates. It is for that reason that we — alongside 300 other women — are resigning from the Labour Party today.

Councillor Louise Paine, St Ives and Penzance Constituency Labour Party (CLP); Jennifer Spencer-Welsh, chair of Clubmoor branch, Walton CLP; Pamela Osborn, former CLP secretary and Labour candidate for Spelthorne; Nicola Miller, former women’s officer, Bury St Edmonds CLP; Denise Wightman, former women’s officer for Loughborough CLP; Anne Ruzylo, branch vice-chair, former women’s officer for Bexhill & Battle CLP; Amanda Moore, former member of the National Labour Women’s Committee and a former member of National Constitutional Committee, Canterbury; Emma Flynn, Vale of Glamorgan CLP; I Hussain, Hackney South and Shoreditch CLP; Jo Bartosh, Gloucester CLP

Thank you Trousers