Guess how I got suspended from the Labour Party?

[IAmDavidLewis]

Well, one of the weirdest days in my life concluded with me receiving a letter informing me of my immediate suspension from the Labour Party. They believe I may have breached the rules by subverting the intention of All Women Shortlists, Women’s Officers or minimum quotas for women. Unfortunately, this does mean that my political ambitions are on hold for a while. I shall of course be continuing to self-identify as a woman every Wednesday, as that is my gender identity...

I have to say a huge thanks to @namechangeah for all her help, guidance and, more importantly, proof-reading! I wouldn’t have gotten to this point without it. I’d also like to thank everyone for their support today. I hope this has helped a bit.

And the Telegraph called me an “activist”! Achievement unlocked

Mumsnet getting a mention will at least hopefully divert a few new people onto this board and hopefully will be able to see what the issue with Self-ID is a lot clearer.

*NB I'm not a very quick typist so do hope people will listen to the interviews for themselves,. Apologies for any inaccuracies.

JV is now raising the incident at Speaker's corner.

Taking call from trans man. He is discussing the medical steps he has taken.
JV asking if more M to F.
The caller is saying that he is unhappy with Linda saying that transitioning is 'trendy'.
Caller discussing family responses .

Typical Owen Jones - twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/999205045882249216

Caller says 'women are people with wombs'
Next caller describing their child and their pain, 'their daughter is now their son'. She is a feminist and 'embaressed by comments.
Talks of how upsetting and raises suicide.
'Its not a choice'

Caller with trans son saying that there's more to being a woman than genitalia, no one chooses it, it's not trendy, the suicide rate is dropping at the same rate as people are allowed to transition (!)

I get that she's been to hell and back, but who has been feeding her this nonsense. It's appalling that she has had this misinformation around a profound and shocking life experience.

Link to current thread re Jeremy Vine show:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3257060-Jeremy-Vine-show-today-will-discuss-Labour-policy-on-self-id-and-David-Lewis

It’s bemiseing to listen to people insist being a woman isn’t about biology.

I felt very sorry for the mother just on radio 2...but surely even though women aren’t ‘just’ genitals, it is those genitals and reproductive organs that have caused women to be oppressed throughout history?

How else do they explain that? Why else were women the exploitable sex?

Did they wear pink mammoth fur?

Did Ceasar really hate them always going shopping?

Did the witches plaster their faces in herby make up?

How did those men, throughout history, always manage to single out women for oppression. How did they tell the difference between you and men if genitals and reproductive function have nothing to do with it?

Women are not 'just' genitals, but it is those genitals and reproductive organs that defines them as a woman.

Beyond that, they are much more, just the same as men are. (and they have men's genitals)

I think the point is that people are more than their genitals, and their behaviour and appearance shouldn’t be restricted by their genitals... but the difference between men and women is pretty much their genitals and other reproductive organs.

It’s bemiseing to listen to people insist being a woman isn’t about biology.

All you need is a pink hoodie and you're gold.

If all women have different experiences and being a woman has no connection to genitals then the word ‘woman’ is synonymous with ‘human’.

Some serious transphobia going against David Lewis if you search the name on twitter. People are even questioning his gender identity, suggesting his right to self-ID is less valid than others.

Hope he gets some more support to defend him from the transphobes and keep twitter a safe space.

"The debate is not mine to have, but if my actions have prompted it, then I hope the opportunity is used well."

I think that's right. I met Richard Herring recently of "when is international men's day?" fame and apparently he gets invitations to speak/appear as a result of what he does but errs on the side of declining which I think is the right decision....

I think the point that Jane Fae made about how women had different life experiences and one couldn't for example compare the lived experience of a 'poor' woman to the Queen may actually illustrate the opposite. That in respect to being a girl and woman, biology is the shared experience regardless of wealth, occupation etc.

The Queen is also a woman and mother.

Not at all. I think only a few people would take advantage of legal self id.

How could somebody take advantage when self id has no definition?

That’s a bit like saying all property is theft, so we’re going to cancel all property law, but only a few people will take advantage. You wouldn’t be taking advantage if there were no longer criteria to define property.

exactly that R0wantrees... all those women have faced discrimination because of their sex, even the queen

How comes TRAs can never explain who will get to say what Self-ID is acceptable and what isn't? Who are these people that will have the right to say someone is abusing Self-ID?

If the Queen had had a younger brother, she would not have become Queen. He would have become King.

So the rule was, until very recently, that female royals are bypassed in favour of male royals.
A point of similarity there.

Absolutely rowan

Identity wise I have very little in common with the Queen (I appreciate corgis but on balance am more of a spaniel person) and have much more in common with many men.

The one thing I have on common with her is a female reproductive system and a common interest in how women’s health issues are managed.

Conversely, the thing that the Queen and a 'poor' women can never experience as opposed to Jane Fae is being a 'trans' woman.

One of the reasons we have pain relief in childbirth, contrary to what god allegedly decreed in genesis 3:16 was that Queen Victoria knew it was a darned good idea. Because she was a woman.

Queen Elizabeth I also a woman, though not a mother.

Who knows why QE1 never married, but I suspect part of the reason was that marriage meant forming an alliance and a man becoming King.

The role of a Queen was to produce an heir, and not many options to redefine yourself except to be a virgin.

#r2vine to comment on Jeremy Vine's show on Twitter

SarahAr:
You said that David is obviously not a self-identified woman because you were not sincere in your claim to have a female gender identity." However, at the moment, the self ID policy says absolutely cock all about 'sincerity'. I just read the NEC statement - it simply says that women, including "self-identifying trans women" are welcome to apply for women only positions. So where are you getting the idea that self-identified trans women must be 'sincere' in their identity? This, currently, isn't part of the self ID policy at all. More to the point, if Labour do introduce a sincerity clause, how on earth do you uphold and enforce that? If being a woman simply is a matter of declaring that one is a woman, and if that is the only condition, then by definition insincerity is a moot point.

Now, perhaps it might be said that a trans woman is one who has appropriate, real, feelings or beliefs about their gender identity; and these feelings and beliefs are such that when they declare 'I am a woman', that declaration is sincere and genuine. So, the idea would be, that a genuine trans woman has certain feelings (feels like a woman, feels dysphoric), and on that basis their self ID declaration is the real deal. There's just one problem with this. We have no way of telling who is a genuine trans woman and who is not. We don't have magical machines that can test the validity and strength of feelings.

For my part, I'd love to see a woman, a female, run for a woman's officer position and then publicly declare that she does NOT self ID as a woman. She would declare that she is biologically female, but that doesn't believe in gender theory and so repudiates the notion of self-identification.