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

Brilliant points by Hackmum.

Thank you David!

I am 29 pages late to this party but I just wanted to pop in and say a huge "Thank you" to you David. Whilst you may have been suspended hopefully the discussion of that will assist in shaking out how unworkable the policy is and the hypocrisy and misogyny of the labour party in dealing with this issue. I certainly feel you would have been much more representative of me than Lily Madigan is or has been.

The more men who are willing to self-identify as
women in order to shine a light on this issue the better because unfortunately it seems that women's voices have been drowned out and silenced in this "debate that is not allowed to happen".

Thank you!

Just searched Twitter for David Lewis and terf. This was the only result.

One, and it didn't even directly call him a terf. Compare and contrast to the ManFriday chaps. I can't believe David hasn't even been mass reported to the police!

Being catcalled, sexually-assaulted, blamed for your rape, called "hysterical" for objecting to porn on a tshirt at a conference, ignored, and talked over in meetings. All of which are things done to you by others because of your female sex, not things done to you because of how you identify.

bd67th How do you know there aren't trans women that have had those things done to them because they have been perceived as the female sex both socially and bodily?

That's not the point. It doesn't happen to women because of how we identify, it happens because we are female.

And TIMs that genuinely pass that well are not that common.

Hum, I seem to increasingly not 'living as a woman' as I get older. I even put the bins out today.

How do you know there aren't trans women that have had those things done to them because they have been perceived as the female sex both socially and bodily?

That’s not the points she’s making. She’s saying that regardless of how one presents there are some things that can ONLY happen to biological women. Being fired when you’re pregnant for example.

to be fair I do see my trans colleague being mansplained at, talked over, undermined, undervalued.

So there are some experiences she has that are very similar to those we have. There is overlap.

But not the bio stuff obviously.

Kudos my friend

Lol super match.... if those things are done to a transwoman then it IS because of how they identify.

It shouldn’t be done to anyone but the point is it happens to women no matter how they identify and where it happens to transwomen it is happening as a direct result of identifying as part of the group that is subject to this crap.

Again. Massive missing of point by SMG

For goodness sake SMG

If it's happening to passing TIMs it's because they pass as female or because they are choosing to 'identify' as the class of people this happens to and society is treating them as such. Note that transmen, who are biologically female, still typically experience female discrimination despite trying to identify their way out of it.

Experiencing transphobic abuse, worrying about having to tell a potential partner that you were born male, trying to pass, not knowing which toilet to use, coming out to family/spouse, trying to find 'womens' clothes and shoes that fit a male body, these are all experiences only transwomen have and don't share with women, why would lumping both groups together and describing them as 'women' make any kind of sense and help any of us with these experiences?

How do you know there aren't trans women that have had those things done to them because they have been perceived as the female sex both socially and bodily?

It may well have happened. And I’m sure many transwomen get stared at and abusive comments in the street all the time.

Two things:

1. women get this all the fucking time from the age of about 10 until they are over 45 (then you become invisible). Women can’t identify out of it.
2. the problem here is unpleasant abusive men. And while transwomen are treating women as the enemy (and vice versa) we are forgetting about the mutual enemy we have.

And while transwomen are treating women as the enemy (and vice versa) we are forgetting about the mutual enemy we have.

Yep

But most of those things can be and are experienced by some trans women, particularly if they've changed their hormones, face and body because they are perceived as female most of the time. Perhaps the issue here is that you don't really think there are that many that are?

If they are perceived as women by those around them and are treated in the same ways as non trans women, then they are experiencing many of the same discriminatory oppressive behaviours for the same reasons. It is not their identity that is being perceived as female it is their physical actuality. Those around (some of) them don't necessarily know that they don't have female chromosomes.

The only thing that has been mentioned that they can't experience is discrimination based on pregnancy and female reproduction. And not all women experience that.

Apart from the small detail of the stuff that the catcalling etc was a response to:
'What, in the 21st century U.K. constitutes 'living as a woman'? Other than making use of sex specific facilities, or doing things specific to female biology (menstruating, gestating, giving birth, breast feeding, having hot flushes.....) there is surely nothing now which is more than a mere stereotype.'

...what a woman is , rather than how other people behave towards her.

But not for their entire lives, SuperMatchGame. Not at the age of 10. Not while in a school uniform. Not while pregnant. Not while pushing a pram.

Every woman knows how that feels.

Transwoman have their own problems, they have their own fight to fight and I stand with them, but don’t throw women under the bus in the process.

Nope, sometimes they are being treated badly because misogynistic homophobic men hate them for betraying manhood. If they get treated badly because men don’t notice they are trans and identify them as women what is happening is that those men’s identification of them matches how they identify themselves.

That does not for one second imply that they would like or are seeking to be treated that way. It is simply an entirely different dynamic to the experience of a woman.

It is a transwoman’s experience.

Money is a social construct. But we don't allow individuals to write "I promise to pay the bearer on demand of the sum of £10" in biro on a blank piece of paper and take it into a shop. We have agreed legal rules about what counts as money and what doesn't. Nationality is a social construct - but you're not going to get far applying for a passport with a hand-written note saying 'I identify as British' rather than your actual birth certificate.

This point (about social constructs needed social agreement) is so important

Also, another thought that occurred to me a little while ago, is that transsexuals are somewhat similar to first generation immigrants, who in many polls are the most insistent that new immigrants to the UK follow the rules and do everything by the book - they did it that way, they think it should be that way for everyone and anyone trying to subvert the system will ruin it for everyone else as well

I think what makes me angry about this, is in the UK, we have a history of making political points by standing for office in bizarre manners.

Why isn't David allowed to stand as a woman, but 'Lord Bucket Head' is allowed to run? Which is really more ridiculous? Which is making a clearer point? Who's really making a mockery there?

Sorry if this has already been posted but Guardian (or perhaps CIF) opinion piece on David Lewis and the Labour party:

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/23/woman-wednesdays-transphobic-labour-trans

I wish that Guardian article was open to comments. I have every sympathy with its author who does indeed come across as genuinely dysphoric. But the article still doesn't address the question of how in legal terms or in practical terms we ajudicate that a claim is being made in bad faith or for malicious purposes.

I personally can't see a difference between David and P Bunce (who I seem to remember has been fêted in the Graun). And as for the malicious intent bit, (a) that doesn't work till after the fact which is too bloody late and (b) given that there are male bodied sex offenders who have identified as female, been moved to the female estate, then had to be moved for sexually assaulting other female inmates, I simply don't believe such a criterion would be applied even after the fact (because no-one bloody cares about male sexual violence, even if they pay lip service to the idea).

So, in a nutshell, please someone on the other side tell me what the relevant difference is between David and P Bunce?

as for the malicious intent bit

Because, in this world, it is only possible to have malicious intent against trans people. Malicious intent against women doesn't exist is the righteous status quo.

Jane Fae comments in The Sun.

www.thesun.co.uk/news/6368126/labours-womens-officer-david-lewis/#comments