I went to see my MP today

[speakingwoman]

It went ok thanks to a practice thread on mumsnet.

I started by clearly saying that my concern was women’s rights and described my own personal journey. Praised parliament for the relatively recent coercive control/domestic violence legislation.

I brought up the “people with a cervix” cancer research piece and said my concern was about ordinary women and girls.

I stuck to saying we needed to uphold the equality act and said we’d made a mistake by not defining woman as the female sex earlier and keeping it separate from all the debates about gender.

He said he’d reflect.

Well done.

Well done. Do you have a link to the practice thread, only I'm due to see my MP soon.

Well done you.

Thanks. I’m not that good at this sort of thing (I tend to spot connections and wander off to a different point or I tend to get too focussed on being nice). So I’m reasonably pleased.
I think he knows very little about the subject so I’m happy I stuck to the one big thing -that we need to keep and/or create a definition of woman that means woman because there is a threat to our rights.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3296028-I-contacted-my-MP-now-Im-not-sure-what-to-say

One practical difficulty was how to begin without an apologetic “I’m not transphobic but....” type statement. I was able to explain how my trans friend has been pulled more into transactivism and that had made me more curious and then concerned so that was a good way to convey it.

I said I had concluded that I needed to support the right of women to exclude my friend from protected spaces even if that was hurtful for my friend. I wish I had gone on to say that the people who need to exclude her are unlikely to have the confidence to do so.....

I avoided all the specialist vocabulary and I’m really glad I did.

Well done

Good for you

Well done. That’s a really great thing to have done and so happy that your thread helped you. Positive democratic engagement in action!

Well done speakingwoman That's a significant and important thing you've done.

:)

Good for you op!

Nice one, OP!

Thanks Speaking.

It sounds like you presented a very measured discussion and given him plenty to consider.

👏👏👏👏

Well done. I think I wouldn't mention trans people, transphobia etc at all. Keep the focus on women and girls and what we need. Don't make it anti-other people, make it pro-us.