Labour councillor quits in row over facilities for trans people - The Times

[ReappearingWoman]

Anne Sinnot, Labour councillor (Cambridge) has resigned.

"Ann Sinnott stood down from Cambridge council claiming that the authority was treating women with contempt and was acting in “dereliction of the law”. She said a policy that resulted in single-sex facilities, such as toilets or changing rooms, being “abolished at a stroke” was undermining women’s rights and was a breach of the equality act."

I don't have a clicky link or share token. Hopefully someone else will add?

Couldn’t she have become an independent and therefore an opposition councillor?

Part of Anne Sinnott's comment as to why she decided to resign:

“Cambridge city council knowingly stands in dereliction of the law. I have no wish to be party to unlawfulness, nor will I collude in keeping this matter from Cambridge women, and other residents — they have the right to know. I do not want to be a member of a council that fails to recognise that female-only facilities are needed by women as a generality. Nor do I wish to be associated with a council that effectively treated Cambridge women with contempt, while it insidiously dismantled their rights.”

Move on; nothing to see here.

No.

I'm seeing plenty here, thanks, so I won't be moving on. I'll be discussing it.

Good for her to take such a principled stand.

"Sarah Brown, a transgender Lib Dem councillor who lost her seat to Ms Sinnott, put forward the policy. She is in a so-called polyamorous relationship with another Cambridge councillor".

LGBT Lib Dem have been after Sinnott for a while (with Lily Madigan, yes, of Labour, helping them).

Labour Sinnott beat Lib Dem Sarah Brown in the local council elections in May 2018.

Ann Sinnott tweets here: twitter.com/AnnMSinnott

Mossandclover

"Couldn’t she have become an independent and therefore an opposition councillor?"

Not really, since Ann would still have been bound by any council policy agreed.

Resigning as a councillor leaves Ann free to speak and act as she chooses as a free citizen.

What's the matter sarah are we seeing too much now...

Move along? No mate we sodding won't. Biology is not bigotry. I do not have to share someone else's delusion.

Good for Anne. However it is a shame tht seat will probably now go to someone who eityer doesn't give a shit about women or has a penis so won't affect him.

I used to be a Lib Dem voter. Not any more. As someone pointed out on here a while back, the thing that the Lib Dems are most interested in liberalising is where men can put their dicks

That seems to be all they care about, NameChanged.

"Yes, exactly. How and why have councils come to be acting unlawfully with regard to the protected characteristic of sex?"

Because despite all the years and all the legislation, society still does not generally value girls and women as people. We are valued as decorative objects, sexual objects, and most of all when we are quiet. Those that are not decorative and/ or do not display the required amount of submission to men are vilified. Still.

Can you imagine a council unilaterally removing any other protected characteristic from their documentation around discrimination and equality, so casually?

Although if this is the one I'm thinking of, it wasn't done casually, it was done intentionally by a trans woman on the council with the stated aim of opening up anything and everything female specific to trans women (and of course removing sex as a protected characteristic has potentially massive consequences in and of itself. Doesn't take a genius to see how).

All this call the police nonsense.

1. Women and girls rarely report " low level" sex offending/ aggression.
2. WTF are the police going to do? Fuck all. We all know this right? They don't come out for way worse than this. Is it a crime to say you are a woman in an aggressive manner in the ladies? Of course it fucking isn't. Jesus.
3. All this call the police stuff, because of points 1 and 2 above, the period who day it simply have no fucking idea about how things are, how things work, for women and girls
4. And further, the idea that a woman or a girl says " a man looked at me funny!" And the police immediately rush off and arrest him is straight out of the MRA handbook. They believe that women are highly protected, over react to normal men being normal, and can and do have men locked up on a word. This is of course utter shit.

Call the police indeed, what a load of old shit.

If anyone is in Cambridge, and wants to sue the council, I'd be happy to put in for a crowdfunder.

Maybe initial legal advice is the next step. Be worth a couple of grand for that anyway, I would suggest.

This bit stood out, for me.

nor will I collude in keeping this matter from Cambridge women, and other residents — they have the right to know

It would suggest that there was an atmosphere of ‘put up and shut up’. I strongly suspect Ann’s only option, in order to speak out, was to quit. I dare say, if she has tried to speak about the abuse of women’s rights, she would have been labelled a transphobe and accused of some wrong doing, of some sort, in order to get rid of her. The only way, this brave woman could speak out, was to sacrifice her own job.

Thank you Ann, for having more courage than those on your council, that agree with you, but are putting their own roles before the rights and safety of women.

Its a cross-party issue and I believe the focus is best directed to those who have lobbied so successfully, especially when the results of the lobbying are to remove protections and rights from others.

Its not just a matter for the LibDems, all political parties and many councils have been affected.

Apologies for spelling your name wrong Anne. Force of habit, due to friend with same name, different spelling.

I think it is Ann.

I imagine that Ann has plans for how she is going to keep addressing this issue. After all, you don’t take a principled stand on something and then forget about it. Really looking forward to seeing her take on this issue publically and without the constraints of political office

Popchyk

Yes .. it's double consonants throughout, apart from the 'S'

Ann Sinnott ... cheer her name!

A very principled stand Anne - thank you for standing up and speaking on this issue.

Right: where now? A council is removing one of the protected categories under the EA - which is illegal sarahAr, so yes there IS something to see here, just as there would be if the council decided they were going to remove disability or religious belief as a protected category - they’re breaking the law.

Legal action? Widespread publicity? What Anne has said is sensible and correct - more people need to hear it.

Darn also spelt wrong! Sorry Ann!

Well done that woman.

I think that quitting before you are expelled is exactly the right thing to do when

a) the grounds for expulsion are likely to be spurious
b) when you want to add to the voices of those already treated in such a way
c) when you need to take control of the narrative in a way that has been willfully prevented up to this point
d) you are appalled by the unlawful, unprincipled way your organisation is behaving

Well done Ann. Thank you.

Move on; nothing to see here.

If this is SarahAR's response to two incidences of women being intimidated and silenced in women-only space by males, with the expectation that it's those women who will have to withdraw from public life to make way for those males, then that tells us everything we need to know about SarahAr.

We see you.

Oh bugger! Sorry for confusing people. The spelling was correct the first time.