"People Who Oppose Trans Rights Have No Place In Labour," Says The First LGBT Mayoral Adviser

[RadicalFern]

Andy Burnham, Mayr of Greater Manchester, has hired an advisor, Carl Austin-Behan, to help him think of what to do about "the row" over All-Women shortlists. Austin-Behan's solution? Party members who campaign against trans women being fully accepted as women should no longer be allowed in the party.

Austin-Behan described opposition as "Utter rubbish; if people are trans women, then they are women.”

www.buzzfeed.com/patrickstrudwick/people-who-oppose-trans-rights-have-no-place-in-labour-says?utm_term=.mdWBWxEelr&bftwuk#.mkdLwq18nP

warmwishes

I live in a different GM borough so I’m not well versed on the individual view of Manchester City cllrs - however, the Manchester Feminist Network is GC and will likely have some information. Worth contacting them.

I think it might be worth trying to gain some direct access to AB as a small group - he loves to do the ‘rolled up shirt sleeves, cup of tea with a community collective’ type photo shoots!

For this new generation of arrogant, synthetic hormone fuelled poseurs I have zero empathy.

👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Twitter comment re Jess Bradley ( currently suspended by NUS pending investigation) & Eden Ladley (NUS officer / Young Labour speaker.)

Includes Ladley's part in protest outside Julie Bindel's 'Pimping of Prostitution' book talk in Sheffield, Nov 2017
twitter.com/djandyhealey/status/1027630428549795841

current thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3325623-Jess-Bradley-a-government-advisor-on-womens-rights-suspended-by-NUS-over-indecent-blog-Part-iii

Oh my god @ Eden.

So many prominent people advocating for trans stuff seem to be pretty heavily shonky on anything to do with womens stuff ie cunty women's stuff

Lots of them down on activism around abortion & other reproductive rights & issues
The NHS advisor forget the name, is RC and actively against abortion rights I believe

This is another excellent reason that very careful consideration should be given before giving transwomen roles advocating for cunty women. There seems to be at best a gap in really grasping stuff and at worst an active desire to suppress women's ability to talk & do activism and sometimes even a desire to push back on the rights we do have.

The equivalence of abortion issues around the world with sperm storage for transwomen who have surgery is similar to the equivalence that is drawn between FGM and cisrumcision. They are NOT the same, the issues come about for different reasons, they have different roots and drivers, do NOT conflate them, it does not help. Fight by all means and maybe I will support you but not if you do this frankly MRA tactic which boils down to "what about the men".

Lots of them down on activism around abortion & other reproductive rights & issues
The NHS advisor forget the name, is RC and actively against abortion rights I believe

Tara Hewitt. She gave this interview in 2016.
Member of the Conservative party rather than Labour:
(extract from article)

"Tara was on the Conservative Party candidate list in the last election and came under fire when a Sun report ‘revealed’ her sexual fetishes.

Hewitt reportedly described herself as an “advocate of the BDSM (bondage, discipline and sadomasochism) community”, and into “swinging” and “pet play”, which is dressing up as an animal for sex." (continues)

www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/what-its-like-transgender-catholic-10810323

Sue Pascoe who was recently announced as taking up a role with Channel 4 has also expresssed a hope to become a Conservative MP.
thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3331095-Channel-4-appoints-a-new-advisor-on-inclusion

Christine Burns (Press for Change) also active long-standing Conservative Party member, Guardian interview 2013:
"In the 90s, when she was chair of the Women's Supper Club of the local Conservative party association in Cheshire, she quietly joined Press for ChangeEven then, the new activists dared not be openly trans. "The thing that held us back in the 1990s campaigning was that fear of being out," admits Burns. Eventually, she came out in 1995; she jokes that she realised she was more embarrassed to be a member of the Conservative party than openly transsexual.. "
www.theguardian.com/society/2013/jan/22/voices-from-trans-community-prejudice

'TERF WAR: THE LABOUR PARTY MUST SUPPORT TRANS JUSTICE'
by HUDA ELMI 3RD AUGUST 2018
(extract)
"As a candidate for Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC), I have received a torrent of emails from members asking about my position on the “sex-based” rights of women. These questions come at a time when the Party is becoming ever more consumed in fraught and at times violent debate over the Gender Recognition Act (GRA), a landmark piece of legislation that serves as a pathway for trans people to have their identity legally recognised. (continues)

concludes:
So why is the debate heating up now? If the sex-based rights of women are allegedly under threat because of reform to GRA, why weren’t they under threat when it was passed as legislation in 2004? This conversation doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and it wasn’t simply initiated by plans to reform the GRA.

Instead, it is possible that we can trace increased levels of overt transphobia back to the increased and much-needed visibility of transgender people in mainstream discourse. As writer and artist Shon Faye suggests in a piece for the Guardian in May 2018, “Since 2013, it has felt like trans visibility has increased at breakneck speed”. From Caitlyn Jenner to Munroe Bergdorf, trans people have broken the political sound barrier with demands for long-overdue cultural recognition and equality. However, as Faye continued: “when trans people are elevated to visibility, not everyone’s reaction is to be kind”.

“Granting others greater legislative protection does not erode your own”

It is therefore disingenuous to narrow conversations within the Labour Party to simply being rooted in All-Women Shortlists, GRA reform or women’s officer positions. Instead, resistance to equality is being driven by discriminatory Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist (TERF) orthodoxy, one that has always set itself in opposition to transgender rights.

I can’t accept this “Trojan Horse” narrative created by TERFs who want to make mainstream the unevidenced suggestion that increased rights for transgender people will lead to the infiltration and ultimate destruction of feminism as a movement. Granting others greater legislative protection does not erode your own. We have to move away from conspiracy theories that exploit the emotional discomfort of women, namely fears of sexual assault.

Within a party that prides itself in being home to radical emancipatory politics and with a rich history of organising against economic and social prejudice, it has been disappointing to see some lobby for regression. It can never be either/or without us all losing."

gal-dem.com/terf-war-labour-party-trans-justice/

thread about article above:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3332495-gal-dem-article-anyone-read-it

"Ban Anti-LGBTQ+ material from schools."
This is on the government petition website. I posted about it on the Harrop thread.
To recap;
The map that shows the distribution of petition signatures across the country tend to form into clusters in areas where people are activists. This particular petition, which is new, had about 330 signatures to date.
A snapshot of numbers is as follows...
Derbyshire Dales 1 signature
Maldon 1 signature
Canterbury 1
Bridgewater 1
Orkney 1
Lancaster 1
NW Norfolk 1
Torridge and Devon 1

There's many more, 330 signatures in a online petition, across the country , one signature at a time.
Are they all in their rooms feeling lonely or is it something to do with the Labour Party.?

Interesting on Tara, R0wantrees!

Am I being paranoid that I can't seem to find the original Sun 2014 article which describes Tara's S&M activities? I could find Breitbart report plagiarized from the Sun, but the link doesn't work.

Havent read this thread but it would seem that poorer people have no place in Labour either!

www.thecanary.co/trending/2018/08/09/an-inspiring-activist-has-been-deselected-as-a-labour-council-candidate-simply-because-shes-poor/

Instead, it is possible that we can trace increased levels of overt transphobia back to the increased and much-needed visibility of transgender people in mainstream discourse. As writer and artist Shon Faye suggests in a piece for the Guardian in May 2018, “Since 2013, it has felt like trans visibility has increased at breakneck speed”. From Caitlyn Jenner to Munroe Bergdorf, trans people have broken the political sound barrier with demands for long-overdue cultural recognition and equality. However, as Faye continued: “when trans people are elevated to visibility, not everyone’s reaction is to be kind”.

I think that is bang on. Men have represented and spoken for women for many hundreds of years and after fighting tooth and nail to be able to represent ourselves women are suddenly confronted with dozens of privileged white males claiming to be the right choice to speak for and represent women because they identify as women.

Only a fool would be surprised that women all over the country are saying eff that for a game of soldiers.

"Ban Anti-LGBTQ+ material from schools."

Is this another attempt to stop distribution of Transgender Trend's Schools' Toolkit?

That reminds me - I need to donate again and get a couple of copies of the TGT schools toolkit to take along to my safeguarding update training in October.

I’m a safeguarding lead in a large LA and it’ll be good opportunity to share the resource with my colleagues

Helena

Cllrs who owe council tax aren’t allowed to vote on financial issues - not sure if that’s just a MCR thing or not, but it’s caused problems here in the past, so i’m not surprised a candidate who owes money would be replaced (almost all of MCR city council is labour so a selected candidate is very likely to be elected).

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/manchester-councillors-owning-council-tax-11426134

*Ban Anti-LGBTQ+ material from schools."
^^This
Shutting down debate again.

I have looked at the map again and it has changed.
It may have been a blip, but somehow I doubt it.

"People Who Oppose Trans Rights Have No Place In Labour,"

My response: People Who Oppose Women's Rights Have No Place In Government.

It seems that the petition is indeed aimed at Transgender Trend's school toolkit though it is deliberately not named following 'advice':

twitter.com/Neverfallingfo1/status/1028226205256957952

Recent attempts to prevent crowdfunding:

OP ItsAllGoingToBeFine "According to Andrew Gilligan:

Crowdfunder has told me that Transgender Trend's resource pack "does not break our terms and conditions" and its fundraiser will be reinstated. Big victory against trans lobby bullies."

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3271219-Transgender-Trend-crowdfunder-to-be-reinstated

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3265524-Transgender-Trend-Crowdfunder-suspended

The usual TRA sad sacks who watch MN have set this petition up. It is blatantly targeting TGT but they are not naming it and have disingenuously badged the petition as against "anti LGBT" materials and are crowing about how terribly clever they are. Who could possibly oppose that? They've also got virtue signalling, woker than woke misogynist Neville Southall to retweet it which of course he did. Hence the jump in signatures from his idiot followers.

Here's a reminder of what a nice upstanding man he is:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-499399/Footie-legend-sues-daughter-return-trophies.html

At some point they will have to name check TGT if this petition gets a positive response from government or no one will know that they need to remove it. Then this might backfire on them like the Crowdfunder challenge did.

Also apparently signed so endorsed & promoted by Sue Pascoe who was recently announced 'Inclusion Adviser' for Channel 4:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3331095-Channel-4-appoints-a-new-advisor-on-inclusion

So why is the debate heating up now? If the sex-based rights of women are allegedly under threat because of reform to GRA, why weren’t they under threat when it was passed as legislation in 2004?

Because all of the women who warned that the law was so poorly written that it would be used to violate women's rights were dismissed.
This has been another edition of simple answers to disingenuous questions asked by persons who dismissed those women's concerns.

Also, back then, the law was written for 5,000 likely registrants.

This time, the estimate is half a million likely registrants.

when trans people are elevated to visibility, not everyone’s reaction is to be kind

Ffs, why is it everyone's responsibility to be 'kind'? These are people, not children or rescued kittens. Clue Jane: people who are gay/ disabled/ BAME/ female/ etc have fought for centuries to be accepted as equals and be treated the same as white men are. They did not fight for white men to be 'kind' to them, that is the precise oppression and patronisation that inequality is built on! Those people have turned up in public, been themselves whether or not people were ready for it, dealt with the fact that some people behaved like prats towards them and fought on until those people got over it and took them seriously. Centuries of this kind of courage has got equality to its current point.

And the hallmark of equality is that if you speak a lot of bollocks in public as many of those named people so frequently do, you get called out on it like anyone else would. Wanting to be granted 'kindness' (exemption from equal critical response) because you're from a 'special group'.... oh what a giveaway.

What's with all the "be kind" low grade bullying.

Reminds me of school when incompetent Teachers made you be kind to the bully and play nicely, which means "stop complaining and do as the bully wants".

Fuck being kind, I can't be doing with listening to bullshit and putting myself in danger for some rubbish leader and someone who would be better placed mansplaning in a therapy session.

Also apparently signed so endorsed & promoted by Sue Pascoe who was recently announced 'Inclusion Adviser' for C4

Pascoe has been really going for the schools pack telling outright untruths eg that it is advocating conversion therapy for 'the wider LGBT community' and trying to persuade senior politicians it should be banned from schools.

.…when trans people are elevated to visibility, not everyone’s reaction is to be kind.

I noticed this part of the comment particularly too. Women are always being exhorted to be "kind", meaning that they feel we must do whatever those making demands on us want, and with a gracious feminine smile to accompany our acquiescence.

Sometimes I wonder if the fury TRAs display towards women who deny that TWAW is partly because they expect us to react in certain feminine ways and to kindly endorse them. I'm not putting this very well. Perhaps someone else could interpret it better.