Who's going to the WEP Conference this weekend? Fancy a thread?

[RhymesWithOrange]

I'm the only person I know going. I would be interested to get others MNers thoughts on the conference and the agenda as it happens.

And of course the emergency debate.

very young, freshly minted feminists with their sharp minds and glossy hair

Libfems or radfems? Also are there many men there?

There's both flavours. Lib and rad.

And some men, maybe 10% men?

Well you've both given it a good write up - and how wonderful to feel energised and inspired by good women. I really am ready to be persuaded.
I recognise that so many have been caught up with this toxic misogynist agenda and I am happy to listen if the WEP is centring women and able to be brave about the current threats. They're not the only political party been gaslighted as we know.
Enjoy your evening both.

It sounds really uplifting.

Do indulge in the wine and comedy.

The Guardian picked this up quickly:

www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/08/sandi-toksvig-reveals-60-qi-pay-gap-from-stephen-fry

Good

See, reading through this thread makes me realise how many important issues there are facing women at the moment, and how much the WEP could achieve - healthcare, benefits and poverty, work, pay and childcare, getting young girls into sport, etc etc...

And yet.

Absolutely NONE of that is possible if they can't differentiate between women and men-who-think-or-say-they-are-women.

And this is the impasse for me.

I really want to get involved, but I can't until they nail their flag to the mast on this issue.

I really want to get involved, but I can't until they nail their flag to the mast on this issue

This^

I don't know how to react to the pay gap Toksvig revealed.

Relative to Fry's filmography (including the popular Holmes films and his roles in US TV drama Bones) - what is Toksvig's profile like?

Similarly for Alan Davies - I realise he is a permanent panelist but how many years now? And I'm a little unclear of his post-Creek TV work.

Of course, if I understood such matters, I'd be able to understand Toksvig's negotiated salary or her agent's negotiations better and whether this is a good example of a gender pay gap or a perceived celebrity/star pay gap. :)

This thread is really heartening.

I've called them a chocolate teapot in the past and they may still prove to be but this conference sounds great.

I've been politically homeless for about 2 years now.

I'm with Sonic - they need to come up with a working definition of 'woman' that works for women and girls and our rights. Only then will it be possible to tackle the huge range of really important issues that women are raising at this conference.

If WEP do that and also:

a) offer HBE a decent apology for the way they have treated her

b) review their policies and procedures to ensure nobody else in the party suffers the same lack of due process in the future

... then I'm in.

Who is doing the comedy?
Great thread thanks for the reporting.

The energy of being with large numbers with whom you share some common purpose tends to be warm, enveloping, and gives a sense of being home.

I adhere to the maxim of not reacting to emotions in the room or whoops nor how fabulous a public speaker someone is but watching what people do rather than say.

WEP dumped Heather without due process. They have not reprimanded the people who treated her so shamefully.

Those 3 minutes speeches. Sound great. Why are they Open Mic issues rather than something WEP is already addressing?

Thanks for the write-up, rhymes.

I was a founder member, then drifted, but they could still win me back thanks to the complete shambles that is UK politics right now.

Agree Pencils about HBE.

She must have been so hurt and let down by them. How she has remained so dignified about it I'll never know. She's a fantastic woman and I really enjoy hearing her speak.

I resigned my green membership last week and could be persuaded to join the WEP but I want to see how far they take the self ID stuff first and whether that might come with an apology for HBE...

arran wise caution. The main issue I felt challenged by (in a good, healthy way) today was opinions around Brexit, to be honest. Other people I’ve been talking to now questioning what they thought they believed around sex work etc.

Comedians were Evelyn Mok, Sophie Duker, Ada Campe and Shazia Mirza. Funny women all. Good to relax and laugh out loud after so much serious stuff today. And in anticipation of hard work tomorrow!

This is a great thread, thank you.

I assume that WEP will be contributing to the GRA consultation?
If so, they need a policy position pretty quickly.

from the Sunday Times today, article by Andrew Gilligan:

'Trans offender seeks to wipe crimes as a man from record'
(extract)
A transgender offender is seeking to delete from her record two crimes that could only have been committed by a man.

“I do not wish my gender history to be more widely known and do not wish to disclose my trans status to employers,” the woman, who asked to be identified only as Helen, said. She is to launch a judicial review to remove two convictions for “importuning as a man” when she worked at a Soho “clip joint” in the 1970s and 1980s.

A right to removal, if established, could cover rape, another crime that can legally be committed only by a person with a penis.

Trans people with a gender recognition certificate are legally entitled to keep their birth gender secret.

Helen’s barrister, Claire McCann, said disclosure of offences that revealed Helen’s birth gender in criminal record checks was “severe and discriminatory interference with Helen’s right to respect for her private life”. (continues)
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/trans-offender-seeks-to-wipe-crimes-as-aman-from-record-qfk5w68lb?shareToken=2bb5072907deafb68dd42f53a6ab758a

Claire McCann has tweeted that she spoke at the WEP conference last night. Did anyone hear her?

Claire was one of the barristers in the GRA information session. I didn't see her speak otherwise.

Sitting in party business now, policy, finance, governance. I don't know what the protocol is in sharing information about voting etc. is?

I can confirm that all the comedians were indeed very very funny. I sloped off back to my hotel straight after but noise from a wedding kept me away until 1am so I'm shattered again.

These are my tired thoughts after everything I heard yesterday:

• We lost the fight in 2004. The most significant blow to sex based rights was the GRA 2004.

• For me, the fight now is about clearer articulated and better protected of the difference between sex and gender in legislation and public policy.

TBC - Sophie is speaking now on the emergency motion.

We lost the fight in 2004. The most significant blow to sex based rights was the GRA 2004.

Christine Burns on how Press for Change secured the 2004 legislation in 2013 Guardian interview:

"Much of their campaigning remained on the quiet. The passage of the 2004 law to give trans people legal status was "remarkable," says Burns, because "the government was able to pass an entire act in parliament without anyone throwing a fit in the press"."

www.theguardian.com/society/2013/jan/22/voices-from-trans-community-prejudice

I know lots of you have left or refuse to joint WEP because of gender id but I'd encourage you to think again. I think there's enough like minds in the party that it could end up the same voice in the whole debate

Not a bloody chance.

All of these issues are important but if women can't even identify ourselves as a group then it's all meaningless bs.

Thanks for taking the time to post.

Everything I've heard says that that the GRA was never intended to have such a significant impact. As I've said up thread, there has been less than 5000 applications in the last 13 years. The rapid increase in people identifying as trans was not anticipated.

But that's what's happened.

Interesting nugget from yesterday. Facebook used to have a drop down menu of 56 choices for gender. That increased to over 70 before they gave up and made it a free text field.