Late to this thread but wanted to call out to @treats to say I have not had a sensible word to of Layla Moran on this. This is my latest email to her. I sent it nearly a month ago and no response.
Dear Layla,
Thank you for your email. However, you have not answered a couple of questions I have asked before. Additionally with the latest news about Karen White, I have a couple more questions that I feel is pertinent to the LibDem view that “trans women are women”.
- Setting aside the GRA consultation for a moment, if you are of the belief that Trans Women are Women, could you please tell me how you define trans? Do you agree with the Stonewall definition? If so, do you agree that cross dressing men and those who get sexual kicks from being a women are women, if they identify as such? It is estimated that around 80% of trans women have no surgery at all, their right to access women’s spaces is based simply on how they feel and their demand that women go along with them. Do you think all of those who identity as women are women, regardless of any kind of gender dysphoria or medical diagnosis? If you don’t agree with the stonewall definition than can you please define “trans”. I feel this is a crucial point. Please could you answer.
- If there is a concern, as you state, about violent trans identifying men being housed alongside women in prisons (like Karen White), why are you not concerned about violent trans identifying men being allowed in other female spaces too such as hostels, hospital wards, dormitories, refuges, toilets and changing rooms? We do still have some sex based protections under the EA although they are become eroded as organisations so fearful of being labelled as transphobic are using gender rather than sex.
I welcome you assertion that prisons need to be looked at. However, I do not think you can hold both of these views:
a) Transwomen are always women. No question, no challenge, no dissent.
b) Some transwomen should be treated differently
These two positions are incompatible. Jess Phillips is trying to walk this line and is tying herself up in knots.
Apparently Karen White had abused and/or raped women and children at a women's jail, a mixed sex psychiatric ward, a bail hostel. If sex, not gender had been used in any of the places where vulnerable women were housed then there would not have been a problem.
Other questions I have asked numerous times and not had a response to:
-
What is your view on the girl guiding association completely ignoring NSPCC advice (although the NSPCC ignore their own advice too) that for safe guarding, privacy and dignity reasons there should be segregation based on sex (not gender) after the age of 10. How about the NSPCCs refusal to answer any questions about safeguarding in relation to their advice and stance being trans inclusive with no questions asked? Do you think a teenage girl has a right NOT to have to share a shower block or a tent with boy, regardless of how he identifies? Do you think that teenage girls parents should be told their daughter is sharing with a boy? How can parents give informed consent if they are not in possession of the facts. How do you feel about the fact some girls will be discriminated against by this policy.
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Do you agree with your colleague Sarah Brown that women like me, and groups like A Womans Place are hate filled bigots (as she tweets about constantly).
I have every sympathy for people struggling with their identity and believe they have the right to live free from discrimination and judgement. I am very Liberal and have been all of my life. However, I am also a feminist and gender critical and believe gender is a social construct and that there is something about the rhetoric that is damaging and takes women back 50 years in terms of stereotypes. I think there is a small number of people with gender dysphoria (and women have been living side by side with this group of people for years with no drama). However there are too many people like this trans women on Twitter who said she would like to "direct a porn shoot with two beautiful trans woman and one lucky cis women" in reaction to someone saying she didn’t want to see a penis in a changing room. twitter.com/ZJemptv/status/1038338917177720833.
In all honestly I am aghast that any women supports self ID.Surely there can be no justification when the safety, privacy and dignity of women and children are at stake. As a mother, women and science teacher Layla I can only think that this is a political stance for you, rather than a personal one. Its such a shame that the strong women in politics at the moment are not actually standing up for women.
At the moment I am in a quandary and feel politically homeless as do many women. If you look at threads on Mumsnet, on Twitter and the comments on some of the latest articles written by a small number of very brave journalists on this you will find many, many women agree. You may find your party starts to have more and more questions of this nature and more push back on the TWAW stance.
Finally, can I ask if you, or someone from your party, would agree to meet with A woman’s Place or Fair Play for Women to discuss some of these concerns face to face? To show you are really listening to women’s groups.
Thank you
Tracy
Ps - this is an excellent article from a gay man who thinks Stonewall is out of touch: medium.com/@JonnnyBest/calling-all-gay-men-women-need-you-to-speak-up-please-read-this-9df277ecb59e