'The Sunday Times exposes the full scale of an "activist silencing campaign” against opponents of controversial gender reforms.'

[R0wantrees]

Andrew Gilligan
Be kinder on gender, begs Jan Morris
The writer and sex-change pioneer calls for tolerance amid a bullying campaign against opponents of the right to ‘self-identify’

(Extract)
Her comments come as friends of Penny Mordaunt, the minister for women and equalities, who is in charge of the consultation, said extremists on “both sides” were making the issue “more complicated”.

Mordaunt hopes to make a decision quickly after the consultation ends on October 19. The politician, a likely Tory leadership contender, faces a dilemma, with substantial opposition to the proposals in her party despite public support from the prime minister.

Sunday Times research shows that at least 15 public meetings held by feminist groups opposed to the proposals have been invaded, threatened, picketed, closed down or forced to move venue by transgender activists.

There have been at least six incidents of violence or intimidation against opponents of the reforms, with one trans activist convicted of assault. At least 11 opponents of the change have been targeted through their jobs.

Trans campaigners are bringing private criminal prosecutions against three opponents after the authorities refused to prosecute them.

Feminists say the reforms would allow any man who identified as a woman into protected female spaces such as changing rooms. Trans activists say anyone who identifies as a woman must be treated as such."

concludes:
"Only 18% of the public back the reforms, according to a YouGov poll. Yet few frontline politicians have spoken against them. “The silencing campaign has been successful,” said David Davies, the Tory MP for Monmouth, who has himself been subjected to three complaints by trans activists, all dismissed. “This is supposed to be a public consultation, but actually having a consultation and debate is the last thing the transgender lobby wants.”

Watching Andrew Marr at the moment and the Conservatives are very worried that they are not getting the youth vote and that Labour has absolutely dominated there.

I think this policy has been drafted by the Conservatives to try and get that youth vote however I think they are deluded if they think it will make young people vote for them. All it will do is alienate their older voters.

"Where are the feminists shutting down trans events and sending death threats? "

Indeed, Penny Mordaunt is using Trump's trick, referring to "extremists on both sides” :

After a white nationalist deliberately drove his car into a peaceful demonstration in Charlottesville and killed a civil rights activist, Heather Heyer,
he kept referring to "extremists on both sides” instead of condemning the only side that was violent.

It's only loud mouth students who are ruling the roost of youth. Many are trained in totalitarianism by momentum. Break this gang up and democracy can be restored.

Most keep their heads down and want to be kind.

Quite a few young people can see the Emperor has no clothes on.

You think an 18 year old is going to say this out loud to a 21 year old narcissist and their red shirt gang of echoes, when the academic adults are too scared?

It might indeed be a good idea for some male CEOs and other bigwigs to try dressing as a woman, to experience for a very short time the crap we have to put up with.

However, those CEOs should not then claim this makes them women and start invading our single sex spaces

I liked the comment about Penny Mordaunt sounding like Donald Trump after Charlottesville (he defended the violent alt-right supremicists by saying that there was blame on both sides).

I am grateful that the suggestion has been scotched by the evidence shown in the Times article.

Schools, collages and universities aren't doing enough to maintain democracy.

Education is funding TRA.

Politicians are not upholding democracy.

It looks to me that the Tory liars want totalitarianism.

Perhaps there exists somewhere a female CEO with photos of herself in bondage gear on her public facing site, but if so I've never heard of her.

The big pic of Jan Morris and the quote are there purely to grab the attention of the reader. Morris's quote is so feeble that it adds absolutely nothing to the story. I think it's a bit of a shame because the REAL story there is the aggressive and intimidating tactics of the TRAs. Using Morris's quote makes it look as if it's going to be about bad behaviour on both sides.

My only regret is that it concentrated on feminist objections to changing rooms and I fully accept that they message had to be made clear and understandable.

If you mention the awards, prisons, sports crime statistics issues - people end up in a futile cycle of, "But that's so evidently wrong that it can't possibly be true".

I'd also have liked a clearer statement about the threat to free speech and the conditions for totalitarianism but this is why I am not a writer. Gilligan et al know their audience, they know how to strip down a message, and get it across in a way that matters.

Probably the best barebones account of what's happened that we're going to see.

Her problem is that the consultation wasn't designed to inform policy. It was designed to support a policy decision. Whoops.

This perfectly sums up all that is wrong with the way the consultation is worded. I have yet to fill it in, but as time passes more comes to light to write in opposition to it - like the Irish criminal case at the moment, in addition to Jacinta Brook and Karen White, the Leeds WPUK meeting and also this Times article gives some quotable figures too.

When being 'kind' ends with you putting a rapist in a locked ward with sedated women, thats a bizarre sort of kindness.

When being 'kind' ends with you putting a rapist in a locked ward with sedated women, thats a bizarre sort of kindness.

It’s a huge kindness to the rapist - such bounty! To the sedated women, not so much.

*NameChangedAgain18 Sat 06-Oct-18 07:19:41

If Watson had stuck to being an actress, I wouldn't be angry with her. But her entire career and image post-HP has been based on trumpeting her supposed feminist credentials. I see this in the same way I do Sophie Walker and the WEP - they're taking up political, intellectual and media space whilst obscuring the most pressing issues facing women in this country today. Which makes them a lot worse than being merely useless.*

Spot on. I've always hated "activist" celebs, especially faux feminist ones, because it's so clear they're full of shit - can anyone explain to me what "he for she" actually is? What does it do? It's just fucking meaningless word salad that allows Emma Watson to get a Vogue profile talking about something other than her equally shit acting.

Now when we need women to speak up it's tumbleweed.

Tbf to JKR, I have an iota of sympathy because she's between a rock and a hard place. The HP franchise is so vast now - theme parks, studio tours, merch etc it sustains thousands of people and you just know if she came out as GC and proud the nutters would ensure a boycott of all of it.

Sorry - posted the above in the wrong thread. Will re-post it in the right one.

It's an interesting article. Starting out with a quote from Morris about kindness being required on both sides - then Gilligan going on to point out quite clearly that the violence, threats etc are only actually coming from one side. I think it's quite clever the way Gilligan has presented this.

It's a masterclass in how to show how disconnected the person you're quoting is from reality.

Like if some politician said "we've all suffered under austerity" and you followed up with quotes from their family members complaining about having to downsize to only 3 cars and one nanny.

being kind to someone who wants you to do something that is absolutely unacceptable - pretend they have changed sex - isn't possible

Kindness is not colluding in that lie. Kindness is maintaining truth without mockery.

Jan Morris's plea for kindness from everyone is disingenuous. So far, one side of the debate has been consistently kind, despite severe unkindness from every other side.

Tbf to JKR, I have an iota of sympathy because she's between a rock and a hard place. The HP franchise is so vast now - theme parks, studio tours, merch etc it sustains thousands of people and you just know if she came out as GC and proud the nutters would ensure a boycott of all of it.

Bollox. Precisely because the HP franchise is so huge, it will withstand any nonsense the AWA TRAs throw at it. She is so protected and has so much power that she could use against the modern Voldemort, but she does not.

People are HP obsessed. I’m ten years too old to be that generation but people hold it in genuine, obsessive regard. JK could toast puppies in the ashes of the bible and people would still love HP.

I don’t blame her for not wanting personal, unhinged attention, but I doubt a GC stance, made carefully, would do her brand much damage.,

In the print version you have a half a page on the transgender debate, the conviction of a GP, a transvestite piece and a description of women being abused by trans activists.

Thankyou for sharing. Jan is a very brave woman ( she also wrote a book called Venice about the city which is an amazing read)

Kindness imo is using preferred pronouns
and campaigning for a 4th space, so that transwomen don't have to go into single sex male spaces

Kindness means making their lives easier, but NOT at the cost of making life more dangerous for women and girls
or reducing their opportunities, e.g. in sports or grants

Mordaunt hopes to make a decision quickly

Shes just going to dismiss anything thats not for isn't she. Shes already refused to meet womens groups whilst courting Stomewall. Stonewall, who are urging children to complete the adult consultation. Shes already said that the 'starting point' for the consultation is TWAW.

Actually, the greens were getting people to just add their names to a prefilled consultation template...are those spammed replies going to be allowed? They shouldn't be, as I thought the point of a consultation was for people to actually reply themselves not get as many people as possible to spam identical (to the word..) replies?!

Surely it's not a done deal, just on PM's say so.
Is she deciding quickly on what to propose to parliament?