Trans rant to local Labour agent. Help me not to feel like I have embarrassed myself!

[SuePerbly]

Was contacted by the agent for a local Labour councillor candidate yesterday. I had offered to help with campaigning as the candidate is a great guy who has already done a lot for my small town.

I was limited in the help I could give because I rescinded my Labour Party membership over the throwing of women under the bus re all women shortlists.

Explained this to the agent who replied that "Labour have always been against discrimination" and they work with a transwoman, but would go away and find out more.

I then proceeded to.....well.....rant a bit, about Labour discriminating against women and Trans women with a GRC, by accepting anyone who "Identifies" as a woman onto the shortlists. I told him about Labour losing women's votes by supporting a policy which would allow "Barry with a beard and a leer in his eye" to bathe elderly women in care homes if he said he identified as a women, every bit as much as a genuine transwoman with a GRC. And if the woman refused = hate crime/transphobia.

I told him women weren't scared of genuine Trans women, but of perverts and chances using loopholes as a way to access women.

He didn't reply.

I now feel so embarrassed as he made me feel I was being transphobic

Have I made a knob of myself and have I been transphobic?

I actually shouted 'gulag' at him as he scurried back up the driveway.

Well done - they need to know that we are half the population, and unfortunately they gave (some of) us the vote 100 years ago, so regrettably they are going to have to listen to us at some point.

How fucking DARE they expect women to carry on all important but unglamorous campaign work after throwing us under the bus and declaring we’re just a costume, how DARE they.

Is this the only problem you have with the Labour Party?

The anti- semitism, the general misogyny, the extreme left politics, Momentum isn't a problem?

"I actually shouted 'gulag' at him as he scurried back up the driveway"

This has brightened my afternoon too

A convicted pedophile got a GRC while in jail.

This not so much The way this is being handled out there gives very little cause for confidence in any system.

#MeToo

As I started to explain why no woman should vote Labour, and that I am actively campaigning against Labour, he said that he really didn't know anything about what Labour HQ had been up to and that he wanted to talk about bins and bus stops.

Well that got me going and he had to hold on to his seat belt.

Safeguarding, mixed sex toilets in schools, Stonewall Champion, Gendered Intelligence school packs ..... he interrupted to ask:

"Does Jeremy know about this?"

And that set me off again!

Of course he knows .....Transwomen are women, Dawn Butler, Jess friggin Philips, the treatment of WPUK, erstwhile MEP Lily Madigan etc etc.

I've already given two Liberal Democrat foot-soldiers a handbagging and I can't wait for the Tories and Greens.

theOtherPamAyres

You’re my new shero

WTF are these people out campaigning if they don’t know what their party stands for do they not read papers, watch the news, go to conferences, follow some of their MP’s on twitter, speak to people?

Does Jeremy know about this?

I think we should adopt 'Gulag' as a battle cry

Very impressed by op and others for standing by their convictions. I know I'd want to be able do the same if doorstepped and hope, against previous experience, I wouldn't be tongue tied and just raving.

👍

I feel quite inspired now to print off A4 sized pictures of certain individuals and keep them by the front door to illustrate any ranting I may do!

I don't know about all that "transwomen just going about with their daily life". I used to think that too, Now: If you think there is some way you can "live like a woman" and that chopping of your penis will turn you into a woman ... I just think that you are mentally ill. There is no "live life like a woman" definition and you don't become a woman by wearing make up and a dress or by not having a penis. People who think so are deluded.

I am a woman and last Friday I fitted an new bottom fill valve to one of our toilets and changed the toilet seat on the same toilet. I also put on make up, wore a skirt. cooked dinner and did some laundry. Can't remember if it was Friday or Saturday that I read a comic book. How the fuck do they define "live like a woman"? Should I have knitted instead of fixing the toilet? Am I no longer allowed to put up shelves? How about gardening? Let me guess: I am allowed to sew things and do some weeding but I am not allowed to dig up the big root from the trees we fell? Or am I only allowed to cut flowers for bouquets? Fuck that! I love woodwork and am good at it. Should I give that up to become a "real" woman. Fuck that! But of course I do have PCOS and even though I don't have problems with facial hair I know that this is still enough for some TWs to claim that if they are not considered to be women then neither should I be. Fuck them! I can still burp the alphabet in a more feminine manner than a transwoman can put on lipstick.

I had a rant at a local LibDem canvasser last election. My main focus was the cesspit that is their LGBT Twitter.

If they come round this election, then the rant will be about the LGBT Twitter again, Lynne 'you are not welcome in the party if you don't believe TWAW' Featherstone and Layla 'see into their souls' Moran.

And even though they are quite good locally, I don't feel I can support them as it will make the national party think they're doing something right. So another spoiled ballot paper coming up.

You're supposed to feel weird when you tell the truth about this, it's been set up like that. Telling the truth about what is going on with trans is taboo and will get you social punishment at the very least and lots of other horrible consequences at the worst No even bothering to give you a reply when he's a political candidate and should be able to answer voters' and volunteers' concerns is pathetic and rude.

He should be ashamed of his misogyny, believing men can become women.

You’re not the only one. I can’t really hold back on the rants to whoever will listen about this and am convinced it’s why I haven’t had any canvassers for a while...

Every time I worry about people thinking I’m just a horrible old bigot (tough one for a traditional hand-wringing bleeding heart liberal to imagine people thinking of them as intolerant, I think) I turn on It Was Worse For The Suffragettes mode.

These threads are useful resources for people concerned with protecting Safeguarding & Women's sex-based rights. There's a lot of links & evidence in them which may back up concerns:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3145470-Break-it-down-for-me

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3463920-Lets-go-back-to-2007

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/a3301266-Safeguarding-girls-and-protecting-women-post-Jimmy-Saville-metoo

I think you did well SuePerbly (like the name). I have seen quite a few posts where the on the ground party activists (all parties) seem to be much more in tune with the general public.

Just one point re Ian Huntley Mrs Keats. The whole point of DBS & predecessor CRB is that when he got the job in Soham School the system did not pick up his cautions. The introduction of enhanced CRBs (now DBS) was to prevent people like him who had cautions but no actual convictions getting a job with children and vulnerable adults. However, I totally see the point (sorry can't see poster's name) that a clear DBS doesn't mean you are safe - you may just not have been caught.

Incidentally Layla Sees Souls was on the Westminster Hour last night suggesting she might stand as Lib Dem leader.

Good for you OP. I've signed up to help my local Green Party with environmental stuff but won't join. If asked why I will explain.

Op a GRC was never intended to be a way of safeguarding women, it was intended as a way of safeguarding men.

Is this the only problem you have with the Labour Party?

Nope, and I didn't say it was. I said it was the final straw for me.

The anti- semitism, the general misogyny, the extreme left politics, Momentum isn't a problem

As someone with lots of Jewish family, the anti-semitism does bother me. However, as the Tories are also racist misogynists, infiltrated by extremists, and those are the only parties with a hope where I live (marginal seat MP which has had very close run offs between Labour and Tory), then I am stuffed whoever I vote for.

Having read everyone's comments about how to obtain GRCs, I am aghast at how easy it now is. I did think it was still an NHS psychiatrist who diagnosed gender dysphoria. Clearly not!

If the GRC is meaningless, then so is the meaning of the word woman. It's even worse than I thought!

Horrified at the implications, tbh.

PS Sorry I haven't replied to every post but I have read them all and am really grateful for the feedback.

I did the same thing to Labour Party canvassers a few weeks ago (including my MP). The woman said she believes TWAW, and my MP made a few noises about safety of women in prisons, but I think he follows the party line.
I tried to get across that it wasn't just safety, but that privacy and dignity were issues too.
Maybe I should try and speak to him again. He's walking a bit of a tightrope at the moment. He has a majority of about 800 in a constituency that was about 52% leave .
I did lead them to believe that I would switch to another party on this issue.

Is it still possible to get 'woman = adult human female' stickers?

I did a very similar thing just recently with a rather nice Labour party guy who leafletting in my neighbourhood - ahead of up-coming elections.

He did seem a bit oblivious and unaware - but now he isn't. Job done. People need to be aware just how much of an issue this is. Currently they aren't. All of the twitter activity in the world is not going to enlighten or inform the great mass of the unaware.

You’re not the only one. I can’t really hold back on the rants to whoever will listen about this and am convinced it’s why I haven’t had any canvassers for a while...smile

Same here. I think local canvassers have got wind that they "shouldn't go to that house on the corner......". They should just post the leaflet through the door and run. The trick is to open the door the second you see the leaflet coming through.

I am so glad that I am not the only ranter on here.

I live in a sleepy market town a few miles from Leeds. It may as well be a different world for a lot of the residents. So I don't think the Trans issue is a big deal for many here. If the population knew about it, the response would undoubtedly be "load o' bloody rubbish. Men can't become lasses". Not exactly a place where "woke" people are held in esteem.