Liz Truss criticised for saying she wants to protect "single-sex spaces and vulnerable women" re GRA in House of Commons

[stumbledin]

I found these quotes in an article about making IWD a public holiday and haven't had time tocheck in They Work For You / Hansard.

She seems to be more willing to make needing to protect women that Dawn Butler and Christine Jardine who are all about how horrible it is for trans people that GRA has not been passed.

Shadow women and equalities secretary Dawn Butler told MPs the government has been "kicking the can down the road" over reform of the Gender Recognition Act.

She said violence against transgender people has increased, and that more needs to be done to help.

Speaking in the Commons, Ms Butler said: "This reform of the Gender Recognition Act was promised in 2016.

"The minister doesn't need to look at it carefully, the minister just needs to expose what came out of the consultation and amend the Act, as promised.

"And the minister needs to stop kicking the can down the road. There has been a 37% increase in hate crime against transgender people.

"The minister is just exacerbating the pain and the hurt in the LGBT+ community."

Ms Truss replied: "I completely condemn the violence against trans people, and the Home Office and my colleague, the minister, is doing a lot of work to combat this."

Ms Truss said the new rules need to be worked out carefully to make sure everyone gets proper protection.

She said: "I won't be rushed into it. I'm very keen that we protect single-sex spaces and vulnerable women, and we don't rush into reform before we've had the full, proper discussion."

Liberal Democrat equalities spokeswoman Christine Jardine said trans people are facing abuse and violence for simply being who they are.

She accused the government of being the "most right-wing government in decades", and called for more rapid progress on the Gender Recognition Act.

www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/barry-sheerman-calls-extra-bank-17105742

Ithink this must be the full exchange:

www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2019-10-17a.440.6&s=Gender+Recognition+Act

Dawn Butler got her arse handed to her on a plate with a side order of fries. Hundreds of tweets saw only one in support. Many Labour voters saying they agreed with Liz Truss and would not vote for Labour over this.

Oh! I didn't know that

Why are politicians so keen to be in with the woke group and not be in touch with the general public, let alone the groups most impacted by proposed changes ie women.

twitter.com/DawnButlerBrent/status/1184786081356636160

I don’t normally get involved in these discussions and this will probably be the only time I stick my head above the parapet.

I am gender critical. I don’t think trans women are biological women, I don’t think they should compete in female sports and I think it’s crucial that there are some female only spaces. Outside of that, I think people can identify as whatever the fuck they want and it’s nobody else’s business.

That said, Liz Truss et al are not our allies in this. They don’t give a shit about women’s rights, they are attempting to weopanise this issue because they think that northern voters are thick bigots. Don’t fall for it. The fight for common sense will ultimately be won but this is not the way.

If the correct and appropriate laws get passed, or not, as the case may be, I don't personally care whether it happens because some minister believes us northerners are thick AND/OR bigoted.

None of the other political parties are our allies in this either though.

@TreaterAnita
as i understand, accept someone's self id means treat them by the identification.

if we accept self id, why transwoman can't compete in woman's sports?
he's woman. we accept that.
he can use woman's toilet, changing room, whatever she want, she can use it. legally she's woman. how can we say "no"?
unless we live in no man's island, self id affect everyone.

i don't care what truss want. but i think she's right.
she don't care about woman's right? then who care?

weaponizing it?
common sense will win?

i don't know. at this point, i can't believe common ff sense.

everyone knows somethings wrong.
greens labour ,libdem ,snp ,half of tories they all know.
just pretending know nothing.

if truss want weaponizing it that means she has some balls and not care about trans lobby.

I agree sqrl

If Liz Truss is being an opportunist, at least she is better at reading the public mood than tone-deaf Dawn Butler.

*Treateranita

Liz Truss isn't an ally? Gimme a break. Why can't Conservative women be on the side of women's rights? Victoria Atkins clearly is too and both are now in a position of influence, thank goodness.

They deserve our support, not party-political mud-slinging,

For what it's worth, I suspect Penny Mordaunt's stance of TWAW is what got her booted out of Cabinet in the last reshuffle, despite her Brexiteer credentials, to be replaced by Liz Truss.

Boris's team seem to be the only ones not heading full-pelt down the rabbit hole; nothing to do with 'thick Northerners'; I suspect they - and the vast majority of Tory members and voters - are instinctively GC too.

Oh goddesses. Are we really, now, down to "At least Boris knows what a woman is!"

Oh fuck.

I can't stand Boris but I support Liz Truss for realising that single sex spaces need protection.

I am absolutely fed up with being told I should consider the greater good (left politics) and not centre women. It is just another way of saying, women be kind, make allowances, budge over.

I will choose my own 'allies'.

Victoria Atkins clearly is too and both are now in a position of influence, thank goodness.

I have been impressed by Victoria Atkins every time I have heard her speak. She does seem to be a decent politician who cares about women and girls.

Holy shit, there's a politician out there willing to entertain the idea that women actually exist independently of men who say they're women - and that both groups need protection? That's genuinely amazing. God I hope she isn't beaten into capitulation.

Looks like tories for me then

Shame there are no other credible parties but they made the bed.

This is a good start, let's see if she sticks to it after TRAs and their friends in high places start turning the thumbscrews.

And the misogynists in the Labour party? Are they our allies? They are currently targeting female MPs for deselection. I will not vote Tory but dont for one minute think the left are women's allies.

I'm so tired of this being framed as a tribal political issue. It's not, it's a women's issue. Do I think the Tories are great on women's issues in general? No, they're not. OTOH Labour has always had its share of misogynists too and damn has this issue ever brought some of the better hidden ones out of the cupboard.

All parties are basically in favor of male dominance, they're just haggling over where the boot should be placed on women's necks. At the moment the potential for laws to be passed that would take a huge effort to undo is great enough that there's likely going to be a certain amount of pragmatism needed in terms of who we support for strategic reasons and then holding their feet to the fire to ensure that they follow through on any promises to support women's right to sex segregated spaces, free association, etc.

That's what I was wondering birdsdestiny. Do we refuse to acknowledge that in this one respect the Tories in the form of Truss might do something good and wait for Labour to come to power in the hope that they will ensure that the law is formulated to protect women?

As of now it's almost guaranteed that any Labour government we'd get would not protect women's right to sex segregated spaces, places on shortlists, etc. Very much the opposite in fact.

Amazing how a news item with the headline about international women's day became all about the T very rapidly. Also why do they always include LGB in talks about GRA my understanding is that it is just for transgender people?

To be clear, I'm not happy about this! I want to support Labour! But I also know that they are firmly wedded to an ideological position that puts women last in relation to trans issues, and until that changes it's foolish to assume that they'd do the right thing if in power. They're already telling us what they'd do and it's not good.

No will acknowledge that your political persuasion has no influence on misogyny.

There has been a 37% increase in hate crime against transgender people says Dawn Butler, to justify throwing open women's spaces to men.

No mention of the fact that any increase in 'hate crime' against women can't be measured, because violence and verbal abuse of women isn't considered one of those specially awful hate crimes, just one of the common or garden kinds the police don't bother to investigate. Suck it up ladies. Be more careful.

No mention of the fact that opening up women's spaces to include men will increase those common or garden crimes against women by something like 80% (sorry - can't remember exact figures of increased likelihood of assault in mixed sex facilities.) But who cares when it's only women who are affected? They're not special. Violence against women is old news. Yawn.

After all this time of feeling utterly at a loss about who I'd vote for in a general election, this has made up my mind. I'm not happy about facilitating another tory government for many very obvious reasons, but once the rights that women have battled relentlessly for over the last century have been given away, we won't be able to get them back.