The Upcoming Election

[TerfTalk]

I guess we will get the manifestos in a few days, which should be interesting...

All I remember from the previous elections was far too much: "I am in the X party. There are tons of people in the X party that are gender critical, but they can't say anything because of A, B, C."

Personally, I am spoiling my ballot unless any of the parties (other than UKIP) take a gender critical stance. I am in a Labour safe seat, so it won't make any difference to my area.

Womack has form.

Even if your local Green Party candidate is gender critical, you shouldn't vote for them. Every openly GC Green candidate has been suspended, expelled, or bullied. The Greens are the worst for bullying and misogyny. You may as well vote UKIP.

The Greens were dead to me when they called women 'non men'.

Not sure you can compare Greens and UKIP. UKIP are old fashioned misogynists but I haven’t heard any suggestion they think men should have free reign over any Women’s space they choose.

Any feelings I still had for Labour died in Brighton when the leadership stayed silent while their members harrassed and threatened women trying to attend a meeting.

You know how some of the more stupid anarchist-type TRAs like to say T*RFs are Nazis? (Who else calls feminists Nazis, let me think... )

Well when this debacle in Brighton took place I was reminded of something.

I have been on very many anti-fascist demonstrations in my life, some of them violent. Afterwards, you could always rely on someone from the Labour Party popping up to denounce the anti-fascists and say they were just as bad as the NF or the BNP or whoever.

But apart from Thangam Debbonaire not a single other Labour leader criticised the mob that harassed a women's meeting.

So there you have it, in the eyes of the Labour Party women with the temerity to talk about their rights are even worse than the BNP.

Here is one Labour MP on the Brighton debacle. A doctor no less:

mobile.twitter.com/luluchops1/status/1189413697715953664

A thread I started about Labour last year (when still a member). It was based on an awful video they made, and their 2017 manifesto commitment to changing the Equality Act in favour of gender identity.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3261952-we-need-to-talk-about-labour

As I have said before, you are not obliged to tell the parties who you are voting for. It doesn't matter if you eventually decide to grit your teeth and vote for X, Y, or Z after all.

What matters is that the message gets back to party HQ that there are shitloads of people who won't vote for them if they keep on with this misogynist, homophobic religious bullshit about men being women.

It’s difficult. The more people that vote, the more parties will listen to what people are saying as our votes will actually matter. But if there is no party standing up for what you believe in, who do you vote for?

I have contacted my Labour, Tory, Green and UKIP (!!!) reps asking them a bunch of questions. Went to the Lib Dem website and couldn't be bothered to go any further than the Contacts page.

Kinda sad to see the whole political nuanced political spectrum shoe-horned into 'which candidate is most gender critical?'
Or the most trans-friendly. I've just read a tweet from an ex-friend who is a total and utter LGBTQIAXYZ+ ally (no, I don't know why she hasn't blocked me, though she almost certainly has me muted), asking "Can anybody tell me if [XXX] is a transphobe or not? I want to know before I vote for her." The candidate's recent Twitter timeline has zero posts that mention trans issues; rather she concentrates on Brexit, austerity etc and if she were my candidate, I'd probably vote for her. But my ex-friend sees her as failing the purity test by not actually declaring herself to be pro-trans.
So, please, let's have no single-issue "purity tests" for candiates! Vote on issues which you agree with and which will affect the the long-term future of the country.

From the LGB Alliance on Twitter yesterday. I reckon the list of questions they come up with will be well worth using to discuss this issue with our prospective MPs.

"UK General Election: the LGB Alliance will be issuing a list of questions to be put to all candidates. We are currently preparing this list of questions. The answers will help everyone understand where candidates stand in relation to LGB rights. Info to follow soon."

This is what I've sent to my MP:

"Now that a general election has been confirmed, I am keen to use my vote effectively. Up until now I have been a Labour member and lifelong Labour voter, but I have grave concerns about the impact of self-ID, which I understand the Labour party supports, on women and girls, with particular regard to healthcare, safeguarding and measuring the impact of policies on those most disadvantaged - for example Universal Credit disproportionately affecting women. I am concerned that if self-ID makes it essentially impossible or meaningless to define what a woman is, then policies which should be seeking to redress social inequalities faced by women and girls become ineffective or downright harmful and government spending will be misdirected or wasted (for example the NHS inviting patients for smear tests who do not have a cervix).

I am interested to know your views on self-ID and on how you would seek to support women and girls in the [XXX] constituency, were you to be re-elected as our MP."

That’s really useful that LGB Alliance are doing that, I will take a look and probably use that with my local candidates when it’s ready.

Well done LGB Alliance! So useful to be able to look at where candidates stand on homophobia and that specific issue of import to LGB people without it getting lost behind and blurred with other issues and agendas. This is exactly why they are so necessary.

I'd rather struggle more financially than to have to give up my right to define myself as a woman! It is absolutely a hill I'm willing to die on.

ExhaustedGrinch that is how I feel too. I feel I am betraying myself and all women to vote for TLP, knowing that their policy on Transwomen will have a direct effect on all women who will be fucked over every time.

Also, my auto correct capitalises Transwomen, every time, without fail. Why is that?

Well I was going to grit my teeth and vote Lib Dem, but then I see these kind of tweets from their candidates....feeling totally homeless now.

I've emailed the Lib Dems with the screenshot, let's see if they have anything to say...

How or when can I find out who will be standing locally? I must admit I normally vote based on what party the candidate stands for, rather than the individual candidate IYSWIM, but I definitely want to contact them all this time for their stance on women's rights / self ID issue before I make my decision.

Oh don't worry I've found the main party ones now.

These candidates for election do know that they can't just block the electorate, right?

www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/man-who-admitted-assaulting-pregnant-20764645

Well, thee party who selected this creature as a candidate has to be swerved. It might be a constituency issue, but does also show what is ok in some ideologies.

It's a shame people are so willing to spoil a ballot. These people will throw everyone else under the bus because of an obsession with who has what genitals. Vote against austerity, privatisation of the NHS etc - these issues impact the women you claim to be fighting for much more than the existence of a small group of people who don't conform to sex and gender stereotypes

Ah Frack. Do you not find hectoring women all over FWR for wrongthink a bit wearing? We’ll do as we see fit with our votes, thank you very much.

@Frack

Most people in this thread don't want to spoil their votes. Personally, I want to vote. However, all of the candidates and parties in my area are either misogynistic or racist. I can't vote for that, so I will spoil.