The GE - Party responses to questions regarding the eradication of female rights

[midcenturylegs]

So, A few of us emailed the major political parties about their policies around:

1. female sports
2. female toilets / changing rooms
3. female rape/Crisis centres designed for women being accessed by men
4. the new punitive measures in place for women speaking up (pronouns etc) in the work place

Their stance is and was very shit; however I do personally know more GC green members and candidates than any other party. Ive only voted green a couple of times, always used to be Lib dem till
The latest shit show and am not a member of anything, but just thought it's helpful to know there are many working hard behind the scenes to change this.

gendercriticalgreens.wordpress.com/

Also, the deep Green Resistance are very clear on sex and gender. I feel it's only a matter of time with extinction rebellion etc that this filters through.

deepgreenresistance.org/en/who-we-are/faqs/radical-feminism-faqs

I don't have any party to support at the moment personally.

Not massively helpful to the op but just my experience.

The 'non-men' statement was IIRC a specific group of the Green Party - Young Greens Women who referred to 'women/non-men' in a 2016 tweet.

The stupidity of saying men will abuse women anyway, so we're going to remove safeguards that are already in place.

I wonder whether the language needs changing to ask "Do you support taking away rights from vulnerable women, particularly those abused as adults or children?" because who's going to say yes to that? Though obviously they can still squirm out of it.

There is a significant gender critical presence within the GP, though Amelia Womack posted this a couple of days ago

I think if the sports question is important to you, then ask that one. I wouldn't worry about 'cleverness' because putting this into abstract terms is often what the problem has been. If you have, for example, a daughter who is passionate about competing in a sport, ask what you are supposed to say to her if she is competing with people with male bodies? 'be nice, be kind'? What are the people with male bodies being told to do? Do 'rights' include the 'right' to choose your sporting category with no consideration for reality? What if your daughter decides she wants to compete in the under 15s when she's already 16 - is that OK? What is 'kindness' when you're redefining the categories of competition? Would Serena Williams be nice and kind if Roger Federer decided he would drop his testosterone in his 40s and compete on the women's circuit? Did she win huge numbers of championships by being nice?

Getting in the term "sexist" is always useful when talking about gender.

There's some good phrases in that GC greens blog actually.

Thank you for all your responses.i have to admit I still feel completely politically stranded!
I'll post up other party responses if / when they bother to reply.,

“ A long way from women being called "non-men" (was it Labour who did that)?”

No, it wasn’t. It was the Green party iirc

Thank you for posting this. Do you have the responses from the other parties yet please?

TemporaryPermanent

A Facebook friend posted the "rights are not pie" thing a couple of months ago and I responded with "How about sport, for example? Girls and women are losing the right to their own sports so that males can have a piece of their "pie".

The fact is that in this case, women's rights are like "pie". Males wanting into our spaces, places, sports, etc ARE taking our "pie" away from us, whilst men retain their whole pie.

Also, you might allude to the “rights are not pie” analogy and ask why it seems trans rights are over writing sex-based rights instead of living beside them as other rights have all managed. If rights are not pie - why are sex-based rights being removed in order to provide gender-based rights?

I don't know why anyone would accept that analogy at all. It's very common to have conflicts of rights that need to be sorted out by good legislation, or the courts. If people looking to pass legislation and make laws don't know this, how can they possibly do their jobs?

You can’t ask to see a GRC but you can ask for a birth certificate. Only biologically female humans and GRC holders will have an ‘F’ on their birth certificate, and the date of entry to the record will be more than 18 years after the DOB for a GRC holder (and within 6 weeks of the DOB for the vast majority of actual females).

An F on a passport or driving licence does not denote either female or GRC holder, only birth certificates do.

From the Conservatives:

Thank you for contacting me on various issues including single-sex spaces and transgender rights.

At the outset, I wudl stress the importance of protecting women's rights and freedoms. I would like to assure you that there is a strong commitment to achieving equality for all. The profile of transgender equality has rightly been raised in the past few years as many transgender people still encounter prejudice and discrimination. This, however, has not been to the detriment to women. The equal rights of women and of transgender individuals are being strongly promoted.

Under the Equality Act 2010, some organisations may treat people with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment differently in particular circumstances when it comes to accessing single- and separate-sex services, such as services provided to survivors of domestic abuse. The guidance on the issue makes it explicitly clear that the exception can only be used in particular circumstances and where there is no less discriminatory way of providing the service.

Single sex services for vulnerable people, such as refuges, have robust risk assessment procedures that allow them to turn away anyone who poses a threat to vulnerable women. There are already existing laws to protect women, such as the Sexual Offences Act 2003, which contains a wide range of offences designed to protect people of all ages from sexual abuse and exploitation. Criminal laws are in place to stop anyone of any gender behaving in a threatening manner in a toilet or changing room, or harassing or attacking people.

I believe it is important for everybody to have the opportunity to play and enjoy sport. It is vital that we create the right environment at grassroots level so that everyone, including transgender people, no matter what background you are from, can get active. I know there is an ongoing debate about what is fair in elite competition. This is a hugely sensitive topic and I believe it is right that sports bodies listen to both sides. They must do all they can to guarantee both fair competition and fair access to competition. This may seem like a difficult balance, but it something that they must get right.

In UK law, there is a gender re-assignment exception for competitive sport in the Equality Act 2010 to allow for fair and safe competition for participants. The Government has no intention of amending this provision. I believe it is right that sports bodies have the discretion to set their own rules on these issues, so that they can determine the right answer for their own sport.

(Bold text is mine to indicate my 😩🤷‍♀️)

What did Miranda say earlier this morning about Gove's refusal to comment on the M&S changing rooms horror? That there is only one election between he having the most powerful job in the country and being unemployed.
I think my MP is pretty uninformed, is of the "pie" variety.
Interesting that this email was sent only today (I think, wasn't sent to me)

@WineIsMyCarb - apologies for tagging you but my update (from the Tories) went un-noticed, not a prob but I've since had some really positive individual feed back from the Greens and wanted to share.

Anyway - the Tory response is below.

What I have had this evening is some really positive critical-thinking comms from a Green Party rep outside of my electorate. I don't want to / am not going to paste the comms here as this person contacted me privately, but I was fairy assured that all of the issues we are talking about here are being discussed within. There are some feminists within the Party who are standing along with us,
Take it or leave it but I am politically stranded, in a Tory safe seat and no hope of change but instead of a donkey vote I am going to vote Green.

No probs, happy to be tagged. I'm a bit 'typed out' as I've just emailed Steve Rowe, M&S and BBC woman's hour (other threads) but just to say the Conservative position seems to be saying all the right things but is very much inadequate.

No... the conservative viewpoint was about 3 messages down - and I thought his reply was not great. it was the Greens' statement I liked. It was said that the Greens have a gender-critical group of feminist women who are plugging away..

Hope you've kept your sanity intact, well done you and I empathise with you on how tiring this all can be.

Oh God - falling asleep - read your msg properly, yes the Cons response was inadequate