Simon Fanshawe calls for calm

[MrsSnippyPants]

“There’s been an absolute sleight of hand and it’s got even worse with LGBTQIA Plus, and I don’t know if the joke works on paper, but I always say that, you know, they’ve turned one of the great passions of my life, which is fighting for lesbian and gay equality, into a slightly secure password on the internet."

www.holyrood.com/inside-politics/view,cofounder-of-stonewall-calls-for-calm_14648.htm?

Thanks for your account thatdamnwoman.

It’s been the same everywhere hasn’t it? A hostile takeover, initial stages covert and deniable. Then when enough bodies were in place, a highly effective power grab.

And shame on those who encouraged it to further their careers. My daughter now has to enter a world where young lesbians will have to hide their actions or deal with pushy men that they have no interest in.

Mandy

mandy rhodes

@holyroodmandy
·
Nov 4
Mandy Rhodes has also written this:

Me in @ HolyroodDaily on why, when we are told that trans gender rights are not up for debate, it appears that women’s are.
www.holyrood.com/editors-column/view,women-represent-half-the-population-but-we-are-still-waiting-for-fundamenta_14656.htm

Ahhh - sorry about the garbled post above - it is a bad copy of Mandy's tweet.

I need to fess up: earlier in this thread someone asked whether I was aware of the LGB Alliance and in the heat of my fury with what had happened with my regional branch of Stonewall I wrote:

Yes, absolutely, and I'm already a signed up and paid up member and look forward to attending a conference or event where I can meet more of my tribe.

This wasn't accurate, There isn't, so far, anywhere to sign up and pay up to become a formal member of the LGB Alliance. I have made a contribution to the crowdfunder, which I'm not allowed to link to, and I used my name and said something along the lines of wanting to be a member and I conflated doing that with signing up and paying up.

I apologise for misleading anyone who has been looking for ways to join the LGB Alliance and pay their sub. The crowdfunder is being run to enable them to get the organisation up and running, at which point I hope to be at the front of the queue to become a paid-up member. I hope it won't be long.

I think you were basically accurate thatdamnwoman

I have signed up to the mailing list and contributed to the fund, and I suppose saying 'signed up and paid up' covers that, even if there is no official membership mechanism yet.

But thanks for clarifying.

I had to take a deep breath before tweeting that article out, and I remain anxious about how much shit it will attract to my timeline, and how many of my friends will unfollow me because of it, which makes me reflect on all the times in the 1980s and beyond where I was much more open and much less frightened about being out about my same-sex attraction, in my own name, and on the streets. It's absolutely bizarre how this is where I find myself, thirty years later, being frightened to press the "tweet" button about homosexuality being a real thing.

Thank you Simon. It's a really great article, and it's of material use in helping to change things.

Such a brilliant article.

Such a great article!

Has there been much backlash?

There's been a ton of the usual homophobic backlash against the LGB Alliance, but not much that I've seen against this specific article. I think I'm going to send it to my MP, too. I have talked to my MP about this in the last, but just the LGB Alliance existing strengthens all our hands immensely.

(On the potential for backlash: I mean, anyone describing this as "hate speech" would look like a loon, but that's never stopped them in the past.)

I think I'm going to send it to my MP, too. I have talked to my MP about this in the last, but just the LGB Alliance existing strengthens all our hands immensely.

Agree. Even if you're not yourself LGB (general you).

Because it is Stonewall that is getting policy changed without regard for women in the majority of cases. It's Stonewall who are training organisations and workplaces to ignore the single sex provision in the Equality Act. It's not been dubbed "Stonewall Law" for nothing. The LGB Alliance challenges Stonewall's domination of the equality and diversity arena with regards to sexual orientation and gender identity. And that's why TRAs fear it so much.

I only recently started reading about TRAs and Stonewall and its impact on women's spaces and sports among other things. I was really surprised how much has happened without hearing about it until it had gone through. It has made me wonder how much of the general population is aware of these things. Have any of you brought these issues up with family or friends who aren't in the activism arena or aren't LGB? I was discussing it with my DH & DD and they both seemed dumbfounded, 100% unaware. What is the best way to get people talking or at least thinking about the big push to get people on board with the TWAW mantra, and how it affects women's rights?

I'm not surprised lesbians feel the need to hide their activities, and dread the day a trans woman turns up. Having read about their attitudes to the revoltingly-termed 'cotton ceiling', if they end up conceding those particular women's spaces they could end up having this kind of coercive rhetoric shoved at them on a regular basis. Or worse.

The name 'Stonewall' has proven to be sadly prophetic. It's ironic that this is the precise tactic now being turned against its co-founder and one of its most passionate activists. Pink News are now claiming Fanshawe is 'anti-trans rights' when nowhere has he made any suggestion of the kind. He is pro-women's rights.

Have to hand it to the TRAs. Divide and conquer is proving to be a spectacular talent of theirs.