Will this affect your vote?

[BovaryX]

Several people have posted interesting threads about the response of political parties to questions about how/if they will safeguard sex segregated spaces. Some of the responses to that question explicitly demonstrate where politicians are aligned when it comes to protecting recalcitrant women against a concerted attempt to force ‘gender neutrality’ on the public. Some of those responses have been quite eye opening. My question is this. How influential will this be on your vote?

It isn't a single issue, it's every single issue. I have no interest in any issue at all after I've lost my rights and equality as a voter, it's just rearranging deckchairs on a Titanic that's nothing to do with me anyway.

The only thing I would be prepared to do now is vote tactically to prevent Corbyn or some kind of From Hell coalition of Labour/LibDems since that will railroad the abolition of women through at high speed.

• That is just so irreversible, and with such long-term consequences

Maybe, maybe not....but not quite so long term and fundamental as changing the very definition of women; eroding the concept of a woman's integrity; and encouraging a culture in which children grow up thinking they can be in the wrong body. *

Yes, I agree that those would be very long term and fundamental if they happened fully and continued to be accepted fully. But I don't think it's going to be as quick a change as that. Whereas Brexit is. I think the issue of women's rights is huge, but slower, and that there is still time to change things after a referendum/decision etc on Brexit. I do think that people will wake up; I think that the changes around the ideology of women can be reversed still or in the future, whereas I think Brexit can't. I see some element of change and resistance in many quarters already, to the wholesale acceptance of the trans movement (whilst at the same time, also seeing increase acceptance on the surface in other quarters!). But it makes me think that there will be more resistance before it becomes a cultural norm, and that there is still some time left to campaign for changes. And that's not the case with Brexit, and there will be more issues with the NHS and the economy that will have such a devastating effect on the daily lives of so many. I wish it didn't have to be a choice in this way, as I think both issues are extremely important, but when I have to weigh them up like this, I find that one is more time critical and sudden and irreversible, whereas the other is a slower process that could still be changed.

I don't think any parties or parliaments are going to focus on this at the moment, and that there will be another election sooner rather than later.

I hate that we've been put in this position, with a referendum that shouldn't have happened.

It's easy for me because I'm satisfied that my Tory MP is GC. However, I completely understand the dilemma that so many others have.

is that even prominent people within political parties are afraid to speak out. There is an effective collusion and a wall of silence. How on earth do you think ordinary members and voters are going to change that? they won't! The silence has to be broken. The debate needs to be public

Justhadathought, I absolutely agree with your assessment. The fact that powerful people and corporations are either being silenced or actively embracing ‘gender neutrality’ irrespective of its negative impact on women? This really is a reminder that 1984 is looking less like a work of dystopian fiction. Some lobbyists and politicians seem to regard it as a blueprint.

Every single one of them relies on our ability to name ourselves as women.If we can't do this we have nothing. No rights

I'm with you totally. This is not a side issue. It is fundamental to everything for us as women. And for our children, and grandchildren.

One of the choices I'm seeing is Enlightenment thinking versus anti-science/anti-rationality, authoritarianism, and identity politics adopting extreme and violent forms.

To me getting a second Brexit referendum in that context is not so important.

My MP is Sajid Javid. I approached his office about gender issues, I asked for an appointment to discuss sex based women's rights.

His office, repeatedly said they didn't receive my emails. They finally returned my calls after voicemails to tell me there were no appointments available...ever.

I asked if he would attend a meeting at the houses of parliament to discuss women's rights. I was told he was too busy and would not attend.

I then received a two page letter explaining trans people are the most vulnerable people ever and couldn't I just be nice or failing that...shut up. (Paraphrasing but that was the strong gist).

I don't think there is anyone with enough discretion to take a stand on the unfashionable issue of women's rights.

I will be voting tactically to keep Jeremy Corbyn out of No. 10. All other considerations are secondary to that.

I think it would depend on the response from the candidates. I live in a safe tory seat, but the incumbent MP is not standing, so bigger than usual chance of a non-tory (it's also a remain constituency). Ususally it's a lib dem/tory contest, but labour came 2nd in 2017. Greens are standing down to support lib dems. Most tactical voting sites say vote lib dem. One says vote labour. My plan is to scrutinise the manifestos in order to ask the candidates about safeguarding women's rights. I think my vote will depend on their response, in the same way that if I lived in scotland I could note vote for SNP policies, but I would vote for Joanna Cherry or Joan McAlpine. All parties are coalitions of opinion, and someone inside fighting to change the organisation, or at least represent another pov can be powerful.
But on the whole I am very uninspired by the choices available. I have nothing positive to vote for, only a choice of which of several terrible things I want to try and stop.

I will be voting tactically to keep Jeremy Corbyn out of No. 10. All other considerations are secondary to that

Jeremy has become the focus for a movement........and a lot of that movement is young Momentum people.....idealistic and naive...and brought up with a post-modernist idea of the world; and one in which social media, individualism and identity is central. He has to be seen to nurture them...he's still a student himself in many ways....

Personally much prefer John McDonnel and would have far more confidence in him as a leader and a pragmatist. Can't see him saying TWAW. Redundant point, though, in the circumstances.

So spoiled paper it must be,

All parties are coalitions of opinion, and someone inside fighting to change the organisation, or at least represent another pov can be powerful

Yes, but Joanna Cherry is the only Mp, apart from David Davies, doing that......nobody in Labour or the Lib Dems......even those that are with us.......

So spoiled paper it must be

A spoiled ballot paper is a pointless protest. Do you think that anyone reads or cares what you write? You're throwing your vote away - a vote that women suffered and died to ensure that you have.

Like Novina I live in a very (so far) safe Conservative seat, but the current MP is retiring. Lib Dems have come second since they existed I think. It is however a marginally 'leave' constituency by the same margin as the national vote (51/49), so quite an interesting constituency, politically.

Like many others, women's sex-based rights is THE issue for me. Absolutely and utterly fundamental.

I will be contacting all the ppcs, though having contacted all the parties concerned in the recent council elections I am pretty sure where they stand as parties. I will be focusing my energies on trying to speak in person to the new Conservative candidate. If he proves to be GC, then I MAY give him my vote, on the basis that he is likely to win anyway and the more GC MPs we can get into the HoC the better.

But I will have no hesitation in spoiling my ballot; I did it in the council elections and I will do it again; it is my right and the only way I can clearly say 'none of the above'.

My Conservative MP is probably GC but her views on LBG rights are disgusting. She would love nothing more than to ban abortion. She thinks maternity leave is madness. She would love nothing better than to privatise the NHS. She is a far right Christian and openly flaunts this.

She will never get my vote. Oh and I forgot to mention she is a rabid ERG member.

I've made up my mind. Better the devil I know. I'm not going to spoil my vote. I'm voting Labour.

I honestly dont know. I'm a staunch remainer and the LibDems have previously held my area. The option should be clear.
However, going for a least worst option is one thing, voting for a party that is actively campaigning to decimate women's rights legislation is something else all together.
How the hell can I vote for that?
I'm going to find out if I can find out where my candidate stands on the issue and then make a decision.
Either way, I'm utterly furious with Labour, LibDems and the Greens. This government is such an utter shitshow that the leftwing parties should be sailing through. Ustead they've shown themselves to be a bunch of lily-livered misogynistic weasels. I am livid.

There are many strong women, and I include myself, who are working hard for women's rights.

This thread has actually made me want to rejoin the Labour Party.

Thank you x

@zafferana women fought and died for me to vote. And if that means spoiling my paper that is better than not voting.
I doubt the women who fought and died for me are happy with TWAW. I doubt the people who fought for a working class right to vote are happy that my Labour MP supports trashing our local greenbelt for profit. Yet he does.
I have no idea whether the people who fought and died for my vote would support Brexit or not. I didn't. But I doubt they would be happy with a majority decision in a referendum, however unpalatable it is to me, being ignored.

@bellinisurge you're still wasting your vote, whatever your justification for doing that. If you don't vote, you can't complain about the outcome.

But I see it as a vote. Half Irish/half Jewish woman here. No one to vote for.

If you're half Jewish then a tactical vote against the anti-Semite Labour party is probably your best bet.

For whom? I'm not enabling Brexit. I'll tolerate it as long as it's orderly and doesn't fuck with the GFA.

If you'll tolerate an orderly Brexit, then vote for it. Otherwise, what about the Greens? At least it would be a vote for the environment.

Yes it absolutely affects my decision in who to vote for. I voted for Labour last time but would never vote for Labour again, unless the 'hard left' left the party and it became a party again for the moderate left. I've been shocked and what kind of behaviour the Labour Party thinks is acceptable, such as condoning their members to aggressively protest a women's meeting, supporting the removal of women's sex based rights, allowing their members to call abuse survivors 'swerf trash' etc.

I'm just horrified by all of it to be honest. How on earth can any of these people genuinely, honestly think it's acceptable to place male rapists and pedophiles into women's prisons? Every single day I feel like I'm living in a nightmare, I can't believe it's happening and that the people, including women, in power are all 'whatever who cares' about it.

I have been affected negatively by Tory austerity measures and disagree with them on almost everything, so I am horrified that I've even considered voting for them, simply because they seem to be stalling going ahead with self ID. Having said that, they are just letting the police and other organisations to bring in self ID anyway and are not vocally GC. So they don't really care either.

If we got a Libdem or Labour government it looks like feminism would be virtually criminalised, and that none of us would have any ability to have a women only space. I worry about things like smear tests. There's no way I'd want a man who identifies as a woman doing my smear test, and I can't imagine I'm the only one. This could then mean smear testing would drop off putting women at risk of cancer. Just one of many things that would happen if this situation continues.

I have been in an abusive relationship and at one point it was suggested to me that I might have to go in a refuge. It horrifies me beyond belief that they are now letting men into this refuges. I just can't believe it. Transwomen are male, and should be funding their own refuges.

So I am thinking I might have to spoil my ballot. I've been wondering what to write on it. I was thinking all of us who are going to spoil our ballots could write the same thing to send a message.

The only downside of spoiling the ballot is that it could let Labour and Libdems get in and then things could be even worse since they are so pro self ID.

I often just wish that I lived in a different era, this one is so depressing.

@zafferana , tbe Greens have their own problems with the TWAW cult.
And no I will not in any way shape or form vote to enable Brexit.