Head's Up. Radio 4 Women's Hour Phone-in 4th Dec

[SidJS]

Women's Hour are having an election phone-in (1 and a 1/2 hour) programme on 4th Dec with the main political parties - focusing on how their manifestos will impact women.

Although the Self -ID proposals and sex-based exemptions under the EA are now being discussed more in the media, the media still in the main conflate gender and biological sex and I don't think the general public really still grasp what the proposals really mean:

As far as I can tell -

Womenhood will now have no definition
Lib Dems - any full bodied man can just out fill out a form so they can legally enter female only spaces
Labour - state that they will maintain sex-based exemptions but are fudging the issue so they might redefine sex to enable full male bodied self-ID TW to access these spaces.

We need to contact the programme so we can interrogate the politicians so that it is clear to the public the difference between sex and gender and give real life examples on how these proposed changes will lead to the wholesale REMOVAL of women's rights and protections.

My question will relate to communal changing rooms.

Currently it is illegal for full bodied males to go into female only changing rooms to watch women and girls undress and undress themselves exposing their male genitals. If this happens, a women can call the police.

Under your proposals, what will stop rapists (only males can rape), voyeurs, flashers, up-skirters, internet groomers (vast majority men) etc from exploiting the changes to legally watch women and girls undressing, and undress themselves exposing their male genitals.

Under the changes, if a woman calls the police, will she be accused of transphobia?

I need to be more succinct - but you get the point!

I hope they answer!

How about "if a sex offender with a cross-dressing fetish wants to use women's changing rooms, should we be kind and let him?"

Reminder to submit questions / ring in to R4 Woman’s Hour Election Debate. 4th Dec 10am-11.30 am.

Some good potential questions on the hustings threads. What are they doing to support sex based (not gender) female rights?

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000bxhs

Thanks for highlighting this. I intend to email the following:

Regarding women's rights; if the GRA is reformed as has been proposed, and a 'woman' is defined as simply anyone who says they identifies as one, regardless of the physical realities of their body, what is the point of any segregation based on sex in single sex spaces such as hospital wards, women's refuges or public changing rooms, or in arenas such as sport? Or more succinctly, does gender identity trump biological reality?

Good reminder: I think my question would be: given that changing rights for one minority can massively impact the rights of women, is it time to split women and equality ministries into separate departments and have them headed by people who respect all the areas in their remit. I'm thinking especially of DBB, who throws women's rights under the bus to promote trans issues.

Please not number on the link is incorrect. Correct number is 03700 100 444

I have rung in with my question. Was told to make sure the questions are really concise!

My q - after GRA self is, would the panel have any concerns for the safety, dignity and privacy of two 14 year old girls if they saw an adult male enter a female changing room Immediately after them

My question would be specifically for Labour, because a bad answer would be a deal-breaker for me.
If Labour have said they will update the GRA, and strengthen the exemptions in the equality act re same-sex spaces, how EXACTLY do they propose to do this?
What changes are they going to make exactly, to the GRA, and how can they make any changes without having an impact on same sex spaces?

What is the point of protecting single sex spaces if anyone can identify as any sex?

What do they propose will happen to the females now excluded from health care, same sex hcps, hospital wards, refuges, public toilets, changing rooms because of their disabilities, faith and culture, trauma? Is it right to exclude some females from ANY provision to provide wider choice and support for males?

What is Laura Pidcock's accent? I'm from the area and it just doesn't sound right. To be honest it sounds like an accent she learned at university. Like the "Socialist Worker" accent students tended to adopt.

Can't call in but I wish I could. If you intend on calling, one thing to watch out for is someone trying to undermine your concern as some sort of hysteria. We all know that women and girls are more vulnerable because of our bodies. The stats show that the majority of sexual aggressors are men, and we all know a woman who's been sexually harassed, assaulted or raped. They need to spell out in abc terms how they plan to mitigate the risk of abusers using the system to abuse women. There's no use in talking about improving conviction rates because then the damage is already done.

Bugger, I've missed most of this. Have they done the big question yet?

Ah, here it is.

It's happening now. With very little time for answers. And Jane Garvey jumped in to mangle it.

Thankyou caller, whoever you are.
You can trot out the Stonewall line, and a couple of you really have drunk the Koolaid, but some of you obviously have doubts ... keep on thinking about those doubts and concerns ...

'You' being the panellists, obvs

Fuck if I heard correctly I’m going to have to vote for the brexit party?!

Was all too quick.

Was the only one who spoke real sense on the last q the Brexit party person? !

The Lib Dem lady was a robot. Laura Pidcock had actually been briefed and knew what the talking points were she needed to get across. The Brexit lady had also prepared for it. The SNP lady wants everything to change but fortunately this will lead to nothing changing.

The political parties are beginning to listen and are realising they have to be careful in what they say to the public. The issue is breaking through (in a glacial type of way).

2 rushed minutes at the end! Shame they didn't have longer to discuss it. They all seemed to be scared to say anything really apart from that it was a very difficult and sensitive subject.

Yes well done to the caller, main issues highlighted very concisely

@Burru. My thoughts too. Yikes!

Yes, NellieEllie, she was. Couldn't dream of voting for them but it does make me think.

Well that was largely 'meh'. Having missed the rest of the programme, I wasn't quite sure who was who.

They all seemed to be scared to say anything really apart from that it was a very difficult and sensitive subject.

Why are all politicians such spineless cowards?

Lib Dem was rubbish. Trans people suffer so that’s all we need to know. “Let’s turn this around...” - ie don’t ask how to safeguard women and girls. That’s irrelevant if a trans person is about.

So disappointed with the "discussion" tacked on as an afterthought. Waste of time. The biggest threat to women's status today clearly NOT a priority to WH.