Why are so many GC people clinging onto Labour?

[GeordieTerf]

I really don't understand why so many GC people are still in Labour?

Labour have made it very clear that they don't think biology exists. They have made it very clear that the subjective notion of gender is one that everyone must believe in. They have also made it clear that anyone who even questions these views should be either re-educated or thrown out of the party.

I will not allow myself to be treated this way. I know that I am right to be gender critical. I also know that I have science and the silent majority behind me. Labour don't want me, so I will happily go elsewhere.

Also: if the leaders are gaslighting us over this issue, what else are they gaslighting us with? Those leading are undoubtedly smart enough to see through this nonsense, yet they preach it anyway. If they're willing to lie about this, then what else are they lying about? I can't trust them.

@cwenthryth, yes, absolutely. One of the things that this debacle has brought to the surface is the number of GC Labour members that there are, who were keeping quiet but who have started kicking off since statements of faith became required.
We can't vote Tory; they're awful. We can't form a new party: it would attract genuine transphobics. So we've just got to stick with it, join forces through the Labour women's declaration, and not allow ourselves to be displaced without a very public fight.

I quit my LP membership over the Women's Shortlist issue and Corbyn tbh, and have rejoined post election to have a say in the leadership contest.

Absolutely bloody mortified by these idiotic candidates! I just assume they have no fucking clue what they are blabbing about. BUT I'm staying with it in the hope that the more gc women are Labour members the quicker this madness will pass.

If they expel me in the meanwhile, so be it.

smithsinarazz

I was a lifelong Labour voter until this election and had absolutely no problem switching, because I am gender critical (probably what you call transphobic?), and I was sick of the Labour MP's referring to Brexit voters as Xenophobic or ignorant.
It didn't go well for them and I see no reason why their situation will improve, particularly given the views of the leadership and deputy leadership candidates.

Sorry Andy- failure of definitions. "Transphobic" has come to mean "aware of where babies come from", so, yeah, probably best avoided in this forum. What I meant was that a party specifically set up in resistance to Labour's current genderist ethos would attract people who genuinely do hate trans-identifying people.
I don't agree with you about Brexit, I'm very much an Europhile, but i do agree that a very judgemental attitude towards different viewpoints has emerged.

Mockers "the core of the Labour Party is still the party that cares, and the Tories will always be the party that doesn't give a toss about anyone else."

Mockers "I made no comments about voters"

That's rather a disingenuous way of looking at it. I may as well say something like "Labour is the party for gullible woman hating dickheads" and then also say "oh but I wasn't talking about voters"

I’m still in.

I’m stubborn so they can jolly well get on and expel me if they want me out.

Went to branch this week. 4/5 of the women attending will have to be expelled if believing men cannot change into women = transphobia.

They are though surrounded by young staffers, often male, who have been indoctornated at certain unis (Oxford VERY much comes to mind) with gender idology.

Also my experience. And they really enjoy it. No skin in the game, and they get to lecture actual women on how they have no right to a view any more. Because it's transphobic to say any voices but transwomen's should be heard, because transwomen are women and any suggestion that other women's voices are necessary denies trans womanhood.

Funny, how determined they are that only those born with a penis get to speak... but now, it's called feminism.

Isn't that what you are doing with labour?

Me personally? I haven’t said who I vote for.

BuzzShitbagBobbly

‘Mockers "the core of the Labour Party is still the party that cares, and the Tories will always be the party that doesn't give a toss about anyone else."’

I don’t take this to be about the voters at all. It is about party policy. To be a right wing party means to have policies around the following:

1. Conserving traditional cultural values.
2. Small state, particularly around public spending.
3. Support of free market, with some degree of protection through the law.

The view of left wing people is that small state spending creates suffering among the vulnerable aka the tories do not give a toss.

That doesn’t mean that Tory voters don’t give a toss. People vote Tory for other right wing reasons that have nothing to do with public spending.

Me personally? I haven’t said who I vote for.

Well it was a question to you, but i wasn't actually expecting an answer.

Because we were here first. Because it's our party, or at least it used to be. Because there is no alternative and we're trying to turn this ship around

Well said @LumpySpacedPrincess.

I left this week. Quietly, with no big statements. Last straw was all the women candidates threatening to expel actual feminist women. Then the procession of bizarre statements by Butler and the frenzy of "burn the witches" comments by beardy bros on Twitter.

I'm a woman who lives quietly with a lot of responsibilities in my personal and professional life. If my workplace caught a whiff of my radical feminism I'd probably be hounded out. I cannot afford the emotional stress of public denunciation and show trial expulsion I might be subjected to if the "pledge" writers had their way. I worked immensely hard to qualify as a teacher and get a permanent job. To have that snatched away by hysterical children in the Party is an incredibly distressing prospect. So I quit.

There is no way I can stay and fight my corner. Biological reality is a fact, not a belief. The entire premise of Stonewallism outrages my intellect. My job is very engrossing; I have caring responsibilities that consume what little spare time I have. The main feeling is one of relief. Having to hold my opinions to myself at Party meetings has been stressful. I'm sad there's no socialist party for me to join or vote for. However, it's an insult to my intelligence to be associated with asinine / patently false comments like "the oldest profession in the world" and "no conflict between T and women's rights" that happened this week. What a terrible week.

I still hope that Labour is more than the trans cult. We will weather this storm.

@HashtagLurky that's beautifully written, and exactly where we are.

We don't have the energy to deal with the toxic misogyny. Life is too short and we have other responsibilities.

Labour don't want me, so I will happily go elsewhere.

There is no "elsewhere" to go to.

Hence the popularity of #ExpelMe rather than quietly leaving. I guess most are forcing them to make the position on GRA and EA position clear publicly not in private meetings with TRA groups.

Networking is happening - I contacted Labour Women’s Declaration and they have connected me with others in my constituency already.

What a good idea, cwenthryth I too rejoined last month to have a vote in the leadership elections and have no intention of leaving voluntarily just yet. I'm fortunate to be retired, so no worries about any impact on my job. I'll see whether the Labour Women's Declaration, which I've been pushing hard on Twitter, has any contacts in my rural Welsh CLP.

I cannot afford the emotional stress....There is no way I can stay and fight my corner.... My job is very engrossing; I have caring responsibilities that consume what little spare time I have.

We don't have the energy to deal with the toxic misogyny. Life is too short and we have other responsibilities.

Thankyou for posting HashtagLurky and wellbehavedwomen. Becoming a Labour member at this moment means I feel I should bear in mind that I need to represent women like you - to phrase it in woke-ish so they understand, women who no longer ‘feel safe’ in the party. I and I hope others like me will pick up the baton

Thank you, wellbehavedwomen and Cwenthryh for your kind thoughts.

I am angry that I won't see a Left government in the foreseeable future. It dawned on me during half term that the economically disadvantaged kids I work with will struggle for years with genuine, heartrending problems, while the pitchfork tendency teens in Labour obsess over 78 genders and cancel culture. My energies are better employed with getting 'my' kids school trousers, food, books and a chance of GCSEs through my teaching. I am glad women are staying in the Party to fight but - in the words of Skepta - that's not me.

I stumbled across this thread on Thursday from an obviously young, woke, bubble-inhabiting Labour activist who had a rude awakening when he did some phone-banking. Sounds like Labour women and men are speaking up.

twitter.com/BenMSmith4/status/1230571607896272897

100% agree. Also why aren't women mass joining the Tory party and taking it over?

100% agree. Also why aren't women mass joining the Tory party and taking it over?

Presumably because people don't' trust the Tory's, quite rightly so.

Transdimensional, sad to say, the Women’s Equality Party sacked the superb Dr Heather Brunskell-Evans as their spokeswoman after she pointed out that people could not be born in the wrong body.

Which makes me wonder why they bothered to set up a women’s party.

I've been asking myself this question so many times over the past couple of weeks ''why am I still in Labour'' and I was on the verge of leaving but then I saw that tweet by that young labour guy phone banking on behalf of Wrong-Daily complaining about all the 'transphobes' in the party. That's given me hope so I reckon I'll stick around a bit longer.

Cheers Ben!

I've left, but it's hard to criticise those who are still trying. Because that is what they are doing.

The problem is that there is nowhere else to go, as pp's have said. That is the real indictment of not just the Labour Party, but the whole British system. There ought to be more parties, or no parties. 65 million people do not all get their voices heard through a simple yes / no bipolar system. It is too hard to get other parties set up, and too hard for them to start to register: and anyway, this is not simply a Labour disease. All of our political parties on the left wing have succumbed: all of the people involved in politics on the left wing are pushing this rot.

To me, it really shows up the class dimension in politics, using that word "class" as a shortcut to the complexities of social-economic relations in Britain. There is a decreasing class range among MPs and it takes increasing amounts of money to have any real interest in politics (Caroline Lucas wrote about this once, whether she still recognises it or not). The rest of us are slowly giving up. That is the real failure in Britain. Money talks, much too loudly, and in increasing volume.

For me its about class. Although Labour are throwing women under the bus the Tories have instigated so many policies which hurt women at the bottom of the social pyramid. So much of GC debate focuses on the impact of self-ID policies on the poorest women in society. I can hardly bang on about my concern for women in prisons and then support political parties which further their marginalization. What about women from immigrant backgrounds and those with disabilities or on Universal Credit? If you care about women you should oppose the government who has done so much to remove their rights (by making them poorer and removing vital safety nets like legal aid and the NHS.)