Baroness Liz Barker (LibDem Lords) interview, "There has been a vicious campaign against Trans women. Orchestrated by extreme right wingers from the US, but it is perpetrated by.. women of the left"

[R0wantrees]

By Matthew Hulbert
"Im a charity trustee, an LGBT+ Rights activist, a School Governor, a former journalist, a Councillor, a campaigner and and an activist... Chair of the Leicestershire Police/Fire Service LGBT+ Independent Advisory Group (IAG)"

mathewhulbertonline.wordpress.com/about/

“There has been a vicious campaign against Trans women.”A special interview, marking IDAHoBiT, with Baroness Liz Barker

(extract)
Baroness Liz Barker was made a life peer representing the Liberal Democrats in 1999.

She is the party’s Lords Spokesperson for LGBT+ issues and the Voluntary Sector.

Baroness Barker is also a Vice Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Global LGBT+ Rights and is involved with a number of LGBT+ charities.

For many years she worked for Age Concern.

Earlier this week, to mark today’s International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHoBiT), I conducted a socially distanced interview with Liz, who I’ve known for many years and worked with on various issues around LGBT+ equality." (continues)

"LB In recent years the UK Government has helped to defend people, for example in Commonwealth countries, but given the recent statement by the Minister Liz Truss to the Women and Equalities Committee, I don’t think this Conservative government can be relied on to do the right thing. I fear that the nasty party is back.

MH: Turning to the position re LGBT+ Rights more generally, it seems there is increasing hostility towards some members of our communities; especially Trans, non binary and gender fluid individuals. This interview will be published on IDAHoBiT day. How important is having a day focused on us standing against those who peddle hatred towards LGBT+ people? The theme this year is ‘breaking the silence.’ Many LGBT+ people still do live their lives having to keep their sexuality/gender identity secret in certain situations, don’t they?

LB: Yes, I work closely with trans groups, intersex groups and non-binary people. When the government’s LGBT Action plan was published there was some optimism that long overdue legal reform would happen. Sadly for the last three years there has been a vicious campaign against trans women. It is orchestrated by extreme right wingers from the US, but it is perpetrated by people, many of them women, who are traditionally on the left. Despite a stark lack of evidence, the constant assertions that trans women pose a threat to other women are fanned by journalists. We are not talking about the usual suspects like the Mail and the Murdoch sheets, media such as the Guardian and the BBC have endlessly and relentlessly given credence to views which on any other subject would be subject to journalistic scrutiny and dismissed. Worst of all, lesbians and gay men, many of whom know what it is like to be subject to discrimination and misrepresentation, are now subjecting trans women to that same unfair treatment. That is utterly disgraceful.

MH: You’re one of the most high-profile LGBT+ Parliamentarians and do a huge amount for our communities. What is life like as an Out Parliamentarian? Are there still those who are negative about it?

LB: That is the case at the moment, and I hope it can remain so. I wasn’t able to come out for many years for personal reasons. To work every day under the threat of being outed took a toll on me, but also friends and colleagues who worried for me. When I could come out I did and I decided to use my position and influence to make life better for others, especially those who still face discrimination in their communities. There are now more LGB parliamentarians, sadly no trans MPs or peers yet, but I do hope that the brilliant campaigner Helen Belcher can break that barrier. I co-founded the APPG on Global LGBT Rights and, despite current restraints on the Lords imposed by government, I hope to continue that work. And I have worked a lot on building LGBT issues into discussions about equalities, especially with parliamentarians from abroad. I try to help activists from other countries too. I consider it my duty to help as many groups and activists from our communities to engage effectively with parliament and government. " (continues)

mathewhulbertonline.wordpress.com/about/

Baroness Liz Barker has worked closely with/for TRAs such as Helen Belcher, GIRES etc for many years.

Its been quite a week for spurious allegations as printed in Pink News yesterday.
current thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3912202-feminist-movement-is-a-cult-that-grooms-controls-and-abuses-according-to-a-lesbian-who-managed-to-escape-Amy-Dyess

'Baroness Barker has apparently been a regular special guest at GIRES AGM
Drs Helen & Mike Webberley likewise.'

hmmm, anyone else here also suspect cash is behind at least some of the good baroness's fervour.

the constant assertions that trans women pose a threat to other women are fanned by journalists.

Or the number of times ‘woman’ in the press = man with plain old male on female patterned violence.

This mistruth is a second affront to women who suffer violence.

Blah, blah, women not rolling over in total capitulation to their every whim = poor oppressed males. Tale as old as time and all that. It may surprise Liz but women do exist and we actually matter.

It's bad enough when Americans think we Brits must be funded by their loony fundamentalists, but for a Baronness to also believe that we lack any ability to organise and self-fund is rather galling.

Is it a class thing or does she just genuinely believe that women can't do anything unless somehow controlled by men?

I worked with women like her - they ‘get ahead’ year assume that other women are useless articles and they are just special. I usually refer to them as ‘men’s women’.

Posie Parker videoed a hustings in Chippenham with the ridiculous Belcher. It's probably on Facebook. Lib Dems all seem to be mothpeices for Belcher's ravings.

It's probably on Facebook. Lib Dems all seem to be mothpeices for Belcher's ravings.

Layla Moran MP acknowledged the influence of her friend & colleague Helen Belcher in the 2018 debate when she also asserted that she preferred to prioritise her capacity to see people's souls rather than recognise sex in the context of women's safety, dignity & privacy in female single sex spaces. This debate was in response to a male sex offender, K. White, being convicted of sexually assaulting women in the female prison estate.

Hansard 21 November 2018
Layla Moran (Oxford West and Abingdon) (LD)
(extract)
"I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in the debate today, especially because it is Trans Awareness Week. Yesterday was the Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day when we are meant to remember the huge inequalities and the number of transgender people who have died over the years because of the oppression that they faced. I hope the Minister will join me today in solidarity with the community that over the past few months has had inordinate amounts of abuse hurled at it from all quarters. However, today is an opportunity to shed some light rather than heat on this debate, particularly on the issues that underpin some of that heat.

I want to place on the record my thanks to my Liberal Democrat colleague and friend, Helen Belcher, whom I have worked with closely on this matter. I also want to place it on the record that I am wholeheartedly behind the Government’s proposed reforms of the Gender Recognition Act 2004. I believe that they are proportionate and well thought through. It is time that Britain caught up with many other countries around the world—a point I will come to later." (continues)
hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2018-11-21/debates/BE06C5D4-E549-4F94-87B1-9B77F32EA155/Self-IdentificationOfGender

Spectator James Kirkup
This MP has summed up everything wrong with the transgender debate
21 November 2018

(extract)
"Ms Moran has said she believes trans women are women. Mr Davies has said he believes that a person with a penis cannot be a woman.

Their exchange is here:

David T. C. Davies:

'I hear what the hon. Lady is saying. May I bluntly ask her whether she would be happy sharing a changing room with somebody who was born male and had a male body?'

Layla Moran:

'I believe that women are women, so if that person was a trans woman, I absolutely would. I just do not see the issue. As for whether they have a beard, which was one of the hon. Gentleman’s earlier comments, I dare say that some women have beards. There are all sorts of reasons why our bodies react differently to hormones. There are many forms of the human body. I see someone in their soul and as a person. I do not really care whether they have a male body.'

And that, in a nutshell, is the transgender debate. Remember, Ms Moran, an intelligent and educated member of Parliament was speaking in a debate about laws that help determine how and whether people with female bodies can chose to separate themselves from people with male bodies. I’ll repeat her key observation again, just for clarity:

'I see someone in their soul and as a person. I do not really care whether they have a male body.' (continues)

concludes:
But what about those women who do not possess Ms Moran’s remarkable gift, and who might just be a little concerned about the anatomy of the people they share changing rooms and bathrooms with? Women who might not subscribe to the fact-free, anti-evidence superstitious gibberish contained in talk of seeing souls? Women who might just consider material reality, biological fact and thousands of years of accumulated evidence about male violence, committed with male bodies, to actually matter? Women who might be left asking, if even MPs debate laws on sex and gender on the basis of 'souls' not bodies, what hope is there?

Sadly, Ms Moran did not say anything about those women who are not fortunate enough to share her special gift. Perhaps she’ll get to the next time MPs debate this issue"

www.spectator.co.uk/article/this-mp-has-summed-up-everything-wrong-with-the-transgender-debate

Well, we have at least one American who we know is American who comments here (Detroit), but I'm fairly sure she doesn't qualify as extreme right wing. If there are American right wingers organizing the British resistance to TRA overreach surely Barker should be able to name them?

I mean, at this point she could mean Julie Bindel and think that she's been undercover for 40 years, it wouldn't be out of keeping with the rest of what she's saying in terms of level of rationality.

I mean, if you you are so right wing undercover that you dedicate your entire life to the actual promotion of left of centre things, I'm not sure it's a very effective strategy.

And apparently tons of us are doing it, so one might gently suggest that any right winger who organized it may not be a master strategist. Lots of us have even campaigned to get lefties elected! But wait, maybe they're plants too?

(Plays spooky music)

Her thoughts are controlled by a man, Belcher.

The house of lords should be scrapped, the LibDems are an irrelevance, there is no reason why any unelected person should have this much power and influence, or why certain organisations should have access to the political systems of this country.

Kittens perhaps the lefties will achieve a right wing coup in the afterlife. Really playing the long game.

I am so not a fan of right wing groups in the U.S., but have you any of you seen much evidence of this? Not I. More like bemusement and "all you feminist libtards can go eat yourselves, you are getting what you deserve" bullshit. They're having a big laugh, if anything, at people on the left for our sadly predictable habit of falling into Oppression Olympics. They just sit on the sidelines and enjoy the fun, much as Gender Critical Feminists do when the Trans Women and the Non-binaries get into a red hot bunfight.