Sunday Times: PM to scrap plan to make gender change easier

[HeyBells]

Just seen this on Twitter. Anyone got a sharetoken please?

Google search shows this is being widely reported, so maybe cause to be cautiously optimistic.

I am saying face the reality. Which government even with a large majority is going to just ignore a vote of 70%.

If half of those were the Stonewall auto response then they are pretty much meaningless. Remember stonewall were targeting children to send it in!

If the 30% in support of women were carefully considered, individual responses then yes, they can legitimately discard all the Stonewall generated copy pasta.

I have to say this makes me very concerned for Scotland. The SNP, with a few exceptions are nutters on this.

Tentatively happy about this, it’s certainly some indication that something sensible might be happening. My MP is labour, I might still drop him a note saying please don’t oppose this whenever it makes its way out of the shadows and into something tangible.

This is also in the Times today about JKR, don't see it linked yet:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/f205e20c-acd5-11ea-a162-e62c6152f801?shareToken=e295202400bf65318808b33a79bd1cde

This section of the article makes me like her even more. She sounds generous and fun. Some of her critics sound jealous.

Rowling is a private person, mistrustful of most journalists, but with a huge circle of friends. Every couple of years, hundreds attend lavish parties at Killiechassie House, her home in Perth and Kinross. The most recent was a steampunk-inspired New Year’s Eve party at which Queen played. Watson attended another recent party dressed as Wonder Woman.

“It’s an absurd event,” says a friend. “Very elaborate, with these big bands. She’s aware that it’s a preposterous way to spend money, so she donates an equivalent sum of money to charity.”

And Neil Oliver in the Scotland section:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/e15f15ee-ada3-11ea-a162-e62c6152f801?shareToken=4759935c8aa88bfd9f71fdb63c5fb2cd

"Knowing the difference between right and wrong is not the same as living it, acting it out, in everyday life. JK Rowling is doing her human best to be fair. I stand by that effort, and her.
"

From Neil Oliver's comment.
If only more people had the guts for such a clear personal statement.

Yeah, I'm thinking that Starmer will make all the right noises about how disappointed in the nasty party he is but won't actually do much to interfere since he doesn't seem to be a gender true believer. In a lot of ways this is exactly the excuse to get the Labour party out of the mess the gender fanatics have created for it he's probably been hoping for.

Yes, he'll release something bland but then the issue is effectively dead for four years.

I guess we'll have to see whether this news is as good as it sounds, but heavens I'm so proud of us!

That Neil Oliver piece is excellent

🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌 this is the best news I've read in months

That’s a good piece from Neil Oliver, who I don’t usually rate. Fair play to him.

I just wanted to shout out to the woman who was on the sky news press review last night and repeated again at around 5.30am this morning.

I'm gutted I didn't get her name as I turn the telly on half way through and was busy getting breakfast. She put her head above the pulpit, and said that the silencing around women's rights needs to stop and and discussions opened up.
She was brave.

The other Interviewee was full on that the government will be killing transgender people with this, and a small minority are putting harmful myths out there that women will be put in danger because of gender neutral toilets and it simply wasn't true.

It also mentions protection for women only spaces

I am a Conservative Party member and for the last eighteen months, I have been persistently lobbying my MP and everyone else I can think of (including Liz Truss and Baroness Nicholson) to urge them to halt the march towards Self ID, to protect single sex spaces and to wake up to the risk to children.

At first, the responses were cautious and verging on non-committal but they have increasingly become braver. In the run-up to the GE, it became evident to me that there is clear water between the Conservative Party and the other parties on this issue.

Maria Miller can do one. With an 80 seat majority, Boris Johnson can afford to lose a few Tory MP votes and still wave the necessary legislation through.

However, as others have pointed out upthread, now is not the time to let up. Email, write, do whatever you have to do. As Baroness Nicholson says repeatedly in her Twitter account, "The work must continue for at least two years but the barrier has fallen and the government is on side." The Augean stable will still need a thorough cleaning out.

I'm looking forward to all those dominoes falling, as they did with the CPS, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and elsewhere, but until that happens, the fight continues.

Ah you know what, I'll bite, I need some good news- I'm more hopeful/optimistic than I have been for years with this news. I'll email my MP later.

I'm also optimistic that my response to that consultation and others were actually analysed, rather than discarded the way I assumed they would be.

I bet they got 70% automated, "billions of trans deaths, science wrong, terfs evil, girl penis good" responses, and then 30% long thoughtful cogent "but here's why this is a bad idea for xyz reasons" responses. Maybe someone actually took notice? That would be amazing.

@TedsFederationRep I'm going to email tomorrow, if there's any chance you could pm me with some hints it'd be much appreciated. I'm worried about getting a coherent structure and the balance between covering the many facets of the issue and waffling at such length they don't read it!

I also hope the quality vs quantity of responses was taken into account. I wrote a subtitled, referenced essay with all the impacts of self ID on the other protected characteristics, as well as personal and professional observations. I’d be pissed off if that’s given equal weight to Stonewall coercing some 8 year old to send their generic response in.

Happy to, SirSamuel. I'll put something together later today and PM it to you.

Neil Oliver's article is beautiful and eloquent. Thank you, Neil.

In response to Stumbledin and others expressing scepticism about this story: the Sunday Times wouldn't have published this as their front page lead if they were not absolutely certain about it. The article refers to leaked documents - these will either have come from Liz Truss herself or someone very close to her. I'm sure as I can be that this story is absolutely rock solid.

And let's allow ourselves a pat on the back. Many of us here, as well as commenting on these forums, have been working quietly behind the scenes - responding to the consultation, writing letters, attending meetings - to put an end to this ridiculous bill. Even those of you just commenting on this forum have done your bit by enabling people who read Mumsnet to understand the arguments. Well done us. We've achieved something huge.

I get Stumble's caution but I'm with you Royal just for once I need to celebrate. The JKR stuff, the race riots and the pandemic have pushed me to the edge this week and I will take this as a victory. I came to this late but have been elbow deep for two years. I have lost friends, sleep and at times my grip on my emotions (haven't we all).

Let's just enjoy it for a moment, just for a moment please, and send letters of support (please PM me too @TedsFederationRep thank you) and regroup to fight for Scotland!

It’s even in The Guardian!

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jun/14/trans-rights-government-reported-to-be-dropping-gender-self-identifying-plans

Thank you @TedsFederationRep I really appreciate it.