Labour continuing to support self-declaration

[Polynerd]

Apologies if this has already been mentioned but the official Labour Twitter account tweeted this earlier today:
It is deeply disappointing that the government has let trans people down and dropped its plans to reform the Gender Recognition Act.
Labour is committed to equality and we continue to support updating the GRA to introduce self-declaration for trans people.

Labour have just abandoned their working class but (in relative terms) socially conservative voter base. They represent a large proportion of the ‘silent majority’ or ‘low information voters’ who just don’t concern themselves with this type of bullshit. Until they accept that there is a UK that is not in Islington/Hackney/Brent/NUS, they will remain out of power

Great post McKenna They are now the party of students and they have not only alienated their traditional voters, their contempt for them is visceral. If Keir Starmer is too intimidated by the headbangers in his party to address this issue, he is not fit to be in Downing Street. And if Starmer can't figure out why the Red Wall turned blue? Millions of ex Labour voters will ensure he never is.

I can't vote for Labour while they continue with the policy of self ID.
I'm a life-long labour voter, but my rights as a woman have to come first for me.

i dont think he's intimidated. i think wait and see is abetter approach. theres no point starting a distracting fight now.
focus on brexit and covid. let the morons burn themselves out.

I've only ever voted for Labour but won't be voting for them again until they start supporting women's rights.

*sashagabadon

Goingdooolally
I am in Scotland and have always voted Labour. I will not do so until they drop this stance. It really saddens me as I agree with them on everything else. As a woman this is too important to ignore.
I think the snp are going to bring in self id in March 2021?*

I am hoping Ann Sinnott’s case might have some jurisdiction over this.

Slightly on a tangent.

I had an email from Labour letting me know that if I self identify as disabled I can vote for the disabled members representative. Maybe they are for self identifying into any of the protected characteristics...

I can’t say I am a life long committed Labour supporter because I have voted Green and LibDem in the past too (I wouldn’t now) but in recent years I’d been thinking that Labour really are the only left wing party with any chance of getting into government and I joined to support them.

I followed the leadership contest with interest not sure at first who I wanted to vote for and then the trans pledges changed everything for me. I had been blissfully ignorant of the TWAW thing in Labour up to that point. I looked up the supposed hate groups WPUK and LGB Alliance and found my way here thanks to Maya Forstater’s recommendation somewhere.

I have been hanging on waiting for Keir to come out in favour of women’s rights, reality and safeguarding. Feels like it is nearly time to jump ship. The SDP looks like a party I could vote for but I have never seen them on a ballot paper yet.

I live in a safe seat anyway (Tory) so my vote is meaningless, in large part that is what actually prompted me to join Labour. I am not really a political party joining kind of person... but I don’t feel that I have much input into democracy by voting in FPTP system. I always turn out to vote anyway on principle.

Just what is the point of any of the protected characteristics without sensible, fact based gate keeping? If something is protected it generally has a boundary around it.

I had an email from Labour letting me know that if I self identify as disabled I can vote for the disabled members representative.

Yes, that was brought in with the 2010 Equalities Act.

I could totally derail this thread with examples of how ‘self-id’ for disability has caused many problems for people with disabilities, but I’ve tended to avoid doing so as I don’t want to get shouted at. Needless to say, many of the issues that gender self-id has raised have equivalents when it comes to disability.

There is a perception that no one would ‘want’ to identify as disabled purely to access resources set aside for people with disabilities. However, there are countless examples of this happening.

Trust me on this, you can't self-indentify into getting PIP ...

PIP isn't the only resource set aside for people with disabilities though.

Just one example - the amount of times my mother's been left crossing her legs in her wheelchair for twenty minutes while some entitled dickhead with functional legs empties his guts in the only ground-floor loo and excuses it by saying "IBS is a disability too!" makes me furious. I'd imagine the problem is much wider and deeper than that.

I can understand you not wanting to derail, TheRealMcKenna, but it's very much a worthwhile topic for discussion and awareness-raising. Start a thread!

I’m actually starting to hope now that this enquiry won’t just be a rainbow-wash.

@EmpressJKRowlingSpartacus

I’m actually starting to hope now that this enquiry won’t just be a rainbow-wash.

Going off on somewhat of a tangent here but has anyone else watched the recent Netflix documentary on the Challenger disaster?

The politics around it are very interesting. Reagan apparently asked the commission set up to investigate not to embarrass NASA but the truth all came out regardless and they were forced to go down the lessons learned track.

I started a separate thread about women potentially having to stand in a GE as Independent Women's Voice candidates so that women who would have voted Labour had it not been for Labour's stance on self-ID can register a protest vote. Not very sexy and it hasn't attracted much interest!

I think it has to be considered if Labour keep this up. If you're standing for a seat you get interviewed on TV and radio and you go to hustings and get your chance to have a say — thus giving you a platform to tell everyone what Labour will do to women's rights. And of course the more the TRAs come at you, the more publicity you get. Horrible, I know.

I know women who've been working their socks off from within the Labour Party to change things without success. Maybe by standing against Labour on a single issue and taking some of their supporters is the only way of creating change. And perhaps women in areas where the Lib Dems have a foothold could do the same.

I say this as a former Labour voter who really doesn't want to perpetuate Tory rule, but fear that less than the erosion of my sex-based rights.

The Fawcett Society is running a free workshop on 26 November for women who might be considering standing as an independent candidate in local or national elections:

www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/free-online-equal-power-workshops-for-women

Going off on somewhat of a tangent here but has anyone else watched the recent Netflix documentary on the Challenger disaster?

The politics around it are very interesting. Reagan apparently asked the commission set up to investigate not to embarrass NASA but the truth all came out regardless and they were forced to go down the lessons learned track.

Yes, I'm fascinated by this.

Let's hope there's a Richard Feynman around, for the children.

I'm quite wary of the Fawcett Society now, Shed.

www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/News/fawcett-comments-on-government-response-to-gender-recognition-act-consultation

I know, but if it's for free I'll take it — with a pinch of salt if necessary.

I hope that the Cass investigation and Ann Sinnott and Maya's cases will sort a lot of the issues out, but I'm aware that in Scotland and Wales politicians are really anxious to be do things differently, whatever the cost.

[quote JamieLeeCurtains]I'm quite wary of the Fawcett Society now, Shed.

www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/News/fawcett-comments-on-government-response-to-gender-recognition-act-consultation[/quote]
The Fawcett Society advertised their CEO role this week. I do hope they take the Government stance into account during the recruitment process and appoint someone with sensible views who isn't afraid to raise them. I suspect the extent of the capture runs too deep though.

Petition here

www.ipetitions.com/petition/labour-womens-declaration

I love the idea of an Independent Women’s Voice candidate standing up for women’s rights. Brilliant Shedbuilder! I hope someone stands in my area. Of course we are a few years away yet. It would be great to have local election candidates too.

Don’t see my MPs name on the list. All she every does is bitch about everything the gvt does (a suggestion of how it could be improved would be useful - and considering some of the studs she complains about is local issues that they could fix) and kiss up to the mayor (and we know who he puts above women). Done with the lot of them.

@Mollyollydolly

What's so disappointing is the Truss statement was so measured and fair and most people will see this. Labour just don't seem to understand how most of the population think. There's so many things they can attack the tories on and they choose the subject where the vast majority think Truss has been very sensible. Insane.

So much this. Not voting Labour until they see sense on this, yet I can't vote Tory because of everything else. Ffs.

@NecessaryScene1

The one party (afaik) other than the Conservatives that has come out as firmly sane on this is the SDP. Only problem is they're currently even less electorally significant than the LibDems.

I'll certainly be considering voting for them next time.

The SDP are still going? Seriously?