Jolyon Maugham's shout out to Joanna Cherry

[ArabellaScott]

'@GoodLawProject is bringing some litigation to protect the rights and dignities of trans people; we've hired the legal team and sent the formal letter before action and we're just waiting for the right time to launch.'

• from Jolyon Maugham's Twitter thread. He then goes on to talk about TRAs who have inspired him. In a last tweet, he mentions Joanna Cherry 'with whom I have a bottomless reservoir of trust and affection, that enables us to navigate our differences on this.'

Good for you, Jolyon, for taking that step to reconcile differences and show support for Joanna Cherry. I'm glad that you are open minded enough to discuss the issues from more than one viewpoint.

twitter.com/JolyonMaugham/status/1322814751701901313

Is he planning on suing Mumsnet?

I'm sure the unhappy Catholic child, now an adult will be perfectly safe in the UK as are all other trans people.

He's the least open-minded person there is! "people can be wonderful on some things and profoundly wrong on others" - wonderful and wrong? Maybe wonderful and coming at things from a different perspective/have a different opinion/view things differently from me - nope, he just goes with wrong.

I'm just delighted to see him support Joanna Cherry. If he is willing to listen to her then he might eventually understand where women are coming from.

I do agree it's good that he's listening to her. I just don't trust him. And yup I'm wondering who is he 'bringing litigation' against

Is he planning on suing Mumsnet?

The BBC I believe.

He is getting massively jumped on for saying what he did about Cherry - there is a certain schadenfreude in seeing him getting piled on for his blasphemy for a change.

Do you think it might just be that he has missunderstood who Joanna Cherry is?
He does seem very shallow and quite thick.

Do you think it might just be that he has missunderstood who Joanna Cherry

No. I think that because he hadn't been on the receiving end of TRAs piling on he thought it was all logical and reasonable. I don't think he could see the depth of hatred TRAs have toward women from his ivory tower.

I'm sure this move towards conciliation and mutual understanding will be widely applauded. Surely everyone is looking for the outcome that balances the interests of everyone - there must be a way to protect the rights of women while also helping transwomen to access their own spaces and needed services.

It is a great shame that some of Jolyon's followers are responding by unfollowing him. While I've not found him very insightful in the past, I am more than happy to support someeone willing to discuss the issues in good faith.

I hope that more will support him in furthering the discussion to the best outcome for all concerned.

Don't get your hopes up. I think that Jolyon just enjoys toying with people. He has been playing games on this topic for ages - he was initially friendly with Maya Forstater and actually proofread her original crowdfunder text for her, before sticking a knife in her back. He has subsequently alternated between repeating TRA lies, and then retweeting Women's Place UK or something. I think that it is a power game. He'll probably post something denouncing Cherry soon.

Hm, I had forgotten about his performance with Maya. Hoping that this time something gets through to him.

I'm really glad to see this. I have such respect for the work that Cherry and Maugham did on Brexit and the meaningful vote.

It was one of Joanna Cherry's tweets about self-id and equal pay law that got me to pay more attention to the nuances of transgender lobbying, so I was surprised to see her and Maugham on opposite sides.

It's just so important to be able to talk in a nuanced way about things we disagree about. I would love to see a proper, reasoned public debate between these two on self-id. It would be like Chomsky and Foucault on human nature. Twitter is full of facile vitriol and arseholes, but a real discussion, addressing the edge cases and the rights conflict is a complex thing.

Very interesting to watch how, after an emotional twitterspeech in support of genderism, he puts one foot wrong and gets torn apart for it.

He obviously has a personal connection with Joanna Cherry. He can't accept the party line that all dissent is evil and abusive. It'll be interesting to see what he does now - will be turn on Joanna like the TRAs want?

I feel helpless in the face of a national tidal wave of what feels to me like ignorant bigotry and sometimes hate

But what I really want to say is (please) have and (please) show some compassion for fellow human beings

Bit contradictory. Jolyon doesn’t seem to have very much respect or compassion for women who don’t believe TWAW. He thinks they are hateful bigots... it’s there in black and white. Not sure how JC has escaped being lumped in with all the other pesky women who don’t agree with him. She’s as terfy as they come.

He seems to have blocked one of the TRAs who- quite politely - told him off for supporting Joanna Cherry.

He says he wants to build bridges and I'm always happy to see that. Interesting to see how this develops.

JM will have to go a very looooong way before I'd trust him. He's well known for occassionally psting the odd 'maybe not all GC women are witches who deserve to die' and backpedalling the moment he's piled on.

He's blocked pretty much every GC woman out there so resides in a TRA echo chamber.

He posted that sighing "oooh if only some GC academic would be prepared to debate me on this isste" tweet and then when Kathleen Stock offered he bustered on about the difference between debate and discuss and refused

If he's friends with Joanna Cheery that's great but the fact that he can be friends with her and also maintain that woman confronted with men in changing rooms should "tut and move away" and basically stop being so mean shows he's either hopeless at joining the dots or an horrendous hypocrite.

Of course that thread has a man pleading with jo to talk to Joanna cherry about her GC views- ie to get her to change her mind and stop being such a witch. Men really can’t stand it when women have different opinions from them.

Jo also tells this story that had him in tears of a trans woman who used to pray to God that they would wake up as a woman. I always find it interesting how men are so moved by the plight of trans women but honestly couldn’t seem to give a toss about the lives of women and girls.men often display a curious solidarity with trans women that they don’t extend to women.

He says he wants to build bridges and I'm always happy to see that

Well that’ll be a new and exciting challenge for him. I’m not sure that Jolyon will excel at building bridges. He blocks anyone who disagrees with him. It’d have to be a bridge between 2 places that 100% agree with each other.

@WeeBisom

Of course that thread has a man pleading with jo to talk to Joanna cherry about her GC views- ie to get her to change her mind and stop being such a witch. Men really can’t stand it when women have different opinions from them.

Jo also tells this story that had him in tears of a trans woman who used to pray to God that they would wake up as a woman. I always find it interesting how men are so moved by the plight of trans women but honestly couldn’t seem to give a toss about the lives of women and girls.men often display a curious solidarity with trans women that they don’t extend to women.

yes astonishing isnt it Wee how men are so sympathetic to other men while not giving the slightest toss about women!

It really is as though they cant image anything worse than actually wanting to be - urgh- a woman and any man who does must be in such an awful place they deserve all the sympathy

actual women though - they can get in the sea with their concerns

@Signalbox

He says he wants to build bridges and I'm always happy to see that

Well that’ll be a new and exciting challenge for him. I’m not sure that Jolyon will excel at building bridges. He blocks anyone who disagrees with him. It’d have to be a bridge between 2 places that 100% agree with each other.

I fully appreciate all the reservations, JM has behaved really unpleasantly in the past. But I think it's good that the TRAs at last have a spokesperson who is willing to meet women halfway. Makes a refreshing change.

Of course some misogynists make exceptions for some women.

This does not mean JM's views of women as a class have undergone any transformation.

Ha, he's getting hammered for 'bigging up a notorious transphobe'.

Aidan Comerford is there as usual, with his endless hateful Magdelen Burns schtick.

He clearly has blocked all GC voices. What a numpty he is.

Quite true, Al. And maybe it won't work - a few TRA people profess to being 'distressed' at his support for Cherry. But maybe they can reconcile their aversion to feminists in the interests of making progress. Cherry has, after all, said absolutely nothing wrong and I can't see any reason for JM not to support her while also speaking on behalf of trans people. A bit of calm and rational bridge building would only do their cause good, I'd say. Rather than constantly attacking.