Helen Mary Jones statement. Plaid cymru politician apologises for transphobia and will seek re-education

[Manderleyagain]

The Plaid politician has put this linked statement on twitter, in which she apologises for previous transphobic comments causing harm and for retweeting transphobes. She says she accepts Plaid Cymry's belief in the 'inalienable right' to self determine your own gender, and to access single sex facilities of your gender. She and others will get training from an external organisation approved by the trans community.

mobile.twitter.com/HelenMaryCymru/status/1369693703921664005

Her account will be deactivated soon could someone do a screen shot? Can't do it on my phone.

Here's a local TW revealing an extraordinary capacity for DARVO. More worryingly, they are supported by the COE of Chwarae Teg, (Fair Play) our main Welsh Government funded women's organisation. Wales is captured from head to toe.
twitter.com/crash_w/status/1369710910407852034?s=19

Owen has responded to say they don’t really accept the apology and want to see that HMJ proves her repentance in actions as well as words.

It will never be enough.

This is my shocked face.

@Biscuitsanddoombar

The council were merciful

I’m so tired of smart confident women being made to grovel by ppl barely into adulthood

Young people who forget they came out of a vagina.

It’s like being tarred and feathered.

I bet there are some MRAs seriously getting off on this public humiliation of women.

Olderstyle1 Various Chwarae Teg members were lamenting the "abuse" they got a little while back when a campaign was criticised for targeting people who "identify" as women. They don't fundraise so are participating in the redefinition of woman entirely funded by Welsh gov, then crying about it when members of the Welsh public civilly disagree. Absolute wasters.

I remember that Mwnci. Women pointed out that actually being a girl/young woman was a different from identifying as one in terms of the issues/barriers you faced. The CEO called them 'haters'.

Really saddened to see the statement yesterday. The bullying of HMJ has been relentless with nothing to back up the claims of transphobia. Maya Forstater listed her 'crimes' in a thread on Twitter yesterday and of course there's nothing a reasonable person would class as anything more than supporting women's rights.

I emailed HMJ last Thursday to show my support as I was sickened by the harassment and she replied saying that she would 'be going nowhere' and was ready to fight against the misogyny in the party having failed to do so when she was bullied out years before. That statement was coerced.

Her Senedd email is easy to find - perhaps more of us could send us a message of support? (making sure to copy in Adam Price - who of course, hasn't responded to mine)

Yes, there was a time when Chwarae Teg was a decent women-centred organisation. Now they don't know what a woman is.

Chwarae Teg (it means Fair Play) have been involved in developing a policy for a feminist Welsh Government.

chwaraeteg.com/manifesto/

Jane Hutt, the deputy leader, is wedded to it and it would appear that Mark Drakeford is too. Drakeford was a big supporter of Corbyn. Both have been actively blocking attempts by genuinely feminist and women-centred groups to participate in consultations. Hutt and Drakeford's idea of a feminist Wales involves including as a woman anyone who says they are a woman. People like Cardiff-based Alex Drummond and his beard.

Everyone involved in these organisations and in the Welsh government knows each other. It's a closed circuit. You move from one WG-funded charity or organisation to another, you maybe stand as an AM or a councillor or get a job at one of the Welsh universities and then become a government advisor and from there you're back heading up something like Chwarae Teg. Everyone's looking for the next opportunity and is anxious not to rock the boat too much.

Jane Hutt (deputy leader) started as a feminist and helped get a number of women's initiatives going in Wales in the 80s. Why Hutt's hanging onto power is beyond me: she's 71 and planning to serve yet another term —maybe to get the idea of this dystopian Feminist government through. Perhaps she intends her bepenised vision of feminism to be her legacy.

HMJ is 60 and needs a few more years of paid work before she can retire. She understands that those who know her will know that that statement wasn't written by her and has been forced on her.

Various things to bear in mind. The Welsh Government has been a Stonewall Diversity Champion since 2011 and has outsourced everything relating to LGB and T+ issues to them for years. Stonewall is an invisible arm of the Welsh Government. Mark Drakeford and Jane Hutt are actively resisting consultation with any grassroots women's organisations that don't include transwomen. I've heard on the grapevine that they are also refusing to countenance input from the LGB Alliance Cymru, too.

I referred yesterday to Mark Drakeford making a TWAW statement. I was told this by a GC friend who works for the Welsh government and is concerned about the barriers that Hutt, Drakeford and all their Stonewall-trained staff have erected. My friend is aware of a letter that was sent from Drakeford in the last few days in which he says TWAW. I can't tell you how my friend knows this, otherwise his job would be in danger, but perhaps in time I can obtain a copy.

Plaid Cymru (Helen Mary Jones's party) is led by a gay man, Adam Price, who is having a baby with a surrogate.

There's no dissent that I'm aware of among Labour AMs. They are all toeing the line and pretending it's not happening. There's no Rosie Duffield speaking out. So I'm beginning to think that the only way of shifting this stranglehold is for the Tories to have a few years in power.

I'm sincerely hoping that HMJ is keeping her powder dry ready to push back when there's not quicksand around her feet.

She's consistently supported campaigns that are girl/female centric, not once has she been hateful towards transpeople, but has asserted that she thinks sex and the Equality Act matters. This is what has the wokerarti in Plaid up in arms.

How dare a woman assert that she's a woman and that women and girls deserve to be protected! In the same week as the tragic events unfolding in London and IWD Plaid are quite clearly telling Welsh women that we don't matter.

Genuinely have no idea who to vote for in the Senedd elections. Because not one single party is committed to protecting women from predatory men who have abused and will abuse the liberal stance of TWAW to gain access to women.

Excellent overview Shedbuilder. And an entirely reasonable conclusion.

I've been on the left all my life but Labour and Plaid (and LibDems & Greens) are now beyond the pale. The betrayal by Jane Hutt is staggering, as is her total unwillingness to accept that women's concerns (often women she has worked with & known for years) are legitimate.

She and First Minister Mark Drakeford are actively working against women's interests.

That's a very good summary @Shedbuilder

Welsh Government has a Strategic Equality Plan that doesn't align with the Equality Act and they're now consulting on their intention to give a guarantee of 5-year funding to Stonewall and other captured organisations like WEN Wales. WG claim to be a feminist government, but don't know what a woman is and can't seem to say the word sex. Everything is focused on gender and the Cardiff-based elitist equality bubble are all in each other's pockets. Stonewall & co have primed everyone to disbelieve anyone who questions them and their fanciful interpretation of the Equality Act and biology, and to regard them as haters.

Depressing times indeed and very difficult for dissenters to speak up, even privately.

They are all toeing the line and pretending it's not happening. There's no Rosie Duffield speaking out.
Helen Mary Jones was the Rosie Duffield.

I emailed HMJ last Thursday to show my support as I was sickened by the harassment and she replied saying that she would 'be going nowhere' and was ready to fight against the misogyny in the party having failed to do so when she was bullied out years before. That statement was coerced.

So it's very recent. I wonder what they said would happen if she didn't publish the statement.
Does anyone have the statement she made saying the twitter account would be closed & the new one run by a team, but she still has an email?

In the article/interview by Andy wightman the Scottish Green who resigned the whip over this type of thing, he said that he was basically forced to write the apology letter (for attending a seminar at edinburgh uni). They told him what to say. A year later he resigned. The humiliation here is worse. He was allowed to keep his own social media.

Well done Helen 😊

This is so depressing, exactly like the end of the Stepford Wives.
I have no doubt Plaid would have disciplined and kicked Helen Mary Jones out of the party of she hadn't done this.
And I can't believe this is what she has changed so much and this is what she believes - I was at the Women's Place meeting she addressed and she was awesome.
Having voted Plaid for years, I now have no option than to either vote Tory or spoil my vote.

Well, yes, except that HMJ is Plaid. Labour AMs are silent about it while I'm hearing that more Labour MPs are stepping up.

There's a small bubble of mainly Cardiff-based people holding all this together. It's a fortress. Hutt and Drakeford and other AMs never see the letters that ordinary women are sending, questioning their policies. They go in the bin or get a 'Thanks for writing' response from a Stonewall-trained minion. The special advisors, trained by Stonewall, keep an eye on ministers and feed back to Stonewall. This is not democracy. Their views don't represent those of the ordinary people of Wales.

Well, yes, except that HMJ is Plaid. Labour AMs are silent about it while I'm hearing that more Labour MPs are stepping up. Oh yes I see what you mean.

Well I just emailed my support to Helen. Got back the pro forma thank you in Welsh and English. Hope she is still in charge of the email. What a godsend to the Tories though at a time when they should be held to account for so much misery.

Sharing many posters' uncertainty about how to vote in May. I cancelled my direct debit to Plaid today, and am so totally appalled by Leanne and Adam's treatment of Helen that I can't imagine voting for them. The way they responded to the Sahar Al-Faifi scandal was very poor also IMO.

Interesting to hear about the rather incestuous carry on in Cardiff between government and NGOs. Tocyn oes ar y tren grefi.

So even though she apologised with all the required stock phrases, she was still forced (or felt required to) deactivate her Twitter account? Apology is not enough without also volunteering to be gagged?

Indeed, it's one long gravy train and it's time most of those on it were thrown off.

I've always been a Labour voter but this situation has demonstrated to me two things I would never have accepted a few years ago — that a second unelected House is a good thing (hoorah for the House of Lords) and that it's very dangerous when a single party, in this case Labour, dominates a country's politics for too long. This is only happening because Welsh Labour feels it's safe. I'm hoping they'll be in for a shock in May. Wish I still lived there so I could help deliver it.

I imagine that handing over the keys to her Twitter account was one of the conditions she was forced to accept.

Could we send flowers to her at the Senedd?

It's a beautiful real life gesture of support that's highly visible to other people.

I would make a contribution Pothole