From an interview with Mandu Reid in the Telegraph
One of the biggest challenges for Reid has been navigating the debate over transgender rights, which she describes as a “toxic, ugly, difficult chapter”. Last summer, the WEP ran the largest consultation on self-identification for trans people. “It’s a fault line,” says Reid. “Polarisation is an increasing problem."
She has been careful not to come down on either side of the debate, but, to coin a phrase, is instead living in a constant state of “fear pressure” – “It’s like peer pressure, but different,” she says. “I feel it most keenly when I'm doing something when the stakes are high and the margin for error is small.”
She believes women are treated more harshly than men when it comes to sensitive issues. “I feel that I have less leeway than others to make mistakes and get things wrong,” she says, before criticising the Labour and Conservative parties for not doing more on the trans debate.
"I'm sick and tired of women having to do all the hard labour all the time to deal with difficult, intractable issues that affect the whole of society," she says. "But I don't want to inflame the situation and distract from the fact that every year in this country 80,000 women are raped. If the WEP gets completely bogged down in the quagmire of this issue, then we're not serving trans women, we're not serving any women."
Does she worry that a misstep in the trans debate could lead to her being cancelled – and the work of the WEP unravelling?
“I feel like it's something that could happen at any time,” says Reid. “People are shut down at a really unhealthy rate, which has a net negative effect on our ability to grow and learn. It's damaging and a shame. I hope that trend doesn't stick around.”
www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/mandu-reid-running-london-mayor-feel-like-could-cancelled-moment/