Chwarae Teg demonstrates why inclusivity is dangerous and unfair to women

[Shedbuilder]

Chwaroae Teg (Fair Play for Women) is a publicly-funded women's organisation that was captured some time ago and has already been picked up here several times for its reading of equal rights law. I used to live and work in Wales and several of my friends there keep me in touch with events.

This evening CT hosted a Zoom discussion on Gender Equality with representatives of all the main parties. I'll pass swiftly by on the subject of the youth and middle classness of the candidates, and on the constant refrain that we all just need to be kinder and more accepting and everything will be fine.

A couple of women used the Chat facility to ask polite, factual questions about sex, the Equality Act and so on. The Plaid representative, whose party and leader are totally TWAW, gave an impassioned little speech about the awfulness of sexual stereotyping and in response a couple of women in the Chat section asked questions about sexual stereotyping and transgender ideology and concerns about girls who defy sexual stereotypes being told they might be trans. One woman, a youth worker, expressed her concern. Someone else agreed.

Helen from Chwarae Teg intervened to tell them that divisiveness was not allowed. CT, she said, is an INCLUSIVE organisation and hate and. divisiveness are not tolerated. One of the women asked, in the Chat section, if this meant that they were not permitted to express concern about women and girls. She was ejected from the event. No idea what happened to the others involved but they probably got the boot too.

It's a useful example of how inclusivity works against women's interests. Inclusivity was used as a reason to shut down women' valid concerns.

@SirVixofVixHall

It is incredibly sad. I really want to vote for Plaid, my dd will be voting for the first time and also wants to vote Plaid. I feel the same as you Julietbalcony , there are other issues I care about, such as the environment, and other problems in Wales, yet how can I vote for a party so keen to remove women’s sex based rights ? Has AP used a surrogate then ?

This article indicates that Price and his partner already have a son and are expecting a daughter via a surrogate — so presume that's two children by surrogate.

nation.cymru/news/plaid-cymru-leader-adam-price-and-partner-expecting-a-daughter/

Price is possibly the last man in Wales who can be trusted to appreciate women's concerns, though once he has a daughter perhaps he'll begin to understand some of the issues.

Stephen Doughty is another Welsh politician who really doesn't 'get' women's issues. He's a gay man and according to a gay male constituent who contacted him last year about a local issue he was more interested to find out how the constituent was coping for sex during lockdown than about the issue they should have been discussing. Apparently Doughty's hook-up rate was suffering as a result of Covid restrictions!

It's made me think that actually gay men may be the worst representatives for their female constituents. Which does my head in, because I'm a lesbian and I'd hate to think of people discriminating on the grounds of sexuality.

I agree re some gay men, sadly. No skin in the game. There are gay men out there who understand the issues and are worried about the homophobia in trans issues, I follow a few on twitter. Then you have other gay men who simply do not see any problem.

I have also met some gay men who are partial to the whole boundary-breaking sissy porn aspect (DON"T GO THERE) and support the ideology from that vantage point.

But yes, gay men have no skin in the game, not even in relation to female partners. We are mostly out on our own on this one.

[quote DdraigGoch]@Gwenhwyfar Conwy. Looks like the local candidate is as woke as they come.[/quote]
Good lad Aaron Wynne. Who would you prefer?

"Plaid are worse than Labour with AP in charge - he has no interest in actual women's issues."

In what way is Plaid worse than Labour. Being gender critical is not allowed in Welsh Labour either.

Thanks for starting this OP. It’s been eye opening. I always respected HMJ. Heaven knows who I will vote for now...

Not a lot between them to be honest Gwenhwyfar. But Plaid have actually committed to self-id in their manifesto - they have promised to lobby for additional powers so that they can revise the GRA to make that happen. Adam Price's role in the HMJ bullying - which continued for years - was to enable it. The aggressive actions of young Plaid members were not challenged but were pandered to throughout. He said nothing in defence of HMJ at any point. Labour have pulled back from a commitment to self-ID in the Manifesto but are probably still wedded to this policy.

Neither party listens to women; emails invariably go unanswered and hustings questions raising issues about women's sex-based rights are shut down. GC women in Wales have no representation.

From the Labour manifesto:
Use all available powers to protect our young people through banning all aspects of LGBTQ+ conversion therapy that are in our powers and seek the devolution of any necessary additional powers. We will also work to devolve the Gender Recognition Act and support our Trans community.
labourlist.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Moving-Wales-Forward_-Eng.pdf

From Plaid Cymru manifesto:
We support the reform of the Gender Recognition Act to introduce a streamlined, de-medicalised process based on self-declaration and in line with international best practice. We will seek the devolution of powers necessary to introduce this change and will uphold trans people’s right to continue to access services and facilities in accordance with their gender identity.
www.partyof.wales/manifesto

I'm not sure that there is much difference between them. Why would labour want to devolve the GRA unless they intended to change it?

You are right OldCrone. I wondered if the Labour Party had at last noticed the increasing levels of anger among female voters and decided to fudge the issue a bit. Clutching at straws to assume that they give a flying badger about women's rights.

But how fascinating to hear that Scottish Labour are pledging to support women-only hospital wards and female sports. That's an interesting move but given that they only have about 6 voters left I suppose it's all irrelevant.

Merched Cymru (don't let's start a how-do-you-pronouce derail, please) have issued a statement regarding Chwarae Teg's action.

merchedcymru.wales/statements/

twitter.com/MerchedCymru?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

www.facebook.com/MerchedCymru/

Please publicise and follow/ like if you can.

Thanks for posting the Merched Cymru link Shed - they have been posting and tweeting a lot about women being censored/silenced/ignored in Wales but the Chwarae Teg incident was particularly shocking.

I live in Wales and sadly they aren't wrong. GC women are definitely considered to be beyond the pale. Lots of lefty women I know are now talking about spoiling their ballots. Appalling that it should come to this.