Green Party Women coup

[GreenPartyWoman]

The Green Party Women's party was co-chaired by a transwoman Kathryn Bristow (fae/fae) and a woman Emma Bateman. Emma has been suspended for alleged transphobia.

Kathryn has now taken over, calling themselves the Chair and removing the rights of women to organise and discuss women's matters on the Green Party forum. Kathryn has gone so far as to delete all previous posts.

Their statement:
"Over the last week I have tried to find a way to moderate this space in compliance with the Equality Act. Unfortunately I can't see a way of doing this that the 100 or so users of this space would be happy with and that wouldn't take a lot of my or someone else's time. While we have to look after the interests of 10,000’s Green Party members.
So sadly I have had to lock the ability of uses to post and comment on this space. I've also deleted all recent posts on the space by users, to ensure that we are complaint with the law in a way that makes no judgement on any one post.
I have to bring it up with the rest of the committee but my feeling is that is space will become a one way commutation tool from the committee to the membership.
More updates will be made soon.

Kathryn Bristow, Chair of Green Party Women"

I don't even know where to go with this, except that this seems to be almost like a totalitarian coup.

Go on, what is Kathryn's agenda? Tell us!

I'm sure you'll eventually work it out.

It was the greens who fucked up with Aimee challenor and dad wasn't it?

Yes.

@Ereshkigalangcleg

It was the greens who fucked up with Aimee challenor and dad wasn't it?

Yes.

And then the Lib Dems said, ooh, can we have a piece of that?

They are all mad.

@PumpkinSpiceWoman

Riiiiiiight. So the transphobes setting up their own little space isn't equally totalitarian?

Ooh! Where's that?

PumpkinSpice do you know what totalitarian means? People wanting to meet, talk and organise on the basis of sex, religion, sexual orientation etc is not totalitarian at all. Feminist women do not want to stop trans people from having their own groups.

But trans ideology wants to destroy sex based rights, control how everyone speaks, and not allow women do do anything at all as a group unless they let in any man who wants in by simply saying he’s a woman. That is totalitarian. It’s not the same thing at all as just having your own group.

Do you really think it’s totalitarian for a group of biological women to want to have their own group? Why?

And wanting a group for woman isn’t transphobic, any more that it’s man-phobic, child-phobic or badger-phobic. It’s just wanting to have a group based on the concerns that affect only that group.

Baring in mind this person is in (head of?) both the lgbtq group as well as the "women's group."

Which now isn't allowed to meet online in its forum to talk about issues that affect women.

@PumpkinSpiceWoman

Riiiiiiight. So the transphobes setting up their own little space isn't equally totalitarian?

What's transphobic about wanting to discuss women's rights?

Don't forget Kathryn works as a GenderGP Pathway Advisor, GenderGP,

A couple of nuggets from the current Gender GP website for those with longer memories:

" Dr Helen Webberley is the founder of GenderGP she continues to campaign tirelessly for improvements in trans healthcare, she is not currently practising as a GP."

"GenderGP is owned by Hong Kong based Harland International Ltd, a global organisation which provides advocacy services for LGBTQI+ people around the world."

"GenderGP is an online health and wellbeing clinic which proudly serves transgender people of all ages across the world – and those who support them."

All sounds pretty commercial.

I don't know. I thought the environment was The Green Party's overriding priority. I would happily vote for a single issue party that advocated protection of the environment. But the GP carries too much additional, and controversial, policy baggage.

I also wonder about intersectionality. KB is a Green of colour, certainly was a young green, is an LBQT+++ green and is now Chair of Green women. Intersectionality was supposed to give a voice to those who are not easily heard, but instead it appears to act to magnify the voices of a few within party bubbles. The resulting disconnect between those amplified voices and the needs of the electorate is what I think lies behind the problems currently faced by Labour and the LibDems. Its fine Keir Starmer and Sadiq Kahn telling us that TWAW, but this is not convincing potential voters.

This particular group of people, supporting KB, is indeed responsible for pissing a lot of women off in the Green Party and causing some to leave. I suspect there is a disconnect between them and a number of their voters and potential voters too. As you say need more sleep - similar situation to the Labour Party

More important than losing membership is losing volunteers. People like Emma have worked hard for the party. They are the sort of people who found the bedrock of the democratic representation, as local Councillors etc, who graft day in, day out. Aimee Challenor, KB and others, may have access to an intersectional fast track, encouraged on by some of the party leaders, but to make an impact the party needs time and money. It also needs inclusion (in the old fashioned sense) rather than exclusion.

Hello. Is anyone able to post a link to Bristow's statement, please?? Or any other info on the subject? I've looked on Bristow's Twitter & green party women page etc but can't find anything. I want to write about this (so angry!) But need sources. I'd be so grateful. Thanks!

You`re right - there are some good people in the party still - we have some good local councillors where I live, some gender critical but worried about sticking their heads over the parapet and getting censored by HQ or perhaps splitting the local group with a bunfight which wastes a lot of time. This may change if the weight of organisations abandoning Stonewall and critical publicity on trans ideology after the Forstater case shifts the Overton window but it may be a while coming.

It's in the GP membership site VolumniaBrown

@PumpkinSpiceWoman

Riiiiiiight. So the transphobes setting up their own little space isn't equally totalitarian?

Linky please?, gotta be better than here where we still have to walk on eggshells last we say one wrong word and are deleted.

I get the feeling that KB is primarily interested in engaging trans and queer women. A pity as many women are likely to feel that they are invisible, even unwanted, within the GP.

Exclusionary, rather than inclusive.

It also feels as if the GP is primarily interested in Young Greens rather than older people.

Equality seems to mean ensuring that some people are more equal than others.

I loved the fact that the first book the GP womens book club read after KB's appointment was Invisible Women.

Black humour.

I don't think there is a book club now, another thing that's gone with the new committee. Maybe waiting for Invisible Non-men to come out....

So you endorse "GC" women banning normal women from their space?

Ehhh?

I thought it was GC women who had been banished from the GP Forum.

It would be the ultimate DARVO for KB and allies to play victim, surely?

@PumpkinSpiceWoman

So you endorse "GC" women banning normal women from their space?

What does this even mean?

And 'normal'? Really? Away from the bubble of Twitter, university safe spaces etc, the general public, on the whole, have very 'GC' views. They may not currently know about the issues but all the sunlight is helping and people are starting to question the authoritarian hold gender ideologists have enjoyed so far. The current fall of Stonewall is a perfect example of this. The tide is turning.

@PumpkinSpiceWoman

So you endorse "GC" women banning normal women from their space?

Huh?

Can you rephrase that in words that make sense?

If they were banned how come this has happened?

@PumpkinSpiceWoman

So you endorse "GC" women banning normal women from their space?

Are you saying that gender critical views are abnormal?

@PumpkinSpiceWoman

So you endorse "GC" women banning normal women from their space?

What does that mean?

Women have been told they cannot use an online space. It wasn't a GC or 'normal" woman who told them to stop posting.

Logic...