Sadiq Khan has sacked Joan Smith from the London VAWG board

[countrypunk]

Activist 'sacked after raising concerns about transwomen in refuges'
mol.im/a/9906833

Also in the Times. I'm disgusted. It's such cynical game-playing from Khan, all to appease a tiny minority of TRAs. There's no way he actually believes this stuff.

I'm going to write to him. Joan Smith is a feminist rock star.

Appalling - really hope she considers taking legal action.

Found it - it's 3/4 of the way down this page: www.vccp.com/work/tfl/tfl-stands-against-hate-on-public-transport

Screenshot taken.

[quote Lynnikins]Here is a letter to Sadiq Khan expressing solidarity with Joan Smith. Please sign and share it.

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeiMgS60-sJwZ36iZ3sG27K9foxZ4DfM3PlYQ1UTKF-000Zeg/viewform[/quote]
I've signed.

Also added a personal note about my daughter and her time in a women's refuge.

Sadiq Khan's office has often tweeted the mantra "transwomen are women, trans men are men, nonbinary are nonbinary." That is intended to be debate-stopping, and in tweets by other people often an explicit #nodebate is added.

So I can't ask if I am still a woman as my 'identity' is entirely based on experiences I have obtained by living with a female body all my life. That mantra at least suggests that I am now not a woman as I don't share the abstract gender identity trans women have. Or perhaps there are now two kinds of women, one group being defined by identity alone and the other by female body? I doubt the latter interpretation, given that the female body is rapidly turning into a gender-neutral body

So the mantra excludes me from womanhood. And the 'nonbinary is nonbinary' obviously means that everyone else is binary! If I still accept the label 'woman', then I am assumed to embrace femininity (being passive, submissive, emotional and nurturing). If I don't agree with that one, then I am forcibly transed.

The nonbinary category is incredibly retrogressive and sexist in what it assumes binary means.

[quote howonearthdidwegethere]WPUK have got a letter to Sadiq Khan which anyone can sign:

twitter.com/Womans_Place_UK/status/1428345950129504262[/quote]
Signed.

The reputational slaughter of women continues.

Oof. Yes, that's it.

@Floisme

Also the author of something that might also be deeply relevant: Grown: How Domestic Violence Turns Men Into Terrorists Yes, such is my rage, I forgot about that!. Thank you.

It's an excellent book and very easy read/listen, despite the depressing subject matter. If anyone is looking for their next read then that could be a way of supporting Joan. It's also available on Audible.

Men really take care of their own, don't they! Women are just tolerated and always at the table only on sufferance.

Sadiq Khan better stick to his day job of running London and NOT teach me what to think

@GrumpyMiddleAgedWoman

Found it - it's 3/4 of the way down this page: www.vccp.com/work/tfl/tfl-stands-against-hate-on-public-transport

Screenshot taken.

And archived: archive.is/RMXtu

I have ordered her books, anyone know if there a crowd fundraiser in place for court action?

I've signed that petition.
And would like to add that Khan is a hypocritical twat. Twice now I've actually seen him driving/being driven through LTN areas, one of those times actually going through the no access areas, the other parking a 4x4 sneakily down the road to go to a pro-LTN meeting and making it look like he's turned up on a bike, whilst refusing to speak to local residents.

Guardian's take here:

www.theguardian.com/society/2021/aug/19/london-mayors-office-denies-feminist-activists-claims-over-sacking

I'm on an audible free trial at the moment, so I might well listen to her book. Just need to decide if my mental health can take something like that now.

Sadiq Khan has form for shoving women under a bus to appease others - he did the same thing to Dany Cotton. Gutless.

I did vote him back in though, whilst holding my nose - the other serious candidates were worse.

I really thought he’d get voted out.

In the beginning I had a degree of sympathy for Khan. He was being painted by some media outlets and politicians as a fascist Islamist. I voted for him in 2016, primarily because of the horribly racist campaign that Zac Goldsmith led against him.

For that reason, I could understand why he needed, perhaps, to go further than other politicians did to underscore his left-wing, progressive credentials. I did and do get it, and can give him a little bit of leeway with the bandwagon-jumping.

But he is also Mayor of London. He needs to engage with these issues properly. At some point the bandwagon jumping needs to stop. Parroting TWAW, pretending that gender identity is the same as biological sex, and ignoring the issue of sex-based rights is not fulfilling his role as Mayor. He needs to take his job seriously, not just stick up rainbow flags everywhere, change the traffic lights in central London to the trans symbol and automatically assume he is on the right side of history.

Needless to say, I did not vote for him this year.

I remember seeing a video of him being heckled at some meeting. I forget the details but it was on the basis of what he was doing, or lack of (was it knife crime?). He was bitterly complaining that it was racist mob... no, it was ‘rubbish mayor’ and the comments weren’t racist. He didn’t address the complaints.

Placemarking, hopefully for the crowdfunder. I note up thread that anti-discrimination laws don't apply to volunteers.

But if there is any legal recourse, whatsoever, I will contribute.

The misogyny is sickening, and these moves are looking completely deliberate.

Here's the poster.
London against hate... But let's not mention misogyny.

An excellent open letter here from Shonagh Dillon

shonaghdillon.co.uk/an-open-letter-to-sadiq-khan/?fbclid=IwAR1lhhPdcV4vt_YvyXrAf_ATrNAEjrj0gb9ljpZ8Rw-vdz34vjdcyrFqpPk

'99% of participants who worked on the frontline in domestic abuse organisations felt they had been silenced in the past, or are still being silenced'

At some point the bandwagon jumping needs to stop. Parroting TWAW, pretending that gender identity is the same as biological sex, and ignoring the issue of sex-based rights is not fulfilling his role as Mayor.

Khan seems to me to be immensely cynical. He must know, as a Muslim, that attacking sex-based rights disproportionately disadvantages Muslim women because single-sex spaces are so vital for them. Imagine no longer being able to use changing rooms or sports facilities because there might be male-bodied people in there.

But Khan assumes, I would guess, that Muslims will vote for him regardless, so he will do what he can to get the young Metropolitan vote.

I often wonder about the discussions such men have at home with their wife, daughters, mum and granny. To be a fly on the wall, eh?

@Jorrris

Honestly we need a few high profile cases before people start to understand that this is discriminatory and unacceptable.

Absolutely we need this. He's breaking the law. She is allowed to raise very valid concerns about safeguarding and she is allowed to hold GC views. He does not get to remove her from post because he doesn't like that. I'm happy to do some gardening for her legal costs, as I'm sure many of us are. She only needs to ask.

Totally agree. Who the hell does he think he is? I know, he is a baw bag

Here's Joan's side in detail: unherd.com/2021/08/why-did-sadiq-khans-office-fire-me/

Don’t read the comments if you want to keep a lid on your blood pressure