Wes Streeting on trans rights.

[HPFA]

It doesn't end well (switch off from 1:56 to save your blood pressure) but some encouraging things in this from a prominent Labour frontbencher.

1. Speaks well about J K Rowling.

2. Also uses the phrase "sex-based rights" in a non-pejorative way.

No Labour front bencher could have gone this far even a few months ago. Times are changing.

twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/1479470186172493828

Wow. That's a massive turnaround. Especially from the ex head of education at Stonewall.
Someone like this gives me hope that there might one day be a labour party I could again vote for. BUT there are a lot of people - including the dear leader - who have made so many extremist comments that dragging them back to a constructive position will be difficult.

Oooh that was very sane.

Agree - starts very well, then goes down the tedious 'both sides' route. But I guess there's some hope for him

Yes quite the mixed bag but a glimmer of some sense! Thanks for sharing

former head of ed at Stonewall ... interesting

but it seems to be more about 'how to win hearts and minds' and tone policing (the TRAs) than actually caring about women?

dehumanising langauge? what is he on about?

Hm. Sorry, nope. All he's said is that if you are horrible to an abused women it won't play well/win hearts and minds.

Still taking time to admonish feminists for whatever the fuck he's imagining they've said.

If this is the middle ground women are in massive trouble.

I really liked Wes, then realised he was up to his eyeballs in gender identity ideology. Wasn't he in some group that got women kicked out of Labour over their views?
However he is a politician, being tipped as a future leader. As this issue gets more sunlight and the public more and more show what they think of it, Labour will have to change their position to win an election. To win Labour need some of those Daily Mail votes, if they don't have a more nuanced stance they've got no chance.
He's big mates with Jess Phillips too so I'd like to think that in private they at least have some sensible conversations.

Wasn't Wes involved in that Labour against transphobia Facebook group it involved Madigan and they set up a list of woman guilty of wrong think who should be expelled from the party?

twitter.com/GappyTales/status/956206511247773701

He is a careerist who cares only for his own rise up the party I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him

This makes me wonder if some internal polling has been done recently on the issue. That said any de-escalation is welcome.

Threats to rape and kill. Menstruators, bodies with vaginas, ovary-havers, autistics with a cervix, black birthing bodies, TERF...

It's women that are using dehumanising language, is it? Really? Get real.

Wes is just making sure his arse is on both sides of the fence for the sake of his career.

I think he was as well covering his arse

@crosshatching

This makes me wonder if some internal polling has been done recently on the issue. That said any de-escalation is welcome.

You would hope they're not stupid enough to think it's a vote winner, especially now it's getting so much traction in the press. The red line for me is self id, if they support it in their next manifesto I wont vote for them.

Thanks for your input Wes. I'm not fearful or anxious, I'm fucking furious and I don't appreciate you describing the truth as gratuitously offensive and obnoxious.

I appreciate things are so bad that "crumbs" have become a cause for optimism but until people like Wes can stop playing the "both sides" card they can fuck right off because I find it gratuitously offensive and obnoxious.

I'm sure their polling is showing them what a disaster trans extremism is - not just with the negative impact on women and children but in terms of how the public see it.

But it's a very low bar isn't it? Being pleased that a politician has said that women shouldn't receive rape and death threats for voicing opinions and that relabelling women as cervix havers might not be a good thing

Still - small steps.

If they're all still spouting TWAW at the next election they can do one. Maybe the penny is just starting to drop just how pissed off women are now they've done a few focus groups. If they want my vote they need to earn it.

I wouldn't trust him as far as I could through him.

*throw

It's very sad that this seems like such a refreshing change, isn't it! I agree with those saying it is not really enough, but in the context of where Labour have been recently, I'll take it as a sliver of hope. For any of them to come out fully on the side of truth and women would be too much of a departure from the party line, hopefully they will get there in baby steps. When they see the crazy reaction he will most likely get from TRAs maybe they'll see how unreasonable they are.

I do think that even though it isn't everything we want to hear, there's a case to be made for welcoming the statement rather than attacking him for it not being far enough. We don't want to alienate the people who say things in our favour, let's play the long game and be the reasonable ones.

@PronounssheRa

Wasn't Wes involved in that Labour against transphobia Facebook group it involved Madigan and they set up a list of woman guilty of wrong think who should be expelled from the party?

twitter.com/GappyTales/status/956206511247773701

He is a careerist who cares only for his own rise up the party I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him

Yes, this isn't his first circus. He was apparently a member of the Labour Against Transphobia 'secret' facebook group several years ago.

This makes me wonder if some internal polling has been done recently on the issue.

Given the reporting on how (understandably) obsessed the current Labour leadership are with focus groups and polling, I expect it's this.

Plus Streeting has 'future leader candidate' stamped through him like a stick of rock and now that the tankies have mostly been given the boot, the contest is going to be for the centre/centre-right/soft left of the party - the bits that actually care about winning rather than virtue wanking.

If he was a member of this group he should admit it and apologise to the women involved immediately

He should but he won't Glinner. I'd bet a sum the size of LOJ's ego that the Labour front bench will spend the run-up to the next election very slowly and quietly backing away from their TWAW/no debate/fuck off and die you dinosaurs position like a cat that's just realised it's picked a fight it can't win.

Although it is definitely a new tone on this, all this amounts to is that he grudgingly admits it's a bad look to shout down women who have experienced physical abuse. Nothing about the substance of the issues or whether the Labour position is substantively different from that of TRAs.

Women shouldn't have to disclose abuse to be granted a voice in the debate - our views should be listened to and respected not because we are victims but because we are fully human and equal citizens of this country.

He's positioning it as a generational issue as well, not a fan of that.