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

If we only get support from courageous, principled MP's we're buggered- there aren't enough.

@Floisme

If we only get support from courageous, principled MP's we're buggered- there aren't enough.

Sorry I hit 'post' too soon I meant to add that I agree with that comment. Whether I like it or not, I don't see how we can win this without the weather vane politicians - and voters too.

There are barely bloody any!

• I mean 'courageous, principled' MPs. I would say fewer than fifty.

The replies to the tweet by SocialistVoice are an enjoyable read.

I see that the tweet was set so that only people SocialistVoice mentioned can reply. I guess that they did that after tweeting when they saw how things were going. Which means they're stuck with a load of contrary replies and hardly any in support.

Just watched the interview with Wes. Found it very disturbing. He started by comparing it to the gay marriage situation. There is no comparison between gay marriage and the threats to women's rights. Marriage like abortion is a deeply personal thing.
Claiming the right to enter single sex spaces is an invasion.
He obviously thinks if we calm down on the name calling, silencing etc he can lead me 'on a journey' to acceptance that TWAW.
He's wrong.

You were right to be suspicious. He's confirmed that he's not really interested in listening to women

twitter.com/feministroar/status/1480255202955571212?s=21

There are many words I'd use to describe Streeting but 'clever' isn't one of them. Bit late for him to tone police the activists. Does he think the relentless barrage of death and rape threats will disappear and the physical attacks vanish from public record? Or that we'll forget about the Madigan saga, look how that ended?

'The clip was about how we win hearts and minds for trans equality. I am clear where I stand:'

but glad to see this at v least ruffling the feathers of those who seem to think threats and abuse are totally legit ways to deal with women who dissent.

@nauticant

I welcome the toning down of the rhetoric

It is a start but as the rest of your post suggests ChristinaXYZ, it's about reducing the temperature of the water by the smallest degree in order to get the fewest number of frogs (women) jumping out of it.

"reducing the temperature of the water by the smallest degree" Exactly @nauticant . Great analogy.

It's almost funny, really. If they stop sending the death and rape threats (which they won't, obviously, but we can can dream), does Streeting imagine that we're going to forget their behaviour over the past four or five years? Forget that JK Rowling received enough death threats to paper her house? Forget the assault on Maria Maclachlan? Forget the vicious sexualised insults such as raping women with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire?

@ArabellaScott

Exactly, Christina. It's just about how to stop the shrill women from screaming so loudly as he dismantles and removes our rights. It's actually more about how to silence us more effectively.

Yes, it's this. You don't get to be his age, and spend as long as he has in politics, particularly on this particular coalface and suddenly do a complete about turn on how you view women.

He still wants women to stop dissenting, and he's just trying to work out how best to achieve it.

I hope he flippin reads this thread!

@RoyalCorgi

It's almost funny, really. If they stop sending the death and rape threats (which they won't, obviously, but we can can dream), does Streeting imagine that we're going to forget their behaviour over the past four or five years? Forget that JK Rowling received enough death threats to paper her house? Forget the assault on Maria Maclachlan? Forget the vicious sexualised insults such as raping women with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire?

Feminists who are aware will remember, but the majority of people who are still unaware of these details (at least most of them) may just hear a vague 'oh, he's a nice man who cares about women' and pick up the 'both sides' bollocks and think they can continue to ignore the issue.

Spot on @ArabellaScott . That's exactly what I think he thought would happen. that's what I mean when I say he is clever.

If there's one thing politicians know how to use its rhetoric.