Wes Streeting!

[tabbycatstripy]

To JHB: “Men have penises. Women have vaginas. Here ends the biology lesson. Some people have gender dysphoria and transition to another gender, and we should respect that.”

Roughly what he said.

JHB stunned.

Just listening now. It’s a start.

But ‘the vast majority of women share physical attributes...’ does not recognise that ALL female people share that characteristic.

Rosie Duffield was on Peston last night, did anyone see it? I saw a bit where she was talking about partygate, but Peston said we'd hear more from her later. I wanted to watch but was totally knackered so caved in to the call of bed. It seems likely he would have asked her about gender bollocks in the light of everything that's currently going on (swimming, cycling, MPs coming out...)

The important part is what they’d introduce if elected, will that change or is it more woolly phrases that soothe the situation

Streeting hasn't yet been made accountable for his involvement with Madigan. I don't believe in golden bridges for elected politicians.

If people don’t agree with Streeting they can vote him out and that would be their right. His majority in his constituency is about 6,000. It would take a big push. But in the meantime he’s at least recognising reality.

I don't trust Streeting either, but it's going to bring lots of sunlight.

Neither do I but I agree; sunlight AND it opens the door for others to start being clear about biology.

You can support people’s (reasonable) civil rights without thinking it’s okay to parade weird, red-balled penis monkeys in kids’ libraries.

That's a slogan I can get behind.

Wes Streeting was already unpopular with Owen Jones and the Momentum supporters because he was always on the centrist wing of the party and was critical of Jeremy Corbyn.

He has described his experiences of homophobic bullying at school and also had a period reconciling being gay and Christian because he was worried they were not compatible. I expect this made him sympathetic to trans rights but it was not until the library monkey incident that he became more aware of the extremist side to some campaigners.

I trust him a lot more than some politicians.

I think in some ways he’s at an advantage over other politicians because 1) he’s gay (which means the charge of transferred homophobia doesn’t stick) and 2) he worked for Stonewall, which means he thoroughly understands the issues. People like Rachel Reeve have been blindsided, I suspect, by people presenting them with ‘transgender’ and ‘non-binary’ as a fait accompli, at a time when they were focused on other political issues (Corbynism, anti-semitism, the pandemic). Now, when the issue has been bubbling up and so many Labour MPs have been made to look foolish, Reeve is only just asking herself whether the ambitious claims of gender identity ideology make any sense.

Streeting must have known they don’t make literal sense for years.

I don't trust Streeting - not a bit. (see this from last year twitter.com/wesstreeting/status/1440664747800621063 ) but he is an ambitious man who can read the room. I am really pleased by what he said because 1) It is true, 2) it needed saying, 3)Labour needed to hear it from someone in Labour other than Rosie Duffield and Tonia Antoniazzi, 4) if Wes Streeting thinks that is the way the wind is blowing then there is more dissent behind the scenes or greater realisation that this is a vote loser.

Point 4 is key I think - it shows the wind is changing. Streeting would not say it if he did not think it was ultimately to his advantage; as others have said he seems to believe the gender ideologues' arguments on the whole. But it is great, a sign the door we're pushing at is starting to move.

Re the wind changing - Streeting is definitely one of Tony Benn’s weather vanes

He was one of the anti-Corbyn crew. He’s all about himself.

If Wes Streeting thinks that is the way the wind is blowing then there is more dissent behind the scenes or greater realisation that this is a vote loser.

Absolutely. This is what gives me hope. Every other Labour politician flunked that question but Streeting gave a clear answer. I don't think for one moment that he is gender-critical but he knows that Labour's position is a vote loser - something that Rayner and Starmer are apparently unable to intuit.

Oh yeah, it's clear that Streeting will just go whichever way the wind is blowing, but this is what gives me hope - clearly at least some people in Labour are coming to the realisation that the vast majority of people think this whole thing is batshit.

I hope JHB keeps pushing all politicians on this question. More sunlight needed all the time.

Also be interesting to see if Starmer says that what Wes Streeting says is something one should not say like he did with Duffield. Will Streeting be able to attend party conferences, etc.

It is great news he said it but it is still too little, too ill-defined, and too late for me to vote Labour till another generation of better informed politicians come through.

Of Labour think that throwing women a bone of "biology masters sometimes" is going to cut it with feminist women then they've got another thing coming. They are trying to pull the wool over our eyes, to pretend that they understand and would never do away with our single-sex exceptions, while refusing to actually ban men from using them.

We understand the issues too well now. Obfuscation won't wash.