Local elections and sex/gender/trans issues

[DameHelena]

I am REALLY struggling to see who I can vote for tomorrow, due to their position on this issue.
Labour: no
Lib Dems: no
Green: no
Very much would like not to vote Tory (am historically Labour and/or Green and tend to go Green in local elections).
We have a Womens Equality Party candidate, but I can't find their official stance on women's sex-based rights. Does anyone have any knowledge? And how are you voting if you're in the same position as me?

I'm politically homeless. I'd like to vote Labour but a) the leadership don't know what a woman is and b) they don't stand a chance in this ward. I'm thinking of spoiling my ballot, maybe write 'respect my sex' over the LD candidate. On the other hand I might not even bother, especially if it's raining.

Not bothering seems like it might end up being my position too, although that seriously goes against the grain.

I think WEP are worse than the Tories on this. I have emailed all my candidates (you could feel the LibDems and Greens squirming as they obviously don't agree with the party line). Only the local Conservative said anything really supportive and sensible so I shall vote for her.

Is your local Tory personally supportive? If so you can always vote for him/her and then email and tell them that is the only reason why you have done so.

Hopefully some of the feedback local candidates receive will filter back to the party leaderships eventually.

Of the very small parties the SDP and Reclaim both support biological definitions of women and single sex spaces.

WEP don't know what a woman is either.

I'll be voting Tory.

I’m in the same position and will either spoil my ballot or vote Tory. First time ever for both.

Both my local Conservative and independent candidate have confirmed in writing that they’re fully on board with understanding and defending womens sex-based rights.

I didn’t mention trans people in my email, the ficus was on women rights, and yet my Labour candidate managed to make their reply all and only about trans people, and didn’t mention the word “woman” once in their response unless it was prefixed by “trans”.

I’m in a Labour stronghold and was planning on spoiling my ballot with stickers (until I got these replies to the Respect My X email).

I have no one to vote for as I'm in a safe seat, and will spoil my ballot.

And I'm really angry about all the Labour supporters who have come out of the woodwork to berate us about this on social media. They won't engage with any of the comments women are making about the issues, and just use insults. They pretty much sum up the demise of the Labour party imo.

Technical point, if you do choose to spoil your ballot make sure you do it in the correct way. Leaving a message on one candidates name could be seen as you leaving a mark! Make sure you put a line down all the boxes so it cannot be misconstrued.

The Tories, the Communists and Alba (in Scotland) are all staunchly gender critical/pro women’s rights. It’s just Labour, Lib Dems and the SNP who are determined to ignore safeguarding and destroy single sex spaces.

I'm going to vote tory. It's safer. I don't want to risk my sex based rights so I'm going to hold my nose and do it. I think spoiling your ballot is a luxury we can't afford. Looks what's happened with abortion rights in the US.

The leader of the Tory party is on record say that Muslim women look like letterboxes and that black people have lower IQs.

If you want to vote to help women then know that your Tory vote doesn't help all women. That might or might not be a deal breaker for you depending on where you stand on racism.

Anyone who wants to protect women's rights and children should just vote Tory, they're the only party to actually begin to talk sensibly about this. Take a shower afterwards if you need to or at least wash your hands. I'm a lefty lifelong Green voter but I'm not prepared to shit on my own doorstep.

Look at the US, women's rights are fragile, the religious conservative nutjobs have screwed over women and our other parties seem only too eager to hand our rights away and not show backbone to protect our children.

It's made me lose a lot of trust with the left.

I don't know about my local Tory (I'm in a pretty safe Labour area and they keep a low profile ) although I have emailed him to ask. I think I've left it too late though; no doubt he's too busy now to reply.

Is the SDP even still going? And I cannot vote for Reclaim, women's rights or not. That's a bridge too far.

'depending on where you stand on racism.' That's a bit snitty. Of course I deplore racism.
Why do you think I'm agonising so much about this decision? I'm well aware that voting Tory because of this one issue, important though it is, is problematic. I would say though that policies like allowing trans-identifying men into women's changing rooms, which Labour et al seem to be all for, also discriminate against groups of women including those who are Muslim/Orthodox Jewish/not white.

We have some candidates from an outfit called the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, and something called the Independent Network, but I can't find anything useful on their views about women's rights.

Fuck, I don't know.

It wasn't directed at you personally @DameHelena
It's up to people whether or not they decide racism is a dealbreaker or not.

There have been a few threads lately on why black women feel like feminism isn't for them. Threads like this contribute to the divide.

It's up to you what you do with this information but I am not sure why I should stay silent.

And do you really believe that the Tory party will help most women? Or do you think Boris is just saying the opposite of Kier Starmer because he saw that what Kier Starmer said had a poor reaction?

I also have no idea who to vote for because I don't feel that any party are particularly interested in protecting the most vulnerable women in society who need it most.

OK, sorry, I'm just really wound up about all this. I didn't suggest that you should stay silent though.

And do I really believe that the Tory party will help most women? Well, no, I disbelieve basically everything Boris Johnson says, for obvious reasons. But voting is partly about sending a message, and if my message to Labour and the Greens is 'I cannot vote for you until you stand up for women properly', is that an entirely bad thing?

Labour and the Greens will win the councillor elections here anyway, so it's safe for me to register a protest/send-a-message vote. Although the idea of voting Tory makes my skin crawl.

I'm in exactly the same boat as you OP. Tomorrow will be my first ever time voting Conservative.

I have to wonder about the agenda here of so many left wingers saying spoiling votes is an acceptable option.
Spoilt votes for women, said no suffragette ever.

My 3 (and only 3) candidates tomorrow are Labour (the incumbent), Lib Dem, and Tory.

None of the three parties deserve my vote.

I emailed all the candidates and have posted their replies in another thread. Based on their replies I'm voting tory for the first time in my life. Local politics has always been more about the candidates than the party and the tory candidate had the best response.

This is a local election. I think the campaign Respect My Sex has been great for awareness and basically a warm up for the general election. We will of course have to discuss all this differently for the general election. If Labour can change their attitudes and policies by the general election they will get my vote, but if they continue with TWAW I will vote Tory for the first time in my life. If Labour get in at the general election and push ahead with Self ID they have four years to keep taking from women for the benefit of men. I can't risk them doing that.

People planning on spoiling their ballot should be careful how they do it, there have been cases where depending on how you do it they will count the vote.
For example I heard of a case where the person wrote "CUNT" against each candidate apart from one where they wrote "NOT A CUNT", the vote was counted for the last one.

I'm spoiling my ballot tomorrow for the first time ever. The usual suspects will be re-elected but I can't stomach having a part of it.