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 have a postal ballot so I have done mine already. I got the coloured pens out and scrawled "Respect My Sex If You Want My X" in large purple and green letters.

For those who plan to spoil their votes...please write your reason why on them.

I have to adjudicate the discarded votes, which means I stand in front of all the candidates showing them the reason for the vote being discarded.

I would love..love..love to be able to stand there tomorrow night and go through a pile of votes with Respect My Sex on them. It would get the message across loud and clear.

It goes without saying, if you are in a ward where every last vote matters (I am not..by a long chalk) then please use your vote properly. Women fought for the right to have their votes counted.

I'm in a safe tory area, so my vote never counts, but I've decided that, given this, I will vote tory as the clearest way of letting other parties know that this issue is losing them votes.
It would be a different calculation if I lived somewhere marginal, and I'm not sure what I'd do in that a low turnout, or even spoiled ballot papers, won't deliver such a clear wake up call. I very much hope that by the time the general election comes round I'll have some better options.

I'm going independent.

He's the incumbent and a really lovely guy.

The labour candidate who knocked on my door didn't know what to say when I told him that I will never ever vote for a party who believe men can be women "because they say so".

@greengoose21b I did not know this! So are the reasons recorded anywhere?

I have a dilemma too!

Local Councillor (Tory) is pretty decent. BUT how can anyone decent represent the current Tory party. So its a no. Even though I have swallowed my dislike for the Tory party before and voted for him due to him being good and active locally.

Green candidate - I know. He is a decent guy and active in local community. Would be a good Councillor and fight for local area. But hate the party nationally and their abhorrent attitude to woman.

Labour- don't know much about candidate but they are my party of choice.

Libs - it's a no as they are too far gone with the removal of women's rights

Owen fu**ing Jones blathering about on Twitter conflating anti abortionists trying to turn over Roe V Wade in the states with GC Feminism makes me so enraged I want to actually 😱 😱😱

He's such a fucking sexist twat!

It's a tough one but I might vote for the green independent candidate. My MP refuses to define a woman.

Although I understand the politically homeless thing and the frustration with Labour's stand on sex/gender, I really don't believe that further Conservative government will do anything to improve things for women. It is very likely to lead to amendments to abortion laws for example. Also the negative effects of Conservative gov on society in general affect women disproportionately. And although they are making the right noises, remember all this trans rights taking from women's rights stuff has come about under Conservatives. I don't believe they actually give a f* about women's rights!

This is 100% true. My friend works for the elections team at her district council and I've worked with her at a polling station and dealt with the count and postal vote opening. The candidates (and agents) all see the adjudicated/spoilt ballot papers and the reason for rejection so they will see if messages are put on them. The specific comments won't be recorded but it will be known about.

Same goes for postal vote opening (although this will obviously already have been done for these elections). Candidates and agents are able to attend and observe the same way they would at the count and can see the adjudicated ballot papers.

It's far more common to get a cock drawn on a paper, or comments calling the candidates cunts, but imo the message does get through.

I'd rather spoil my vote than vote Tory

He's an eejit.

Likes the sound of his own voice too much.

He thinks being controversial and being a TRA makes him relevant. And the has found the perfect employer in the garden.

He is a bully - his time will come! Bully's never win.

💯

I’m politically homeless. I asked the poor young sod who came round with a Labour flyer a few months ago about sex-based protections and he said (promise this is near-as-dammit verbatim as I WhatsApped it in disbelief to my family almost immediately)

“That’s a bit above my paygrade to discuss… this is the local council, it’s fixing potholes and things.”

Labour, you can get in the bin. Signed, a previously staunch Labour supporter.

It's the local council elections not a general election.

Your vote tomorrow is about electing who gets to decide about how your council tax is spent, which potholes get filled, which children and families services get funded, what criteria the local DV refuge has to meet to get council funding, what the bus services are like, whether the streetlights - if you have them - get turned on all night and whether your elderly relatives get decent care services in your area.

They are so much more important in my view than the general election.

I couldn't give a flying fuck what party someone comes from. I will always give my vote to whichever local candidate seems the most honest, decent, able and sensible regardless of what colour ribbon they are wearing.

Any candidate who tells me that the emperor is wearing clothes will not get my vote.

I am in a ward whose boundaries have changed . Last year's Plaid Cymru candidate was strongly of the opinion that transwomen are women (as are the other party candidates - apart from the Tory person) .
I am politically homeless ; I spoiled my ballot paper last time as I could not bear to settle for the 'least worst' .
He is not running this year but his replacement is coming round tomorrow for Q&A on the doorstep . She will be pretty much the first candidate this village has seen this time .

@FemaleAndLearning "If Labour can change their attitudes and policies by the general election they will get my vote"

Of course you have the right..but....

Would you really trust that the change in stance would be anything more than paper thin and wouldn't immediately be crumpled up and put in the bin the second they were installed in downing street?

There are some things that are so far gone that you can't really turn around from them with any true conviction. Your female party members not being able to answer whether a woman has a cervix or a penis and actively supporting men in womens safe places, is pretty far gone. It's bonkers, naked emperor, Alice down the Rabbit hole stuff.

One wonders what other kooky ideologies they wouldn't embrace in the name of....well...progress for progress sake and the holy Sacrament of virtue signalling. Would you not feel afraid the second they were elected?

The Conservatives meanwhile, are doing the norms, taking away funding from places and people that need it most, the disabled like me etc the odd bit of overt but casual racism. It's bloody grim depending on what part of the social scale you weigh, but, you broadly know what you're getting. Add sleaze on the side.

Everyone else except the fringe parties has lost grip on reality completely.

How could you ever trust them again?. I mean Trust, as opposed to actually liking.

oh tricky

I am fully GC but it will be a cold day in hell before I can stomach lending any sort of support to this Tory government.

I know it’s local elections, but nonetheless Tory success in them will be seen by many as a vote of confidence in Boris et al. Nobody will think it’s because of sex based rights.

I think for me it’ll have to be a “Respect my Sex” spoiled ballot. Heartening to know the candidates get to know the reasons for spoiled ballots. Seems a much clearer way to send the message than voting Tory.

Anything to get the Tories out. Just vote for a better world. The rest will come

The Tories don’t give a flying fuck about women’s rights - the lot of the average woman has gone down the toilet under their governments - Labour have just handed them an incredible opportunity to look like the adult in the room on gender issues and they’re capitalizing on that. I’m in the same position as the OP - generally on the left and politically homeless - but I’m under no illusion that the Conservatives will protect our sex-based rights - far from it (as a pp pointed out, this government has effectively legalized rape).

I’d sooner spoil my ballot, which makes me incredibly sad as it’s something I never thought I’d do.

Vote Conservative. The UK is absolutely fucked and central Conservative government punish Labour councils.

I live in a safe Labour seat so I know it wont affect the outcome. I've spoilt my ballot for the first time writing 'Respect My Sex' on it. Someone might see it who knows? I couldn't just not vote, it seemed the best option.

The Tory party don't actually support any women. The notion that you're supporting women in any way by voting for them is ridiculous.

The Tories will say anything to get gullible women who believe they have integrity when it comes to womens' rights, to vote for them.

& Women who know they're a right wing party so of course womens' right wont feature high on their agenda, but vote for the. anyway

Womens' rights aren't a priority for Tories now, and won't be just because you vote for them.

Then again if you're looking at it from an 'I'm cool with Tories standing up for women who look like me, couldnt cate less about others that dont look like me' stance then it doesn't matter much

Just vote for the sleaze party because you want to, no need for the entirely non-convincing explanations as to why you think Tories will give a single shiny shit about protecting womens' rights much beyond polling day and the lead-up