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?

My local Labour candidate, and the two other Labour women who knocked on my door (one just now asking if I'd voted) all said they respected the right to single-sex spaces, which made it very easy for me to vote Labour locally. I want these women to get elected and therefore to be listened to within the party.

The 'gender based stuff' doesn't come from the Tories

Lovelyricepudding it was bloody Maria Miller, for the Tories, who kicked off the gender debate by recommending self-ID.

Don't forget to fill in the Woman's Place UK Google form with the responses from candidates. I've just completed for the Libs and Greens who did NOT respond. I wrote "No response, emailed twice". I think reporting all these answers either gained by email or on the door will make an interesting document.
Form is near the bottom of this page fill in one form for each cadidate.
womansplaceuk.org/2022/03/08/wpuk-questions-for-councillors/

It really doesn't matter who anyone votes for.

By the time of the next general election, the Elections Bill (and all the rest) will have ensured the Tories can't be unseated from power for as long as there is a UK.

But hey, at least transwomen won't be women. Or they will, depending on what Boris's mouth decides to say that week. But the fascists can know they voted with their conscience.

Democracy is so twentieth century.

I've voted labour because you have to see beyond one issue. Conservatives gave fucked women over in many other ways.

I did, plus 'Woman = Adult Human Female' and I am furious with Labour (and to a lesser extent for me Libs and Greens) for putting me in this position. My H wrote something like Labour, Libs or Greens could have had his vote but how could he trust them on anything when they can't tell the difference between men and women. He was in there ages

I'm so angry with them all, utter fuckwits.

Sorry, quote tweet fail, was meaning I also wrote 'Respect my sex if you want my X' and Women= Adult Human Female. A sticker would have been quicker (definitely for H). I just hope that if they see a few ballots with similar it will make them think, because I hate wasting my vote.

I couldn’t vote for any of them and frankly could not be arsed to walk to the polling booth to write “Keir doesn’t know what a woman is” on my ballot paper. Only three choices in my ward - Labour, LibDem, Con. Local Tory is a twat, LibDem no way, and not one of the Labour candidates in the whole borough answered the questions or even acknowledged the email. Fuck them. They deserve to lose. I don’t even know why I’m still paying my LP direct debit.

Spoiled my ballot. First time ever. Looked like a crap turnout, too.

I gritted my teeth and voted Tory. I feel grubby. I always vote tactically but it has never come to this before.

I was cheered up by DH getting into conversation with candidates outside the town hall. When asked how he was going to vote,he said "I'm a single issue voter and I bet you can't guess what the issue is." They couldn't. (We are in rural Scotland and DH looks like a stereotypical ex-rugby player) He told them: the safety of women and girls. They were rather surprised. The Tory chummily said "ah you're going to vote the right way then?" And DH asked for a peg for his nose 😁

I hadn't realised until I got to the polling station that we had 2 votes!

The seat on our local authority I voted independent but the town council only had a Tory or a Labour candidate so I spoiled my ballot and wrote "respect my sex" across the two boxes.

Parties do investigate when they don't do well. There are all kinds of research avenues open to them in this regard.

After the last election there was a deep dive into what went wrong by Labour and identity politics was part of the response.

The problem is they don't care.

It is not on record that BJ thinks black people have lower IQs.

He did compare women in burqas to letterboxes, although quite a lot of feminists also are not keen on burqas and say they are sexist and demeaning - he did however think they should not be banned.

MangyInseam are you really trying to convince anyone that Boris Johnson hasn't said (and stood by) a whole truckload of incredibly racist shit? Have you forgotten "watermelon smiles"? I can't even bring myself to type out everything else he's said over the years, it's so horrible.

I am saying that, factually, he did not say that black people have lower IQs, which was what the post claimed he had clearly said.

We're in a bad way when it's ok to say something that is manifestly false just because you don't like someone.

Have you read the things he wrote that you are referring to? That comment, if I recall correctly, he was suggesting as something a satirized Tony Blair might say. I realize that many people are now sensitive about certain phrases and language no matter what the context, but that certainly was not so much the case ten or even five years ago, and not everyone thinks it is a good thing now.

If someone is terrible there should really be no need to spread falshoods about them, it just looks like an agenda at work. There will be plenty of evidence that is there for all to see.

This.

Have you read the things he wrote that you are referring to?

Yes.

I don't think an election result has ever affected me this much.

I could honestly cry this morning - my local seats massively swung to labour.

I feel so disappointed in my fellow female Cumbrians and that's a ridiculous way to feel isn't it?

Many people still have no idea about the gender stuff or think it’s just ‘being nice to people’, Frangipani. They simply have too many other urgent priorities.

My borough has always been Labour I wouldn’t expect change

London is very Labour now but it looks less marked elsewhere if that’s still correct

Lib Dems up a fair bit

I’m ok with results, in that I kind of expected it, maybe even worse and more to Labour so my expectations were very low.

This is what I have to keep telling myself

I feel like I want to do something though, how do I raise awareness and hopefully get people to wake up?

Maybe they couldn’t afford to be single issue voters, or see through the claims that the tories are pro female.

In my area they want to completely cut the funding to the local centre that provides support and counselling to victims of domestic abuse and rape. So they’re certainly not supportive of single sex spaces round here, they want to erode them entirely.

Plus other issues non feminist related, for example they wanted to make cuts to the local bus services funding and the route past my house was one of the ones being considered. But I rely on that bus as I don’t drive.

I’ll be disappointed if conservative hold in my area.

I think local elections are a bit of an odd fish. I wish there was no party politics involved at all. It clouds the issues, and sometimes ends up actually actively being harmful - we have councillors taking decisions that they know will negatively impact the area because it will reflect badly on the outgoing administration. That's no way to run a country.

There are often several relevant local issues, and women's rights is not as high up the list as it is for national elections simply because much of it isn't in the remit of councillors.

That said, schools introducing 'gender neutral' toilets in place of single sex toilets is going to have a direct impact on anyone who is the parent of girls.

Independent held in my borough with an increased majority, but still Lib Dem in all the other boroughs. I also saw a headline on local BBC news FB page that one in six conservative councils across the country have swing to Labour 😐