Scottish Greens response

[okifyoureallythinkso]

Why am I not surprised? Still quite shocked to be likened to a racist though. I’ll post my Tory response up. SNP and Labour have ignored me (all four candidates!). ( Rest of message is below.)

And

According to this person, there is no need for any sex segregation in any service. All we need is for people to agree on appropriate behaviour and we'll have adequate safeguards in place. Prisons are an obvious example of places where 'agreeing appropriate behaviour' tends to work really well.

Exactly. So why haven’t we done it before then? Hmmmmm oh right - because it doesn’t work!

Do you remember the 'six words' amendment Johann Lamont introduced in the Forensic Medical Examiner bill?

forwomen.scot/10/12/2020/fws-statement-on-the-vote-for-lamont-amendment/

Just the Greens. The only ones to vote against women being allowed to request a female examiner. To vote that a woman did not have the right to request a female and exclude males. That a rape survivor's request for a female examiner was less important than the desire for males to be affirmed and validated.

Unbelievable. Quite scary. I think people think they’re quite benign. But they’re zealots.

When are MN going to sort out the images? I can't read any of them as they are too damn small and blurry on a Laptop and you can't enlarge them.

Dear Xxxxx, I am contacting you as a xxxxxx resident.

I am extremely concerned that womens’ and girls’ sex based rights are being eroded.

In advance of the elections, I would like to ask for clarification on your position on the following:

• Do you understand that the Equality Act 2010 allows for single-sex services and sports?

• Will you work to protect single-sex services in our local community?

• Will you ensure that our local authority uses the clear concept of sex in its policies?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Many thanks and kind regards

xxxxxx

Hi Xxxxxx , thanks for your message. I am clear in my support for the GRA and proud of my party’s stance on trans rights. I don’t see a conflict between women’s rights and trans rights. Sport is regulated by individual sporting federations and the GRA will not change that (nor do I think local authorities should override sporting federations on that issue). All the best, Xxxxx.

Thanks for your response. I am also in support of trans rights and I would be interested to know what rights they currently do not have. I disagree that there is not a conflict between trans rights and womens’ rights. There is a clear conflict in womens’ prisons, toilets, changing rooms, rape crisis centres, hospital wards and sports. All areas (bar the latter) where women are vulnerable and should have the right to a women sex based only space if they wish. This is also an issue for women from cultures where women only spaces are vital. I also feel that in raising these issues I should not be branded as transphobic (I know you yourself have not done that but members of your party have). It is a real shame as I support many of your policies. Kind regards, Xxxxxx

Hi again, I would genuinely be interested in your views on my questions above. How can there be no conflict between womens’ rights and trans rights in the instances I have mentioned? Kind regards, Xxxxxx

Hi Xxxxxx . I genuinely just don’t really understand the question. I believe all humans (in our culture the way it is now) need to be in charge of expressing themselves and we all have quite a deep need to have that recognised by others too. I just don’t see how my recognising someone else as a woman who might have had a different journey with their body than me, is any detriment to my identity. If we’re talking about safeguarding then it is a deep mistake to assume that just because someone was born a woman there is no risk of them harming another woman. So in any spaces for vulnerable people there need to be adequate risk assessments done, and all steps need to be taken to create a culture where everyone agrees on appropriate behaviour. Again, why would allowing trans women into that space be any danger? That only makes sense logically if you assert that trans women are more likely to be predatory due to their identity - which is where this whole thing tips over into hate speech. Imagine saying that about any other group (eg based on race/disability/religion) - it would not be accepted by most reasonable people.

Thanks Xxxxxx. I appreciate your response. I am very accepting of people living their life and really feel for those experiencing such difficulties around their gender identity . My concern is that trans women are biologically male and follow a male offending pattern. This is well documented. This means that whilst of course not all are predators, a proportion will be. In the same way as is true for the general male population. Rhona Hotchkiss on the predatory behaviour of some female identifying inmates at Cornton Vale is well documented. There is a reason that same sex services exist in the first place, to keep women safe. It is not transphobic to state these things. Already there has been a rape of a woman by a trans woman on a hospital ward in England. Discussing these things is not hate speech.

Hope that helps!

Thanks @okifyoureallythinkso that really does help, you shouldn't have had to do it but thanks again. I've reported my own post to MN because fixing the bugs with this new system seems to have ground to a halt, despite saying over a week ago the image issue would be sorted out asap!

On to your points, well made and true and a typically appalling response from the Greens. Sort out appropriate behaviour indeed, what a load of codswallop. Notably brushed over the issue of women from other faiths so nicely discriminating against them.

I won't put in writing what my feelings are but I will say I'm not surprised by their response.

To be frank they don’t sound very intelligent.

It’s a real mantra- there is no conflict between trans rights and womens’ rights. If I say it often enough it must be true.

I don't live in Scotland.

But they can f*ck right off if they think I would ever let my mum (or going against the MN grain - my mil who I don't hate) be in a hospital ward with men.

My mums MP is the worst of the f*cking lot. Guess who it is!

No, enough is enough. People deserve dignity. My kids needs to be protected. It means I can never move home.

Given their logic, presumably they will be suggesting the removal of all safeguarding measures for those working with children and vulnerable adults. We can just get everyone to agree on appropriate behaviour and everything will be fine.

Remember, Scotland has STV - you can rank as many candidates as you want in the order that you want, and any you don't rank not only don't benefit in any way from your vote, but actually suffer because of it.

In my area, there are four open positions on the council and nine candidates representing seven parties (Alba, Conservative, Freedom Alliance, Labour X2, Lib Dem, Scottish Greens, SNP X2). I've been forced to list/rank 8 out of 9 candidates other than the one from the Scottish Greens just to keep the Scottish Green out, as that individual has been actively involved in harrassing a feminist politician from another political party and widely and deliberately misrepresenting her views. There are other candidates I disagree with very strongly on almost every issue but they still get my lowest ranking to keep out the active virulent misogynist.

The Scottish Greens should have pulled their candidate, but didn't - so now I am effectively voting against their candidate. If you feel similarly, you can vote against this creep too.

Yeah, to me this is it. This person doesn't get it, there is a failure of imagination, maybe a real lack of experience in the world.

One of the problems sometimes with minor parties is that they aren't always able to attract the most competent people as candidates.

Completely unsurprised by the mindless response from the Scottish Greens.

Thanks! So given the ordering system. I have a Tory candidate and an Alba one (they are anti GRA) the rest are Labour (2) and SNP(2) and Scottish Family Party plus one Green candidate. I am going to vote Tory. If I don’t put a number beside the others what happens? I am anti independence so don’t want to vote Alba even though I love Joanna Cherry.

If you just put your 1 beside the Conservative candidate and leave everyone else blank, that means your vote goes to the Conservative candidate and once s/he has enough votes, your vote is no longer used.

If you put 1 beside your Conservative candidate but also rank some others 2, 3, 4 etc. you still vote for your CON candidate in the same way, no harm done. But it means you prefer those candidates you ranked - in the order you ranked them - over the ones you left blank. Those extra candidates can benefit from your vote - NOT to hurt your first choice CON candidate, who still has the full benefit of your "1", but to help candidates that might not be your first choice but are OK - or to keep out anyone you particularly dislike by leaving them blank while you rank the others besides your favourite candidate.

At least they bothered to respond! Not one of the candidates/parties I've contacted have even bothered to respond to my questions (which were along the same lines as yours). So I won't be bothering to vote for any of them and will instead spoil my ballot with "Respect my sex if you want my X - women are adult human females".

I wonder if you're in the same area as me. We've got the same make up of candidates, although one of the Labour ones is now independent after he was deselected based on historic tweets.

When our Green candidate came canvassing she couldn't get away fast enough when I said why I wouldn't vote Green.

@GrouchyKiwi I don’t have an independent candidate so I don’t think so. I just put a big 1 next to Tory and left the rest blank. Annoyed that it’s come to this. 😡

They really don't.

This is the dude from my area who was deselected. Pretty awful stuff.

Wow @GrouchyKiwi we are the same area. I hadn’t realised that had happened. Awful.