The Times: Former SNP minister Ash Regan: I had to vote with my conscience and resign over gender reform bill

[ResisterRex]

Interview with Ash Regan. Looks like the Public have supported her in quitting over the GRR Bill. She also spoke to Mara:

twitter.com/ashtenregan/status/1603461813320155138?s=46&t=rUO9w7RfIF-c6fyShgbW6w

"Thanks to Olympic long distance runner and advocate for women’s sport @ mara_yamauchi for interesting discussion today on the current challenges and future of women’s sport. An incredible athlete who is an inspiration to all young sportswomen."

Former SNP minister Ash Regan: I had to vote with my conscience and resign over gender reform bill

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/dd448bcc-7d5a-11ed-bcd8-855e06175970?shareToken=0bb89905681e5bbd29c9c96257ad9ff4

"The decision to quit government weighed heavily on Regan’s mind. A self-confessed “goodie two shoes” until that point, the Edinburgh Eastern MSP was worried about stepping out of line with a party once famed for its discipline and the potential for outside abuse online and in person.

“That’s why I think a lot of women don’t want to speak up because they’re very concerned about what kind of backlash they’ll get,” she says.

“And obviously, over the last few years, I have witnessed people getting death threats, rape threats, all this kind of stuff. And so you do worry about what is going to happen. But I got to the point where I thought, well, I can’t not do something because I’m afraid of what might happen to have to vote with my conscience.”

Instead, the reaction was almost overwhelmingly positive from the public, if not her party’s leadership.

“I got something like five or six bunches of flowers delivered to me,” Regan says. “I think I’ve had over 100 cards and I’ve had some letters as well. If you add that into tweets, Facebook messages and emails, I’ve had over 800 emails, the majority of which were more positive. So I think it’s clear the public don’t support these changes.”"

Further down. Sounds like she may have read or become familiar with Dentons:

"“I think most people would still accept that women are still as a sex class discriminated against [in society],” she says.

“If you are making the category of women into a mixed-sex category, women don’t even have the right to the language even to describe themselves. So organising politically to further advance the cause of women’s rights is becoming very difficult if you can’t even use words to describe yourself.

“The other thing is, there’s the bill and then there’s the ideology that this bill is kind of cementing. So I would say that there’s a global agenda and the reason I would say that is because these types of changes have come up in lots of other countries all kind of around about the same time. And a lot of them have used the same kind of lobbying tactics is maybe a good way to describe it.”

Regan fears a form of ultra-liberal and in - her view - misguided feminism is helping to drive change and cites Ireland, where she says self-identification “piggybacked” on equal marriage laws, and Norway where the changes closely followed the passing of hate crime legislation.

“I would say that the agenda here looks like it’s sort of a dehumanisation of women. That’s what it feels like. So you’ve got a sort of emphasis on promotion of porn. You’ve got a romanticisation of prostitution, surrogacy, these are all part of this sort of wider agenda.

“Now, I would say I think that’s quite dangerous. And do not think that it’s going to be good for women, but I don’t think it’s good for men either.”"

Thank you for the share.

Thanks for the share. She's v sharp and does seem to have a deep understanding.

Great article - she sounds thoughtful and principled, and it's hugely encouraging to hear her state her views.

I wish she could persuade some of her colleagues to think more critically on this issue. I'm not looking forward to all the backslapping amongst the SNP and Greens when the GRR Bill inevitably passes next week 😕

Further down. Sounds like she may have read or become familiar with Dentons

Yes, that struck me, too. Perhaps she's wary of saying it out loud because it sounds like a crazy conspiracy theory (despite the receipts)?

I keep having the thought that the "trans movement" (I don't really know what to call it) has a lot of parallels with The Hunger Games: People all glammed up and behaving outrageously in a capital city, alongside vast masses of hard-working poor people who have completely different values and lifestyles. Does anyone else think this way?

Wow!

Thank you for sharing. Ash is a brave woman and a politician with integrity & intelligence which are things sadly lacking in Scotland at the moment.

Related article:

Warning over proposed gender reform bill

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/b0bf5a64-7d96-11ed-8486-22782b7fe87b?shareToken=9d88313110116ed72502e7e9ca900678