The Lib Dem candidate has just been round, and guess what...

[FetchezLaVache]

He couldn't say what a woman is.

He is a biochemist by training and doesn't believe it's as simple as XX or XY.

He believes that some people are born into the wrong bodies.

He personally doesn't mind who is in the next cubicle, but does accept that some women might not feel equally comfortable.

He believes that the issue with men using female changing rooms is not that men might try to spy on women getting changed, because some women do that too and it's a crime that should be punished regardless of the sex of the person committing it - he clearly thought that was an absolutely unanswerable point, despite conceding he's not aware of any cases of biological women being caught spying on other changing room users.

He's not bothered that I won't be voting him because of his and his ridiculous party's views.

He then proceeded to tell me that TW are being murdered at a higher rate than women.

Which is a lie, as has been pointed out many times. The only figures transactivists can ever come up with to back this claim are based on the high rates of violence against prostitutes (male and female) in Latin America.

The Lib Dems are as bad as the Greens on this issue. Totally committed to TWAW; floating around in some quite peculiar ether which I can't quite put my finger on. A sort of amorality, maybe? They don't have the passion of socialists, and they don't have the prgamatism or firm values of conservatives. A strange breed!

lgbt.libdems.org.uk/en/page/debunking-transphobic-talking-points-longer-version#predatory

Has anyone got a ready debunk of this list?

I notice they feel very free to call any one who has a concern or an objection a transphobe in a dehumanising, thoughtless way.

Well, this transphobe, who always voted for them in the past, will no longer.

Re: TWs murdered at a higher rate than women

unherd.com/2022/01/the-truth-about-trans-murders/

The rather brilliant cross-party workshop I went to at the recent Womans Place/Women in Education Conference showed that there were GC women in the 3 main parties, all working hard to change things. And their advice was along the lines of joining a local party and starting to change things from within - not the least because you get a chance to attend hustings/vote for candidates etc etc. I'm certainly considering it, but waiting to see what happens with boundary changes as that will have an impact on which party is most likely to defeat our (useless) Tory MP.

Hannah Barnes book, time to think, debunks some of it. They're using research from a previous cohort to "evidence' claims for a very different group of people. It's clearly a highly biased opinion piece and the conclusions so not stem from the 'data'. A clear, and badly executed, attempt to evidence an approach which does not let women 'live in peace'. The bald attempt to justify the abuse of JKR is particularly galling especially as they horrific abuse she experienced, at the hands of men like so many women, is dismissed as an explanation for her alleged 'faults'. It's just old fashioned male supremacy. It also fails to explain why we need spaces segregated by gender.

What, they're still around?

They have 14 MPs.

In a by-election in 2021 they won a seat that had been held by the Tories for over 150 years.

They are targeting seats they think they can win from the Tories, and a few they think they can win from Labour.

In a less than decisive result from a general election, they could gain influence through the inevitable horse-trading. Starmer's denials that Labour wouldn't work with them would mean nothing in some post-election scenarios.

Their policies and intentions are relevant, they need examining and challenging.

Their upcoming conference looks fun.... (FB is Federal Board I believe, mostly but not entirely captured)

Maybe fun isn't quite the right word...

As I have said before, whichever of Lib Dem, Green and Labour gets off the fence and denounces these ideologues who have infiltrated their party first will get my vote