The Times is reporting in its live politics feed that KS has explicitly said Labour will not push for self ID without public backing. I know not everyone can access their content so here is a copied n pasted version: what do you think?
Sir Keir Starmer has shifted Labour’s position on transgender rights as he said the bitter rows over Scotland’s Gender Recognition Bill showed the party must consider public opinion on the issue.The leader of the Labour Party has previously insisted it was committed to updating the Gender Recognition Act to introduce self-identification for transgender people.However, in a significant shift in Labour’s policy, he said the backlash over the SNP’s gender reform bill had made him think again. The SNP passed legislation this year that would make it significantly easier for people to acquire a gender recognition certificate and reduced the minimum age for doing so to 16. The bill was blocked by the UK government.Starmer said: “I think that if we reflect on what’s happened in Scotland, the lesson I take from that is that if you’re going to make reforms, you have to carry the public with you.
“And I think that’s a very important message and I think that’s why it’s clear that in Scotland, there should be a reset of the situation.”
Feminism: Sex & gender discussions
Starmer rowing back on self ID - what do we think?
JohnnyMcGrathSaysFuckOff · 23/03/2023 13:18
Clymene · 23/03/2023 14:47
If Labour had been in power, sturgeons self ID would have gone through. She'd still be in post.
He doesn't care.
JohnnyMcGrathSaysFuckOff · 23/03/2023 15:25
@Believeitornot the Tories are hugely opportunistic and mostly misogynistic but I think some of them are genuinely gender critical e.g. Badenoch.
It is about the only thing I agree with her on, mind!
But whilst I don't think most of them care about it, I do also think most Tory 'big beasts' would give very short shrift to the idea that TW genuinely are W in all senses. They're opportunistic as hell but also pragmatic and not always particularly ideological.
Believeitornot · 23/03/2023 15:21
I look at some of the cabinet members responses on women’s issues and just shake my head in disbelieve that anyone thinks the Tories really give a shit about women.
They’ve spotted the trans issue as a culture war, they’ve jumped on it and will bin it come the other side of the election (until the next election comes rolling around in 2029).
Believeitornot · 23/03/2023 15:21
I look at some of the cabinet members responses on women’s issues and just shake my head in disbelieve that anyone thinks the Tories really give a shit about women.
They’ve spotted the trans issue as a culture war, they’ve jumped on it and will bin it come the other side of the election (until the next election comes rolling around in 2029).
MissLucyEyelesbarrow · 23/03/2023 15:34
No one is under any delusions about the Tories. But the fact is that they have committed not to bring in self-ID (having previously supported it) whereas Labour are on record as say that they will. KS said that explicitly here
Half the shadow cabinet are on record as believing that there is no such thing as a woman/women who want single-sex spaces are bigots etc.
KS has said nothing to indicate that Labour don't intend to bring in self-ID. He is now just saying that they won't do it immediately. Even if KS has genuinely had a change of heart, the vociferous pro-TRA support in his party may mean that he has no choice.
So please don't patronise us, or imply that we don't understand our own interests.
Believeitornot · 23/03/2023 15:21
I look at some of the cabinet members responses on women’s issues and just shake my head in disbelieve that anyone thinks the Tories really give a shit about women.
They’ve spotted the trans issue as a culture war, they’ve jumped on it and will bin it come the other side of the election (until the next election comes rolling around in 2029).
lifeturnsonadime · 23/03/2023 15:36
It's far from ideal but its time for pragmatism imho. Supporting feminism is also about women having decent childcare provision, decent pay, a functioning NHS, in particular good quality pre- and post- natal care, safe policing, a functioning transport system, as well as the all important safe spaces just for women.
Can you point to any actual policies that Labour have that will do those things?
They have no intention of reversing Brexit. Where is the money going to come from to do all of those things?
How can we trust them on the NHS if they don't even understand basic biology like only women have a cervix.
I'm not fan of the Tories, I've never voted Tory in my life. But the only policy of the Labour party that I actually know is that they intend to introduce self ID the only change to that now is that it isn't apparently a priority.
If Labour wants to get my vote they need to explicitly roll back on that and explain how they are going to make my life better.
They also need to stop telling women that we are transphobic and expelling us or telling us we are not welcome in the Labour Party for knowing that men who wear dresses are not actually women.
DrMarciaFieldstone · 23/03/2023 15:40
And the thread got derailed as usual. It’s amazing how many people seem terrified of women prioritising women’s rights, and desperate to tell us how wrong we are to do this.
MissLucyEyelesbarrow · 23/03/2023 15:41
That is the absurdity of your position
Ah yes, that's definitely the way to win women over.
Look, my choice is :
Party A - has committed not to introduce self-ID
Party B - has committed to introduce self-ID
Both of them can change their minds. But, if my number 1 concern is to avoid self-ID, I'd be a bit absurd to choose Party B, wouldn't I?
senua · 23/03/2023 15:34
he said the backlash over the SNP’s gender reform bill had made him think again.
Starmer said: “I think that if we reflect on what’s happened in Scotland, the lesson I take from that is that if you’re going to make reforms, you have to carry the public with you."
there should be a reset of the situation.
What does this word salad actually mean (if anything)?
MissLucyEyelesbarrow · 23/03/2023 15:41
That is the absurdity of your position
Ah yes, that's definitely the way to win women over.
Look, my choice is :
Party A - has committed not to introduce self-ID
Party B - has committed to introduce self-ID
Both of them can change their minds. But, if my number 1 concern is to avoid self-ID, I'd be a bit absurd to choose Party B, wouldn't I?
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Shmithecat2 · 23/03/2023 15:18
And you trust him to do the right thing if this garners him enough votes? Women have been yelling for YEARS about this. Yet he only decides to actually listen when another party leader who didn't listen has to resign for not listening? You honestly believe he's all of a sudden decided that women don't actually have penises, and men don't have cervices? You're a far more generous person than I.
fdgdfgdfgdfg · 23/03/2023 15:01
Surely "doing it for votes" is what we want though. It could also be described as "realising that the majority of the population don't want this thing, so dropping it".
If we want our politicians to listen to us, we've got to give them credit when they do listen to us and realise they've gotten something wrong. I very much doubt that Starmer actually believes TWAW, very few men do. But he's been proceeding under the assumption that this was the way the world was going, just as many ordinary people have. There are women turning up on this board daily who have just been peaked, and are realising that that #BeKind doesn't have to be the default position. Why can't that be true of a politician too?
Shmithecat2 · 23/03/2023 13:26
He's doing it for votes. Duplicitous tosser.
Believeitornot · 23/03/2023 15:38
The money will come from where it always comes from. Do you know how a government works?
And don’t come at me with “they broke the economy in 2008”, please. Such economically illiterate nonsense.
Self ID is not a party political issue - and that’s why it’s dangerous to cast your vote on that alone. Because both sides are not ideological on this - as you can name politicians across the divide who take various positions on this.
lifeturnsonadime · 23/03/2023 15:36
It's far from ideal but its time for pragmatism imho. Supporting feminism is also about women having decent childcare provision, decent pay, a functioning NHS, in particular good quality pre- and post- natal care, safe policing, a functioning transport system, as well as the all important safe spaces just for women.
Can you point to any actual policies that Labour have that will do those things?
They have no intention of reversing Brexit. Where is the money going to come from to do all of those things?
How can we trust them on the NHS if they don't even understand basic biology like only women have a cervix.
I'm not fan of the Tories, I've never voted Tory in my life. But the only policy of the Labour party that I actually know is that they intend to introduce self ID the only change to that now is that it isn't apparently a priority.
If Labour wants to get my vote they need to explicitly roll back on that and explain how they are going to make my life better.
They also need to stop telling women that we are transphobic and expelling us or telling us we are not welcome in the Labour Party for knowing that men who wear dresses are not actually women.
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