Starmer: Almost no-one is talking about trans issues

[SidewaysOtter]

To quote from the rolling news section of this morning's Times:

"Almost no Britons are “talking about trans issues,” Sir Keir Starmer has said as he questioned why such issues are a focus of political debate.

The Labour leader sought to win over gender critical campaigners and MPs at the weekend, telling The Sunday Times there would be “no rolling back” of women’s rights if the party formed a government.

Speaking to LBC this morning he repeated his position that “for the vast majority — let’s say 99.9 per cent — biology matters” in defining a woman. He said that Labour was trying to agree a “common sense, respectable and tolerant position”, but that it was “not prepared to ignore” the small number of people who identify as a different gender to the one they were born in.

He insisted it was a marginal issue for many voters, however. “As we go around the country campaigning, I talk to thousands and thousands and thousands of people. They want to talk to me about the cost of living crisis, about the fact they can’t pay their bills, they want to know what they’re going to do about their council tax,” he said.

“Almost nobody is talking about trans issues. I do sometimes just wonder why on earth we spend so much of our time discussing something which isn’t a feature of the dinner table or the kitchen table or the café table or the bar.”

Funny, because I think there's quite a lot of people talking about "trans issues". Whether it's the treatment of Posie Parker and the 72-year-old woman who were violently assaulted last weekend, male-bodied people in women's sports/changing rooms/hospital wards/prisons, the medicalisation/mutilation of young adults, or the vilification of those who speak The Terrible Heresy that you cannot change your biological sex. And yes, we're talking about it at the dinner table, the café bar or wherever.

"No rolling back of women's rights" doesn't mean shit if you count men as women, Mr Starmer. And you can wang on about "respect and tolerance" all you like but we know what you really mean by that is wanting us to be quiet and stop being awkward. That isn't going to happen.

Oh did pp mean stand against

Well that’s not a good idea as like most it’s the gender ideology women are opposing not going after specific men

Starmer is the right one to stand against. It will get headlines and she can force the issue into the open

It’s almost like Starmer isn’t listening when women talk…

https://gript.ie/garda-commissioner-withdraws-gender-pronoun-plan-after-backlash/

I suspect the Iraih police saw the RUC and thought that they aren't going to be the same type of parliamentary police.

Questions to ask why other police forces fell?

Why did NHS staff and Teachers not start a rebellion like this?

The Irish

So... I've just been stood on my doorstep talking to a political bod who was doorstepping down my road.

Guess what we talked about... Shock! Horror! Men in women's spaces, how Kier is killing the Labour party. How laws that favour men over women were pushed through without our knowledge, how the Conservatives had let a lot of this happen on their watch. How drives of Labour women having found themselves politically homeless are leaning more towards voting conservatives over Labour or a spoilt ballot.

The person looking for my vote at the local council elections agreed with me on everything. they weren't just agreeing with me they brought up sone of the subjects around this that i agreed with.

Can I put you down as a yes vote they said.

Yes said I as she handed me a Conservative leaflet

Not getting talked about? In what frigging universe is it not getting talked about?

I'm done!

Pfft. Harris was in the RUC himself.But the rank and file Gardaí have had enough.

Not a great Garda fan. They are pretty corrupt and incompetent. And I've family connections.
However on this I support them.

Amazing

There's already genital inspection tweets underneath! They are a broken record!

What is a Woman?

Kier was asked what a 'Woman' was. He fluffed about, mumbling and waffling without answering the question. So that's a firm NO from me. He will not be getting my vote. It's a simple question, he should be able to answer it.

Welcome to the dark side. I have been here awhile 🌑😎

Labour has picked the wrong side in this. They still might win the election but a lot of us women are at not at all happy about their stance on this issue.
Stamer seems to be putting a very very few trans people above the half of the UK population about 35m people who are women.

Everyone's scared of being called a bigot

In not scared of being called a bigot.

It now means not a member of the lunatic left.

AdamRyan · Today 13:28

I think/hope his compromise is you cam change gender but not sex.
Sosex based exemptions can apply but gender based discrimination isn't acceptable - a TW will be treated legally as a woman unless a sex based exemptions is in place
Maybe I'm clutching at straws but I think that could be workable

The Haldane judgement says you change your sex with a GRC. Do you think he us going to legislate to make it clear you really have not changed your sex with a GRC? Not on your life I shouldn’t think.

Someone could launch an appeal over Lady Haldane’s judgement but they haven’t.

That’s why we were all signing the petition to Parliament to update the Equality Act to make clear sec is bioligical, not something created by a GRC.

After Christmas there were special House of Commons meetings with lawyers about the sex n the Equality Act and how it interacts with the GRC.
Michael Foran is a law professor speaking.

https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/12639/pdf/

https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/1693/html/

I liked Marina Hyde’s satirical piece on this (and other issues that apparently “people don’t care about in the real world”) in the Guardian today: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/apr/04/real-person-real-world-politicians?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

I particularly enjoyed Kier Starmer’s “three kinds of table”!

The terms bigot and transphobe have lost all meaning (and certainly any power to offend) for me, for some time re: this debate.

They are words thrown about like smarties whenever anyone presents a perspective that isn't total capitulation to the TRA agenda - including holding an opinion that rapists should be in a male jail.

If protecting women and girls means TRA's want to label me this way - so be it. I'll happily own it, in preference to putting my head in the sand out of fear of the "verdict" of people who are gleefully determined to render my sex as meaningless.

Oh sorry - I had no idea my link would create such a giant image of Stella Braverman’s grinning face!

I don't know why so many are pushing this line. There are social circles where it isn't discussed as the most important thing on people's radar.

Many of my current conversations when meeting friends and acquaintances go like this:

1. The weather, whether nice/middling/awful.

2. Politics and politicians, awful, cost of living etc.

3. All this transgender stuff! It’s mad! What a state we’re in etc etc.

4. is a topic I rarely raise myself, having been aware of it for some time now and being wary. However, recently I’ve been lectured about it in detail by a number of people I know wouldn’t have had it on their radar six months ago. And they’re very cross about it.

MN autocorrected me an unnecessary 4) there.

It is odd that Kier should say this.

Today the EHRC and Kemi Badenoch are talking about clarifying the definition of sex so there is no doubt that it means biological sex.

Did he have no inkling about the petition of over 100,000 people asking for this clarification?

It's been so long since i had a sensible conversation without any dithering or half answers or "I'll have to look into that and get back to you" with someone in politics. It made me realise how bad Labour have got.

It's local elections so I feel happy with my choice as the Labour options means voting to make own life harder in my own city. And that's not even over sex/gender issues.

Have you not heard of autogynephilia ? And the vast numbers of men who identify as women who have it? And are perfectly upfront about it, splashing it across the Internet from one end to the other?

Are you expecting the general public, especially women and girls and children, to participate unwittingly in a sexual fetish? Against their will, consent or even knowledge?

If you're unfamiliar with AGP, can I recommend you read the transwidows threads on this very site. There are five of them, each one runs to a thousand posts. You will find it illuminating.

Alternatively, take a look at the stories on this site.

https://www.transwidowsvoices.org/

Calling men she, and by a female name, is not a neutral act. A large cohort of men insist on it and will bully and intimidate women to that end. And many will happy confess to finding that arousing.

In terms of presentation at work, perhaps you haven't heard of the Canadian teacher who presents in a certain way? I will post a picture. Canadians tried to write gender expression into their equality laws, which were then, unsurprisingly, exploited. This man continued to teach at the school, despite the outrage of parents and children.

If someone repeatedly uses the wrong pronouns, discipline them

The problem with that is nobody knows how many genders or pronouns are in existence at this time. Its not just the three of he/she/they or his/her/them. If there are fifty employees all with different pronouns then HR is going to be very very busy, to the point that the business will fold. Its also a form of gaslighting people to get them to say something differently to what their eyes are telling them. I could never consistently call someone with a Dumbledore beard a she. Then there are people who refuse to lie, for various reasons. Its unworkable (and wrong on so many levels).

I first voted Conservative in Scotland as they were the only party I could trust not to grant another Independence Referendum to the SNP. Once was enough for having to experience the trauma of living through that sort of divisive 2 year campaign again.
For local elections in Scotland it is a proportional system where you rank candidates with numbers so you can actually vote for candidates from multiple parties and even have them all elected. This factor helps you get used to voting for people other than your first choice.
As soon as Corbin came along, I resigned from Labour and then realised that all the UK parties were totally captured by 'gender identity ideology' and that it was a case of to what extent and which parties allowed members to dissent and hold different common sense views...it's a no brainer...free speech really matters...always a more rightwing view.

Good comment by Jenni Russell in the Times today, "Starmer is taking 99.9% of women for fools":

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/a6c276b0-d31b-11ed-b5c3-54651fc826e9?shareToken=e7a5e2c89a15ec16101b6d72e57dc190