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.

I've just been following the sentencing of Thomas cashman.

BBC twitter, look at the first comment. But yeah no-one is talking about this.

Precisely.

I had been toying with voting for Labour as I am completely fed up with the conservatives. But I don’t think I can now as Starmer seems to be saying that women’s concerns about the erosion of their rights just isn’t a priority issue for voters when it absolutely is. It’s like he is disinterested in women’s concerns. He comes across as really misogynistic.

Nobody is talking about trans issues?

There were divisions on this issue at meeting of Irelands ruling Fine Gael party.

Apparently they are receiving more complaints on trans issues than they are on the housing crisis.

I know there are cultural differences but I just don't believe hardly anyone in Britain is talking about it.

WTF was happening at the start of 2004...why so much interest two decades ago?
Billy Elliott era full acceptance of gender expression?

The gender recognition act was passed in 2004

If you said to someone 'what's more important to you, the economy or trans rights?' chances are high they're going to say the economy. Doesn't mean they don't have strong opinions about the other.
People are talking about this everywhere. If you haven't heard those conversations I would suspect that either you move in circles that hold the same views as yours or that people are self censoring around you.
I don't tend to bring up issues around feminism and trans rights as it's a bit incendiary but if it does come up I will engage. I pick my conversation VERY carefully with the teens I know but if it comes up with adults - especially women - and they work out they can have an open conversation with me then the floodgates open. It would be unwise for politicians to assume silence is equal to acquiescence or indifference. I think actually there's a lot of fear still that is keeping people very quiet. Speaking up has consequences.
As for thinking that hardly anyone knows anyone who is trans. Think again. If you have a child chances are you will have heard something, many workplaces are covering gender in inclusion policies, email signatures etc. As someone said upthread this is very far from being a single issue topic. It touches many people in many ways - not necessarily in 'bad' ways but it's a high profile topic now.

The taxi drivers I use are only interested in where I want to go.

So it was, thanks.

It gets discussed by the blokes in my local pub quite frequently.

A woman is anyone who identifies as a woman. Sorry mums, you don't exist any more. From now on you will be known simply as 'breeding persons'.

Who would have guessed calling people Nazi transphobic bigots when they raised a topic would be so effective in making people so cautious to bring a topic up?

Plenty of people, women and men, are engaged. Not all are card carrying GCs.

Starmer is banking on his 99.9%/0.1% take, talking about bigging up women's rights, protecting their spaces, taking on hate speech, as pacifying or mollifying those that are unsure, skeptical, but just want reassurance.

I'm thinking he'll pull it off. This is not a Sturgeon versus "her penis" double rapist going to a female jail moment.

I had a knock on the door this morning from my MP. Lived here 20+ years - never seen the MP before (even the previous one). SE - prosperous rural, so inevitably Tory. There is a planning application for a very large housing development that is not going down well with locals, so he asked politely if I would like to share any issues. I explained I was a single issue voter particularly over the last 10 years. I was gender-critical and would be voting for the party that supported single-sex rights and could articulate what a woman was. Then followed the best 10 min conversation I have had on the topic with anyone outside of Mumsnet. (My friends tend to have trans DC, work in captured organisations, treat trans-rights like gay rights etc). The man was knowledgeable, knew the issues, showed me the JK podcast (Witches) which he had just finished listening to (I knew about it but havent had time yet to listen), discussed the Starmer announcement over the weekend, and more. I am quite impressed. He is married to a highly-qualified professional woman, but he was comfortable to discuss the topic with a stranger at no notice. Starmer is so wrong.

So does KS believe that people are born with a gender? Is that what he said? Language matters.
As a lifelong labour voter I do not trust them on women’s rights. So disappointed.

He should watch this

Starmer’s “Dodge the question and change the subject” strategy on every topic is getting really old. At some point he’s going to have to tell us what, if anything, he believes and what he actually stands for (apart from making education even more expensive).

Well yes, we are mostly women and I imagine ReaderDIgest and Starmer are only interested in what men have to say

So, is Starmer (and the standpoint of Labour) saying that at the moment it only the 0.01% of 'women' like Isla Bryson who have a penis. There isn't a moratorium or an upward limit on this declaration of being the opposite sex, is there? If a million men say they are women, then they have carte blanche; irrespective of the detrimental effects on real women and girls. Two million, same.

And, the logical extension of that is it would be quite alright for such 'women' (rapists or no) to bring their penis into places where real 'other' women and girls are unable to escape from them, or vulnerable, or simply undressed and uncomfortable? Women's sports etc. being exclusive of real women as they become mixed sex on the whim of males.

It is no different from what he/she/furry said before, is it? Any man says he is a woman, and voila he is one of the 'women' with a penis.

This is really interesting- did they bring in self id in Finland?

Maybe no one is talking "trans issues" cause they are all talking about womens rights and protecting sane SEX spaces!

👏👏👏

Also: is that a typo in there? I'm not sure it is...

It was raised at my pub quiz

topic true or false

bloke at the back “is one of the questions does a woman have a penis?”

He saw what happened to sturgeon. Bloody petrified of being asked questions, and wants to pre-empt the entire scene by minimising at all.