How can we prevent the trans issue from being a gift to the right wing?

[TheTERFnextDoor]

I'm really worried about the direction politics is taking, not only in the UK but globally. The right wing is on the rise almost everywhere for various reasons.

Sadly, the gender debate will undoubtedly be a gift to the right wing over the next few years. It's the Tories ace card at the next election; the left as they are at the moment can't win this debate.

What can we practically do to prevent this? I have tried speaking to my local Mp (Labour), and he basically told me to "be kind".

True. Swallow this lie or else. Yeh sounds great.

RebelliousCow yes you are right…but the trans law is being challenged in the courts by Vox as being unconstitutional. I think the socialists/left will have to work quite hard to get feminist groups on board.

This. Saying a woman can have a penis is ludicrous and no sane person could vote for them. The left should stop making these stupid statements and admit they made a big mistake but they won't.

https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/suella-braverman-wants-to-cleanse-the-civil-service-guess-who-tried-that-in-the-1930s/

https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/alastair-campbells-diary-how-boris-johnson-became-an-accidental-fascist/

https://www.openculture.com/2016/11/umberto-eco-makes-a-list-of-the-14-common-features-of-fascism.html

Appeal to emotion rather than fact
Raising fears of an outsider threat and distrust of "the other"
Appeal to social frustration
Positioning as "the Voice of the People"

I think we should be holding politicians to account when they start straying in these directions.

Appeal to emotion rather than fact

Name me a political party that doesn't do that on either the left or right, because I can't think of one.

Appeal to emotion rather than fact

Women you must be kind and accept that women can have penises. You must give up your safe spaces to any penis person who says they are a woman. If you don't agree we will expel you from the labour party and we don't want your vote anyway.

Apologies, I have put safe spaces when I meant single sex spaces.

That Open Culture article is so strange, I'm not sure how it is an example of the Conservative Party being akin to fascist.

To me the use of fascist in this context is akin to calling men women because they say so. It's changing the meaning of words and offence to those who have lived under fascist regimes and to those of us who are really women.

Me too. I didn't leave the Left, the Left left me.

To be very clear, I do believe it is progressive to challenge and defang the gender roles and stereotypes that still exist in our culture because of historic sexism so that women (and men) are empowered to live safely and achieve their potential.

I do not believe gender ideology (as it is currently being implemented) is doing any of that, and is in fact strengthening these regressive and disempowering gender roles and stereotypes.

You would have to live on a diet of Guardian BS to think destroyed and bankrupted are words that in any way describe the UK.

It almost comical reading posts that pop up saying this now.

https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/suella-braverman-wants-to-cleanse-the-civil-service-guess-who-tried-that-in-the-1930s/

So let’s remind ourselves of what the Nazis did to the German civil service. In 1933 they passed a law designed not just to expel Jews but also to “cleanse the civil service of all those elements that had crept into it in the last 14 years, mainly because of their party affiliations, but who lacked all competence and moral qualifications”.

So this kind of thing is being compared to an email where the civil service were described as part of an "activist blob"?

It's hardly impressive evidence of a strong parallel.

Jess Phillips put her name on a private member's bill with Maria Miller to change the Equality Act to say gender identity.

This only stopped because of the referendum on Europe.

The results of the consultation were analysed and found to be in opposition to removing the medical sign off.

Overall that consultation was a good thing, a body of evidence is now held in the public domain about why it was proposed by trans people and why the public responded that it should not go ahead.

I don't see how we can prevent it being a gift to the right wing if the Labour Party doesn't come to its senses in the run up to the general election. In fact it's already a gift to the Mail, TalkTV, GBnews etc.

Jess Phillips put her name on a private member's bill with Maria Miller to change the Equality Act to say gender identity.

She also thinks that spousal consent is 'awful'

It's in Labour's hands to stop this being 'a gift to the right wing'. They just need to support women & women's rights.

I don't know why they haven't thought of this for themselves. Seems like stating the bleeding obvious.

Today Annaliese Dodds has doubled down on that, apparently speaking on behalf of the Labour party.

Annaliese Dodds: To modernise, simplify and reform the gender recognition law, we will:

Replace the panel of anonymous doctors who oversee decisions with a registrar model.

Replace the 'acquired gender' period with a reflection period.

Scrap the outdated spousal consent mechanism.

https://twitter.com/AnnelieseDodds/status/1683434056225112065

Fantastic.

Scrap the outdated spousal consent mechanism.

So are any of the "Tories hate women" posters going to respond to this?

Dodds doesn't even believe women married to men who are transitioning should have the simple right to leave that marriage to the man they married BEFORE he changes his birth certificate. They want women to be forced to divorce them as women.

Who was it you said hates women again?

Yes. Definitely preventing women being able to escape a marriage when a man changes it unilaterally from the contract they agreed to, is progressive and morally great.

<slow handclap>

They can still divorce normally right or are you not allowed to traumatise tw in that way? Probably illegal or labour want it to be. So progressive 🤣🤣

Unbelievable that they have put that back on the table.

All the lies about that are being regurgitated.

Starting with calling it a veto.

From the honest party?

And it begs the same question I've seen from a number of posters across a number of threads today.

Labour: are you this ill informed and stupid that you don't KNOW the problems and complexities involved? Have you seriously managed to escape all knowledge when it's all over the public domain for anyone with a brain who needs to be involved? And if so, wtf are you doing?

Or are you fully aware, and going to do it anyway, but are too gutless to own that you are openly and frankly desirous of creating an unequal male supremacist society in which women and children are abused in the name of male freedoms. Largely sexual freedoms. With their lesser rights and status fixed in law to prevent their resisting or protesting this. And if so, wtf are you doing? Extremist left governments tend to create the same dictators and body counts as extremist right governments, totalinarianism isn't any nicer if it comes in red rather than blue.

Which is it?

I wonder if trans-rights activism would show parallels with left-wing authoritarianism?

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/psychological-dimensions-left-wing-authoritarianism/620185/

Intriguingly, the researchers found some common traits between left-wing and right-wing authoritarians, including a “preference for social uniformity, prejudice towards different others, willingness to wield group authority to coerce behavior, cognitive rigidity, aggression and punitiveness towards perceived enemies, outsized concern for hierarchy, and moral absolutism.”

...

Costello and his colleagues started fresh. They developed what eventually became a list of 39 statements capturing sentiments such as “We need to replace the established order by any means necessary” and “I should have the right not to be exposed to offensive views.” Subjects were asked to score the statements on a scale of 1 to 7. They showed a trait that the researchers described as “anti-hierarchical aggression” by agreeing strongly that “If I could remake society, I would put people who currently have the most privilege at the bottom.” By agreeing with statements such as “Getting rid of inequality is more important than protecting the so-called ‘right’ to free speech,” they showed an attitude called “top-down censorship.” And they showed what the research team called “anti-conventionalism” by endorsing statements such as “I cannot imagine myself becoming friends with a political conservative.”

By accepting there are other issues as well, and not accepting verbal bribes which are empty words to pander to certain groups, much like the immigration issues. Don’t be fooled they have a position down to FWR!

Since we're at the 'accusations of fascism ' part of the thread, presumably it's a good time to post this?

@nothingcomestonothing I've seen similar things but not that one.

'Impressive taste in clothing'? uh-errr 😂

' too gutless to own that you are openly and frankly desirous of creating an unequal male supremacist society in which women and children are abused in the name of male freedoms. Largely sexual freedoms'

Sigh. The people lobbying against women's sexual freedoms are also the ones campaigning against trans rights. That's just the boring reality. It might be ideologically unsatisfactory, but it is there.