I took the leap! I was doorstepped by our local SNP MP and SNP Councillor. No elections a the moment but SNP are surveying households about the support for the SNP (post-campervan) and independence. I took a deep breath and brought up single sex spaces.
I thought I’d share the conversation for anyone interested. The bullets below have the detail of the conversation. Two points before I get into it …
I’m low key GC. I’ve been to a couple of local events, have been reading this board for a while and listening to podcasts etc. I’ve tentatively broached the subject with my family and a couple of friends. This was my first go discussing it ‘in the wild’. I read a post here by someone who had done this exact thing, and it gave me the courage to do it. Nothing bad happened, I managed to keep my cool and I’ll be more confident next time.
For anyone in Edinburgh who is interested in who I spoke to please message me. I'm North Edinburgh.
- I asked where they stood on single sex spaces. MP said she doesn’t deal with it as a topic much and ‘it doesn’t come up on the doorstep’. Cue comedic pause while I gestured to my door step where we were standing. “Well, yes, ok” she said. My neighbour (also working in the front garen) pointed out that some women don’t feel comfortable giving their opinion about this openly.
- Then she moved on to the other standard response - it’s a heated discussion with strong views on both sides. It needs to have less heat etc. I asked if she felt the SNP had done a good job at making space for differing views and a conversation that was not too heated. Counsellor said SNP could do a better job on that.
- I brought up the example of the treatment of Joanna Cherry. The MP said the less she said about Joanna Cherry the better. I said I was bringing her up as an example of treatment of differing voices (trying to get above the personal). The MP continued to imply that she personally thought pretty poorly of Joanna Cherry and shouldn’t say too much. I found this pretty unprofessional.
- I brought up that Edinburgh Leisure has a self-ID policy for changing rooms. I had emailed them to find out their changing policy when looking for a gym to join. Counsellor asked if I joined. I said I wouldn’t with that policy. I also said I was surprised at the lack of transparency about the policy (men and women’s signs on the door, no signs about self-ID, no policy published on the website). Then the counsellor asked if there were other gyms that had a single-sex based changing room policy and I gave her a local example that did. I don’t think she thought there would be one ?!
- Finally, MP said she thought it wasn’t widely know that single-sex provisions were possible within the law. I agreed (to which she looked surprised) because I don’t think people who are responsible for changing room policies at gyms know they can stipulate single sex spaces.
- And finally, both of them said they had children in the late teens and twenties and that had shaped their views on trans rights. [At that point both me and my neighbour jumped in and said we had been talking about women’s rights]. They both said the next generation have different feelings on it. I took this as them implying that my (early 40s) views are out of date. I said that there is polling about the feelings of the wider population about trans rights and people are generally support trans rights in principle, but views are more mixed on specific policies. I’m sure I was that survey posted on this board.
Anyway, I don’t think they cared much. I’m thinking about sending them the polling on specific policies if I can find it again.
If I can, you can to.