Labour candidate suspended for 'transphobia'

[Imnobody4]

Labour’s London region has suspended the party’s candidate for a closely-contested council by-election in Hackney following allegations of “transphobia“.
Party members were told by email early this morning by Hackney’s borough organiser that “all planned campaign sessions” in the Cazenove ward had been cancelled, including those that were to have taken place today.
A Labour source has confirmed that the candidate, Laura Pascal (front right in photo), has been “administratively suspended”, which means a complaint has been made about her by another party member and a decision taken to investigate it.
The timing of the suspension means there is not enough time to nominate a different candidate in time for the by-election, which will be held next Thursday. This means that if Pascal wins, she will sit as an independent councillor. The source confirmed that Labour will do no further campaigning for her.

https://www.onlondon.co.uk/hackney-labour-cazenove-candidate-for-council-by-election-suspended/

About time KS got a grip.

Totally. And then since it's Monday we'll play the Northolt Bagshot Convention in memory of the Marquess of Blitheringholm, and I'll take a sharp slide to Tottenham Court Road.

Which gives me Mornington Crescent.

In the Evening Standard now, maybe it will make the nationals as well

www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/labour-suspends-hackney-london-by-election-candidate-laura-pascal-b1132443.html

Re: the racist accusation. She liked a tweet someone else posted comparing a man in blackface with Dylan Mulvaney. It looked very much to me that the young men piling on her were combing through her tweets and likes to find whatever they could, following someone posting the tweet where she said that "trans women are not female".

the race issue has been described as white feminists only caring about black women and racism when it’s a tool in the trans debate.

I find it hard to believe that those who use these comparisons, whether the Rachel Dolezal one or the dressing up one, are saying this because they "care".

Its about saying there are parallels.

Its about believing in reality of facts, rather than fantasies.

It doesn't co-opt Black women, it acknowledges that the groupings by sex or race or anything else are based on a lived reality.

But it would never occur to me somebody saying that was in any way indicating they were saying they "cared" about racism. That's seems much to generous. :(

.

I read the Black Mumsnetters thread that I think @pickledandpuzzled is referring to, and the complaint about co-opting another group's struggle to win debating points (my interpretation) did make sense to me. I thought it was well explained. At least one poster on that thread also made the point that some TRAs do the same thing.

Thing is intersectionalism when thought through is fine. But it's never ever implemented like that, only as hierarchies of oppression that mean some people are always right and others always wrong. In this case women are wrong and tw are always right.
The same applies to other extreme leftist / individualistic movements too. Its happened before. Its happening with other movements in the USA and in parts of the Middle East. Its a feature not a bug so it doesn't work.

I admit that it’s hard for me to see things from the perspective of a group of people who are fed up of being the target of racism - it’s rare for me to be on the receiving end of racism - but I am utterly fed up of people looking for the worst possible interpretation of someone else’s comment. Pointing out that womanface is offensive, in something like the way that blackface is offensive, doesn’t imply that the person had any intention of insulting or belittling black people or their experiences.

And we see exactly the same kind of victimhood everywhere. I grew up in an era when blackface was only just beginning to be seen as a bit patronising. People had to cope with overt nastiness and weren’t protected from it. Trigger warnings hadn’t been invented. If a man complained about bullying, he was told not to be a crybaby. I’m glad that we’ve moved away from those behaviours, but I would just like people to look for the best possible interpretation of a tweet before retaliating.

I dont wont to derail this thread, but all I was trying to say is see parallels between men saying they can be women, and a white woman saying she is Black isn't about co-opting Black Women's struggles.

Its exactly the opposite. It is saying it is ludicrous. And the only link which is why it is sometimes used as a parallel is because in both instances the negative and discriminatory behaviour someone experiences because of their sex or because of their race is because of how people are not that project their sexism or racism onto you.

I think the real problem is those who use the example of drag or black face. This are inappropriate and in some ways demeaning of the actual experience of growing up with the experience of racism or sexism.

Drag and blackface are peformative, they are a choice made by people who are whatever they might say, are project a caricature. And you can opt out of being that performance. You can not opt out of actually being a biological female any more that you can opt out of being Black.

I think those who use drag as an example actual diminish the argument about a sex based reality because it is more a comment about trans women not passing. And if the prospective candidate for Cazenove did make statements about that I think it is a shame.

Women's sex based rights are based on our biological reality.

And if the prospective candidate for Cazenove did make statements about that I think it is a shame.

As I said, all she did was like a post from someone else who compared a man in blackface with Dylan Mulvaney.

all she did was like a post from someone else who compared a man in blackface with Dylan Mulvaney

I'm surprised. Given how carefully worded her pinned post is, that she would click on a comment like that.

Its a bad analogy and is little more than a cheap jibe.

And detracts from the real issue.

@IwantToRetire you can opt out of performing those acts- you can’t opt out being caricatured by them. So all women are portrayed as overly sexual, pampered catty princesses by drag artists. It’s massively misogynistic, 2D, offensive claptrap.

For me that’s the parallel. But I’m reluctant to use it now having seen how offended some are by the comparison. I do doubt the integrity of the people making that argument, but am not in a position on an anonymous forum to check up!

I don't think policing people's likes on Twitter is how we really want to go. I'm sure many male Labour councillors have liked posts which could show them in a much worse light, on this issue and many others, such as Israel/Palestine. It's just an example of a woman being held to a much higher standard because she has the unacceptable belief that men can't be women.

People literally went around that neighbourhood posting up printouts of the tweet she didn't write, but liked.

Where are these ‘Labourites’ coming from?? When I was a kid my dad was involved in local party (policies etc) and it was normal WC people and the local ‘professionals’ who had a social conscience. Now it seems to be blue haired ninnies.

I too decided not to use that specific argument any more after reading that thread. I also still support Laura Pascal based on what I know.

Me too, Edith. Me too.

🥺

I still think it’s a good analogy 🤷‍♀️

And I’m so tired of being told what I can and cannot think.

It seems a lot of the activists who attacked her are Greens rather than Labour and indeed the Green Party in Hackney opportunistically took it upon themselves to publish a statement:

It has been publicly reported that the Labour Party has suspended Laura Pascal, its candidate for the Cazenove by-election, and ceased all campaigning for her. We call on the Labour Party to confirm whether this is the case, and if so the reasons for it.

We and others in the community had previously raised serious concerns about grossly offensive and prejudiced comments shared and ‘liked’ by Laura Pascal on Twitter/X. Calls for Hackney Labour to address these concerns, and to explain why Pascal was selected as a candidate in the first place, have been and continue to be met with silence.

Tamara Micner, Green Party candidate for Cazenove, said: “I stand wholeheartedly with all communities in Hackney, whose diversity is our borough’s great strength. My aim in this by-election campaign has always been to bring the people of Cazenove together and help heal divisions.

“If elected as your Green councillor on Thursday 18th, I will stand up for all Cazenove residents and add to the fantastic work that Hackney Green councillors are already doing to hold the Labour administration to account and make Hackney a safe community for everyone”.
x.com/hackneygreens/status/1746276407943082278?s=46&t=SPorwN-mokktL467rcZ57g

Thing is, shouting about ’grossly offensive behaviour’ may well lead people to think grossly offensive behaviour has happened.

Rather than liking a tweet about a grifter.

I've read other threads and discourse on this here and elsewhere, I know some (not all) black women find it offensive so I don't personally use it because I don't want to offend them.

I also personally think it's a perfectly reasonable analogy logically. I think many people who use it simply just haven't considered it in that way, in the context of historical blackface. I do think when people make a big deal of this that there is an element of dismissing women's feelings about the sexism and misogyny of males role playing as women though. So it's more complicated.

Thing is, shouting about ’grossly offensive behaviour’ may well lead people to think grossly offensive behaviour has happened.

Rather than liking a tweet about a grifter.

Exactly, and I'm sure certain people are very happy for people to think that. As with Rosie Duffield, who also was targeted most recently because she liked a tweet Graham Linehan had posted. And JKR being called out yesterday in a ridiculous New Statement article because she liked a tweet "from a right wing group" which was apparently by Libs of TikTok.

*New Statesman

After watching a few New Statesman podcasts I've come to think of them as a right wing group. Judge not lest ye be judged!

The Libdems used to be known as the bottom feeders of politics. Their leaflets were tailored to appeal to whatever demographic lived in a particular Borough. But the Greens seem to have adopted the same tactic. Saving the planet is a bit of a chore eh lads?
But then Labour have long since abandoned ' improving the material conditions of the working class'.