Shadow justice secretary agrees with JK Rowling over gender critical views

[IwantToRetire]

The Labour shadow justice secretary has said she agrees with JK Rowling that “biological sex is real and is immutable”.

Shabana Mahmood, the shadow justice secretary, expressed support for women who express gender critical views, saying that they should not be “stigmatised” for saying them.

Ms Mahmood, who took up the role last September, used her first major speech to warn of the dangers of “the rule of the mob” when “the rule of law fails”.

“Hashtag movements are sometimes used to shut down debate and often many women have had to go to court, usually in employment tribunals, in order to clarify their rights to free speech.

“To clarify their right to believe that for example because you referenced JK Rowling, clarify their right to say that biological sex is real and is immutable – a position that I also agree with.

“But they shouldn’t be in the position of losing their jobs for having views that are perfectly legal, and that they are perfectly entitled to express.”

These are extracts from an article on MSN based on an article in the Telegraph. Not had time to compare copy.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/shadow-justice-secretary-agrees-with-jk-rowling-over-gender-critical-views/ar-AA1ntt5J

Whoa!

Blimey! the same day Stonewall apologised!

😳😵

Swoons in surprise

Blimey. the last time things were this wild was when I was still doing acid.

Does anyone think that Ms Mahmood may now be demoted from her role for agreeing with JKR?

Coward creeping out of the woodwork now it’s safe. Did she ever defend Rosie Duffield?

Suppose we TERFs have to be the bigger people and let people cross the golden bridge. But jeez. It’s hard.

As this is her first public speech in the role, can only imagine she has been strategising (having seen what has happened to others) when would be a good time to "come out".

And maybe thought the Cass Report gave her more chance of not being shouted down.

But quite something if it is her first public statement.

Looking forward to all the qualifying remarks from various labour people over the next few days.

The boy Owen will feel he is now more than justified in having left Labour.

Tide is turning

I don't think it's entirely cowardly. People go into politics to make a difference but there is a game to play if you want a more senior position

Glad she felt able to say it and also that she’s in a position where it’s a highly significant opinion.

She's actually had this position for a while. This is from an interview she did with The Times a year ago:

Another issue likely to figure in the general election is trans rights. “It is of legitimate concern for women that their rights in law to sex-segregated spaces, to their safety, to their dignity, are respected,” Mahmood says. “I don’t think it’s appropriate for anybody to try and imply that their worries or their concerns are non-existent, or not real, or that they are motivated by bad faith.”

Labour is committed to single-sex spaces, she says, including in the prison system, in domestic violence refuges, and sport. She welcomes the review of the Equality Act triggered this week by Kemi Badenoch and the Equality and Human Rights Commission, saying that when Labour passed the legislation “there was an acceptance that in most scenarios the law would treat trans women exactly the same as women but there would also be other scenarios in which it’s appropriate for there to be a distinction between what trans women can access and what women can access”.

I know there’s a game to play, but safeguarding children should never be a part of party politics.

Thank you Shabana Mahmood.

I'd read something else previously that suggested gender critical views - can't remember what or where but I'm sure someone else will.

I welcome this and I'm not going to carp about timing. Regardless of whether or not I decide to vote for them myself, Labour are odds on to form the next government and the more public support the better.

This is progress! I wonder if she has the approval of Starmer.

Interesting to see how this plays out.

How fantastic. She's definitely said similar before, but of course now she can be more forthright. The Cass Report really has changed things.

And yes, it is shit that people felt they couldn't be honest in their real views. But you have to be pragmatic, if you don't have JK Rowling's money and security.

Woohoo

Well the trans cookie has well and truly crumbled.

Very encouraging that she can do this.
I wonder if she had actual permission from Keir or if she just thought ‘fuck it.’ If she doesn’t stay shadow justice secretary for long then we’ll know….

Well well well !

Good for her.

That's wonderful. I guess that if Labour is trying to move around to a less crazy position in this debate they have to plan a series of contributions from various MPs/Shadow ministers, etc. So I hope this is an ''authorised' comment and a sign of things to come.

Please don't call her cowardly, though. For one thing it is genuinely terrifying to be a woman in public life and to make comments in this arena. For another, this whole situation isn't about winning an internet war and feeling angry, vindicated, etc. It is about reversing an incredibly damaging set of public policies. That is best done by avoiding horrible polemical hostility.

Kier still deep undercover it seems

Good for her. Presumably this part of an orchestrated reverse ferret from their previous nonsense comments from Starmer, Lammy, Nandy etc