Are you voting in the next general election purely on the transgender issue?

[TeacherAnonymous123]

Just as the title says really! Is that your only thought about who you'll vote for, or will you look at wider policies? Been getting lots of information through my letter box recently, and none mention it.

Yes. Well, the women’s rights issue

Really don't agree with this. Smacks of privilege.

They have at least been putting the brakes on a lot of the nonsense. For example stopped Scotland self ID it a pause on the so called ‘banning conversion therapy for LGBT’ Trojan-horse bill, asked if EA needed clarification, allowed it to be said that TW are not the same as women, commissioned the Cass Report.

The GRA lie law was Labour. The badly worded Equality Act was Labour. The intention to make GRC easier to get is Labour. The closing down of discussion with the Labour Women’s Declaration is Labour, only slightly eased since the Cass report.

The Communist Party is ok on this issue think.

This is totally hilarious thing about thread like this, people forget how long the Tories have been in power, and this all happened under them.

But just because they seem to have miraculously realised what a woman is, at the 11th hour before a general election, everybody goes "oh vote for them!"

Hilarious.

For me, I'm wondering if it might now end up being about the individual candidates rather than the parties they are affiliated to. Although there's no way I'll vote Lib Dem or Greens.

I'm wondering if, when the general election candidates are announced and I write to them with my list of questions about women's rights (amongst other things), whether I should add one at the end saying something like:
'If your party, regardless of what placatory official words have been said during election campaigning, decides not to fulfil their election promises but revert to doing nothing about, or even supporting, harmful ideologies which hurt women and children, would you be willing to stand up against them in parliament and vote against the party line if necessary?'

Not the exact words yet, but the gist. I need to think about this some more.

We need people in place in all parties who have common sense in abundance, honesty and the guts to see things through, including challenging their own parties rather than protecting their own jobs. We need an effective opposition as well as government. There's so much to put right and the current pool of 'talent' (ha) seems sadly lacking.

It won’t be the single issue that will make my decision but it will be a big part of how I make my mind up.

I agree the Tories are a shitshow and a disaster but they did commission the Cass report, have now ensured single sex wards in NHS hospitals, barred idiotic terms such as “chestfeeding”, not introduced gender self id, ensured biological men stay out of women’s prisons and much more. Surely it’s inarguable that the situation under Labour, Lib Dem’s or god help us the Greens would have been significantly worse?

Just look at what a better position we are in relative to the US, Australia and New Zealand as far as gender issues are concerned.

The Party of Women will be standing in at least some of the wards in the local elections. I may not have to spoil my ballot.

Yes in a sense. I'm voting from the perspective of preserving women's and girls' rights and ensuring that there remain single sex spaces. Clinical evidence over ideology has to be the way forward politically.

Yep, if the leader of the opposition and potential future Prime Minister cannot correctly identify or define what a woman is, he doesn't deserve my vote.

No. It’s important to me but it’s not the only issue.
Disability and welfare rights matter and a party which actively punishes people for being sick, victims of DV, etc will not win my vote on trans issues (for want of a better word) alone.

Women are much more likely to be able economically disadvantaged, single parents, victims of DV etc so I see the wider economic issues as women’s issues too - and to an extent more important than shared spaces and sports.

I feel quite politically homeless at the moment so it’s going to be a case of best fit, rather than ideal.

The Communist Party is OK on this issue...

As are Reform UK, SDP and Party of Women. The Tories are not ok on this or any other issue. I don't know how anyone believes a word that comes out of their lying faces anymore.

There's no one worth voting for.

Yes. If politicians lie about something as fundamental as sex then they will lie about everything.

Well none of those options are going to be on my ballot paper so for me it's either spoilt ballot or vote Tory to keep the Lib Dems out.

For those who think Labour will be better, look at Wales.

If you’re more than happy for the terminal decline of the country to continue then by all means vote on a single issue. If you’re more pragmatic about the wider context and the implications of us maintaining the status quo then I strongly suggest you reconsider.

Agree. Wales and Scotland both non-Tory govts and for all of you claiming the Tories are awful then I suggest you look long and hard at the sort of Govts you could have.

I'll be spoiling my ballot unless there is a local candidate who I can vote for in confidence. Sadly that is not the case with my local Labour MP.

You cannot expect people to vote for a candidate or a party who has a track record of referring to women's groups as 'hate groups'; suggesting they are not wanted in the party; who continue to campaign for the rights of men to access women's spaces; or show disregard for the findings of the Cass Review.

Yes, this is of fundamental importance when considering the integrity of my vote.

There is nothing between the parties economically or socially except this issue

I remember commenting a few years ago that I felt privileged to be in a country where I felt apathetic about politics because it showed me that by and large, it meant that things were going well. I also remember saying that it would take a polarising issue to change my view on this, where I felt it was important to fight hard on something and there was clear space between the options.

Party manifestos are generally pretty pointless. Yes, they state intent and values but they never have to be delivered on and don't even have to be viable. All the parties are clambering fiscally and socially for the centrist space, with the Tories marginally to the right of it, Labour to the Left and the Lib Dems floating around ready to compromise (I'm still annoyed that they backed down on proportional representation when in the coalition).
Despite feeling angry at the top-down Tory behaviour during Covid (my Mum's funeral had a limited number of guests while they partied), I have moved from a position of spoiling my ballot, which I did at the last local council election** in protest about being politically homeless at a national level, to actively voting on this issue. My default position is Lib Dems, because I generally find their values align with mine, even if the backbone was lacking when it was needed and occasional Labour.

** I don't normally vote in local elections as I don't have enough visibility or interest in the differences that each candidate will make, but I always vote in national elections. So this was purely an act of quiet protest.

They blocked Gender Self Id, Scottish GRA reform, and commissioned the Cass Review...for starters.

Undecided. My MP is good and is GC and starting to speak up (but far too quietly).

I don't want to vote Tory but I will unless Labour comes out clearly as being on the side of women, and Keir Starmer this morning hasn't and doesn't give me confidence. I'm not sure I'm prepared to give a vote of confidence to a party that can't tell basic biological truth. The more people talk about a Labour landslide, the more inclined I am to vote Tory.

Yep,it's a right shitshow here.

I'm not sure, I live in Scotland and don't want independence which doesn't make it easier.
I think I may end up spoiling.