Hello and thanks very much for following up with questions on this. I've tried to respond via email rather than Twitter on this because I think it doesn't lend itself very well to a 140-character reply.
I think that the discussion around trans people and trans rights has been deeply unhelpful over the past couple of years, and I think it's caused real distress to trans people and worry for cisgender women. I think we could do with a bit more empathy in this, as well as many other, debates, although I acknowledge the huge strength of feeling.
I am very conscious that my internal gender identity aligns with the body into which I was born, and that that is not the case for some people in our society. For those adults with gender dysphoria, or whose internal and external life does not exactly align, I think there should be support which enables them to live as the gender identity that is their own. I think that the process of gender recognition is over-medicalised, and that the suggestion from some of trans people being predatory carries deeply uncomfortable echoes of the 'gay scares' of the 1980s.
My view is that where children and young people are questioning their gender identity, then they should be properly listened to, and supported to work through that process. I thought that the recent Cass review was an important one about what that should look like in practice, including about puberty blockers.
I know that much of this has become mixed up with what questions such as 'can you define a woman', and I have been asked this myself by a fair few voters. My answer is that a woman is an adult human female; but that does not presuppose that the rights of trans women do not exist or are in conflict. My view from the conversations I have had is that there is a great deal of acceptance and tolerance in the community which is not reflected in the harsh, culture war-driven 'debate' which has been had. The way in which some politicians have weaponised the issues is, I think, deeply divisive.
There will be issues to work through in public services - in health, or the criminal justice system - but I cannot believe that it is impossible to find solutions that compromise neither women's spaces or trans rights. I do think that trans only wards in prisons, or in healthcare settings, for example, would be sensible.
As a gay man myself, I do feel a sense of solidarity both with trans people in their fight for equality, and with women in theirs, both of which are unfinished journeys. I'm determined if elected to be the sort of politician who stands up for equality and against discrimination, and being the best kind of representative for the whole community that I can be. Keir Starmer was asked a question about this (and about Rosie Duffield) during the four-way leaders' question time on the BBC this week and I thought that his answer both acknowledged that Labour hasn't necessarily got this right in the past, and that there is a need to detoxify our politics so that we can find solutions.
I hope that this goes some way towards explaining my position - apologies for the length of the reply. It's a matter of note to me that all the main candidates for East Wiltshire MP are men this time around, and I'm determined both to be an ally and to ensure that there are mechanisms in place (such as the women's advisory council you mentioned) whereby I'm enabling and elevating women's voices.