BBC - "What are the parties saying about women's rights and gender identity?"

[magicmole]

Spotted this summary on the BBC. Was pleased to see that it mentions women's rights given that so many politicians when questioned about them start talking immediately about trans issues instead.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4nng2j42xro

Blimey! When did the grown ups get back to the BBC?

Not so fast. The first paragraph says this:

'Sir Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak were both quizzed about women-only spaces in their final head-to-head debate before the election.
So what have the main parties said about transgender rights, women's rights and gender identity so far?'

My bold. So they were asked about womens-only spaces and of the things that came up in answers the BBC lists transgender rights first. Hm. Why am I not surprised?

I was thinking similar @Gettingmadderallthetime the article quickly moves into being respectful, not protecting women and quotes are chosen around this narrative.

It's absolutely dire.

I would never ever vote conservative. It goes against all my political ideals. Even Sunak claiming to be respectful of women's rights (laughable) would never swing me to vote to the right.

I would also never vote for the xenophobic Reform party. Ever.

Labour and Lib Dems are such a disappointment on this issue.

I've always voted Labour. I even have a very hard working Labour MP to vote for who works very hard locally and nationally. But I'm reluctant to vote for them because of this issue.

To me it's an issue that spans every area of life. It concerns me greatly. I can't in good conscience vote Labour when they are so dismissive of women's rights. 😔

And we have the BBC definition of conversion therapy here.

'Unlike Labour and the Lib Dems, the Conservatives have not promised to ban conversion therapy, which attempts to change someone's sexual orientation or gender identity.

There is no legal definition, but in practice it means trying to stop or suppress someone from being gay, or from identifying as a different gender to their sex recorded at birth.'

There is no legal definition. No mention of exploratory therapy.
Just this made up description. The Tories do sound horrid in not wanting to ban that kind of therapy though. Who wouldn't want to ban that.

Keir Starmer did say its important to protect female only spaces though @Iamawomenphenominally Like you, I could never bring myself to vote Conservative, so I want to believe that Labour will actually do something to protect women. I just can't bring myself to vote for anyone else.

I am reluctantly voting Tory for the first time in my life.

We are in a toss up seat between Lib Dem and Conservative, so in any case we'll be voting for an opposition MP, not for the government itself.

I don't think a Labour government with LibDem opposition will be a good thing at all - far too batshit on women's rights and self ID, no checks and balances.

If I thought they'd end up forming the government I wouldn't vote Tory but we need some plurality in opposition.

Hope that makes sense, I've tied myself in knots mulling it over. What a state of affairs.

When he says 'female' he means women and special men.

He was plain about this.

You are planning to vote for the destruction of women's rights in law, to enable men to use women as a resource while removing and criminalising women's right to resist or refuse.

Starmer still affirms making gaining GRC more 'dignified' as he said to Jane on Radio 5 yesterday. That can only mean one thing. That it will be much easier to acquire one. So yes, females will be biological women and penis-having women.

And 'female'-only spaces will safe for us all. Making them unsafe for biological women. We're facing reversals of all the protections put in place by the Victorians. This is utter madness and so, so dangerous. This is a terrible path to put 51% of the UK population on. And so, personally, I feel I must vote Conservative and hope for a strong opposition.

I cannot believe it's come to this, where I have to vote for a party I have complete contempt for, because they are the least worst option.

I thought that it's shows starmers untrustworthy flipfloping and the batshit attempt to have his cake and eat it stance of protecting women single sex spaces whilst simultaneously destroying them by opening them up to any man with £300 for a gender gp diagnostic letter.
I have complained to the BBC about referring to kate forbes as an MP though

I must admit I am still hoping he will listen and UNDERSTAND, But whenever the word woman is sent the in-built translator seems to understand something different than I expected.

But he thinks TWAW so not protecting safe spaces for biological females at all

I spoke to the Labour candidate directly yesterday and he was supportive of my position. He thinks his party have got this wrong. In my view the best thing for women is a Labour government and constant reminders to each MP how much women's rights matter.

I look to how far down the gender ideology path Scotland has stumbled and it makes me worry that voting for Kier will just mean we halfheartedly follow them. 😔

But equally I cannot bring myself to vote for the right wing parties. They don't actually care about women. Women and children suffer the most during austerity. 😔

It's so so disappointing to me. I am genuinely torn for the first time. I feel I must vote, and hope we all do so and vote out the Tories. But this issue is so important, and seeps into every aspect of our lives and our children's lives.

There's a good thread by Seeninjournalism breaking it down on twitter. Makes the point that the journalist, who overall has done a good job, is constrained by the BBC editorial guidelines in how they can report it.

x.com/JournalismSEEN/status/1806906985779995089

That’s wishful thinking. Starmer was very clear that he believes poor, “traumatised” men should be allowed to use women’s single sex spaces because they’re men so they’re more important than women traumatised.

A vote for Labour is a vote to end our hard-earned rights. This is how it will go:

”Look! We won! I told you it was only a few old bats who were fussing about so-called women’s rights! Let’s get on and show how modern we are by simplifying the GRC and passing legislation to make it clear TWAW. Get Tennant on the phone and see if we can get a photo with him. We’ll be extra cool then!”

My local Labour candidate is full on male supremacist and TRA. In his view, women should shut up, comply and be bloody well grateful.

Women have been trying to 'change Labour from the inside' for almost a decade now. It has not worked.

Oh come off it, anyone who doesn’t know by now that the BBC is just a hooker for its own funding probably works the same corner as it.

Please let your MP know this!

We need sensible, good, hard working MPs in all parties, not least in the party that's about to have a huge majority.

https://archive.ph/YAtW7

That's not a bad article! Archived here in case it goes.

It's not a bad article for the BBC.

But we're starting from a very, very low bar.

Edited to remove unwarranted enthusiasm.

Good point. Maybe I was just surprised to see something that's not about drag artists. At the back of my mind was the idea that might be because of the collective efforts of so many women to make it an issue for politicians during this election campaign that there's an article at all. After all there were plenty of politicians not long ago who were trying to claim that it never comes up "on the doorstep"...

I could have written your post. I've also been tying myself in knots as a never-Tory in a constituency that might go from Conservative to Labour because of Reform splitting the vote. No other parties are close. I was planning on spoiling my ballot (and may still do that) but at the moment the polling suggests it's too close to risk it. The Labour candidate isn't someone I want representing me.

Like you I'd never think of voting Tory if they were going to get back into government but any government has to have some sort of opposition. Even if it's just to ask difficult questions in Parliament. I want Starmer's government to be made to stand up and publicly justify, on the record, anything that they're going to do.