Shirine Khoury-Haq on “protecting trans people to the end”

[PopstarPoppy]

According to this morning’s news:

Shirine Khoury-Haq said the trans community brought a “massive business benefit” to the Co-op. She told The Telegraph: “These are highly talented people who, if they feel loved, if they feel valued, if they feel like they can bring their whole selves to work, their contribution is immense.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/05/04/ill-protect-trans-people-to-the-end-vows-co-op-boss/

What about the contribution of WOMEN, Shirine? Don’t they count??

And why does ‘protecting trans people’ have to come at the expense of protecting women?

These useful idiots for the TRA brigade don’t seem to register that it doesn’t have to be either/or, it’s quite possible to work to protect both groups. Trans women do not need to have access to women’s spaces to be protected, they simply need spaces that are separate from those provided for men. The reason that has been repeatedly rejected by the TRA mob says more about the motivations of trans women (requiring the rest of us to validate their identity) than anything else, and is a big part of why we are where we are. If there hadn’t been such a push to be ‘inclusive’ of transwomen in every possible situation – eg forcing through things like describing smear tests as necessary for ‘people with a cervix’ rather than women – there wouldn’t have been the pushback there has been. Nor would we be in this situation had women’s feelings been met with empathy, rather than repeated threats, which ironically undermine the argument that transwomen are no threat to them!

Oh perfect, thanks for linking it @ArabellaScott

Apologies it was Canada.

Nebraska, I think.

Apologies again 😂

Thank goodness I work for myself then! I don’t actually remember leaving any of myself behind at any point previously.

What would it be called? The Post-Op?

The Co-Opted?

The Co-op are a massive disappointment. They started out as part of a movement that provided a way for poorer communities/people who were badly off to be able to buy unadulterated food (at a time when food often was adulterated) at a fair price because they could take the benefit of economies of scale. It wasn't a Quaker movement but it aligned with Quaker values of fairness, equality etc. One of the things Quakers were particularly hot on was equality of the sexes.

And now they are...an expensive convenience store that seems to limit itself to better off areas, with a bank that had to be hived-off into other hands because it was being run by a drug addict (who also ignored allegations of CSA while a deputy head of social services AND is in jail for fraud), and now has a CEO that thinks men can be women and their interests count more than those of actual women.

That grinding noise you can hear is the founders turning in their graves.

<slow hand clap>

There's over 3000 comments on this story in The Telegraph and the vast majority are unimpressed.

I'm a Co-Op member and haven't had an email or anything from them about this. I know it's a BH weekend and all but I'm still unimpressed.

Bloody hell, that chanting, screaming councillor in Nebraska. I expected her to stop after a few seconds but she goes on. And on, and on. She looked possessed.😱Teenagers in the streets shouting slogans I can understand but she's a middle aged woman in some sort of formal council proceedings.

Why aren't all these protesting angrily seeking better mental health provision for people suffering with dysphoria?
Moreover, campaigns to help people accept individual differences are beautiful; we can all love our bodies as unique to us, no need for surgery/drugs!
(No need to use facilities of the opposite sex either, use your own!).

"Why aren't all these protesting angrily seeking better mental health provision for people suffering with dysphoria?"

They'd first have to acknowledge that gender dysphoria is any kind of mental disorder...

In weak mitigation, she was filibustering. But yes, it's a wild clip!

Yes, its frustrating to see. The first step of seeking help is to identify the problem, but they want to develop the delusion even when the court says biology is biology.
The money that's thrown at this delusion should be moved to mental health support for young people, as a better use of public funds.

DH's company are big on "bring your whole self to work". He fucking hates it. The pressure to over share in ice breakers, the pressure to adopt a set of personality traits that suits the culture of the workplace. Surely most people just want to turn up, put in an honest day's work and then go home to their real life. As DH says, they don't pay him enough to buy his "whole self". Just his professional skills during his contracted hours.

There’s not one person who wants me to bring my whole self to work. And I work at home. With my partner.

What does she mean anyway. She’ll have to provide single sex facilities, meaning no biological men.

That's a good point actually, the "pressure to adopt a set of personality traits". Whatever the company says, you know that some things would be unacceptable - at the Co-Op, looks like that would be GC views, so you wouldn't want to tell them you'd been on a women's rights march at the weekend. Or, perhaps you're a lazy bod who does your work well but spends all your time at home lying in bed eating snacks. Would you tell them that?

An old colleague of mine (excellent at his job and ironically I now employ him) once announced in our male dominated office, that there was no point educating women because they always left to have kids and never came back. To be fair he was describing what had historically happened but the tide had turned and there were at least 2 of us not in that camp who gave him “an education” 😂The younger people couldn’t handle this robust exchange of views (he wasn’t management) and he was eventually drummed out via redundancy. As was I for being too aggressive not smiling enough! But the point is that the “bring your whole self to work” is a lie. It actually means “bring your company-culture-compliant” self to work. It didn’t work out so well for the old firm unfortunately as they got rid of all the people who did the actual work - the people who were busy with their whole selves proved to be incredibly ineffective. Woops

A company director somewhere I worked pretty much said between the lines that he employed young women because they would be so grateful and worried about losing their jobs that they would put up with shitter pay and conditions than men. In a slightly jokey way but he absolutely meant it.

She got to the crux of it later - it will cost them to provide third space facilities. So far her trans loyalty has cost nothing. I find this a bit embarrassing - the headline should be changed to “CEO backs trans employees - but not enough to pay for appropriate facilities for their privacy and dignity”.

“We love you, we think you’re wonderful, exciting, vibrant hardworking people, we’ll always have you in our hearts, but unfortunately we are not going to shell out on any appropriate facilities for you amazing people, what can we do, our hands are tied🫶xoxoxo 🤷‍♀️ here’s some social media posts saying how fab you are though #fightthepower #translivesmatter #dontlookatuslookatthosebadwomenoverthere etc”

I manage a trans identified male at work. Frankly I'd be glad if he brought himself to actually do some work a lot of the days. He's no more talented than anyone else who works in my team and a great deal lazier. At present it's hard to get him to a full days work as he is claiming he is too distressed and worried about his future in a country where things are so dark for trans people. It's very tedious to keep having to redirect conversations back to work matters and also pointing out that bringing your whole self to work in our job and sharing your personal experience with our service users is absolutely not appropriate.

Resurrecting this thread to post news from the BBC that mega trans ally Shirine has had to step down as CEO due to 'toxic culture' claims reported by the corporation.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crm172nkeplo

Isn't it remarkable that a person with her views turns out to head a dictatorial, bullying leadership team?

Thank you for link.