Labour MPs state "sex means biological sex... Respecting the law is not an act of bigotry"

[fromorbit]

In clear response to Roca's ‘swivel-eyed’ comment

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5376425-swivel-eyed-transphobes

This thread has been posted on x by Preet Kaur Gill, Labour/Co-Op MP.

Preet Kaur Gill MP
The Supreme Court makes clear that in the context of the Equality Act, sex means biological sex. That is now settled law, and as lawmakers and public servants, we have a duty to respect and uphold it.
The Court’s role is not to reflect on people’s feelings or politics. It is to interpret the law as written. What, it has reaffirmed is the legal right for women, meaning biological females to access single sex spaces and services, where privacy, safety or fairness are essential.

This ruling does not erase protections for trans people. They remain rightly protected under the Equality Act under gender reassignment. No one should face harassment or discrimination but neither should women have to justify the need for boundaries that the law now affirms.

Respecting the law is not an act of bigotry. It’s a commitment to democracy, equality, and clarity. It is the only way we ensure everyone’s rights are protected including women’s.

Response from another Labour MP

Kirsteen Sullivan MP

Well said PreetKGillMP Denouncing women as bigots, women who rightfully raised concerns & reminded others of our rights, is why the matter turned into such a debacle in Scotland and why we see so many cases now play out in the courts.

Remember this is all happening just after the Labour party clarified its rules to say women are real.
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5374205-labour-party-rules-updated-after-supreme-court-win-women-exist

Well it's encouraging that Labour MP's are now prepared to call out other Labour MP's, progress of a sorts.

Public life is so full of people like Roca who don’t understand the concepts of duty and responsibility, they just want to be populist.

mp’s have a duty to uphold the law and a responsibility to work within it. It’s good to see some of them know that

Small steps isn't it? It shows that these women MPs - who previously wouldn't have displayed the courage that MPs like Rosie Duffield did - can see that something has shifted and they feel able to speak out.
Long overdue for the toddler tantrums of the "trans ally" MPs to cease and for them to remember that it's not just this immensely powerful lobby they should be speaking for - there's the rest of society who have some very clear views about science, facts, safeguarding children and the rights of everyone else in society.

I see she's has the usual abusive response from Willoughby 🙄:

Extract - "Equal - but different. Very Jim Crow / South African Apartheid, Preet. Go funk yourself, terf. No - it’s not settled law. We go to Europe, which has already told the UK back in 2004 that trans people must be fully recognised as the sex they transition to. In every way....... You talk of settled law. At a cooked hearing where trans people were BANNED from being heard! Joke. I like Brummies - lovely people. I hope they read what you’ve tweeted here, and boot you out. Ghastly

Really encouraging to hear these principled MPs speaking out. Although it is absolutely insane to think that they would have needed to censor themselves until recently, the fact that they are speaking now seems like a real change of climate. As soon as a few MPs take the first step, lots of others will hopefully follow.

Yes India, men and women are indeed equal but different.

And a supranational court has no power to force the UK to uphold obligations it never signed up to because they definitely are not in the fucking treaty that was drafted in nineteen fifty fucking three, even if you squint really hard and read between the lines.

If the European Court of Human Rights tries to tell the UK that we aren't allowed to have laws recognising the existence of women and giving us sex based rights, the UK will tell the European Court of Human Rights that it has massively over fucking reached.

Those working in the human rights gravy train in Europe need to stay in their lane and know when to keep their mouths shut if they don't want their jobs to become redundant.

Another mantrum from Willoughby. Haha these are so amusing.

Its a shame they didn't speak out sooner, maybe they felt unable to. Maybe they saw what happened to Rosie.

We need many more Labour MPs speaking out, i fear the party is still full of Rocas.

What I really love about now, is the ridiculousness of many TRA statements. These were once worrying because so many believed them who were in positions of policy making and business leadership. I can now just laugh at the complete idiocy of Willoughby who was once rolled out as a supremo TWAW. OK, so most of the debating was 'I'm a woman and I know what a woman is' but in those febrile times (which do still exist) we were led to believe that only a small number of 'transphobes' existed. What a shock Willoughby must have had when realising Supreme Court Judges had more power than itself.

Some day though, women are going to have to account for their part in this. The high number of women holding DEI and teaching jobs who seriously bought into the idiocy. We will also need to find out why so many in government organisations thought tax payers should sub their insane ideology. For another day perhaps......

I can appreciate them speaking up while also thinking it's a shame more of them didn't do so earlier, because now the party is going to have to work a bit harder than this to win back my vote.

I notice Rosie Duffield appears less than impressed too and I can't say I blame her:
'It appears to now be considered safe by some previously totally silent Labour women MPs to tweet about upholding the Supreme Court ruling. Where have they been though, for all the years when we needed to hear from them? Excuse me if I decline to open the Champagne. #Cowards'
https://x.com/RosieDuffield1/status/1947001891075899712

Edited to add that, in fairness to Preet Kaur Gill, I've a feeling she might have tentatively spoken up before although I can't remember where or when

Yes, and she has made her statement publicly. Tim Roca is only "brave" enough to call people transphobes at an event called Queering Academia, where I'm sure they all clapped like seals in response. I'd like to see him try it at a more balanced event, where he actually had to debate why women who want single sex spaces are "swivelled-eyed transphobes".

Tim Roca has nothing to say on the matter. He is probably feeling a little sad about the article but I do hope that some Macclesfield constituents will call him out on this behaviour.

Love how IW is keeping it classy as always

Rosie's response is totally justified given how much she risked though to be fair Kirsteen Sullivan MP was only elected in 2024 and has always been pro women in that time and supported Labour Women's Declaration. See an earlier comment from her here :

Preet Kaur Gill MP however elected in 2017 only seems to have been speaking up recently. See here her welcoming the SC ruling in April;
https://www.preetkaurgill.co.uk/post/preet-kaur-gill-my-weekly-update-25-april

What happened to Rosie was tragic, but being a hero is difficult. Yet as we shift towards sanity we have to welcome new people peaking.

With people like Roca around we need as many people on our side as possible.

Agent Willoughby needs to keep speaking up one of best recruiting agents for sanity with the crazy stuff he comes up with.

Himdia Stillaboy really isn't very well at all.

There's also this from Labour MP Melanie Ward (I don't think she's Sandie Peggie's actual MP but I think the hospital in question is in her constituency). https://x.com/melanie_ward/status/1947234313314894079

Not directly commenting on Roca, but making her support for women's rights clear. I think she's another of the 2024 MPs. Claire Baker was one of the Labour MSPs who voted against the GRA reforms. Another Scottish MP, Tracy Gilbert, has also RTd Preet Kaur Gill's message. It feels like gender lunacy is now alive and well but more towards the fringes of the parliamentary Labour Party rather than at its heart. But we can't have confidence that sanity and reality have been restored until Keir Starmer and (in Scotland) Anas Sarwar grow a spine and remove the whip from idiots like Roca.

In my view it is importan to be clear when we are talking about popular (eg protecting single sex spaces is "popular" as evidence by the fact that the majority support them) and populist (eg promising to increase public services whilst halving income tax is populist nonsense, a lie that can never be fulfilled).

Roca is, however, neither - he is appealing to a minority of the country who may even be a minority in his "base"

I wonder what radicalised Willoughby? Back in 2019 he was the voice of sweet reason. Did he get a pasting from vicious TRAs for siding with Sharron Davies against bullying Ellis Cashman's outrageous views? And decide that it was safer to atone by going full Robo‑Trans?

Do Transgender Athletes Have an Advantage in Female Sporting Events? | Good Morning Britain

I'd suspect he wasn't a particularly nice piece of work to start with.

But back in 2019, everything was going his way, wasn't it? self-ID was coming, anyone - any woman who didn't chant the mantra could be hounded and sacked with impunity.

He was on TRSOH and stunning and brave and getting everything he wanted and could afford to position himself as magnanimous.

It was thisclose but now it's all slipping away. He's bewildered and raging and lashing out at being told No after years of coddling, I think.

I've lived near Macclesfield for most of my life. It's been Tory most of the time, not what I'd want for there or where I live either, but if he doesn't button up he runs the risk of losing the trust of the electorate and the seat at the next election.
Its a pity politicians aren't bound to stick to facts.

This thread seems a good place for this Telegraph article

https://archive.ph/uu4On

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/07/23/mps-openly-hostile-to-critics-of-gender-ideology/

It looks like they're pressing on with appointing Dr Stephenson to the EHRC. i'm so pleased of Maya pressing on this. She doesn't mention off his Roka but perhaps she wasn't aware of it at the time or, as he's a LD, she didn't want him to be used as a distraction.

Thanks for the link, I did read that the beclowned Muppets on the anti-women and equalities committee had voted to reject Dr Stevenson, and I thought what a shocker but was please, and surprised, that the Bridget Phillipson had overrode it.

“The committee’s questions relating to sex-based rights and trans rights were, but for a few exceptions, openly hostile to those who hold gender-critical beliefs, ill-informed about the law and unsupportive of the EHRC doing its job of ensuring understanding and enforcement of the Equality Act,”

I'm glad Sex Matters have put in a letter about the committee, they're a disgraced, if there is a formal complaints system regarding the conduct of MP's whilst on a committee, I hope they use it.