Rebecca Don Kennedy of the Equality Network interviewed

[ArabellaScott]

https://archive.ph/yw2s0

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/25413097.equality-chief-i-not-fight-trans-rights-hurt-women/

'Kennedy sees the battle over trans rights as an “imported culture war”, which came along with “a rise in right-wing rhetoric, the rise of fascist tendencies, and a return to patriarchy. It manufactured fear and anxiety and made marginalised people scapegoats for the ills of the world”.
What’s happened in Britain and America isn’t happening in Europe, Kennedy says. “They’re looking at us in horror. The things that are going on around trans people’s human rights is unfathomable. We’re referred to as ‘Terf Island’ for a good reason.” Terf means “trans exclusionary radical feminist”.'

“It’s awful for LGBTI people, and specifically trans people, and more specifically trans women, right now. It’s terrifying. They’re demonised by the press, by their politicians, demonised on <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.ph/o/yw2s0/www.heraldscotland.com/topics/television/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">TV, questioned within institutions and their workplace, and they’re maybe not even able to use the toilet when they go outside.
“All the while this is happening, other people who are hateful are lauded and lifted up as heroes – and worse than that, painted as heroes for feminism. It’s just abhorrent.
“To be a trans women right now is so hard. Their strength is unparalleled. I cannot imagine being able to just hold my head high and live my life regardless of how – and I’m going to swear now – f***g awful it is. The admiration I have for trans women is huge. I couldn’t do it.”

“It’s dangerous for any woman who falls outside the supposed standard of what women should look like. I cannot believe that we’re returning to a world where if you don’t look like a feminine woman then you’re looked at with suspicion. I’ve heard more about cis women being pulled up and questioned in toilets – often cis lesbian women v than I have about trans women. I mean, what are we doing? We’ve gone so down the rabbit hole that people are being encouraged to take pictures of women in bathrooms. It’s not just trans women who bear the brunt of that, it’s all women who don’t conform to whatever it is we’re meant to conform to.”
She described the proposed system around bathrooms as “a mess with no clarity. It’s unreal. Trans men are to use women’s toilets, and trans women are to use men’s toilets. But anybody that’s non-binary, or looks ‘too transitioned’, is to use gender-neutral toilets, if there are any”.
“What that likely meant in practice was that, for example, bearded masculine trans men would be told they should use women’s toilets – unless that caused upset or fear – then they didn’t have a toilet to use at all, unless there was a gender-neutral one. It’s utterly ludicrous, appalling actually.”
Kennedy believes that women opposing trans rights are damaging feminism. “I’d give them grace and say they don’t realise how these things entwine. Partly this might be because before 2018 they weren’t involved in the equalities movement, or human rights or the feminist movement. So they don’t see there’s an intertwining of shared struggles.
“We all have human rights. If some of us don’t have them, then none of us do. As soon as you start that divisive pulling apart you weaken the armour and the tools that we have for moving forward. I believe in intersectional feminism where everyone who’s marginalised needs to work together. If we don’t work together, we won’t achieve anything.
“Many women [opposed to trans rights] are in quite privileged positions and have – or believe they have – what they need. Some people believe everything is fine because they’re fine, and they don’t look any deeper.”

I think it would be great to have Rebecca do a webchat on Mumsnet to discuss all these issues with women.

Blimey, that bit you’ve quoted reads like she’s just unthinkingly swallowed the tra script whole. I wonder if she actually has any opinions other than what some bloke pre-approved. 🙄

For anyone unfamiliar with the Equality Network, this article by MBM explains exactly how they have been trying to erode women's rights since at least 2015 -

https://murrayblackburnmackenzie.org/2022/11/17/women-sex-and-the-equality-network-lifting-the-fig-leaf/

They are also closely connected to Scottish Trans, one of the main drivers of the Scottish Prison Service policy which routinely placed violent male sex offenders into the female prison estate.

“I’d give them grace and say they don’t realise how these things entwine.
Condescending twerp.

She's a bit confused isn't she?

THE issue quickly moved from the fringes to the centre to Scottish and UK politics. At first, Kennedy wondered: “Where was it coming from? Down south? America?”

She adds: “I think now we know that it’s coming from concerted MAGA rhetoric.”

'Kennedy sees the battle over trans rights as an “imported culture war”, which came along with “a rise in right-wing rhetoric, the rise of fascist tendencies, and a return to patriarchy. It manufactured fear and anxiety and made marginalised people scapegoats for the ills of the world”.

What’s happened in Britain and America isn’t happening in Europe, Kennedy says. “They’re looking at us in horror. The things that are going on around trans people’s human rights is unfathomable. We’re referred to as ‘Terf Island’ for a good reason.” Terf means “trans exclusionary radical feminist”.'

She knows that Britain is known as 'Terf Island' because we're way ahead of everywhere else in the fightback against transgender ideology, but she still thinks that the fightback has been imported from America. She also thinks that all those left-wing feminists who had spent their lives fighting for women's rights were so taken with "MAGA rhetoric" that they abandoned everything they had ever previously believed so that they could "demonise" the poor marginalised men who want to be women.

She sounds like she's talking about herself. Utterly clueless.

I'm so sick of these clueless and deluded feckers. Seriously, getting your dick out in a female only space is not a human right, get a grip Rebecca.

Happy to talk to her and discuss why and how single sex toilets are used across the world as a system that is safest and healthiest for both sexes.
I have plenty of evidence, scientific and medical, to demonstrate this.

Not all the ills of the world no, we just don’t want to strip in front of blokes. HTH.

Thinking about that, are there seriously any women who wanted blokes stripping off in their changing rooms until the point they read Trump’s election manifesto? Anyone?

Women who throw other women under the bus to pander to men with fetishes and delusions. I've been toying with calling them 'cislings', a nod to 'quislings'.

Interesting the article talks about American influences. I can also evidence who influential ‘inclusive’ gender neutral toilet designers are - they are from America and are very interested in male anatomy. The designs are not what is best for health and safety - possibly too mundane a cause for them? Gender neutral designs affect women, girls and boys the most and anyone who is medically vulnerable (physically or mentally). Obviously medical emergencies can happen to anyone but those with certain disabilities are more likely to be at risk.

If Kennedy looks at factual information from Scotland, such as recent deaths or sexual assaults in toilets, she will see why private designs are not as safe.

I am looking at health and safety for everyone.

Gender neutral designs are not as safe or healthy for anyone but the least unsafe for healthy men. Isn’t that ironic? Healthy men designing toilets for healthy men.

It's a long interview, there's a lot to unpack. What I notice most overall, though, is how vague it all is.

other people who are hateful are lauded and lifted up as heroes – and worse than that, painted as heroes for feminism

Who does she mean?

It’s awful for LGBTI people ... right now

Is it? In what way?

It’s dangerous for any woman who falls outside the supposed standard of what women should look like

It's very unclear, but from what follows it seems she's talking here about the stories of women being challenged in loos. (Which as far as I can tell, seem to have happened almost exclusively to trans rights activists, coincidentally. )

a mess with no clarity. It’s unreal. Trans men are to use women’s toilets, and trans women are to use men’s toilets.

Sounds pretty clear to me. Women use women's loos, and men use men's loos.

But anybody that’s non-binary, or looks ‘too transitioned’, is to use gender-neutral toilets, if there are any

I'd imagine if you're 'non-binary', then a third space would be exactly what you'd be asking for, no?

... before 2018 they weren’t involved in the equalities movement, or human rights or the feminist movement.

Not sure how she's worked out that 'terfs' as she would term them, sprang fully formed out of the ether (in a MAGA hat, I assume) without even brushing up against feminism before. I mean the clue's in the name, really.

As soon as you start that divisive pulling apart you weaken the armour and the tools that we have for moving forward. I believe in intersectional feminism where everyone who’s marginalised needs to work together. If we don’t work together, we won’t achieve anything.

Okay, dokey, Rachel. So how do you propose to reconcile the aims of your ostensible 'feminist' organisation with the disenfranchised women of Scotland?

You don't speak for the majority of us. You sneer at us, spread bullshit rumours about us, don't appear to understand the arguments - although I appreciate that could be tactical stupidity, rather than genuine failure to grasp 'gender critical' views.

What are you actually doing for all that tax money you take off Scottish women? Working against our interests, as far as I can tell. Smearing and insulting the women of Scotland is a very odd way to go about 'working together'.

Anyway. Be good to hear Rachel answer some actual questions that have come from outwith her cosy bubble.

'EN sit on 8 Scottish Government convened stakeholder groups. Since 2020 it has advised: City of Edinburgh Council; Creative Scotland; COPFS; Dundee Health and Social Care Partnership; Glasgow City Council; Healthcare Improvement Scotland; NHS 24; NHS Education for Scotland..
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde; NHS Highland; NHS Lothian; NHS National Services Scotland; NHS Tayside; Police Scotland; Public Health Scotland; Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service; SEPA; Scottish Prison Service; Skills Development Scotland; University of Dundee; Visit Scotland and West Lothian Council. This sweary, unprofessional, inaccurate, vicious and likely defamatory interview puts the already dysfunctional nature of those relationships into even sharper focus'

From Dr Kath Murray on X. https://x.com/kathmurray1/status/1959611837999198680

The swearing took me a bit aback. This interview was conducted in her professional capacity, remember.

And it's a fuck tonne of taxpayer's money -

www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202500456832/

https://www.gov.scot/publications/equality-and-human-rights-fund-projects-funded/

"Some people believe everything is fine because they’re fine, and they don’t look any deeper.”

What like the "I've never had any problems in toilets" brigade?

Also this the rest of Europe is looking at us in horror bullshit. What does that actually mean? Where is her information coming from? Such generalising with no actual substance or evidence.

Yes, its all.aounding like a teenager who gets their news from Tumblr, rather than head of a large and influential government organisation.

If RDK thinks that all public toilets should be mixed sex, why not just say that?

I believe in intersectional feminism where everyone who’s marginalised needs to work together. If we don’t work together, we won’t achieve anything.

This rather confused understanding of equality and intersectionality, apparently based on lumping together people with conflicting needs, certainly won’t achieve anything. Perhaps RDK confuses rights with charity?

This is what I find so frustrating. If the logical outcome of a policy is that all toilets become mixed sex (the line of least resistance for most organisations) it should be possible to have a good faith discussion about the safety issues before moving forward.

The fact that this never took place tells you everything you need to know.

crikey, she comes across as a bit of a silly sausage doesn't she? why is she wanging on about 'bathrooms'?

Oh wait, is it because she gets all her talking points from Americans on social media?

I really do think there's something especially pernicious about women like this who are utterly unable to respect the rights of other women to privacy from men. I have a fairly clear idea of why the men involved want to get in to women's spaces, but it's hard to understand the motivations of the women who support them.

IcakethereforeIam - 'cislings', a nod to 'quislings'.

I like it 😍, it's going in my lexicon, it fits the transmaiden's well.

"We’re referred to as ‘Terf Island’ for a good reason.” Terf means “trans exclusionary radical feminist”.

No it doesn't, it means Tired of Explaining Reality to Fuckwits, like you. 🤯

I think I may have coined 'cislings'. I've not seen it anywhere else. I'm not much fussed either way and if anyone else wants to use it I'd be honoured.

I understand that different people have different opinions and priorities, but her feigned or real confusion makes it difficult to understand how she can help even the people she presumably thinks she is paid to support.

A return of patriarchy - maybe she needs to look at the GRA and primogeniture?

I've not read the full interview, but the thing I don't get is this simultaneous acceptance that women exist and that to be a woman rather than a man has significance, and rejection of the basis on which anyone has historically been understood to be a woman.

If "women" aren't the people who have been historically marginalised because of their female sex, then who are they, on what basis are they recognised and marginalised, and what's the connection between them and the people who were and are marginalised because of their female sex such that the rights, provisions and even language and history of the latter are now also said to properly belong to the forner instead?

If the thing we have in common isn't our bodies but yet there is still a thing we have in common, what is it?

And why, if it isn’t being female bodied, can the people who are female bodied not organise and support each other independently of "women"?

It's never explained.