Mr. Davies,
For a brief, fleeting 10-15 years, WE ALMOST HAD IT. The years between 1998-2012, roughly, we were very close, when no one really gave a damn either way. I remember it distinctly. An enormous shift in attitude’s & acceptance had occurred, after the horrors of being gay in the 80’s to the early-mid 90’s.
I was NOT alone in feeling this, even amongst the upper echelons of the ‘Gay Mafia’ I used to hang around with said the same.
The original aim was EQUALITY & we were, more or less, there.
Then along came identity politics, gender ideology & Que*r Theory, which screwed everything up.
Stonewall’s CEO, Ruth Hunt, said in 2014/15, & I quote, that their shift in focus was “known to be controversial, that it would be difficult, that people would LOSE by that & that herself & the staff thought THAT WAS A PRICE WORTH PAYING.” In other words, they KNEW this would receive pushback, yet were unwilling to listen or engage with those of us who had serious concerns.
A subsequent Stonewall CEO, Nancy Kelley, called lesbians “sexual racists” for not including men in their dating pool.
Michael Cashman called for those who had questions, predominantly women, about this shift to be “defecated upon” & there was “no debate” to be had.
And NOW look where we are.
Look around at the utter mess we’re in.
If you’re going to “look at yourself as an idiot”, at least be aware of WHY you might feel that way & what part you, yourself, played in it.
You cannot cheerlead & encourage an ideology that has caused so much destruction & damage, & then pretend to be flummoxed as to the reasons WHY everything has got so much worse.
Just so we’re clear…
Labour MP Jonathan Hinder says his party could "die" if his parliamentary colleagues continue to ignore important issues facing voters and instead keep making statements supporting cross-dressing men
She is not being held responsible for her husband’s crimes. She is being called to account for her deliberate frustration of the legitimate scrutiny which might have revealed those crimes. The distinction should be perfectly intelligible to anyone except the disingenuous.
I challenge every single person who believes minors should be enabled and even encouraged to transition to read this first person testimony to the end.
1/3
via @IWF https://t.co/3276o4tg8J
The Supreme Court has ruled that under UK law, trans people never had the rights people like you insisted they had. You misrepresented the law and cheered on the removal of women’s rights. Trans people have lost nothing except the mistaken belief you fostered.
@owenjonesjourno So you don't want trans-identifying males to feel threatened by the presence of other men when using communal toilets, but you're perfectly happy for women to be subjected to that same uncomfortable experience. Do you not see how illogical your argument is?
Follow the logic.
Women are deluded and naive for thinking predatory and violent men can be kept out of women-only spaces. ‘They can rape you anywhere.’
However, trans-identified men can only be safe in women-only spaces, because no abuser would ever follow them in there.
Bravo, @Keir_Starmer, for getting in an Adviser on Women and Girls who thinks the definition of women and girls includes men and boys. That'll definitely win back people who believe Labour's a party for smug, lanyard-wearing, luxury-belief-espousing cultural elitists. 1/2
I wrote this in @thetimes in 2022:
“Rarely in politics is it easy to draw a direct line from a single policy decision to the harm it’s done, but in this case, it will be simple. If any woman or girl suffers voyeurism, sexual harassment, assault or rape in consequence of the Scottish government’s lax new rules, the blame will rest squarely with those at Holyrood who ignored safeguarding experts and women’s campaigners.”
We knew women and girls were being placed in danger, we knew the Scottish government was planning to introduce measures that would make those dangers more acute, but women trying to make the government listen to their well-evidenced concerns were described by Sturgeon in her turgid memoir as ‘hysterical.’
https://t.co/TLJfRpvXV8
@campbellclaret@jk_rowling@RestIsPolitics@SarahEMcBride Why exactly? Because we haven't heard those 'compelling', 'measured' points being yelled in our faces through balaclavas for the past decade? We need educating more? This is, and always has been about our rights as women, not anyone else's. Time for less mansplaining, not more...
Yes, the people who call themselves 'trans' exist and they deserve exactly the same rights as everyone else, which, fortunately, they already have in the UK. It would rightly be considered discrimination if a person was refused employment, housing or the vote because they identified as trans.
'Trans women are women' is a thought-terminating cliché. Men are not women. That doesn't mean they're not allowed to present themselves however they like, call themselves whatever they like and believe whatever they like about themselves. It means they haven't changed sex.
If we replace the objective, observable characteristic of sex with the unfalsifiable concept of gender identify, women and girls lose, among other things, their right to fair and safe sport and women-only spaces, including changing rooms, prison cells and rape crisis services.
Women and girls are provably more vulnerable to forms of abuse including sexual assault, harassment and voyeurism in mixed-sex spaces. There is no evidence that trans-identified men don't have exactly the same rates of criminal offending as all other men.
Trans people exist. I have no desire for them not to exist; indeed, I wish them safety, happiness and health. However, 'existence' does not, and should not, mean the violation of other people's right to privacy, dignity and freedom of speech, or the reconfiguration of society to indulge a fallacy.
What better way could there be of repudiating accusations of misogyny than recommending an episode where three men instead of two discuss which rights women should be fine giving up - without, of course, mentioning the words 'women's rights.'
This is a man who desires nothing more than to be admired, whose entire shtick revolves around presenting himself as a hero worthy of envy and emulation (lest we forget, he 'identifies with Gandhi and Martin Luther King'). To people like Maugham, any perceived diminution of what they believe to be their exalted status feels like a mortal attack, which is why every loss must be spun as a win, and black must be made to be white if the facts threaten his self-image.
He's just the latest in a long line of people on social media who think they're dealing me a fatal blow by telling me I've lost popularity, that my legacy is tarnished or that former fans hate me. None of these people appear to grasped yet that I'm completely indifferent to being disliked by people I've never met, especially those I do not respect because of their online behaviour or what I believe to be their irrational and illiberal views.
Maugham is a textbook narcissist who can't believe that everyone else doesn't live life with an unceasing thirst for validation from complete strangers. In spite of the fact that we've never met, and that as the years have rolled by I've been very open about the fact that I find his public behaviour increasingly bizarre, he seems to genuinely believe that the loss of his approval will cause me anguish. In reality, it's a welcome source of ongoing entertainment, so long may he continue.
Last time I checked the ‘far right’ didn’t force a teacher and his family to go into hiding in Batley where he still remains.
Brutally murder a Jewish man at a synagogue in Heaton with another sadly killed in crossfire.
Abhorrently murder 3 children at a dance class in Southport.
Create a dangerous environment for Jews in London and other UK cities with antisemitism skyrocketing.
Murder Sir David Amiss.
Blow up innocent children killing 22 in total in the Manchester concert bombing.
Murder 5 innocents on Westminster Bridge in 2017
Slaughter 48 Londoners in the 2005 London bombings.
But yeah the ‘far right’ is what you march against.
@AmnestyUK I cannot believe I ever raised funds for you, wrote letters for you, thought you were the good guys. Of all the once great organisations you are the biggest disappointment to me and to so many of us.