The Greens are destroying themselves over trans rights. Glen Keogh in the Sunday Times:
It typically prides itself on putting climate change and environmental issues at the heart of politics.
But the Green Party has now been accused of neglecting its core aims after becoming so embroiled in arguments about gender that three prominent members are suing over the issue.
The trio allege they were disciplined, abused and even assaulted over their views on trans rights. The former deputy leader Shahrar Ali, the former Green Party Women co-chairwoman Emma Bateman and the former executive committee member Dawn Furness are taking legal action against the party, alleging that their views led to smears and suspensions.
Ali, Bateman and Furness have begun separate legal claims amid allegations that the party typically associated with peaceful protest and social justice has become a “deeply hostile environment” for anybody who “dares to question” the rights of transgender people. The Green Party’s official stance is that “trans women are women” and “trans men are men”.
While lauded as a policy of acceptance, it has been questioned by others who claim that “as a party of science” on the climate change issue, it lacks credibility if it “can’t define between a man and a woman”.
They do have a point. I suppose there's always an element of virtue-signalling in advertising your support for the Greens, and the people who go for that are the same kind of people who'd automatically go for the whole trans ideology thing as being the latest must-support progressive trend.
Bateman, who joined the Greens in 2009, says she was “aggressively shut down” when she tried to question the party’s stance on trans rights. She has been suspended twice.
“Gender ideology is wrecking the party,” Bateman said. “The reason I have taken this legal action is we are losing all credibility. We are the party of science, where our base policies are on climate change. If we can’t answer ‘what is a woman?’ we lose all credibility.”
Furness, 46, says she was physically assaulted twice over her gender-critical views and is now taking the party to court for “institutional sexism” and “discrimination on the grounds of sex and on the basis of . . . ‘gender-critical’ beliefs.”
Jenny Ross, 49, a former Green MP candidate for Tameside, Greater Manchester, also supported those suspended. “There are a group of activists within the party who are fanatical . . . Because these people have got themselves into positions of power, we might as well be called the ‘Gender Party of England and Wales’, not ‘The Green Party’. We are not just abandoning our green values but also our democratic principles.”
It's not just the Greens. The Lib Dems have recently revised their policies after being advised that their previous definition of transphobia wasn't in line with the law. References to “misgendering” and “deadnaming” have been dropped, and the new policy simply states that trans people should not be discriminated against or harassed for being trans. It recognises that holding and expressing gender-critical views are protected by law under the Equality Act - though a horrified Pink News reports that many Lib Dems are now deserting the party.
As for Labour, well, I believe that particular battle is yet to be fought, though undoubtedly the current mood in the leadership is very much in support of trans-women-are-women gender ideology. The case of Eddie Izzard, looking to stand for the party in Sheffield, may well force a more serious debate.
"We are the party of science"! Some mishtake surely!
Posted by: Tammly | November 27, 2022 at 01:48 PM