Thread by @simonjedge

Yesterday I tweeted polite and, I think, pertinent questions to @SarahChampionMP & @SleafordLabour about the persecution of @GoonerProf by trans activists. Neither replied, despite lots of RTs from others also wanting an answer. Here's a thread on that silence & its implications.

I tweeted @SleafordLabour because Sleaford Labour councillor Stephanie Dale, a transwoman, said in public that @GoonerProf had "poked a hornet's nest and got stung". She was effectively saying that @GoonerProf was asking for the death and rape threats.

https://twitter.com/ystriyahysteria/status/1070462508237025283

I hoped @SleafordLabour would say of course they didn't back such a sentiment. I get that the situation is tricky, though, and they needed to discuss it before rebuking Councillor Dale in public

Anyway, they didn't reply, and it turns out they have discussed these issues in the past. Here, they say they strongly oppose all discrimination against people protected in the Equality Act (which includes women) but they also back trans self-ID.
…eafordandnorthhykeham.laboursites.org/news/2018/11/2…

It's a shame if they think their fight against discrimination means they have to hold their tongues when a councillor they helped elect, who was born a man, tells a persecuted woman that she deserves rape and death threats.

Plenty of trans people say that defending the indefensible like this actually makes things worse for them, and they don't want it happening in their name. (Of course they get grief from trans activists for saying it)

So that was Sleaford. I tweeted @SarahChampionMP, Labour's former shadow equalities secretary, because she yesterday retweeted a two-month-old letter to Pink News condemning "hostile" reporting of trans issues.

pinknews.co.uk/2018/10/17/cam…

That letter – signed by a load of very senior Lib Dems, plus Stonewall founder Michael Cashman, and Peter Tatchell, said the media irresponsibly focused on "extreme and abhorrent" cases of bad behaviour by some TRAs, to besmirch all trans people

Since she retweeted the letter yesterday, I asked Sarah (as did all the people who RT'd) if she thought it was wrong for the BBC to report the persecution of @GoonerProf by trans activists. She didn't reply.

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan…

I fell to thinking about that sentence: "Isolated extreme and abhorrent cases cannot be extrapolated to infer the behaviour of all trans people." It clearly implies that the signatories of the letter condemn such behaviour. They are saying it's bad but unrepresentative.

That's a legitimate argument. Hang on though: when asked to agree that the persecution of @GoonerProf is bad, they won't do it. Not one of the fuckers. (If any one of the signatories has done so, I'll be pleased to be proved wrong).

Worse, a constituency Labour party refuses to say a word against its elected councillor who said in public that @GoonerProf deserved it. So they trot out words like "abhorrent" about the bad behaviour of TRAs, but there is no evidence they do actually abhor it.

When a senior Labour MP – ex equalities spokesperson in the shadow cabinet – and a Labour constituency party won't say a word against death and rape threats because they support trans rights, then such behaviour can't really be called "isolated" either.

Any of the signatories can make this better: Michael Cashman, Sarah Champion, Sal Brinton, Peter Tatchell, Layla Moran, Brian Paddick – by saying they abhor the harassment of Rosa Freedman and Stephanie Dale is not fit to be a councillor. But I'm not holding my breath.