Thread by @caithness_pf

Stonewall announced a "by-women-for-women" meeting at Parliament on 4th June that is co-hosted by Angela Constance MSP and Equality Network (an LGBT organisation):

https://twitter.com/StonewallScot/status/1124302582636216320

Here's the invite:

Framing this as "by-women-for-women" is exceptionally disingenuous when the invite clearly says this is not for women's rights at all, but instead to support proposals for self-id of sex.

Just who are these orgs who are purportedly speaking for women and are at pains to support self-id on our behalf?

Let's look at the trans orgs first..

Equality Network (& their project STA) & Stonewall have all lobbied (with public money!) for the removal of women's sex based rights, as shown in their written evidence to the Transgender Equality Enquiry, 2015.

Any org wishing to remove my rights does not speak for me.

LGBT Youth produced the appalling Transgender Guidance for Schools in Scotland which has been reported to breach 11 human rights for girls: heraldscotland.com/news/17393697.…

So, no, LGBT Youth does not speak for me either.

Onto the women's orgs:

Rape Crisis Scotland and Scottish Women’s Aid are fettered by funding conditions which require inclusion of men who identify as women, as confirmed by Parliamentary Questions on 05 Dec 2018:

No staff/service users were consulted about this policy change and no assessment of subsequent issues or women's self-exclusion has been conducted. Previous studies show it's likely to be deeply unpopular as 95-99% women highly value single sex provision:

https://twitter.com/caithness_pf/status/1102931852212559872

Also worth noting Mridul Wadhwa, a transwoman manager of a Rape Crisis centre, "endorse[s] all the issues and recommendations made by the Scottish Transgender Alliance" in their submission to the Transgender Equality Enquiry.

data.parliament.uk/writtenevidenc…

It beggar's believe that a Rape Crisis employee is calling for the removal of sex-based rights, including the right to request female doctors and trauma therapists.

So Rape Crisis & Scottish Women's Aid do not speak for me either (at the moment - please, please reconsider).

Which brings us to Engender who receive over £225,000 in public money as Scotland’s feminist organisation - yet bizarrely, in a recent open letter to Joan McAlpine, quite clearly state they do not even claim to represent women.

Engender are quite simply, not a women’s organisation. Membership has been open to anyone who self-identifies as a women since at least 2015 - thus including men, but excluding the thousands of women like me who simply don't ‘self-identify’ as anything.

Not that Engender consult their members or talk to women in Scotland on how our rights will be affected by the GRA. The one public meeting they arranged was cancelled and they refuse to answer any questions about rescheduling.

Engender most certainly does not speak for me.

NONE of these organisations speak for me. Not the LGBT organisations, and not the government funded ‘women’s’ organisations who are currently actively acting against my interests.

If this meeting is for female MSPs to hear the views of women in Scotland then the voices of of grassroots women's groups should be heard, the voices of unfunded independent women's groups, the voices of ordinary women.

At the moment, it's a farce.

@AConstanceSNP