A thread about the gender ‘wars’ and why suddenly everything now seems to hang on Scotland. A little background first: when I organised a picket of Glasgow University Union 30 years ago (or so) because they banned lesbians and gays meeting in the Union building ..
2./ ..I would never have believed Scotland would embrace gay rights so fervently as it now has. I’m proud of Scotland for that. I had no expectations then, least of all of the SNP who until 1990 were led by Gordon Wilson, a right wing homophobe. But ...
3./ ..I knew a revolution of sorts was brewing. At Glasgow I joined the debating team of a breakaway group of left wing SNP supporters under @MrJohnNicolson who were part of a movement that would in time sweep the old order away and recast the SNP as a progressive..
4./ ..internationalist organisation for whom ever since gay rights has been an emblem of its self image. That’s wonderful though it’s not that unusual. Lots of political parties have done much the same. Gay marriage even helped Cameron rebrand the Tories ..
5./ ...as the no longer quite as Nasty Party. Gay rights have for 2 decades been a useful (& painless) way for parties to appear modern without breaking from the consensus on anything genuinely radical like...economics. But relationships forged in those days of SNP renewal..
6./ ...partly explain now the influence of a small group of politically active gay men in the Party. Gay SNP members span out through LGBT charities who are themselves appointed official ‘partners’ helping to frame policy. They sit side by side with ...
7./ ..personal mates in the Scottish government who grant them funds they then use to ...advocate policy to their mates. There’s a farmers lobby, there’s a fishing lobby. And there’s now a gay male lobby. Perhaps this explains how within minutes of the government publishing ..
8./ ..its Gender Recognition Act Reform Bill a dozen or so organisations had published almost identical encouraging responses. Co-ordinated, moi? As Captain Renault said, “I’m shocked, SHOCKED!” before he got a backhander from the croupier. Here’s the ...
8./ ...totally uncoordinated and spontaneous response of one of these groups, the Equality Network. To be clear no undue influence was exerted by anyone associated with the completely transparent and utterly democratic front organisations...
9./ ...that the Equality Network mentions almost as if they lobby together hand in glove. equality-network.org/equality-organ…
10/. But here’s the thing: this Reform Bill and the new version of the trans rights campaign that inspires it are very different from the gay rights battles of the past. For one thing lesbians and gays won full acceptance by arguing we wanted to live our lives ..
11./ ...in peace. We didn’t demand everyone change their lives. Or their words. In a classic liberal argument we asked the state to stop interfering in gay lives. Even with gay marriage all we wanted were the same rights as others. If I marry a bloke ...
12./ ...it makes no difference to someone’s straight marriage. But this Bill is much more insidious. Trans activists claim it won’t undermine women’s rights but at the same time argue women should have no right to exclude trans women from their spaces...
13./ ...both claims can’t be correct. The contempt with which women have been treated by trans activists in Scotland gives the lie to the idea that they care at all about safeguarding. This is a full blown attempt at the colonisation of women’s spaces...
14./ ..and indeed the meaning of the word ‘woman’. It would be akin to me telling straight peeps how they should define themselves. Or what they should or shouldn’t get up to between the sheets. The Bill matters so much to the trans lobby because it enshrines ...
15./ ..self identification of gender identity and sets this as a new benchmark. This will be disastrous because essentially any man will be able to say he’s trans and get access to women’s spaces including those where women are at their most vulnerable ...
16./ ..such as hospital words, geriatric wards, and girls changing rooms. But here’s the terrible and tragic irony ..the other people who this Bill will damage are its greatest supporters. When a predatory man who says he’s trans assaults a girl the backlash will ...
17./ ..undermine the rights of the vast majority of good, well-intentioned trans people who need our support and goodwill. It will also damage the entire woke gay-stablishment who have so passionately supported this Bill, presenting trans rights as ...
17./ ...the next inevitable step in the progress of lesbian and gay rights. And here’s the irony these gay men are so incoherent, so trapped in their own bubble they don’t even realise that replacing the reality of binary sex with some ...
18./.. invented gender spectrum does away with the very definition of gay as same-sex attracted. Gays fighting for this Bill are like French aristocrats cheering loudly for the sans culottes. They’re championing their own non-binary Madame Guillotine. So if you’re Scottish...
19./.. and a gay man do yourself, your country and your Scottish sisters a favour -organise against this bill, donate to organisations that oppose it. Stand up and be counted. If you’re in the SNP ...save your party and its hard won progressive reputation. Above all stop ...
20./.. mumbling to me and other men (gay and straight) that you’re scared of the trans activists. Seriously?! You’d give away your own rights and those of your mothers, sisters, nieces and female friends cos you’re scared? Man up mate. The battle is on and it’s time ...
21./ ...to show that old homophobe Gordon Wilson (from beyond the grave) as well as the homophobes who will exploit this Bill and our association with it what you’re made of. Courage calls. Scotland calls.
