Supporters of the Labour Women’s Declaration were appalled to hear @lisanandy on @BBCr4today programme this morning, clearly stating that she wanted those who are concerned about male people being included in female-only spaces to be expelled from the Labour Party.
Women have been subject to harms that are far more tangible than words, quite apart from the verbal abuse and harassment virtually every women has experienced. And yet Nandy refers to @Womans_Place_UK which stands for the rights of women in every arena of life as a hate group.
This appears to be entirely on the basis that they want to retain the single-sex provisions of the Equality Act 2010, which were highlighted as in need of greater understanding and implementation in the 2019 Labour Manifesto.
We stand with @Womans_Place_UK None of us are, as she claims, ‘wilfully trying to go after trans people’. We are determined to defend women’s spaces, not out of ‘hate’ but out of the same understandings as led to their creation in the first place.
The importance of trauma-informed services cannot be swept aside – psychological harm can be done by the presence even of males one knows. If this be ignored in the provision of services explicitly set up for those who have been traumatised, the @UKLabour has lost its way.
Women have to navigate the potential of abuse from men throughout their lives, and those in hostels, prisons, refuges and hospital wards are at their most vulnerable, traumatised, and often even more likely to have experienced such abuse.
@lisanandy appears to be unaware that predatory men will use any means available to gain access to spaces where they can abuse women, and that claiming to be a woman is a passport for entry to places where they can indulge their voyeurism, sexually harass and assault women.
Judging who might do harm has proved impossible to the most sophisticated techniques of psychological assessment, and that she imagines this can be done when someone appears to be in crisis, when someone is seeking entry to a refuge, indicates her total lack of understanding.
@lisanandy is willing to sacrifice women’s interests in order to be seen as a trans ally. She is unwilling for any debate and discussion to take place that might offer long-term support for both women and trans people.
She has made clear that she wants women like us – including @ruthserwotka, named on @BBCr4today – to be expelled from the Labour Party.
