Thread by @TwisterFilm

1./ Would you TRUST the Scottish govt with women's rights? I only ask because @HumzaYousaf has suddenly written to the Justice Committee about how misogyny is being actively considered for inclusion as a Hate Crime ....err....after the election.👇

https://twitter.com/SP_Justice/status/1367510022809415687?s=20

2./ Obviously it can't possibly be considered NOW on the eve of the Hate Crime Bill vote next Wednesday. Perish the thought! In a Bill that's been slashed apart and sewn back like Frankenstein for months, he suggests misogyny needs another year of very careful consideration. Mmm

3./ It's up to women to decide if they TRUST this process. A clue might lie in who's running the consultation. That'll be Baroness Helena Kennedy. Is this the same Helena Kennedy who defended Naomi Wolf's recent and egregiously inaccurate book, 'Outrages'👇

4./ Yep it is indeed. In a shocking article in the Independent after @naomirwolf had been exposed as totally misunderstanding the key legal term at the heart of her entire book, Kennedy continued to defend it, turning Wolf instead into some sort of victim for being mocked. 👇

5./ "I am involved in this debate", she wrote, "in 2018 I was asked to read the manuscript of her book, and to apply a legal practitioner's eye to the narrative and argument". The book was pulped by the US publisher for being ridiculously inaccurate.👇theweek.co.uk/103932/why-nao…

6./ If you want a sense of just how stupid the book was listen to @DrMatthewSweet confront Wolf on live radio. It's a classic. Wolf claimed gay men in their dozens were executed in the UK after the 1830s. Sweet pointed out that wasn't true. 👇

https://twitter.com/thymetikon/status/1131702577878503425?s=20

7./ You might think Kennedy would then put some distance between her and an author that was SO completely careless about facts. You might also think she would be concerned after Wolf decided to deride what she called a "moral panic" about trans rights in the UK. 👇

8./ Kennedy's appointment to head the Working Group on Misogyny was announced on 24th of November 2020. If she wanted to seem neutral and open-minded she wouldn't want to associate TOO closely with Naomi Wolf now would she? 👇holyrood.com/news/view,top-…

9./ 3 days later Kennedy chaired an @outystreet meeting organised at her Doughty St Chambers about 'Age of Consent Reform' in the UK in which she lauded Wolf as an international champion of feminism and LGBT rights. Really?! Did you fact check THAT Helena? doughtystreet.co.uk/event/great-ni…

10./ Here's a flavour of Wolf's incoherent drivel. The video was posted by @outystreet at the end of December. So there was plenty time for Kennedy to distance herself from Wolf's central claim that somehow concern about single sex spaces is part of a right-wing conspiracy.👇

11./ Why am I interfering in this important debate among women? I went to an earlier Doughty St Chambers LGBT debate before lockdown which Helena chaired. I asked then whether the LGBT movement has turned from a bullied minority in the 1980s into bullies now? Not least of women.

12./ Cue self righteous rage from panel speakers such as @mchashmanCBE @PeterTatchell and @rozkaveney. I later went up and introduced myself to Roz (whom I admire) and she ranted about right-wing Religious money funding @ALLIANCELGB. She later tweeted about how I was "awful". 🤷‍♂️

13./ The important point is I think Helena as chair ...wanted that debate. She was open to it. @HumzaYousaf in his letter describes her as "esteemed". She is. She's long been an emblem of progressive intelligent Scotland whom generations have admired. But.....

14./ She has spent a long time hanging with an LGBTQ+ movement that has gone to seed. I think she gets that many feminists and LGB people of progressive values worry where that movement is heading and what it really wants. She needs to leave the likes of Naomi Wolf behind.

15./ If I can suggest respectfully she listens to the recent anti-vaxx ravings of Naomi she may realise (reluctantly) that denying simple biological facts eventually leads to a reality free for all. Over to my female friends to convince her. What would I ask if I were you?

16./ For me the question that must be posed to all activists, legislators and those tasked with including misogyny as a hate crime in law is whether a lesbian can have a penis. It seems niche. But it really is the unlikely clue to who is truly concerned about women's rights.