One of the most striking features of name-calling & bullying are the number of things that would need to have been false to make them true. That a lifelong campaigner against discrimination suddenly became a bigot overnight or that they never really were good. #RealityCheck
Or that people, so many of them, really are that hateful, spiteful & deceitful as their accusers would allege. We must say NO! to these smears, their perpetrators & enablers who damage the very causes they claim to represent.
We must all, in wherever small way we can, find courage to do this. Else we may just wake up one morning to find we don't know what to believe or what to stand up for. If we were to lose our sense of justice that would be some loss.
I believe - although he didn't quite put it like this - that Andy Wightman couldn't quite live with himself for betraying his conscience in voting against amendment to allow rape victim right to same-sex examiner. It wouldn't have been transphobic to have voted for amendment.
Wightman is a good man with a track record to show for it. He didn't turn transphobic overnight nor is he.

All that is necessary for triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing. Lies are evil.

Be kind. #RealityCheck
Amendment to Forensic Medical Services (Victims of Sexual Offences) (Scotland) Bill, replacing word “gender” with “sex” so a sexual assault victim could choose same-sex examiner, did pass:

✅ by 113 votes to 9
👏 Basic human dignity

Let's be on right side of that historic vote.

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Keep Current with Shahrar Ali - Reality Check for Green Party Leader

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More from @ShahrarAli

20 Sep
Heartbreaking to hear @RosieDuffield1 speak with such authority, dignity & insight into:
a) being target of online vitriol & abuse #cancelculture
b) failure of @UKLabour to allow debate on women's spaces
c) inability of @Keir_Starmer to meet with her.
This must change! #r4today
I feel your pain @RosieDuffield1 #solidarity 💚
Mental straightjacket of no debate probably as damaging, corrosive & oppressive to political culture, especially when pushed by spineless party leaders like @Keir_Starmer @EdwardJDavey, as it is detrimental to protection of women's sex-based rights & safeguarding of children.
Read 10 tweets
19 Sep
OK sensitive topic but needs an airing. Here's part of form used by libraries as registration for 2021 Summer reading challenge *for kids aged 4-11*. Great initiative but why oh why were kids being asked "How would you describe yourself?" (optional) & excluding sex data? Part of form for libraries ...
Had good debate with librarian (identity withheld for protection) who also found it questionable, esp to be asking kids this young, to think about themselves quite so self-consciously as a gendered appearance or none. They even recounted how one of their own kids disliked it.
To be explicit about my own concerns now. Yes I do think it is wrong to omit objective sex classification data & flies in face of gold standard data collection exercises such as Census 2021 & almost certainly school data (which this data would need to talk to).
Read 11 tweets
19 Sep
Must read from @holyroodmandy in response to provocation "Where were we?" - women fighting centuries of oppression & claims for justice. From Greenhan common nuclear-free & votes for women to safe spaces for women, right to abortion & repeal section 28.
holyrood.com/comment/view,e…
"Outrage has been the rocket fuel to women’s lives for all our lifetimes. It has given us the momentum to simply carry on through. To keep on fighting. To stay alive."
"We were setting up refuges; volunteering in rape crisis centres, counselling victims of sexual assault; calling for legislation that enshrined equality; demanding equal pay and the rights for all parents – men and women – to spend time with their newborns."
Read 5 tweets
18 Sep
Voting for @TheGreenParty leadership ballot closes in just few days! Vote for #RealityCheck on
✳ Climate Emergency
🗽 Women's Sex-based Rights
🎓 Free Speech
Vote @ShahrarAli for Leader #1. Vote Shahrar Ali for Leader...
Best reason to vote for @ShahrarAli?
Worst bad reason you may have heard not to vote for @ShahrarAli? Here are some, despite fact he can define woman, got 24% last year & already deputy before.
Read 4 tweets
17 Sep
Tavistock wins appeal against high court ruling. Headlines:
👉 Reverses 2020 ruling that under-16s lacked capacity to give informed consent to PBs
👉 For clinicians to exercise their judgement in indvidual circumstances
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-585981…
Full judgment worth a read judiciary.uk/wp-content/upl… Judgment expresses judicial over-reach of original ruling. They do not doubt integrity of original judges in seeking to ensure protection of children paramount - but question strength of their scientific bases, given uncertainty.
Whether these decisions continue to take place in clinic or not, original Bell ruling opened many eyes to & shone spotlight upon degree to which PBs have been prescribed & necessity for valid consent. Private sector clearly needs greater regulation, too. Cass review awaited.
Read 4 tweets
13 Sep
My response to @LGBTIQAGreens leadership candidate pledge request now available here electshahrar.co.uk/shahrar-ali-on… and pdf here shahrar-ali.squarespace.com/s/LGBTIQA-Pled…. Few of my answers highlighted in thread below. Keira Bell, 23, who was prescribed puberty blockers at age 1
@LGBTIQAGreens I have chosen to elaborate upon my answers as I believe that Yes/No answers offer limited insight into, or fail to do justice to, often-complex matters.
@LGBTIQAGreens #2. "Promise to recognise non-binary identities are valid and promise to ensure they are recognised in internal processes and in wider society."
Before making such a promise, I would welcome a conversation in which we could define our terms and clarify the meaning of this pledge.
Read 14 tweets

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