Thread by @LabWomenDec

THREAD - Listen to Joan Smith @polblonde 14' into @BBCWomansHour demolishing the case for introducing Misogyny/Hate Crime legislation, explaining why adding "gender" to the definition of misogyny would be used against women & on why @SadiqKhan sacked her..
bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0…

.as Chair of GLA VAWG Board, and how neither he nor @SophieKLinden have replied to her.
"I very, very rarely agree with Boris Johnson on anything, but on this I think he is right. I mean, what we’ve heard this morning are descriptions of a number of criminal offences....

"..Indecent exposure is against the law, rape is against the law. The laws are there, they are not being implemented by the police, and that is the problem. And to introduce a hate crime of misogyny- , you know, misogyny is hatred and fear of women...

".And to actually define an offence is very, very difficult. And also it’s happening at a time when the whole notion of what a woman is is contested. So I know that people like MP Stella Creasy, who are agitating for this, they want to include transwomen, male-bodied transwomen..

"..in the definition of people who can suffer misogyny. And I’m very clear about this, that misogyny is hatred and fear of natal women, women who are biologically female. And I think what this would do, I think it’s well meant, but it would be a gift to gender extremists..

"..who would attack those of us, feminists, who say that sex is immutable & that there are two sexes. So I think it would take us deeper into a conflict which is a deflection from a really, really important subject, which is what do we do about a police force and a criminal..

".. justice system which is failing women comprehensively.
What Baroness Newlove is describing is misogyny committed by the police. So the argument would then be that they have to report themselves. So what I’m saying is that we actually have to..

"..look at the entire culture of the police and that’s why I want a public inquiry into institutional misogyny in the police, along the lines of the MacPherson inquiry.... It (Hate crime legislation)..

" is actually a sort of sticking plaster solution to a much, much larger problem, which I’ve been observing, I’m afraid, since the 1970s, which is that the police are very bad at spotting perpetrators, because they share a lot of attitudes with them. They share the misogyny"

Thanks Joan! And as was made clear in these tweets from March 2021, even if misogyny is added to hate crime legislation, everyone who is perceived to be a woman is covered, and so simple language using existing legal terminology ie woman and sex, is fully inclusive.

Emma Barnett - "What do you suspect is the reason? (for @SadiqKhan sacking you as Chair)
Joan Smith: "Well, interestingly, I have been raising, all this year, before I was sacked, I was actually calling on the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor to support me in..

"..calling for an inquiry into institutional misogyny in the police. I was asking to have items on the agenda about violence committed by the police, offences committed by the police, and also I was simply asking them to commit to saying that refuges in London, which are..

"..funded by the Mayor, do not have to admit male-bodied transwomen to spaces that are intended for very vulnerable victims. And they won’t answer me on that either..it’s now exactly a year since I first wrote to @MayorofLondon asking him whether he would give me an assurance...

".. that.the refuges would be protected if they used lawful exemptions in the 2010 Equality Act, and he has still not responded...the Mayor is the Police and Crime Commissioner in London and one of his jobs is to challenge the Metropolitan Police and..

"..I think it’s absolutely vital that the Violence Against Women and Girls board is independent."
Emma Barnett - "let’s see if I can get Sadiq Khan to come onto the programme as well, or perhaps Sophie Linden... Joan Smith, thank you very much for your time"
We all thank you too!