Sex-based rights and protections are crucial; I am a woman and the mother of a daughter. Sexism and violence against women and girls (on the basis of our biological sex) remain endemic in our society and across the world. Labour needs to commit to the legal protection of our safety, boundaries, dignity and privacy.
S
Sara Carroll
6 years ago
We must protect the hard-won rights of women, especially to have single sex spaces.
J
Jennifer
6 years ago
Women's sex based rights are not negotiable!!
J
Jill Jull
6 years ago
The proposals in the recent Labour manifesto regarding single sex spaces and the Equality Act 2019, are incorrect and unlawful. The wilful misrepresentations of it must be properly addressed.
S
Sonya Douglas Hughes
6 years ago
No longer a party member. Always be a party supporter.
A
Anni Green
6 years ago
Women matter
G
Gill Ratcliffe
6 years ago
Yes! Finally.
J
Judianne Illngworth
6 years ago
Please consider this petition and work towards a more reasonable conclusion to what it means to be a woman.
A
Anonymous
6 years ago
This is so important. I do not understand how intelligent people (eg. the media/politicians) have managed to conflate and confuse 'sex' and 'gender' so badly. In academic circles at least, these two terms haven't been interchangeable for a very long time! I fully support the rights of genuine transwomen (and transmen) to a life free from violence or discrimination on the basis of their gender orientation. But if you are female by birth, you are automatically oppressed by your BIOLOGY, and that biology we cannot truly change. We are complex animals, and while gender can be fluid – for humans, sex is not. The proposed changes to Self-ID laws ignore basic scientific facts in favour of emotive, illogical language masquerading as common sense; apparently deliberate obfuscation of facts like rape/assault statistics; and in general the modern obsession with ‘causing offence’. Well, I’m offended too – but also afraid to publicly voice my views (for personal and professional reasons). This issue needs a lot more careful thought so that ALL women can be protected. We are still a long way from equality, and sex-based protections are still needed, as is freedom of speech/rational debate!
R
Rosa Ing
6 years ago
Sex is a protected characteristic because patriachy isca real thing that targets female people. Female people have a human right to choose to meet with and receive services free from people who are male.
Choosing to identify as a woman (including or not including body reallignment and hormone therapy) does not free someone who was raised as a man from their patriachal assumptions and behaviour. We have a right to associate freely separately from people who behave towards us in that way.
Transactivists who say we hate them and want them dead just for standing up for our rights and those who insist the law is changed in their favour in ways that take away our rights are very good examples of this male bullying behaviour.
I don't hate trans people, I don't want anyone hated or violated but I do want my right to continue to define and fight patriarchy and to have fun with other female born people free from the male gaze respected.
I would expect a party of the people to uphold all our rights .. and not...as as often been the case ... see the rights of female people as secondary.... a people who are expected to step aside and give up our hard won rights because the rights of this group is more important. It isn't. We are equally important !
S
Shernaz
6 years ago
Biology is not bigotry.
J
Jane Wheelock
6 years ago
It is surely not legally tenable to say that anyone can self-define who or what they are regardless of physical appendages?
S
Sophie Everett
6 years ago
Our sex based rights are unimaginably important, and shouldn’t be up for debate. We NEED them.
C
Charlotte McCandlish
6 years ago
Sex matters - and political parties need to recognise this instead of shutting down conversations.
H
Helen
6 years ago
I resigned from Maryhill, Glasgow over this very issue. A young man sending out notices to members that anyone who "felt like a woman" could go to the Women's Meeting and rubbish like that. Women are a biological class. That's it! It has never been regarded any other way in society, law or medicine.
A
Anonymous
6 years ago
Lifelong labour voter currently politically homeless waiting for a party to acknowledge women exist as a unique class separate from men.
J
Joanne Priest
6 years ago
It is essential that for the 2010 Equality Act to work as it is supposed to, that the spaces designated for the female sex are preserved wholly and without exception. Sex is a protected characteristic because women are oppressed as a class on the basis of our reproductive ability. This is known. Women have worked tirelessly and often without pay to create and maintain these spaces. Without them, women and girls are extremely limited in our movement through the public domain. Attacks on our hard won rights and transgression of boundaries in the last few years have ramped up to such a level as to be truly abhorrent in a so-called civilised democracy.
C
Catherine Dawson
6 years ago
Signing because it is absolutely clear that this issue has been hijacked by those who stand to benefit from the silencing and disempowerment of women, and those who revel in being able to harass women and engage in sexist abuse, apparently in a condoned way. There must be no room for this behaviour in public life or politics, and certainly not in the Labour Party. All women must be heard with respect. Secondly, there is no fundamental clash between the human rights of any equality group. We can only work together in power and sisterhood when we are all enabled and supported to speak and listen to each other, and work together against our common oppressors even when we hold to different philosophies. As in all areas of the labour movement, our diversity is our strength when we respect difference and do not require conformity of behaviour or thought. Finally, until women and girls are not subject to oppression and discrimination on the basis of their sex regardless of personal identification, sex as a characteristic must continue to be named and protected by law, and the Labour Party must make all efforts to protect and promote women's rights on this basis and not allow them to be watered down
R
Rebecca griffith
6 years ago
Labour should be standing up for women and upholding the right to single sex provisions under the Equality act
K
Katharine Knight
6 years ago
I won’t vote for Labour again while the Party does not take sex-based rights seriously. I was disgusted by the misogyny displayed at conference this year.
Sex-based rights and protections are crucial; I am a woman and the mother of a daughter. Sexism and violence against women and girls (on the basis of our biological sex) remain endemic in our society and across the world. Labour needs to commit to the legal protection of our safety, boundaries, dignity and privacy.
We must protect the hard-won rights of women, especially to have single sex spaces.
Women's sex based rights are not negotiable!!
The proposals in the recent Labour manifesto regarding single sex spaces and the Equality Act 2019, are incorrect and unlawful. The wilful misrepresentations of it must be properly addressed.
No longer a party member. Always be a party supporter.
Women matter
Yes! Finally.
Please consider this petition and work towards a more reasonable conclusion to what it means to be a woman.
This is so important. I do not understand how intelligent people (eg. the media/politicians) have managed to conflate and confuse 'sex' and 'gender' so badly. In academic circles at least, these two terms haven't been interchangeable for a very long time! I fully support the rights of genuine transwomen (and transmen) to a life free from violence or discrimination on the basis of their gender orientation. But if you are female by birth, you are automatically oppressed by your BIOLOGY, and that biology we cannot truly change. We are complex animals, and while gender can be fluid – for humans, sex is not. The proposed changes to Self-ID laws ignore basic scientific facts in favour of emotive, illogical language masquerading as common sense; apparently deliberate obfuscation of facts like rape/assault statistics; and in general the modern obsession with ‘causing offence’. Well, I’m offended too – but also afraid to publicly voice my views (for personal and professional reasons). This issue needs a lot more careful thought so that ALL women can be protected. We are still a long way from equality, and sex-based protections are still needed, as is freedom of speech/rational debate!
Sex is a protected characteristic because patriachy isca real thing that targets female people. Female people have a human right to choose to meet with and receive services free from people who are male. Choosing to identify as a woman (including or not including body reallignment and hormone therapy) does not free someone who was raised as a man from their patriachal assumptions and behaviour. We have a right to associate freely separately from people who behave towards us in that way. Transactivists who say we hate them and want them dead just for standing up for our rights and those who insist the law is changed in their favour in ways that take away our rights are very good examples of this male bullying behaviour. I don't hate trans people, I don't want anyone hated or violated but I do want my right to continue to define and fight patriarchy and to have fun with other female born people free from the male gaze respected. I would expect a party of the people to uphold all our rights .. and not...as as often been the case ... see the rights of female people as secondary.... a people who are expected to step aside and give up our hard won rights because the rights of this group is more important. It isn't. We are equally important !
Biology is not bigotry.
It is surely not legally tenable to say that anyone can self-define who or what they are regardless of physical appendages?
Our sex based rights are unimaginably important, and shouldn’t be up for debate. We NEED them.
Sex matters - and political parties need to recognise this instead of shutting down conversations.
I resigned from Maryhill, Glasgow over this very issue. A young man sending out notices to members that anyone who "felt like a woman" could go to the Women's Meeting and rubbish like that. Women are a biological class. That's it! It has never been regarded any other way in society, law or medicine.
Lifelong labour voter currently politically homeless waiting for a party to acknowledge women exist as a unique class separate from men.
It is essential that for the 2010 Equality Act to work as it is supposed to, that the spaces designated for the female sex are preserved wholly and without exception. Sex is a protected characteristic because women are oppressed as a class on the basis of our reproductive ability. This is known. Women have worked tirelessly and often without pay to create and maintain these spaces. Without them, women and girls are extremely limited in our movement through the public domain. Attacks on our hard won rights and transgression of boundaries in the last few years have ramped up to such a level as to be truly abhorrent in a so-called civilised democracy.
Signing because it is absolutely clear that this issue has been hijacked by those who stand to benefit from the silencing and disempowerment of women, and those who revel in being able to harass women and engage in sexist abuse, apparently in a condoned way. There must be no room for this behaviour in public life or politics, and certainly not in the Labour Party. All women must be heard with respect. Secondly, there is no fundamental clash between the human rights of any equality group. We can only work together in power and sisterhood when we are all enabled and supported to speak and listen to each other, and work together against our common oppressors even when we hold to different philosophies. As in all areas of the labour movement, our diversity is our strength when we respect difference and do not require conformity of behaviour or thought. Finally, until women and girls are not subject to oppression and discrimination on the basis of their sex regardless of personal identification, sex as a characteristic must continue to be named and protected by law, and the Labour Party must make all efforts to protect and promote women's rights on this basis and not allow them to be watered down
Labour should be standing up for women and upholding the right to single sex provisions under the Equality act
I won’t vote for Labour again while the Party does not take sex-based rights seriously. I was disgusted by the misogyny displayed at conference this year.