Written by: Lily Langtry & Ma Baker
Candidates recognise women have rights too.
This week, we watched with relief as almost every candidate in the running to become Prime Minister built their leadership campaign on a platform of women’s rights. It is long overdue.
Specifically, we saw candidates admit there is a clash between women’s rights and transactivists’ demands.
Of course, transgender people should have the same rights as everyone else and be able to live their lives in peace and free of prejudice. But that doesn’t mean they have rights above and beyond the rights of women.
The following are not ‘human rights’:
Men sharing single-sex spaces with women, whether women consent or not.
Removing the word 'woman' from the law, public policy and, most alarmingly, from health information and campaigns.
Men and boys participating in (and inevitably dominating) women’s and girls’ sports from school to grassroots to elite level.
Men and boys being housed in women's prisons and young offenders’ institutions.
Exclusion of women of certain faiths from public life as they cannot share intimate spaces with men (these women are doubly protected under the Equality Act).
Intrusion of men in the intimate care of disabled women (again, these women are doubly protected under the Equality Act).
Mixed-sex hospital wards
Men being called 'women' in criminal proceedings and for the purposes of crime statistics.
Men with unfettered access to women's toilets and changing rooms (including boys in girls’ toilets in schools).
Looming medical scandal
Right now, a medical scandal is taking place that will exceed the scandals of both thalidomide and the use of lobotomies. This is the 'trans kids' scandal. Our children are being taught as fact - in school and by media propaganda - that they may be 'born in the wrong body'. Many of the most vulnerable young people - autistic, same sex attracted, anorexic, victims of abuse and bullying - are being set on a course of treatment that is not supported by scientific evidence.
There is no robust research that supports this treatment pathway, and much emerging evidence that it is irreversible. It makes lifelong medical patients of children who are too young to vote, drink alcohol, or drive a car, even while they are making (or being persuaded to make) these life-changing decisions.
There is a growing de-transition community. Young adults are finding out that they made the wrong decision. But it’s too late. They are left with devastating physical and mental health consequences. This is both a growing scandal for the country and places additional pressure on the NHS to alleviate the most distressing physical and mental conditions.
WRN wins the battle, with the help of all our members
Issues of free speech and gender are not confected tabloid distractions, but crucial battles over freedom, equality, and who we are as a society. This pushback is long overdue, and is encouraged by those of us who want to see a return to a society that values debate, dissent and scientific truth.
Penny Mordaunt’s leadership bid was hobbled by her views on the primacy of trans rights over women’s rights, and by her attempts to distance herself from her known views in an attempt to woo a wider audience.
Women were never going to accept a leadership candidate intent on destroying their rights. Parents were never going to accept someone who pushed Stonewall into their children’s schools.
The whole of the Women’s Rights Network rose to the occasion, writing to our Conservative MPs, writing to members of the House of Lords, writing and delivering 51 postcards to each leadership candidate bearing the names of 51 Wrens with key messages. A symbolic number. We are the 51% and we will NOT be ignored.
We said #AnyButPenny and #PMUnfit4PM and we meant it.
