By Daviemoo
Labour have steadfastly disappointed me over the months-but it was Wes Streeting's snivelling apology to Rosie Duffield on Friday, a day after Starmer used an anti-trans dogwhistle whilst casually dropping his promise to give the GRA reform he used as a platform to gain leadership that made me decide they don't get my vote.
Since then, I've had a steady stream of pugnacious labour voters queue up to affirm my belief that half the modern labour movement is based on the idea that minorities are a worthy sacrifice for power.
You will not scare me into voting for Starmer or labour whilst they endorse gender critics.
Firstly, a small reiteration of why these views are a blanket moral anathema to me.
Whilst I understand that there are women out there who feel worried about the idea of trans people in their spaces, trans people cannot help their trans identity, how they look or what genitalia they have. Transphobes can change their stance by tuning out the moral panic, talking to trans people and understanding that they are partaking in a confected issue raised by failing governments to cover their maladjusted handling of the world over the last decade. From Caroline Farrow and her links to anti choice orgs, to Julie Bindel taking money from the homophobic anti choice heritage foundation, from Kavanaugh saying he "preferred AIDS to trans people", to Lily Cade writing that she would Lynch the parents of trans children, the anti trans movement is evil and it is broader than its hatred for trans people, but it's stance on trans individuals is more than enough to consign it to the dustbin. How about Matt Walsh, the self described theocratic fascist who thinks trans people are evil, but also thinks 14 year old girls should marry men because they're "at their most fertile". From Putin to Trump, Alex Jones, every member of staff at GB news and TalkTV, every squinting right wing arsehole you can think of holds these views and espouses them proudly- and yet because a smattering of left wing people say the same thing but without using words like "pervert" and "predatory" people think it's somehow a legitimate stance.
I usually get anti trans people pulling out crinkled screenshots of the abuse they endure at the hands of trans people and allies now. Honestly, I've seen some gross things from my own side before and I've thought it goes too far- but who the fuck am I to decide what's ok for people to say when they're worried the people on the opposite side want to dehumanise them legally? I called a homophobe a cunt this weekend -was that wrong, or am I allowed to use whatever damn rhetoric I please against people who hate me just for existing as I am?
I used to think this was a moral panic that would burn out because we never actually see the things anti trans campaigners talk about. One enterprising Tiktok creator, Kristen B has been tracking child abusers for months. Over 300 youth pastors have been caught abusing children in the US.
Zero drag queens.
Zero trans people.
The reason the headlines explode whenever an example does come up is because it's a rare occurrence, and rather than look at those rare occurrences as an opportunity to further close the loopholes that allow abuse, anti trans campaigners use them as cudgels for their bigotry, playing the see, we told you card instead of questioning the other 500 cases of people just like them.
Now I think this moral panic is built on a foundation of people who felt quietly aggrieved for many years that their hatred of LGBT+ people wasn't being legitimised by society and now society has shown just how quickly they will throw minorities under the bus, it's being capitalised on- and the issue isn't even coming from the traditional angry conservatives.
So called level headed center leftists think they're playing a 3D chess game of politics, that if they can just get past the finish line that's what matters. But in politics it's the devils deals you do in the quiet of the night that shape the direction your tenure will go.
Signing up to work with gender critics means that gender critics get something in return. Streeting apologising for Duffield being alienated for her disgusting views, months after defending billionaire JK Rowling on the radio is a sign that he more than just condones the "different opinions" we're told it's vital for us to be able to share. Starmer reneging on his promise to hold a GRA reform, and using anti trans dog whistles is an indicator of what direction labour plans to move in.
So this weekend I stood up and said "I can't and won't work with people who share these views". And how do you think labour loyalists reacted? Do you think they listened to my concerns, or gave me anything to ponder over? Or do you think I was told en masse that frankly nobody cares what my moral objections are, I have no choice but to vote for labour or I'm helping the Tories and are therefore a bad person?
Labour have made strides to distance themselves from the identity of the party of working people, are strengthening their gender critical messaging, have offered rollbacks on green policy, are pushing Streeting's woeful NHS plans as a legislative coup against the tories. But apparently lodging complaint with that is the issue- not the doing of the dirty deals, but my objections to it. Because winning is what matters! Labour must win, because the tories are so bad! It matters not that labour aren't offering a favourable sounding vision either, a vision I don't want nor condone. No, I must vote for it anyway because the other guys are worse.
It's not for me to entreat labour to actually offer favourable positions on myriad issues I care about- be it green infrastructure, the excision of private entities from healthcare, reversing the damage of brexit through obvious, pragmatic moves- it's for labour to do what it wants and for me to be swept up in it's bow waves. Anything less than that and I'm a traitor to the cause. The irony being my cause and yours are quite distinct.
If labour and its supporters are willing to get in bed with gender critics to win, it's not a party I will endorse and that's not because I love the tories and want them to win- it's because labour have put themselves in a position that people like me can't and won't stand on. And so many of labours members will happily blame me for that, for not bending myself around their increasingly dangerous stances.
It's led me to wonder exactly how bad things have to get before labour's loyalists will question it- after all the idea we'd be having this pathetic culture war was insane mere years ago, but here we are. As it worsens in America, with further attempts to strip choice from women, in some states not just through abortion rights but ending no fault divorces, we know the English right like to drag those culture wars across the sea. So will we be told to hold hands with the religious lunatics who sing at women seeking abortions next? Will we be told that my right to be able to marry the man I love is worth sacrificing to win? One has to wonder, and the saddest part is the fact that this isn't mere hyperbole, it's genuinely questions we need to ask as the British left are extricated tendril by tendril from positions left to us in the two main parties who stand a chance of winning in the next election.
The idea that I want this- that I want to be aligned against a party that's likely to win the next election is obscene. I want to be able to back them and help them gain ground. Is it my fault for not bending my moral stances, or theirs for asking me to do so?
To demand obedience to the Labour Party because they're the supposed antidote to the tories is to surrender your own will and aspirations, and to push the idea that the only thing that matters is the tories being out is to wilfully ignore the terrifying prospect of- what if labour suck? What if they're bad on trans rights, their NHS plans worsen issues we've faced for years, they keep up the jingoism of immigration rhetoric, they don't change their obvious stance on brexit? People are voting for what they hope labour will be in the face of what labour actually is right now, and are too browbeaten to push labour to be what they actually want!
Labour seem to be setting out their stall for who they want to help them win and if they want to appeal to gender critics, they are entitled to do that. People like myself are entitled to withdraw our support. The path labour are going down in pandering to gender critics will lead to suffering for all women, trans or not. I won't be party to that- and if you've decided that working with gender critics is the price of power then I hope neither labour nor tory win, because gender critics are amongst the most insidious hateful movements I've seen in living memory. I'd sooner spoil my vote than lend it to any party that kisses up to gender critics.
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