Will the Supreme Court protect Women's Rights?

Carlotta

BBC news:

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer does not believe transgender women are women, his official spokesman has said.

Terrifying that he's needed supreme court judges to tell him that.

He believed they were not long ago. His spokesman, as he hasn't the backbone to say it directly, says he no longer believes that transgender women are women.
He waits for the decision to be made elsewhere and with a screech of brakes makes a spectacular U-turn.
My Granny would have said he likes to run with the hare and the hounds.

The law never changed, it was common sense that went out of the window.

Men should never have been allowed/accepted in women's spaces. Men should never have been allowed to compete against women in sports. Men should never have been involved in counselling rape victims because they're trans women. A victim of rape should never have had to refer to her assailant as 'she' when giving evidence and no judge or defence counsel should ever have referred to a man on trial for rape or a sexual assault as 'she'.

Women should never have been referred too as 'chest feeders', 'people with a cervix' 'people who bleed' and 'birth givers'.

I still can't get my head around the fact that all the aforementioned has happened. It's like writing a really bad plot for a dystopian novel .

Keir Starmer has said the ruling gives "much needed clarity". A biological female is a woman. A man cannot be a woman. Who knew?

Doodledog Either way, I think that the way the media were prowling at the time of the election it would have been political suicide to go against the prevailing view that TWAW and that transpeople are the 'most vulnerable group in society'. Nobody on either political side spoke the truth, and that was shameful, but it was understandable if not excusable, particularly for Labour, who always has a baying press mob ready to criticise anything they say or do, with readers more than ready to quote soundbites and slogans. They would have been vilified as betraying the vulnerable, not caring about the alleged suicide attempts of transpeople and so on. I am not excusing their weasel words, but I understood why they did what they did.

All the same, I do think that women like Rosie Duffield deserve an apology. Not to be vindictive towards those who wronged her, but to show the rest of us that things have changed and that it is not business as usual - and just because an apology is deserved.

I agree with your first paragraph but wish they had felt they could be truthful. I hope the backlash from now accepting what many of us have been saying for years won't derail them.

For Rosie Duffield I think it's just common courtesy to apologise and say you regret the way the situation was handled (if indeed he does). I don't want to be vindictive but I do think honest acknowledgement of the way some, women in particular, have been wrongly vilified for stating truth needs doing.

Thanks Doodledog for another good analysis imo, of where we are

We can't have leaders who will lie or say anything because they are frightened of the press. It destroys trust as this has done.

The law never changed, it was common sense that went out of the window

Hear hear

Galaxy

We can't have leaders who will lie or say anything because they are frightened of the press. It destroys trust as this has done.

We maybe shouldn’t but we can, and we have had. This situation has been building for years and has improved massively recently. I am very glad of that and don’t want to sour the feeling of gladness by harkening back to what should have happened.

I don't believe the government were frightened of the press; they were frightened of Stonewall. The press will report what makes a good story, and they don't care which party it is. This situation with trans has been developing for years, and the man on the Clapham omnibus, the silent majority, most of the public, have watched in increasing disbelief at the mandates issuing mainly from Scotland but accepted by politicians..

Well, I find myself supporting the last two posts from Doodle and eazybee . I’m less angry with Starmer than eazybee is, as would be expected given where we sit politically. I feel the press were desperate to trip Starmer up and as a KC he was boringly aware of the need for this Supreme Court ruling. No going back now Keir you’ve said it and can stick with it. I expect he’s getting some pressure from some of his MPs

Rosie Duffield has some excellent tweets and retreats on X regarding Starmers sudden awakening. J K Rowling, Suzanne Moore, Sharon Davies, Maya Forstater have a blistering and sceptical take on it too. Ms Duffield shared this very interesting nugget: In 2021, Gilbert House was suspended from The Labour Party for saying that "only women experience the menopause". There's a copy of the official draft charge which states:

In October 2021, Mr Gilbert House shared a post on Facebook regarding World Perimenopause Day. Mr House stated "important message about the menopause from NHS without a mention of women (shocked face emoji) What's going on.
In October 2021, in the same facebook post he stated "women has become a dirty word. It's not being inclusive if you exclude women.
In October 2021, in the same facebook post he stated "Only women experience the menopause

Mr House has engaged in conduct prejudicial and/or grossly detrimental to the Party, in breach of Chapter 2, Clause 1.8 of the Labour Party Rulebook

I wonder what could possibly have happened to cause such a complete voltè face in the Labour Party between 2021 and 2025?

^

JK Rowling calls for Sir Keir Starmer to apologise after Supreme Court ruling on women

Rowling who has been outspoken against transgender women using single-sex spaces - was among several gender critical campaigners who celebrated the ruling, and has now called on the prime minister and government to apologise for previous statements supporting trans women.
"Women have fought (and are still fighting) the single biggest land grab on their rights in my lifetime," she said on social media.
"Some have sacrificed their livelihoods and safety to combat a pernicious ideology that has infiltrated elite institutions, including government."

C'mon Keir, be a man about it and admit you got it wrong.

Keir Starmer has let himself down over this issue by pandering to a small minority of very vocal TRAs.
He has betrayed the women of this country and particularly those who stood up for women.

I don’t think it has been handled well by anyone in power, but blaming KS seems desperate. It’s not as if the problem has sprung up in the months he’s been in power. It’s quite the reverse - over 14 years of the Tories, Stonewall and the TRAs have held sway, and it is only now that it has stopped.

Not because of Keir, admittedly, but because of people like JKR and the women (and occasional men) who fought the good fight, despite the damage to their reputation and careers, and despite governments of all stripes being against them.

I agree Doodledog that this ridiculous situation has been going on and been allowed to go on for years, but I disagree that blaming him is desperate, especially when he's on record with the ridiculous 'fence sitting' comments he has made.

Maybe there'd be less criticism if he'd publicly commented on the ruling last week. At the very least IMO he should, on behalf of the labour party, apologise to Rose Duffield for her ridiculous suspension from the labour party for simply stating a biological fact.

I agree with AGAA that He has betrayed the women of this country and particularly those who stood up for women. No, he's not the only one but as our PM it's his responsibility to take the lead.

Hmmmm.... not quite Doodledog; at the time that the Starmer was busy suspending MPs and members for wrong think, declaring that anyone could have a cervix and a small number of penis owners were women; Johnson as terrible as he undoubtedly was was issuing statements denouncing men in women's sports, that "biology was important and confirmed that only a man has a penis. So, whilst I'm definitely no supporter of the incompetent tories, they've undoubtedly been a better female ally than Starmer has ever been or will in the future despite his new awakening

As the shadow party for so many years, Labour had the perfect opportunity to make their support for women an integral part of their manifesto. Instead, Starmer doubled down on his lunacy and ...... here we are....

As usual … it’s all the fault of Keir Starmer!

LizzieDrip

As usual … it’s all the fault of Keir Starmer!

Nobody has said it's all his fault but he is one of a number who have perpetuated a lie.

AGAA4

LizzieDrip
As usual … it’s all the fault of Keir Starmer!

Nobody has said it's all his fault but he is one of a number who have perpetuated a lie.

He takes his share of responsibility as does Penny Mordaunt who was wedded to Self ID whatever she may say now, the Lib Dems were particularly unpleasant towards those who were GC, and the Greens bless them have absolutely lost any sense of morality on this issue. The tories had years to turn this around, they failed. It is also a failure of society as a whole if we want to look at it from a wider perspective.
It was the feminists, some very brave lesbians and gay men, and of course social media who come out of this with credit.

I agree with youLizzieDrip; but I think you're being a bit harsh on him to be fair. He's certainly been a limp biscuit where women's rights are concerned, totally sold out to Stonewall, sacked anyone who had the bravery to even raise the issue that only women give birth, menstruate or are menopausal and then started gibbering nonsense like a rabbit caught in headlights when questioned about his beliefs and actions. He was clearly way out of his depth and most likely took advice from his advisors who took advice from Stonewall It's a real shame isn't it? So many missed opportunities, so many mistakes, so much damage done to 50% of the electorate. But we won't forget or forgive will we?

Greens bless them have absolutely lost any sense of morality on this issue

Scottish Greens in particular Galaxy. Their contribution to women's rights was Mridhul Wadwha. That went well.

Interestingly, we are having an election shortly. Usually we are inundated by flyers, and candidates or supporters asking who we are voting for, or if we have any questions.
Equally we have posters in windows and on poles, sayin Vote . . .

So far, no visitors, one flyer and I’ve only seen 2 posters, both for . . .

eazybee

I don't believe the government were frightened of the press; they were frightened of Stonewall. The press will report what makes a good story, and they don't care which party it is. This situation with trans has been developing for years, and the man on the Clapham omnibus, the silent majority, most of the public, have watched in increasing disbelief at the mandates issuing mainly from Scotland but accepted by politicians..

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Yes and I forgot the heroes of the hour, the SNP, without their idiocy on this subject we wouldn't be where we are now, we owe them a debt of gratitude