On Monday, Conference debated our motion “Restoring Trans Rights”, and the motion passed overwhelmingly. As Chair of LGBT+ Liberal Democrats, I’m proud of that – proud of everyone who put the work in, proud of the people who got up and spoke, and proud that our party said clearly, again, that it stands with trans people.
But there is one thing I want us to carry forward from that debate.
We win the argument by making it. We win the vote by voting for it. We do not need to win it by shouting anyone down.
There will always be people at Conference who disagree with us. Sometimes profoundly, in ways that are genuinely upsetting or just plain wrong. But the right response to that is confidence, not volume. Speak up, challenge the misinformation, make the case properly – but let other speakers finish. A heckle has never changed anyone’s mind. Booing doesn’t make our argument stronger. Shouting over someone at a microphone doesn’t add anything. And we don’t need to do it.
Conference heard the arguments on Monday and made its decision. We should have enough confidence in our values, in our arguments and in Liberal Democrat members to allow a debate to happen and then win it.
This matters online too, where there are people whose entire political strategy is to provoke a reaction. They’re not trying to persuade you. They want the quote-tweet. They want hundreds of angry replies. They want the confrontation, because the confrontation is the content.
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