If you haven’t seen this clip, it’s worth watching. Jo is on brilliant form as she responds to an LBC caller who criticised boys wearing skirts. As Nick Ferrari wades in about “national security” and risks for British citizens in Saudi Arabia, Jo is passionate and concludes:
There’s a hang-up that people have about this. Some people don’t identify as male or female. It’s not a massive deal. It’s not stopping anyone else getting on with their lives.
Can we just be respectful to one another and treat people as the individuals that they are, recognising that this group of people in our society already feels vulnerable and marginalised, already feels discriminated against and feels bullied and can be victims of violence.
Let’s do these small things that show we are taking people seriously as the individuals that they are.
* Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist and member of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.
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11 Comments
Yes Jo Swinson is good on women’s issues, race issues, sexual orientation issues.
However, these battles have largely been won. All parties were reluctant to put up openly gay candidates or even candidates from ethnic minorities in the not too distant past. Even the Tories don’t seem to care any longer. There aren’t many new votes to be gained.
If you are looking for new battles, and new votes, how about taking up the cause of the disaffected and displaced working class? Talk to them – but not down to them. Find out why they are so keen on Brexit. Do what you can to keep them out of the clutches of the far right.
@Peter Martin “Yes Jo Swinson is good on women’s issues, race issues, sexual orientation issues. However, these battles have largely been won.”
Wow! Just wow!
The problem with enabling the hard right Peter is you’ll find those battles just get refought and don’t assume the victor will be the same. In other news Depeffle said when asked
Q: Nissan has said it will leave if you do not get a decent Brexit deal.
Johnson says he has a decent deal. The UK will be able to leave on 31 January.
But it keeps the UK in a state of grace, a state of equivalence, with the EU.
So that’s Nissan leaving then Peter.
O and he’s going to gut the BBC by making them pay for the over 75’s licence fee then totally obliterate them by getting rid of the licence fee. O well I’m sure they’ll be rushing to find friends too help them, what a pity they have none. I’ll miss radio 3 and the local stuff the rest well you made your bed.
LGBT rights are far from won. There has been a large upsurge in homophobic behaviour worldwide and trans rights have a huge way to go even to get to the same level. Transgender acceptance is probably 30-40 years behind gay acceptance. The amount of bigotry and hate in the general population is staggering and deeply disturbing.
@Peter Martin
Wow you actually said something half decent, well how about that. But I still think you’re lost, LabourList or ConservativeHome is only a google search away my friend.
Unfortunately the BBC news at 10 solely reported on the fact she’d received criticism from callers. Which they seem to have counted as the mandatory crumb of coverage they gave to give us at election time.
Both this and other instances make it clear that at least one person at the BBC (presumably a tribal labour supporter) is trying to sabotage us.
@ David Le Grice, “Both this and other instances make it clear that at least one person at the BBC (presumably a tribal labour supporter) is trying to sabotage us.”
Evidence or a wild assertion ?
I don’t get the interviewers point. How would it help preventing people entering the country, that they would be divided in two groups according to gender? Women (or people apparently women) could still enter using another woman’s passport, and men (or people apparently men) could still enter using another man’s passport. Having the gender doesn’t make the issue go away.
Having gender “X” in the passport would be a step to the right direction, but I actually wish, that some day in the future government stops pigeonholing people according to their gender. The only reason government might have for such practice is to treat people of different genders differently. It shouldn’t be the government’s concern which gender each person represents (if any), and are their partners representing different or same gender, etc.
Yes, of course the biological gender matters for instance in some medical treatments, but I think the doctors and nurses can sort it out in each case without the help of government.
@frankie
Don’t worry about the BBC. They are adored by the deeply grateful British public. They will just exchange 22 million licence fee payers into 22 million eager subscribers and their income will be the same.
Schimples!
Other countries already have X passports. So we already have to have all the systems or competencies in place to deal with them. We’re just denying our own citizens the respect we offer to others.
“…but I actually wish, that some day in the future government stops pigeonholing people according to their gender.”
Sounds good, but I’ve noticed that politicians, no doubt with good intentions, don’t always fully think things through.
My understanding is that it is proposed that a man who self identifies as a woman, should be treated as such without any legal question?
So far so good, but suppose a man born in 1955 decides that he’s been living a lie as a man for decades and decides to self-identify as a woman. Would ‘she’ not be able to make a valid legal discrimination challenge to be treated as a WASPI, and expect any compensation for ‘her’ loss of state pension since ‘she’ turned 60?
Of course the reverse might apply, whereby a woman born in the 1950’s who self identifies as a man, could legally lose ‘his’ WASPI status.
Sometimes good intentions cause legislators to make flawed and conflicting laws without thinking it through, and it could get very expensive bearing in mind the legal cost of discriminatory challenges?