The phantom thread

by 'Caractacus Potts'

GL: A few days ago I happened to see the first post in this thread, and when I clicked through, it had already gone, its author already suspended from Twitter.

You can see why he had to go. This is one of the best guides yet on how to make politicians squirm for indulging in fashionable misogyny.

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I have now spoken to the LP twice and the WEP once on the doorstep about the definition of a woman. Just had the Labour candidate in front of me not 20 mins ago.

They cannot claim this doesn’t come up on the doorstep.

Each time I ask them for the definition of a woman. It’s not a gotcha. It’s just an important truth that all elected representatives should be able to be clear on.

I live in a close marginal. Labour has a very good chance of capturing this ward. I am still a registered Labour member - that’s why they are knocking on my door. I make it clear that I will have to spoil my ballot if this issue is not resolved.

I will be writing WOMAN = ADULT HUMAN FEMALE on my ballot in large block capitals.

I am a bi man with small kids in an opposite-sex relationship. I tell each candidate that this issue affects me in a number of ways.

#RespectMySex

#SexMatters

1: as a parent - children need to be protected from being funnelled into thinking they are in the wrong body, from mutilation, hormones, life long medicalisation.

2: As a man who cares about women, their safety, dignity, privacy, rights in law and policy, spaces, services, definitions, stats, awards and sports. As a person with a mother, 5 sisters, most of my colleagues, many many friends (shoutout to GC women - you know who you are🥰)

3: As a bi person - the importance of same sex attraction, spaces for my lesbian and gay sisters and brothers. Our ability to define our sexual orientations without reference to the destructive boundary-blurring moveable feast that is gender. Sex matters in same-SEX attraction…

… and we did not fight for decades for LGB acceptance and liberation only to have the TQ cuckoo destroy that in front of our eyes. And gay and lesbian teens will not be told they are straight but in the wrong body. No gay conversion-by-transy on my watch.

4: As a thinking human who cares about truth and the power to speak it - to name it. I will not have my language and debate policed so that we can no longer use plain words any longer. I regard this as a deliberate tactic to tie our hands in making our case. I won’t have it.

I will not expend energy to humour the delusions of others.

I will not accede to compelled speech.

I will not parrot the mantras of a cult

I will not wilfully state in words the opposite of what my senses perceive.

I will not repeat biological or scientific illiteracy.

I will not let an inflexible ideology colour my logic or the insistent and irrepressible facts.

I refuse to ignore my intuitive sense that something is wrong, ignore red flags, ignore the hairs rising on the back of my neck.

I will not excuse bad behaviour because ‘identity’.

I will not ignore the stories of detransitioners, or transwidows, or parents of kids caught up in this pernicious ideology.

I will not ignore the legitimate concerns from women who want dignity, fairness, safety, from lesbians and gays coerced into questioning their dating choices.

All these positions are sacrificed if we concede the power to name the truth or refuse to exercise it.

No.

I have said all this in my 2min elevator pitch to every politician that comes to my door. I will continue to say it. Until it changes.

#RespectMySex

#SexMatters