Rhubarb & Custard wrote: ↑Fri Feb 18, 2022 10:57 am
It might be reframing in disingenuous fashion as a debate around women's rights to some, and especially to the sort of person who sits on a high moral horse
...
By all means mock and belittle those who don't agree with you, it's a fun thing to do
Fuck off, mate. I'm not sitting on a high moral horse and I'm not mocking or belittling people. I'm saying that this framing of it being "many people" is inaccurate and it's constantly shown otherwise whenever there's a genuine attempt to discover people's opinions on this rather than relying on Twitter noise and pretty strongly anti-trans media. I'm talking about data, not passing down moral judgment.
Of course, there is the genuine risk that the deliberate attempts to drive "women's rights" as a trans wedge issue will succeed, and those numbers may change as a result. I understand that that's part of what you're getting at. Ultimately we've been through all of this before with gay rights, where groups attempted to reframe the issue as one not directly attacking gay people and instead being more concerned about [education, child safety, pornography, whatever]. It's an old tactic and it can succeed in some cases. Totally agree on the fact that bad faith messaging and campaigning can change things.
However, unless you can prove that the "trans right ~ women's rights" issue is
actually an issue for a substantial number of people - rather than Mumsnet and JK Rowling et al - then even framing it in such a way is essentially doing the bad faith bunch's work for them.
IMO if the parties are going to have protecting trans rights on their agenda, then they need to be stronger about it. Not in terms of calling people transphobes, but in calling out bullshit data, the near-total lack of trans representation in the media, and the numbers that continue to be the best defence against the argument that it's anti women's rights. And they must do so while also being stronger about women's rights themselves because it's not like this country has covered itself in glory there. The two things can co-exist quite easily.