Thank you for writing this. You have articulated a view that i share but not express as sensitively as this piece. I view gender as prisons from which we shpuld be liberated not forced to accept.
Thank you, Emma, it must have been difficult to write this, for multiple reasons. But I, for one, appreciate you’ve gone „there”. If only you had more support within the party.
Thank you for this which really resonated with me. To me gender is a set of boxes. Let's celebrate our diverse personalities. Sex is real and matters for women But gender we don't ned
Hi Emma I've only just read this post from April after reading your latest post.
First thing to say is thank you for being so brave and putting into words what so many women on the left know but fear to say. There really is nothing progressive about gender ideology so at some level it's strange that it's been taken up by the left in such an unthinking way. I often say follow the money if you want to see who is really benefitting from these regressive ideas.
It's understandable that many people feel uncomfortable with the gender norms that are thrust upon us all. But that this discomfort should result in a belief that men and women can change their sex by taking drugs for their entire lives and have lots of surgery is pure hokum.
In the UK this nonsense is slowly unravelling with the closure of the Tavistock GIDS clinic and the Cass report but many individuals and organisations still have a big stake in gender ideology so there is a long way yet to go.
If men who identify as women want respect from women, they need to campaign for their own spaces and not intrude on ours against our wishes.
A lifelong Labour voter I like so many women am politically homeless right now. Very sad.
Emma, thank you for writing this, and explaining your position on gender and some thoughts on Labour’s difficulty addressing these issues. I comment as someone who’s followed you (and received your substack) for some time, as a long-standing Labour activist whose progressive views largely align with yours - and as a trans woman. I want to address what you say about sex, gender and Labour.
I think what I find missing in your comments - and perhaps this is deliberate - is that, regardless of your own views on gender and the rights and wrongs of it as a social construct, it is a reality for many of us, so what should Labour’s position be?
I’ll follow your classification of women versus trans women. You talk honestly about your experience of body dysphoria, and how psychological help has supported you. Is your implication that gender dysphoria can be reduced through psychological help? Oh my, I can tell you that I and many of my sisters and brothers have tried very, very hard not to have dysphoria. It was a decade of talking therapy for me before reaching acceptance of my self. There is a difference in accepting sexuality in all its forms (who we are), and accepting dysphoria (who we are not, but need to be). It’s okay to be gay, but we continue to be medically pathologised for being… ourselves.
The reality is that in a misogynistic society, women and trans women share the same vulnerabilities and risks. Trans women are not a risk to other women. We are both at risk from male violence. We both experience discrimination in all aspects of our lives. We all experience the sexualisation of our bodies. Why aren’t we working together to fight this?
What worries me at the moment is that so much of the debate (argument, disagreement, culture way, discourse, whatever) is not based on evidence. From transgender competitors in sport, where the peer reviewed science is far less clear cut than some would like us to think; in an acknowledgement that sex is not actually black and white binary, and that you can’t ‘always tell’ (not something you say Emma); through the reality of (non-)threat to women from trans women versus men; to the evidence of the impact of gender self-ID in more than twenty other countries.
It is a really, really frightening time to be a trans woman, and we need the Labour party to stand up to the transphobic, backward, literally dangerous behaviours of the Conservative government. I am struck by your phrasing of going back ‘to saying that of course women and trans-women are different, but not unequal’. I don’t quite know what you mean. Do you mean that we are equal? Or not? If we are, then in what ways? Because the EHRC leadership is very clearly saying in its ‘guidance’ that even if I look, sound, smell, and generally live the same life as a woman of the same age as me (whatever that is, in the eyes of society as a whole), and if I hold the same legal documentation (including birth certificate) as a woman, <I am not equal>. And if I am not equal, then what am I? This is where we need an answer.
Lastly from a Labour activist standpoint, all of this argument is playing on the Tories’ turf - they <want> an argument on trans people, it deflects from the inexcusable harm they are causing to most of the country. Is it right that we spend our energy on this?
Thank you too for engaging and doing so in a spirit of honesty. I think there are places where we agree and places where we don't and that will always be the way in all matters. It can feel so much closer to home when it comes to issues like this because we are both talking about our lives and safety and identity and it's so much harder to do so.
On sex, I believe that it is binary. I have personal experience that is not mine to share or detail of loved ones with DSD conditions but this knowledge and growing up with it just made me more - not less - aware of the dimorphic nature of sex. Gender is much more fluid - as a social structure can be. It's just not a social structure I believe has meaning for me. It's not my identity and I never engage with it.
Where I do agree (and where I get really quite pissed off with some GC people) is the whole area of passing and not being able to tell. Woman is not what you look like. That's a gendered concept that I reject and the people who think it's a gotcha to post pics of a masculine looking person in a dress are buying into the gender stereotypes that I reject. Why shouldn't a masculine person wear a dress if they feel good in it. I'm wearing jeans and DMs - because I like them. The clothes literally do not make the man.
On the question of different but equal I think this is where policy makers need to think much harder than has been done. I do thing the EHRC are largely right on the importance of single sex spaces and that will clearly be an area where we differ. But it is vital that while we recognise that trans women are no more a risk than other women, the confluence of the way that safeguarding works - particularly important sex-based safeguarding and the nature of self-ID has meant that the need for clarity has made it harder for some trans women in order to make it safer for some women. That is a balance of risk issue that is the kind of thing that is almost impossible to say without sounding horribly crass, but is equally absolutely at the heart of policy making (it's why we have bodies like NICE for example, who do work that feels like it has cruel outcomes to some but is overall essential).
Of course, it would be a great deal better overall if we had much greater provision for all those fleeing male violence so there could be a range of provision suiting all needs. Not to mention the vitally important and long term project of actually working with men, policy makers and across society to reduce the causes and incidences of male violence in the first place. And that is what I mean by equal but different.
On therapy etc. I think we are largely agreeing. I don't think there is one answer to the range of things that cause us to identify out of our bodies. But I think those of us who do should start the work on how we deal with that and what is the right solution for us (and solution is different from cure) starts with exploration and examination and open talking - not rigidity of thought or route/root decision making on either side.
Finally, the only part of your argument I really reject is the idea that I am playing into Tory hands by talking about this. Because I am not politically naive. I don't think this is a deflection. I think not talking about it for so long until it exploded in Labour's faces was a huge mistake.
I get that it is a really hard time to be a trans woman. It's a fucking awful time to be a woman who does not identify with gender too. I am fairly convinced I will lose work for having written this. That's not a choice I make lightly. I am not a rich woman. I struggle. I would not say something unless I felt I absolutely had to.
Thank you again for engaging. I share both your solidarity and your fear. I hope that it will be in working together to find some agreement and learn to disagree better we can allay both our fears.
Thank you for writing this. You have articulated a view that i share but not express as sensitively as this piece. I view gender as prisons from which we shpuld be liberated not forced to accept.
Congratulations Emma, a well thought through and brave piece. Thankyou.
This is a great piece. Thoughtful and sensitive and incredibly compassionate. Thank you for articulating everything so clearly and so kindly.
Thank you, Emma, it must have been difficult to write this, for multiple reasons. But I, for one, appreciate you’ve gone „there”. If only you had more support within the party.
Thank you for this which really resonated with me. To me gender is a set of boxes. Let's celebrate our diverse personalities. Sex is real and matters for women But gender we don't ned
Thanks Emma. It’s really important that there are sensitive and considered voices on this issue, thanks for being one of them
Hi Emma I've only just read this post from April after reading your latest post.
First thing to say is thank you for being so brave and putting into words what so many women on the left know but fear to say. There really is nothing progressive about gender ideology so at some level it's strange that it's been taken up by the left in such an unthinking way. I often say follow the money if you want to see who is really benefitting from these regressive ideas.
It's understandable that many people feel uncomfortable with the gender norms that are thrust upon us all. But that this discomfort should result in a belief that men and women can change their sex by taking drugs for their entire lives and have lots of surgery is pure hokum.
In the UK this nonsense is slowly unravelling with the closure of the Tavistock GIDS clinic and the Cass report but many individuals and organisations still have a big stake in gender ideology so there is a long way yet to go.
If men who identify as women want respect from women, they need to campaign for their own spaces and not intrude on ours against our wishes.
A lifelong Labour voter I like so many women am politically homeless right now. Very sad.
Thank you Margaret. I know how you feel about Labour and I know so many women (and a fair few men) who feel the same.
A bloody good analysis and all power to you. Juliet xx
Emma, thank you for writing this, and explaining your position on gender and some thoughts on Labour’s difficulty addressing these issues. I comment as someone who’s followed you (and received your substack) for some time, as a long-standing Labour activist whose progressive views largely align with yours - and as a trans woman. I want to address what you say about sex, gender and Labour.
I think what I find missing in your comments - and perhaps this is deliberate - is that, regardless of your own views on gender and the rights and wrongs of it as a social construct, it is a reality for many of us, so what should Labour’s position be?
I’ll follow your classification of women versus trans women. You talk honestly about your experience of body dysphoria, and how psychological help has supported you. Is your implication that gender dysphoria can be reduced through psychological help? Oh my, I can tell you that I and many of my sisters and brothers have tried very, very hard not to have dysphoria. It was a decade of talking therapy for me before reaching acceptance of my self. There is a difference in accepting sexuality in all its forms (who we are), and accepting dysphoria (who we are not, but need to be). It’s okay to be gay, but we continue to be medically pathologised for being… ourselves.
The reality is that in a misogynistic society, women and trans women share the same vulnerabilities and risks. Trans women are not a risk to other women. We are both at risk from male violence. We both experience discrimination in all aspects of our lives. We all experience the sexualisation of our bodies. Why aren’t we working together to fight this?
What worries me at the moment is that so much of the debate (argument, disagreement, culture way, discourse, whatever) is not based on evidence. From transgender competitors in sport, where the peer reviewed science is far less clear cut than some would like us to think; in an acknowledgement that sex is not actually black and white binary, and that you can’t ‘always tell’ (not something you say Emma); through the reality of (non-)threat to women from trans women versus men; to the evidence of the impact of gender self-ID in more than twenty other countries.
It is a really, really frightening time to be a trans woman, and we need the Labour party to stand up to the transphobic, backward, literally dangerous behaviours of the Conservative government. I am struck by your phrasing of going back ‘to saying that of course women and trans-women are different, but not unequal’. I don’t quite know what you mean. Do you mean that we are equal? Or not? If we are, then in what ways? Because the EHRC leadership is very clearly saying in its ‘guidance’ that even if I look, sound, smell, and generally live the same life as a woman of the same age as me (whatever that is, in the eyes of society as a whole), and if I hold the same legal documentation (including birth certificate) as a woman, <I am not equal>. And if I am not equal, then what am I? This is where we need an answer.
Lastly from a Labour activist standpoint, all of this argument is playing on the Tories’ turf - they <want> an argument on trans people, it deflects from the inexcusable harm they are causing to most of the country. Is it right that we spend our energy on this?
In solidarity, but also in fear for my future.
Hi Jo
Thank you too for engaging and doing so in a spirit of honesty. I think there are places where we agree and places where we don't and that will always be the way in all matters. It can feel so much closer to home when it comes to issues like this because we are both talking about our lives and safety and identity and it's so much harder to do so.
On sex, I believe that it is binary. I have personal experience that is not mine to share or detail of loved ones with DSD conditions but this knowledge and growing up with it just made me more - not less - aware of the dimorphic nature of sex. Gender is much more fluid - as a social structure can be. It's just not a social structure I believe has meaning for me. It's not my identity and I never engage with it.
Where I do agree (and where I get really quite pissed off with some GC people) is the whole area of passing and not being able to tell. Woman is not what you look like. That's a gendered concept that I reject and the people who think it's a gotcha to post pics of a masculine looking person in a dress are buying into the gender stereotypes that I reject. Why shouldn't a masculine person wear a dress if they feel good in it. I'm wearing jeans and DMs - because I like them. The clothes literally do not make the man.
On the question of different but equal I think this is where policy makers need to think much harder than has been done. I do thing the EHRC are largely right on the importance of single sex spaces and that will clearly be an area where we differ. But it is vital that while we recognise that trans women are no more a risk than other women, the confluence of the way that safeguarding works - particularly important sex-based safeguarding and the nature of self-ID has meant that the need for clarity has made it harder for some trans women in order to make it safer for some women. That is a balance of risk issue that is the kind of thing that is almost impossible to say without sounding horribly crass, but is equally absolutely at the heart of policy making (it's why we have bodies like NICE for example, who do work that feels like it has cruel outcomes to some but is overall essential).
Of course, it would be a great deal better overall if we had much greater provision for all those fleeing male violence so there could be a range of provision suiting all needs. Not to mention the vitally important and long term project of actually working with men, policy makers and across society to reduce the causes and incidences of male violence in the first place. And that is what I mean by equal but different.
On therapy etc. I think we are largely agreeing. I don't think there is one answer to the range of things that cause us to identify out of our bodies. But I think those of us who do should start the work on how we deal with that and what is the right solution for us (and solution is different from cure) starts with exploration and examination and open talking - not rigidity of thought or route/root decision making on either side.
Finally, the only part of your argument I really reject is the idea that I am playing into Tory hands by talking about this. Because I am not politically naive. I don't think this is a deflection. I think not talking about it for so long until it exploded in Labour's faces was a huge mistake.
I get that it is a really hard time to be a trans woman. It's a fucking awful time to be a woman who does not identify with gender too. I am fairly convinced I will lose work for having written this. That's not a choice I make lightly. I am not a rich woman. I struggle. I would not say something unless I felt I absolutely had to.
Thank you again for engaging. I share both your solidarity and your fear. I hope that it will be in working together to find some agreement and learn to disagree better we can allay both our fears.
Thanks Emma. A heartfelt and courageous piece. People would be well to listen.