Not an apology so much as an abuse
The stupid is out of control.
Look look look we’re apologizing please don’t hurt us please please please
THE APOLOGETIC APOLOGIZING APOLOGY
Written by Kerry Stapleton – Chair of Labour Nexus.
Earlier this evening, Labour Nexus messed up, and we announced that a transphobic Labour councillor would be speaking at our rally. We are sorry. The rally organisation team only vetted Laurie three weeks before we announced that he would be speaking before he had outed himself as a transphobe and did not check his timeline again before linking to his profile.
Laurie? Who is this Laurie? Don’t write a public statement as if it’s the middle of a conversation. Is Laurie Laurie Something or Something Laurie? Write like an adult.
And “outed himself as a transphobe” is just another smelly little orthodoxy.
When we were planning for our rally on 19 June, members of the executive committee asked various Labour elected representatives if they would be interested in speaking at the rally. On 24 May, the rally organisation team asked Councillor Laurie Burton and Laurie agreed to speak. At the time, the team checked through Laurie’s recent twitter timeline and saw no concerning material.
What does “the team” consider “concerning material”? And stop calling him by his first name – you’re obviously not a friend, and anyway this is a statement, so it should be formal, not you writing in your diary.
On 10 June, Laurie posted a tweet describing the procedural decision in favour of high-profile transphobe Maya Forstater at an employment tribunal as a “victory for women’s rights” and a “victory for free speech”, invoking two dangerous transphobic tropes.
Maya is not “a transphobe.”
And if you consider “women’s rights” a dangerous transphobic trope then you’re a misogynist sexist bully.
We are incredibly ashamed that, having made a public statement in the past that Labour has a transphobia problem, we failed to be cautious and check again before endorsing a councillor we were not familiar with. Our naivety has led to us contributing to that problem, we had a responsibility to know better, and we are sincerely sorry.
As Labour Nexus has said in the past, trans rights are not up for debate. Trans rights are human rights. If that statement is contentious for you, listen to trans voices and educate yourself, or leave.
Laurie Burton has been reported to the Labour Party, and we sincerely hope that the leadership will defy our low expectations and punish him.
Punish him!? For what?!
There’s no home anywhere for women now.
This is absolutely infuriating.
Imagine this:
Wouldn’t that be nice?
There are at least 6 theories on the nature and causes of transgenderism, and none of them involve accusations that trans people are lying, demented, wicked, disgusting, or stupid. All of these theoretical possibilities are live options, in that proponents include scholars and/or scientists with reasoned arguments which have not been definitively ruled out by overwhelming consensus.
But only one of them — Gender Identity Theory — is being used by advocates who are pushing it through using these kinds of strong-arm tactics, supplemented by heaps of emotional manipulation, Godwin’s Law, and the Bandwagon Effect. That does not suggest the theory is true. And it doesn’t make the proponents look like the Wise fighting the good fight. It makes them look like bullies.
Because they are bullies.
No, I don’t think “Trans rights are human rights” is contentious. For that to be true it would have to have meaningful content.