We don’t accept the dogma

Written by

Ophelia Benson

in

Suzanne Moore on Stonewall’s grotesque desertion of the very people it’s supposed to be for:

Last October it was agreed that Bailey could pursue her claim against her employer and Stonewall for direct discrimination against her gender critical beliefs, as well as indirect victimisation. The case is due to start tomorrow. 

[Now yesterday.]

So what did Bailey do so wrong that has caused Stonewall to complain to her employers? She has done “wrongthink”. She will not swallow the dogma. She believes that biological sex is immutable and that conflating sex with the made up notion of “gender identity” will leave women with no legally enforceable boundaries against men. She does not think womanhood is just a feeling in one’s head. She was not assaulted as a child because of “feelings in her head”. She does not think men can become women because of these feelings. She is concerned, above all, with male violence. 

And for those reasons Stonewall is trying to wreck her life. With friends like these who needs enemies?

Stonewall wrote to her chambers complaining about Bailey’s views. She was a founder of the LGB Alliance, posited as an alternative to Stonewall. Surely gay people have the right to organise politically as they see fit. Some gay people ally themselves to the trans cause, and some don’t. Sexual orientation and gender identity are separate issues. 

Very separate. Very very very separate, and sometimes in conflict.

Any ideology that cannot be questioned is dangerous and yet that is how Stonewall have infiltrated so many of our institutions.

In picking on Bailey they have found a woman who has fought her entire life. Is this really a good look, Stonewall? Trying to destroy a black lesbian? 

We watch agog. Bailey, like any other woman, gay or straight, can think what the hell she likes. Is she really your enemy, Stonewall? Seriously, who do you represent now? 

We know the answer to that all too well.

Comments

4 responses to “We don’t accept the dogma”

  1. Omar Avatar
    Omar

    So what did Bailey do so wrong that has caused Stonewall to complain to her employers? She has done wrongthink..

    Do not adjust your mind. There is a fault in this Orwellian reality.

  2. Your Name's not Bruce? Avatar
    Your Name’s not Bruce?

    Here’s Legal Feminist on the response to her calling the concept of putting pronouns in your signature a bad workplace practice :

    https://www.legalfeminist.org.uk/2022/04/26/grammar-and-grievance/

    Here’s a great summary of what’s been happening:

    You can’t defend irrational beliefs with reason. By and large genderists don’t try: instead, their strategy has been to attempt to leapfrog over the usual campaigning, lobbying, arguing, persuading phases of bringing about profound cultural and legal change, and to pretend instead that the desired outcome is already accepted by all right-thinking people – and to silence dissent by visiting dire consequences on anyone who questions that claim. That, I believe, is the whole reason for the vitriol and toxicity that surrounds this subject. Anyone who points out the absurdity of propositions like “some women have penises” must be howled down as a bigot, shamed, no-platformed, hounded from her job, kicked off her course, etc. That way, any doubter who lacks an appetite for martyrdom will be persuaded to steer clear of the whole debate – and insist if pressed that this subject is all too complicated and toxic, and they simply haven’t found the time or head-space to form a view.

    The more insidious part of the strategy is the first part: the pretence that the contentious propositions that form genderist beliefs are already accepted without question by all educated, right-thinking people. Genderists make determined efforts to weave their claims seamlessly into our language and the fabric of our workplace culture, with the aim of converting contentious claims into the kind of tacit knowledge that doesn’t even need to be stated or formulated.

    Politicians who behave in accordance with this strategy become footsoldiers against women. Organizations which behave in this way become opposed to women. And I say women here deliberately, because even though there are (far too) many who are happy to play nice and give away their rights to TiMs, they too will pay the price, despite collaborating with the enemy. Because they are women, they will always be suspect. In order to remain “allies” in good standing, they will have to prove themselves, over and over. Forever.

  3. Ophelia Benson Avatar
    Ophelia Benson

    I put the link to that in my notes last thing yesterday with DO FIRST [tomorrow] – but of course I’ve been doing other things first.

  4. latsot Avatar
    latsot

    I always have at least half a dozen todo lists on the go at any one time, each with only one item on and DO FIRST written at the top.

    Sometimes they hang around for months.

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