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tamolineI just went out and voted for local council elections, and - for the first time - I didn't vote for a party, because every single party that had a candidate has issues with transphobia. I didn't even vote for policies. My sole determining factor in the end was that the Labour candidate had a brief non-hostile interaction with a local queer charity in February on something - we're not quite sure what - to do with queer issues, specifically involving trans issues and...
I hate that my standards have fallen this low, that there's a real possibility that trans people - hell, people in general who are not 'sufficiently' gender conforming - might be hounded out of public life in the UK in the not too distant future, maybe even in the next year or two. Partly out of transphobia, but also because the Tories are self-admittedly trying to use the issue to distract the populace from what a disaster they've been, and Labour are more than happy to concede the ground to them, because Starmer doesn't want to 'get bogged down in a culture war.' Fuck you, Starmer, and I just wish there was a chance of fucking self satisfied white male lawyers losing their rights instead.
And I really hate that my bar has become so low that I have to contemplate potentially voting for a Tory MP. I'm of an age where I got to celebrate chucking the Tories out of power in '97 in the first general election I could vote on. I've *never* even thought about voting Tory before, no matter how crap the other parties have been.
But.
The local MP, Tory, has a section on his website where he defends trans rights, specifically highlighting his work to add trans conversion therapy back into the conversion therapy ban bill (after the Tories took it out) and... I've booked a surgery with him at the end of May, and I hate to say it, but if he manages to convince me that he'll fight against taking away trans rights, even against his own government... Yeah, I'll vote for him, because I don't know what the other candidates would do in his place. I mean, I don't necessarily think it's *likely*, but I feel kind of unclean just even contemplating this.
Fuck the fucking UK.
I hate that my standards have fallen this low, that there's a real possibility that trans people - hell, people in general who are not 'sufficiently' gender conforming - might be hounded out of public life in the UK in the not too distant future, maybe even in the next year or two. Partly out of transphobia, but also because the Tories are self-admittedly trying to use the issue to distract the populace from what a disaster they've been, and Labour are more than happy to concede the ground to them, because Starmer doesn't want to 'get bogged down in a culture war.' Fuck you, Starmer, and I just wish there was a chance of fucking self satisfied white male lawyers losing their rights instead.
And I really hate that my bar has become so low that I have to contemplate potentially voting for a Tory MP. I'm of an age where I got to celebrate chucking the Tories out of power in '97 in the first general election I could vote on. I've *never* even thought about voting Tory before, no matter how crap the other parties have been.
But.
The local MP, Tory, has a section on his website where he defends trans rights, specifically highlighting his work to add trans conversion therapy back into the conversion therapy ban bill (after the Tories took it out) and... I've booked a surgery with him at the end of May, and I hate to say it, but if he manages to convince me that he'll fight against taking away trans rights, even against his own government... Yeah, I'll vote for him, because I don't know what the other candidates would do in his place. I mean, I don't necessarily think it's *likely*, but I feel kind of unclean just even contemplating this.
Fuck the fucking UK.
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Date: 2023-05-05 12:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-05-05 01:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-05-05 10:36 am (UTC)I'm so sorry the state of politics everywhere has descended to madness.
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Date: 2023-05-05 01:19 pm (UTC)Thank you. I hope it's temporary. Fingers crossed for you and Dylan.
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Date: 2023-05-06 07:23 pm (UTC)