Labour party member and Cambridge councillor Ann Sinnott has resigned her political position in protest over transgender rights.
Following the election of openly transgender Lib Dem councillor Sarah Brown, and her campaign to bring Cambridge Council into line with existing legislation and to change their guidelines to allow transgender people to use the correct bathroom facilities; Sinnott described the council of 'insidiously dismantling women's rights' and as being 'in dereliction of the law'.
Sinnott has said that she is 'not anti-trans', but 'pro-women', but objected to transgender people having fair and equal rights due to the risk of men identifying as women in order to access female spaces. She claimed that transgender people being able to use the toilet facilities that matched their gender would be a 'risk to women' in places where women 'expect privacy'.
Despite a number of UK press outlets linking transgender people being able to use the correct bathroom facilities to proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act, transgender people have been guaranteed access to toilet facilities under the law since the passing of the Equality Act of 2010. This appears to be a nuance that Sinnott is unaware of, as she only raised objection to trans people using public facilities in June this year.
Writing to The Times newspaper, Ann Sinnott said, 'Cambridge city council knowingly stands in dereliction of the law.I have no wish to be party to unlawfulness, nor will I collude in keeping this matter from Cambridge women, and other residents — they have the right to know.
'I do not want to be a member of a council that fails to recognise that female-only facilities are needed by women as a generality. Nor do I wish to be associated with a council that effectively treated Cambridge women with contempt, while it insidiously dismantled their rights.'
She has also said that, 'Any change the council makes has to have an impact assessment, and there was never an impact assessment carried out. Trans people are entitled to be protected along with everybody else and should not be discriminated against, but women are a protected group as well. Put any woman in a dark street at night and the overwhelming majority will say she is afraid.
'Women have the right to be protected and when you open up female-only spaces, you open them up to risk. If you are a female in public loos at night and there is a person who is clearly male, how does she know they are not a threat?'
Sinnott has conceded that making trans women use male facilities is not, however, the correct solution, but has instead proposed that specialised transgender facilities be made. 'People talk about having a third type of facility, maybe that is the way to go. They need to sort it out, but not at the expense of women and girls.'
When approached for comment by the press, Sinnott responded with an automated email replying, 'I resigned on Mon 30 July because the Council’s Equality Policy – by which female-only services in Cambridge Council owned facilities were abolished – is in breach of the Equality Act 2010.'
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Good bye to bad rubbish. We don't need people like you in politics.
ReplyDeleteI'm so sick of hatemongering terfs. The UK is infested with transphobes and bigots, still better than the US, but such a shameful tolerance for TERF intolerance.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with Sinnott
ReplyDelete