Labour might be the party that’s supposed to look out for the oppressed and downtrodden, but for Kent MP Rosie Duffield, that doesn’t mean she’s about to embrace Eddie Izzard as a woman.
The transgender comedian, who has launched a bid to stand as a Labour MP in Sheffield, announced two years ago the decision to use ‘she/her’ pronouns.
But for Duffield, who represents the party in Canterbury, the idea of gender self-id creates more problems than it purports to solve. She was speaking at a conference for the LGB Alliance – a campaign group that advises lesbian, gay and bisexual rights.
When asked about the possibility of misgendering someone becoming a hate crime, the 51-year-old said:
“Is that a serious thing? Is that coming to Parliament any time soon? I hope not because you might as well arrest me now. I’m not calling Eddie Izzard a woman.”
Duffield had previously vowed to quit the party if Labour allowed Izzard, 60, to stand for a seat on an all-woman shortlist. Speaking during a Labour Women’s Declaration discussion group at the Labour Conference, she said:
“I will not be a hypocrite and I won’t lie and I won’t say that a man is a woman. Eddie Izzard is not a woman. I’m absolutely not the only Labour woman MP who will leave the party if Eddie Izzard gets on to an all-women shortlist.”
On claims that she’s transphobic:
“I can’t imagine wanting to discriminate or hate a group of people just for who they are and how they want to live. I don’t talk about trans rights because I think it’s not my place to talk about trans rights. Trans people have got some great organisations and they’re very good at representing their rights, and that is just as it should be.
Trans rights are the same rights as everyone else, but what concerns me is that there is a slight conflict in some cases between trans rights and women’s rights.”
Well I think that’s fair enough? You can support trans right and people’s freedoms to identify and present themselves as either sex, without necessarily having to participate in it or pretend as though it doesn’t threaten to impede the rights of women. On the other hand, you might say that refusing to address someone with their preferred pronouns isn’t showing the appropriate amount of respect to claim you support trans rights in the first place. I guess it just depends which side of the debate you fall on, but there must be a nuanced way to look at it that both supports trans people and also ensures we don’t trample on the rights of women.
I wonder if there’s any other Labour MPs that feel the same way? Fair play to Rosie Duffield for having the balls to put her opinion on the matter out there.
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