“Transgender women are women”, the First Minister of Wales has said.
During a Senedd exchange on the inclusion of transgender athletes in sport, Welsh Labour Leader Mark Drakeford redefined the meaning of ‘women’ to embrace biological men.
Earlier this year, Westminster’s Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities, Anneliese Dodds, and Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper were unable to define ‘woman’ during media interviews.
Fairness in sport
Welsh Conservative Laura Anne Jones told Drakeford that women “are pulling out of their own female categories” because of the unfair “male puberty advantage” enjoyed by trans athletes.
She warned against “trying to be so inclusive” so as to penalise female competitors and suggested the best way to “ensure fairness” was to create an “open category” to “help ensure that every athlete can compete”.
Jones then asked Drakeford whether he believed “trans athletes should compete in female sports”, before concluding: “So, First Minister, can you do something that many other Labour politicians have failed to do so far, which is define a woman?”
Inclusivity
In response, Drakeford said his “starting point” is that “transgender women are women”.
He continued: “What I say to the Member is that in such a potentially divisive issue, the responsibility of elected representatives is not to stand on the certainties of their own convictions”.
Rather, he said, Senedd Members should “work hard to look for opportunities for dialogue, to find ways of promoting understanding rather than conflict, and to demonstrate respect rather than to look for exclusion”.
the responsibility of elected representatives is not to stand on the certainties of their own convictions Wales’ s First Minister, Mark Drakeford
He added: “To me, inclusivity is absolutely what we should be aiming for here.”
Basic biology
In an interview with The Daily Mail at the weekend, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne criticised politicians who claimed not to believe in the reality of biological sex.
Lady Nicholson said: “For grown men to pretend they don’t know what a woman is when they have a wife and children. Who are they fooling?
“But it’s even worse when it’s a woman because that’s a shocking betrayal of one’s own sex.”
The Peer, expressing her frustration at the pro-trans narrative, told the newspaper: “Honestly, how can we be wasting good time and energy saying people are ‘assigned sex at birth?’ There are basic elements of life and to deny them is lunacy.”
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