Can I remind everyone I started by tweeting why I support trans rights, that I still support trans rights, that I am trying to understand all the arguments & I am not taking sides. BUT I am taking sides against lies, distortions, intimidation & hate FROM WHEREVER IT COMES
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Would it not, then, possibly be a good idea for you to remove & avoid tweets on this issue until such time as you feel able to discuss it in more depth? You have a significant public platform, and your wording and framing of tweets *matters*.
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You can see that many of us - your own party colleagues - are worried that your making interim statements on this without a clear view of the issues risks presenting a harmful distraction to Lib Dem efforts as a whole in this area. You have a responsibility to the party here.
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Please indicate what interim statements I have made on the substantive issues of trans rights or other's rights in connection with trans rights. There are none. The only things I have said are I support trans rights and condemn transphobia. If you want me to withdraw them, tough!
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You said of Women's Place UK that "they are as determined to protect trans rights as they are to protect their own rights" a matter of minutes ago. That is a substantive statement on their intentions which I'm aware that a number of trans Lib Dem members would deeply dispute.
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That's because I did not say what WPUK's intentions were. I said 2 people in the room, in a private meeting, who were representatives of WPUK, told me that is what *they* believed. They did not say it was WPUK policy.
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You hardly made that clear - and that's exactly my point. As someone in a senior position in our party, you have a leadership responsibility. Your words affect whether activists will feel welcome, or unsafe, in the Lib Dems.
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Tweets that may be construed (which yours can be and are being, intentionally or not) as legitimating - even if not supporting - a group many of us see as existing to undermine the human rights of fellow Lib Dems is the sort of thing that puts activists in an impossible position.
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If someone wishes to make an official complaint for bringing the party into disrepute, I am more than happy for that to happen. What about the rights of Lib Dems who want to attend WPUK meetings? Clearly if I believed WPUK were undermining human rights, I would not talk to them
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