I signed the Declaration because …..
….. I can no longer stay silent when women are being targeted for daring to name ourselves as a sex with experiences and needs distinct from those born and raised male. I now find myself branded a bigot and a fascist by the movements I have loved, nurtured and worked for simply for speaking up for women as a sex. I want the Green Party to lead the way to saving the earth from environmental catastrophe but to do this it cannot continue to silence women for standing up for our rights.
Mandy
….. this is the clarity we need when words are being redefined against our will to undermine boundaries. I recommit to international solidarity and the eco-feminism that has always inspired Green Politics. Respect for nature includes human nature. Body dissociation, cross-sex hormones and telling children their bodies are wrong run counter to the reconnection with nature that we, and the earth, need. Green policies must be based in truth, reality and evidence, not conceptual identities. The abuse of women and girls simply wanting free discussion of issues that affect us must stop.
Diana
….. I have been a Green Party member for decades and always felt at home. The party where individuality was cherished but we worked together – using science to support our campaigns to make the planet sustainable. But following the adoption of the policy that Trans Women are Women, the party has become polarised by this unscientific and ill-defined dogma. Sex and gender are different. Genuine gender non-conformity doesn’t require drugs or surgery. Or the silencing of women’s voices. Give us back the Green Party so that we can retain our credibility and tackle climate change.
….. I support women in the Green Party, in the UK and worldwide. As a committed environmentalist, I have been active in the Green Party of England and Wales for 40 years. Through my career and personal activism, I link research, policy and action to support population health, planetary health and health equity. I am shocked that democratic working, a listening and reflective culture, and the rights of women and girls have been swept aside by a toxic wave of behaviour linked to gender extremism. Let’s win back the party, so desperately needed now for climate and environmental justice.
Marcus
….. I want the Green Party to return to its roots of ecology and science. How can we persuade voters to engage with us and our important policies if we cannot get the fundamentals of biological sex right? The party’s focus on gender ideology is making us a laughing stock for the general public. Meanwhile the planet burns…
….. it’s vital that we have a space within the Green Party where women can discuss their reservations about the current policies of self-ID and the affirmation model of care provided for young people questioning their gender. I personally believe that our current policies damage our reputation as a party of science. I hope that this Declaration will act as a beacon for those members who want to come together to speak about women’s rights and needs and how we ensure that policies on inclusion and equality, that the Green Party is so proud of, do not continue relegating women to second place.
Emma
….. I know that I am not alone in the Green Party in feeling that free, open and democratic discussion should be at the very heart of progressive politics or that the trans debate very definitely needs debating. My hope is that this Declaration can be a rallying point for other members who have so far felt unable to speak out. For them to feel supported enough to make their voices heard.
….. the situation in the Green Party, where any mention of women’s sex-based rights is seen as a transphobic dog whistle, cannot continue. Throughout society women’s sex-based rights are being eroded in the name of inclusivity but the end result is all too often the exclusion of women in favour of gender non-conforming men. We need to be able to discuss the very real conflicts between women’s rights and trans rights in order to find a way forward that is fair to both groups. Then we can hopefully get back to focussing on how to deal with the Climate Emergency.
Hazel
….. I want a conversation about this with those people who tell me I can’t discuss it or because of my views I should not be in the Green Party. I want to talk about sex-based rights because as a woman in my 60s, a mother and a grandmother, I know that this is where oppression of women lies.
Imogen
….. all political parties are under pressure to redefine what a woman is, with suspensions, denigration and silencing for those asserting ‘gender critical beliefs’. These tactics contravene CEDAW, the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, which the UK has ratified. I sign this Green Women’s Declaration in solidarity with Green Party members who have been targeted because they have expressed such so called ‘beliefs’. And in solidarity with lesbians who are accused of ‘transphobia’ for wanting to meet or date only adult human females despite our protected characteristic of same sex atraction.
Jill R.
….. Green Party policy states, ‘Current exemptions to anti-discrimination legislation should be scrapped.’ These are the exemptions that allow women only spaces to exist. I signed the declaration because it is crucial that we retain the right to women only spaces. As a lesbian, I have witnessed the demise of visible lesbian spaces, important for many lesbians but especially for those newly out, where we could meet, connect, talk, away from the male gaze. They have disappeared because men who identify as ‘lesbian’ demand inclusion. It is time to say ‘no’ to this infiltration of the female world.
Annie
….. I want the Green Party to support women, but also to go back to being the party of science and reality. I was a midwife for 25 years and aware of and benefited from the 70s/80s midwives, obstetricians and researchers who stuck their necks out to promote women-centred, nurturing care that was the start of the evidence-based movement in maternity and then everywhere else in health. GPEW should be promoting rigorous, sex-based data that protects and supports women’s health throughout their lives (it’s also vital for the health of men and trans people). We can’t lose sex disaggregated data in any of our institutions: women’s health, safety, and dignity must be protected; fairness and discrimination against us must be monitored and all policy development must include us as a sex class.
Siobhan
….. women’s needs are different to men’s and I think it is vital we maintain the freedom to advocate for our best interests and to organise for our well-being and to thrive as interdependent social beings. While our bodies affect what is possible, we can seek to minimise the impact of limitations where we can, but we cannot change the material reality of our sex, age or height. We do not need to conform to gender stereotypes regarding how a woman is supposed to dress and behave nor should wider society expect women to limit their interests and activities to fit current gender norms.
Alison T.
….. I am concerned with how women throughout the world are still silenced and objectified. Our foremothers worked so hard to gain sex-based rights for women to be considered and treated as humans within society, yet there remains much more to be done as this continues to be challenged. I am also concerned that some men want to be considered as women, rendering womanhood as non-existent. I acknowledge the fact that sex is immutable. As I respect nature and the environment, our first and most direct natural environment is our physical body. Observing and accepting our physical reality, in whichever form or however it functions, is one of our challenges of living on this planet. It needs to resist all corporate, ideological and political influences which currently challenge the safeguarding of womanhood and our human nature.
Mariette
…… I do not want my granddaughters to grow up in a world where their sex-based rights have been rolled back and their female sex is disrespected and ignored. This is already happening, but the push back to protect and re-assert our rights is having an impact on public policy and politicians. The Declaration encapsulates the vital importance of these rights for the empowerment of women and girls here in the UK and world-wide, as we stand united against ideologies and laws that seek to do the opposite.
Alison W.
….. our right to live without sexual abuse and oppression based on our sex has not yet been addressed. Women have worked long and hard to resist the gender stereotypes imposed on us that limit opportunities and lead to discrimination. It’s clear to me that a women’s movement is still crucial to make the changes necessary for all women and girls to live without fear and be treated with respect. As a long-standing member of the Green Party I want this party to fully recognise and address the specific needs of women and girls.
Alex
…. as a Green Lesbian I welcome this declaration as an important step to regaining our sense of self as a credible political party. A step forwards to recover our organisational mission to promote scientific and ecological reality and to remain a credible political force for climate activism. We ask the party to reaffirm our core green values of science-based policy, free speech, free thought, and ecological liberal secularism.
Jude
….. I want my rights back. And the rights of every woman.
Claudine
I can’t sign the Declaration because …..
….. I would have loved to. 96% of women aged 18-24 have been sexually harassed, and 5% raped. Women need single sex spaces to talk about menopause, miscarriage and all kinds of things related to our physical bodies. Women are the only group with a protected characteristic whose special interest group has to centre people other than those falling into the protected category. I can’t sign though. I hold an elected position in the party and would be defamed and vilified, made unelectable, were I to say I uphold women’s legally protected rights.