UK: Green Party Asks 'Gender Variants' to Vote in Women Committee Election
The British Green Party says in an email sent to its members that anyone who “identifies” as woman or “other gender variant” is eligible to vote in the next Women Committee Election, party members have said.
On December 6, members of the Green Party received an email about registering to vote in the 2021/22 Green Party Women Committee Election. Claire F. Davies, a Green Party member, tweeted about the wording in the email saying: “I have just received an email from the Green Party about registering to vote in the Women Committee Election.”
She calls the message “insane” and asks “what does ‘identify as a gender variant’ mean? What has it got to do with being a woman?”
In screenshots she took of the email and shared with her tweet it can be read:
“Check that you're eligible to vote: You are eligible to vote in the Green Party Women committee elections if you are a member of the Green Party of England and Wales and also identify as a woman or gender variant.”
The text also says that, to prove that a Green Party member is eligible to vote and is able to register for voting in the election, the Green Party member is asked to sign up using a box to confirm that the member identifies as a woman or “gender variant.”
Another screenshot of the email shows a note that says:
“Please note: We recognise some women feel they are women rather than identify as women. This is how the wording is set out in the Green Party Women constitution, and we are obliged to follow it. We intend no offense by it.”
A male Green Party member, philosopher Miroslav Imbrisevic, also got the email. He tweeted that, since members are eligible to vote if they are Green Party members and “also identify as a woman or gender variant," that meant he could claim to be "gender variant" and vote. He then went to the procedure to register as a voter for the Women Committee and found out that, with only one “click,” he can vote or run for a position.
Imbrisevic also noted the message at the end of the email where it says that some women do not identify as women, finding it “interesting” that the Green Party realises somehow that there is “opposition” to the way they are referring to women. Upon reading that the terms are in the Green Party’s constitution, making it an obligation to phrase the message in this way, he proposes an “alternative.” He wrote: “Change the constitution to include those who 'are' women. There is 'inclusion' for you.”
The British Green Party has been called out on their unnecessary political correctness for many years now. In 2016, The Independent ran a piece where the author criticizes the party’s choice to refer to women as “non-males.”
But it also seems that it’s not only a matter of use of words. In March 2021, a motion that sought to introduce a party policy on women’s sex-based rights in the Green Party was defeated. The motion was brought up during the party’s spring conference, according to Julie Bindel writing for the Spectator. She told the paper that the motion's goal was to add a paragraph to the Green party’s "Our Rights and Responsibilities Policy."
The text of the motion read:
“This is to include the protected characteristic of sex as currently our Record of Policy statements supports the other eight characteristics (age, disability, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, race, maternity, religion/belief, marriage/civil partnership) but not that of sex discrimination – aimed primarily at women…”
Bindel wrote that “by voting against the motion, the Green party has effectively contradicted the 2010 Equalities Act (EA), which includes sex as a protected characteristic.”
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