LGBTIQA+ Greens ask GPEx candidates to commit to eight pledges
The Green Party of England and Wales Executive (GPEx) and leadership elections are now in full swing. With nominations closing on June 30, and a full list of candidates confirmed on July 2, the runners and riders are setting out their pitches to members.
Groups of party members are also coming together to try and influence the campaign. One such group is the LGBTIQA+ Greens. The group has issued a series of 8 pledges it is asking all candidates to sign up to. The pledges call for candidates to support a range of initiatives to improve LGBTIQA+ rights both within and outside of the Green Party.
The pledges are:
- Campaign with the LGBTIQA+ Greens to protect trans rights in the Equality Act and fight for reform of the Gender Recognition Act. For a kinder and less bureaucratic process for recognising trans people’s gender
- Recognise that non-binary identities exist and promise to ensure they are recognised in internal processes and in wider society.
- Supporting reserved places on the Green Party Council for LGBTIQA+ people.
- Supporting efforts to get more LGBTIQA+ people elected to be councillors & more.
- Supporting gender affirming healthcare for trans youth, rejecting ideological interference with current practice.
- Agree to press for full implementation of the government’s LGBT+ Action Plan including legislating [for] a ban on conversion therapy.
- Calling for proper funding for trans healthcare in the NHS to reduce 3 year+ waiting lists.
- Supporting LGBT+ inclusive schools in line with the new Relationship and Sex Education curriculum due to role out from September.
Speaking on the pledges, LGBTIQA+ Greens co-chair Chandler Wilson told Bright Green:
These are important elections and Green Party members deserve to know where candidates stand on the issues that matter most to the LGBTIQA+ community. These pledges cover the full range of issues in our party, from representation to human rights. We’d urge candidates to back these proposals – together we can ensure that the Green Party is at the forefront of fighting for equality.
Some candidates have already begun to commit to the pledges. The LGBTIQA+ Greens will be announcing a full list of candidates that have made the eight pledges on July 16.
Green Party members will be voting for in the GPEx and leadership elections throughout August.
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Image credit Ludovic Berton – Creative Commons
As we saw from panorama ‘gender affirming healthcare’ has actually been child abuse, erasing lesbians and trying to alter autistics. Candidates should be prepared to have open conversations about this not sign a pledge willy nilly.
It’s very worrying that the trans phenomenon appears to be – at least partly – driven by intolerance of gay/lesbian orientations and also by rigid and outdated gender stereotypes. Ie if you prefer the toys/company/clothes traditionally associated with a child of the opposite sex, you might actually BE the opposite sex. If these social attitudes are (partly) driving the increasing number of people, especially young people, identifying as trans, then the answers can’t and shouldn’t lie entirely in individual decisions to transition, with all its serious and largely unknown biological consequences.
What a great article! This seems like a great way to ensure candidates will represent the interests of all members of the party and I hope other groups are doing the same. Candidates should respect and actively support minority groups within the party and, if they feel unable to openly demonstrate that support, they are unlikely to uphold the values of diversity and justice that are central to this movement.
I agree completely with your support of trans rights, but the situation for WOMEN is also not exactly ideal. Do you therefore campaign for WOMEN’S rights too?
Great pledges and a good way to see where candidates stand on important LGBTIQA+ issues!
This is why we have liberation groups in the Green Party! Candidates are free to explain why they don’t want to sign a pledge that entirely accords with agreed party policy.
It would also be nice if commenters refrained from describing gay men (like me), as well as lesbian, bi, intersex and trans people, as “niche” or “controversial factions”.
Thank you for the writing this article. It’s important we know that those who we elect will stick to supporting the policy we have as well as working to ensure trans and Non-binary members are safe and feel welcome.
Members deserve to know where the candidates stand on issues that are often talked about in the political sphere as everyone reguardless of role will have sway in the party and these pledges are vital to ensuring we are able to vote for a party with equality and inclusion at it’s heart.
The ERO will tell you that candidates ae not obliged to take any notice of requests for pledges.
Candidates should avoid aligning themselves with special interest groups or controversial factions in the Party.
They are elected to serve the interests of the whole Party in pursuit of its aims and policies, not those of just a few, which createa a very divisive and inefficient committee.
Contraversial factions like LGBTIQ greens ? I guess ‘Gender Critical’ anti trans WPUK aligned hate group is fine though
Important though the issues of transgender are, they are small compared with the enormity of the challenges facing the population of this world. This is a distraction from the main aims of the Green Party. I challenge the movers of these resolutions to get to work in their local parties and to work for the MAIN aims of the party.
Hi Eric
I’m co-chair of the LGBTIQA+ Greens
I also leaflet for the party. I run regular phonebanks. I do doorknocking. I’m my local party’s election coordinator.
Lots of us do lots of work for the party but also care deeply about LGBTIQA+ rights. And indeed many voters do too.
That’s why it’s important we have a position. The party has to be a party for social and environmental justice
A number of groups are drawing up similar lists of pledges for all candidates to respond to. Some candidates may not be expecting this and might find it unsettling as the pledges are probably not specific to the roles but rather might reflect the special interests of the groups.
Could the Election Returning Officer give some guidance on this especially with reference to rule 6.4 regarding group endorsements?
Good question.
Yes, there will be a big risk of peer compulsion and actually, I just want someone who will stick to their job description and carry it out, impartially and without fear or favour.
I don’t want candidates to sign niche pledges, particularly if they might agree with some aspects of a pledge-slate, but not others. It makes a candidate beholden.
There are already things with every candidate that I don’t like, but I can park them IF the candidate can assure me/ us that they stand for everyone, are fair-minded and are incorruptible.
I want each candidate to make their own pledges…to all of us.
Thank you for the coverage! #TransRightsAreHumanRights