To mark this year’s International Women’s Day, Propel has outlined its position on the need to safeguard women and girl’s rights.
This includes supporting the principle of single sex spaces, the right to single sex sports to ensure fairness and safety at all levels of competition and the right to receive intimate services such as washing, dressing, and counselling delivered by women.
This comes as the Labour Government in Wales recently unveiled plans to make it easier for someone to legally change their gender, similar to legislation recently put forward by the Scottish government.
Propel party leader Neil McEvoy, said:
“On this issue, Propel’s stance is crystal clear: women’s rights must be protected.
“Self-identification possible over a period of months represents a danger to women and children; it allows biological males in all women’s spaces. Recent events in Scotland regarding women’s prisons has clearly demonstrated how the system can be manipulated and abused. We must stand up and oppose the Labour Government in Wales riding roughshod over women’s rights. We must protect female only changing rooms, sports, prisons, and groups. Biological men should not be allowed in women's spaces. The erasure of women must stop.
“The public are rightly concerned about this issue. More and more women, men and young people are expressing their opposition, illustrated by the recent protest against unisex toilets in a Mountain Ash secondary school. The only people who don’t seem to be able to gauge public reaction about this are the woke politicians sitting in Cardiff Bay.
“Propel agrees that we need a consistent, unequivocal definition of sex. What is a man and a woman, a transman and transwoman. Does a woman have a penis? Does a man have a vagina? These fundamental questions seem to be ignored by the Welsh Government. They cannot continue to hide behind the slogan that “trans men are men; trans women are women”. It is not good enough.
“The policy of Labour, Plaid Cymru, Greens and Lib Dems in Wales supports biological men competing with women. The Conservatives seem to be on the fence. In contrast, Propel supports women's sport. Women's sport must be just that. Allowing biological men to compete with women, because of how they identify will undoubtedly destroy women's sport. Crucially, when it comes to contact sport, the priority must be safety and not inclusion.
“Propel, it seems, is the only political party with a clear position on this issue.
“We also believe that women have the right to be heard without experiencing intimidation or violence. Free speech is already too eroded, without women being called into police stations for stating biological fact. Male rentamobs with black masks are also now becoming an unfortunate norm attempting to stop women speaking in public. Propel stands with our sisters in solidarity.
#IWD2023 #EmbraceEquity #PropelWales #FreeWales
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Notes to the Editor
For more information, please contact Neil McEvoy on [email protected] or 07974 439640
- The policy in full:
Propel:
- aims to safeguard the rights of women and girls.
- believes that women have the right to be heard without experiencing intimidation or violence.
- supports single sex spaces.
- supports the right of women to have a right to receive intimate services such as washing, dressing, and counselling delivered by women.
- believes women have the right to single sex sports to ensure fairness and safety at all levels of competition.
- believes that women have the right to organise themselves according to their sex class across a range of cultural, leisure, educational and political activities.
- Propel acknowledges and promotes all of the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010 which are age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation and sex as well as political beliefs and language which currently fall outside of the Act.
2. International Women's Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women's equality.