Thread by @JackGillies99, The absolute scenes playing out amongst the Alba/Wings crowd has prompted me [...]

The absolute scenes playing out amongst the Alba/Wings crowd has prompted me to finally actually use this Twitter. Thread on the utter nonsense being spouted

The central claim being made is that Stonewall supports paedophilia. This is completely untrue and incredibly dangerous - and a pretty clear rehashing of a very old trope that LGBTI+ are a danger to children

The ‘evidence’ (and I use the term very lightly) of this relates to subclauses a and g of clause 14 of the feminist declaration drafted by the Women’s Rights Caucus ahead of the Fourth World Conference on Women (a UN conference)

The Women’s Rights Caucus is an international coalition of organisations, trade unions and other bodies that work in their respective countries and at the UN to advance gender equality, women’s rights and peace. Funnily enough only the LGBTI+ orgs are getting attacked

Now, onto the clause in question. First, subclause a. This is about healthcare, but it has been cherrypicked, taken out of context and wildly misinterpreted and misrepresented. Here’s the subclause in full

“Eliminate all laws and policies that punish or criminalize same-sex intimacy, gender affirmation, abortion, HIV transmission non-disclosure and exposure, or that limit the exercise of bodily autonomy, ...

including laws limiting legal capacity of adolescents, people with disabilities or other groups to provide consent to sex or sexual and reproductive health services or laws authorizing non-consensual abortion, sterilization, or contraceptive use;”

The bit about “sex” is not about sexual intercourse, but rather about medical services to do with biological sex (i.e. healthcare services for intersex people) and sexual and reproductive health services

It is NOT saying that paedophilia should be decriminalised, it’s saying that people should be able to receive healthcare

Now, onto the second piece of “evidence”: subclause g. Again, I’ll quote that subclause in full

“End the criminalization and stigmatization of adolescents’ sexuality, and ensure and promote a positive approach to young people's and adolescents’ sexuality that enables, recognizes, and respects their agency to make informed and independent decisions on matters concerning...

their bodily autonomy, pleasure and fundamental freedoms”. This has, again, been taken to mean that the document is advocating for the legalisation of paedophilia, and again this is complete rubbish

What this clause is essentially saying is that adolescents should be able to have relationships with other adolescents. It is absolutely not saying that adults should be allowed to have relationships with adolescents

I’d urge you to read the full document at http://iwhc.org/wp-content/upl … - it’s quite clear in saying that people should be protected from abuse and coercion

This needs to be called out, because what you have is bad-faith actors twisting information to the point where it has no relation to reality to paint groups of people they dislike as being dangers to society

Now, I’m an openly gay man who’s co-chair of an organisation that has always stood firmly against bigotry, so there’s a fair chance I’ll get some abuse by standing up, but when faced with hatred we cannot stay silent, it must be called out for what it is

I think one of the things that should always guide us when we campaign for independence is our vision for what sort of society we want to build, what sort of country we want to live in. I want to live in a country where fundamental human rights and dignity are respected

Most folk I’ve spoke to also want to see that, but unfortunately there are folk out there who treat groups they see as being “other” as being less worthy of rights, respect and dignity

There are folk out there who want to marginalise, undermine, just generally harm groups they see as “other”. We must call them out, because otherwise they bring our politics to a very dark place

Latest Threads Unrolled: