Passing the Hot Potato by Mark Drakeford

Following on from PrideCymru2022, where campaign group  Get The L Out UK were told to leave by South Wales Police, we attended a ‘Future of Wales event. Here, we share the question we put to First Minister for Wales, Mark Drakeford, asking why Women in Wales in 2022 are frightened to speak about their sex-based rights. We attended with Women’s Rights Network Wales.

Mark Drakeford - happy to hold the trans flag and wear the tie, but not to meet with Women:

Mark Drakeford spoke at the meeting about the difficult discussions necessary for the Cooperative Agreement to succeed. He challenged those who are apt to ‘pass on the hot potato’ .. hear how he passes the ‘hot potato’ of Women’s rights on to Julie James MS, to answer.

(closed captions available on each video, written transcript at end of article):

Lisa-Marie Taylor, CEO of FiLiA addresses Mark Drakeford, First Minister of Wales

Mark Drakeford, First Minister of Wales answers Lisa-Marie Taylor, CEO of FiLiA

Julie James MS, gives a direct response:

“ I don’t want to have a single woman’s voice silenced under any circumstances. I’m more than happy to make that commitment [enabling Women to be heard] and I know that other colleagues in the Welsh Government are more than happy to make that commitment too. ”
— Julie James MS

FiLiA has been shocked at the fear relayed to us by so many organisations and individuals in Wales – fear of attacks, and loss of funding. We are very pleased at the commitment to meet with Welsh Women who are trying to be heard on this important topic. We look forward to Women’s Rights Network Wales, LGBA Cymru, Merched Cymru and others finally being heard.

#1: TRANSCRIPTION of FiLiA QUESTION:

Hi, I’m Lisa-Marie …  I am CEO of a Women’s Rights Charity [FiLiA] and we work to amplify the voices of Women, particularly those less often heard or purposefully silenced. And we hold an annual conference, and our conference this year we are thinking we will get about 1,500 in Cardiff, and I always spend a year in the city where that conference is going to be held, and so I’ve spent a year in and around Cardiff, going around Wales, speaking to individuals, community groups, national NGOs and  a topic that comes up (and it won’t surprise you) time and time and time again …  is the topic of sex based rights, and the Women are broadly falling into two categories: one of those who are speaking out about sex-based rights; Merched Cymru,  Women’s Rights Networks Wales, LGB Alliance Cymru who are out there saying our sex based rights are really really important and we want to protect them. But I think, more importantly to me is that other group … which is saying they are frightened to speak; that is women in 2022 saying they are frightened to speak about rights in the Equality Act that they already have, and this cannot be right.

So, my question is … can you commit to listening to these women; enabling them to be heard, stopping them being frightened in the 21st century about talking about their rights? What commitments can you give around that? Thank you.

#2: TRANSCRIPTION OF MARK DRAKEFORD’S ANSWER:
The way that we as a government we try to come at it is to look for ways in which people can find some common ground, and not to use language and not to use arguments that end up just pushing people further apart from one another in an issue which has plenty of that in the mix already.

#3: TRANSCRIPTION OF JULIE JAMES’ ANSWER:

I am very happy to say straight off that I don’t want to have a single woman’s voice silenced under any circumstances no matter what their views or whether I agree with them, [before I’ve really heard them] or not, so I’m more than happy to say we’re happy to listen to any single women or group of women who want to speak to us and I also just want to say that I don’t think the attempts [to protect one group of people] takes away the rights of another or their voices and I really want to make sure that we work with you to make sure that people don’t feel that their voices aren’t heard and that there is a safe space for them to voice those opinions so I’m more than happy to make that commitment and I know that other colleagues in the Welsh Government are more than happy to make that commitment too.

DiaryJ SteinSex-Based Rights