How UK's race for prime minister is marred by transphobia
How UK's race for prime minister is marred by transphobia
As the UK Conservative Party looks to elect a leader to replace the beleaguered Boris Johnson, the culture war issue of transphobia has come to the front and centre of the race.
So much so that television bosses were on Monday forced to scrap a planned debate between contenders for the leadership of Britain's Conservative party after MPs voted again to narrow down the field.
The five remaining candidates -- Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, Kemi Badenoch, Penny Mordaunt and Tom Tugendhat -- had been due to appear in the third televised debate on Tuesday night.
But former finance minister Sunak and Foreign Secretary Truss pulled out, Sky News, which was due to host the programme, said.
"Conservative MPs are said to be concerned about the damage the debates are doing to the image of the Conservative party, exposing disagreements and splits within the party," Sky added in a statement.
Let’s take a look at what’s happening:
Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt, Liz Truss and Kemi Badenoch -- who topped the second round of voting among Conservative MPs -- have all staked out anti-trans positions to appeal to the narrow constituency of Conservative Party members who tend to be whiter, older and more right-wing than the general public.
The candidates face a series of votes from lawmakers this week, who will narrow down the field to two, before facing a runoff among an estimated 180,000 Conservative Party members.
Rishi Sunak, Britain's former Chancellor of the Exchequer, who came in first, took to Twitter to pledge that he would protect ‘women’s rights’. Which sounds fair enough.
Excerpt for the post linking to a piece quoting an unnamed Sunak ally as saying that Sunak was "critical of recent trends to erase women via the use of clumsy, gender-neutral language."
If I become Prime Minister I will protect women’s rights and ensure women and girls enjoy the same freedom most males take for granted in feeling safe from assault and abuse.
Read more below #Ready4Rishi https://t.co/3cXn1rFhca
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