The Tlaxcala Gambit

 

An incredible story from Mexico today; here's the link to the original in Spanish, and the translation is below:

"And what never happens has happened again. The Force for Mexico party presented 18 male candidates for different positions in the state of Tlaxcala that were rejected by local electoral authorities for failing to comply with the legal parity required by Mexican laws. But the party was able to solve the problem quickly by registering its candidates who had previously registered as men as self-determined women.

"Surprisingly, in an extraordinary session, the General Council of the Tlaxcalteca Elections Institute (ITE) endorsed the party's registration of candidacies since, according to the majority of the members, the self-ascription of people's gender could not be legally questioned. Thus, no one can question the sincerity of the 18 requests for gender self-ascription, even though this was the number necessary for the party to comply with the principle of parity.

"Mexican LGBT collectives have questioned the decision because it involves the use of resources historically fought by the community, by changing "arbitrarily and suspiciously the self-registration of 18 male candidates."

Well, there you have it. We women had a good run for a few years, and now the men have taken it all back, by simply appropriating and colonizing womanhood itself. Our rights and our aspirations were just a joke. We will be thrust out of the halls of power once more, and will not even be able to complain about it lest we be cancelled for being phobic.

The UK is seeing movement in this same direction in its Labour Party: "Labour is embarking on a consultation on the inclusion of transgender women on all-women shortlists for parliamentary seats, after confirming they are welcome to stand without a gender recognition certificate." Dawn Butler, Labour’s shadow women and equalities secretary, emailed Labour colleagues this week setting out the formal position that trans women can self-certify as women to participate in an all-women’s shortlist." In other words, just as in Mexico, all a man has to do is say, "I identify as a woman" in order to run for seats designated for women's political participation.

I'm sure men are having a very good laugh, at our expense. What will we tell our daughters some day, when they ask how all that had been accomplished for women's rights was swept away so easily?