Candidate is caught up in row with group
A council candidate has become embroiled in a row with a women’s rights group over transgender issues.
Gender-critical group the Sole Sisters say they were “absolutely shocked” at comments made to them by Janine Calikes, who is standing to represent Rutherglen Central and North for a second time.
Ms Calikes, an SNP candidate, declined to attend a meeting in Motherwell being held by the organisation, whose members say they aim to “protect women’s rights” in Scotland and are opposed to changes to gender recognition laws.
However, the local politician said she was “delighted” to refuse their invite, and said she would not attend a meeting on transgender issues without any transgender people being in attendance.
She added that she believed the purpose of the invitation was simply to find out which local candidates were in favour of trans rights, as gender recognition reform is not a local council matter.
A spokeswoman for the Sole Sisters told the Reformer: “We were absolutely shocked at the response.”
And the spokeswoman continued: “The meeting was simply about women’s rights and how the government proposals already are and will impact them.
“Everyone was welcome to attend and our speakers are experts in their fields, regardless of their sex.
“It is always worth noting that getting people to speak at these events requires a huge amount of courage as not many are willing to put themselves at risk from the abuse of trans rights activists.”
And she continued: “We had a very polite exchange with another councillor who was simply mistaken in that they thought we were a branch of For Women Scotland and everyone else who replied was respectful.”
In her response to the group Ms Calikes stated that having a debate on transgender issues without anyone trans present was the same as discussing disabilities with no disabled people there.
Ms Calikes told us that she had no regrets over how she handled the matter, and accused Sole Sisters of acting in “bad faith” over the debate.
She said: “Sole Sisters has been acting in bad faith and I make no apology for rejecting them in a forthright manner.
“I am an intersectional feminist who subscribes to the great Maya Angelou’s idea that none of us are free until all of us are free.
“This anonymous individual or group claims to support women’s rights yet regularly targets women who disagree with them.
“Since being singled out by them, I have had to turn off comments on all of my social media due to the unacceptable misinformation and abuse – some of it deeply misogynistic in nature – levelled at myself but also at the LBGT community.
“I came into local politics to give women like myself a voice in shaping their communities and services.”
And she added: “I won’t be intimidated, I will always stand up for what’s right and I certainly won’t wheesht.”
The Motherwell meeting went ahead as planned, with Conservative and Independence For Scotland candidates in attendance.