Transphobic candidates in the England and Wales Green Party internal elections, August 2022
If you’re in England and/or Wales and a Green Party member, you’ll have recently received an email inviting you to vote in the internal elections, which close on 31st August 2022.
Me and a friend did a bit of superficial research to find out whether candidates were transphobic before voting, so we’re putting what we found here so that you can go through the list of elections and this list of candidates side by side. I’ve put everything in the same order as it is in on the ballot page. Obviously you’ll be taking into account other issues when voting, but this may save you a little bit of time.
If you find anything that you think should be included here, please feel free to leave a private comment.
How voting works
There are nine votes, all on positions within the Green Party. For each position, members are invited to rank all the candidates by preference, with one additional option for “reopen nominations” (RON). This allows you to vote that you would rather give up on the election altogether than allow the people you ranked below RON to be voted into the position.
Summary
1. Deputy Leader
- ❌ Shahrar Ali
- ✅ Nick Humberstone
- ✅ Zack Polanski
- ✅ Tyrone Scott
2. Chair
- ✅❓ Jon Nott
- ✅ Ash Routh and Melanie Earp (nee Horrocks)
- ✅ Adrian Spurrell
- ❌ Alison Teal and Tina Rothery
3. Campaigns Co-ordinator
- ✅ Tom Scott
4. Elections Co-ordinator
- ✅ Brian Candeland
- ❌ Chris Holt and Alan Borgars
- ❌❓ Edward Milford
5. External Communications Co-ordinator
- ✅ Dylan Lewis-Creser
- ✅❓ Molly Scott Cato
6. Management Co-Ordinator
- ❌❓ Kefentse Dennis
- ✅❓ Stacy Smith
7. Internal Communications Co-ordinator
- ❌❓ Sarra Earl and Ivan Noke
- ✅ David Farbey
- ✅ Georgie Oatley and Nannette Youssef
8. Trade Union Liaison Officer
- ✅ Matthew Hull
- ❌❓ Kate Souper and Sarah Bingham
9. Policy Development Committee
- No comments
1. Deputy Leader
Four candidates: 1 mega-transphobic candidate, and three trans-supportive candidates.
❌ Shahrar Ali
Notorious outspoken transphobe. Has this transphobic dogwhistle in this statement: “a politician who can speak plainly on the importance of sex-based rights”.
✅ Nick Humberstone
✅ Zack Polanski
✅ Tyrone Scott
2. Chair
Four candidates: one duo that includes at least one trans person, one who has spoken supportively about trans rights, one enigma, and one duo with at least one outright anti-trans person in it.
✅❓ Jon Nott
I couldn’t find anything, except that Nott agreed to 8 of 9 LGBTIQA+ Greens pledges, and the only one they disagreed on was “3: Support reserved places on the Green Party Council for LGBTIQA+ people, which is to be created.” That seems acceptable?
✅ Ash Routh and Melanie Earp (nee Horrocks)
Ash Routh is queer according to their bio, and trans according to their pinned thread.
Melanie Earp/Horrocks has her pronouns in her bio, and supports trans rights:
✅ Adrian Spurrell
Spurrell has said: “I absolutely support protecting trans rights. Our society is often cruel in its dealing with trans people and hard won rights mustn’t be given away. I am not fully aware of the GRA’s text, but am fully supportive of the need for compassionate, supportive and straightforward processes for all people who are transitioning or questioning their gender.” In the LGBTIQA+ Greens pledges, Spurrell agreed to 6 of 9 pledges.
❌ Alison Teal and Tina Rothery
Alison Teal supports notoriously transphobic “charity” LGB Alliance:
I didn’t need to see any more from this duo.
3. Campaigns Co-ordinator
There is only one candidate, (✅) Tom Scott. In the LGBTIQA+ Greens pledges, Scott agreed to all 9 pledges.
His tweets seem pretty neutral on trans rights but he has made the observation that the right are happy to stoke a culture war about trans people:
4. Elections Co-ordinator
Three candidates, and one is explicitly supportive of trans people. Another is anti-GRC (transphobic), and the third is hard to snoop online but is supported by transphobes.
✅ Brian Candeland
❌ Chris Holt and Alan Borgars
I couldn’t find much about Chris Holt.
Alan Borgars:
❌❓ Edward Milford
I can’t find much online, but an organisation that supports only Shahrar Ali for Deputy Leader said to vote for Edward Milford.
5. External Communications Co-ordinator
Only two, and they’re both supportive of trans people.
✅ Dylan Lewis-Creser
… is nonbinary (they/them)!
✅❓ Molly Scott Cato
A mixed bag! She seems very vocally supportive of trans rights, but she seems to also have recommended Shahrar (the transphobic candidate right at the top of the page) as Policing & Domestic Safety Spokesperson, and she didn’t respond to the LGBTIQA+ Greens pledges.
6. Management Co-Ordinator
Two candidates, and neither of them have strong signals either way but have subtle signals indicating anti-transness.
❌❓ Kefentse Dennis
Speaks often on trans issues, but in a kind of covert, on-the-fence way. E.g. says trans people need safe spaces but doesn’t say whether those spaces should be separate from cis people, trans prisoners should be kept separate from cis prisoners, and this tweet that doesn’t say anything while being very outspoken about trans people. That organisation that says to vote for transphobe Shahrar Ali is supporting Kefentse Dennis though. For the LGBTIQA+ Greens pledges, Dennis didn’t agree to the pledge to support trans youth to access gender-affirming healthcare, which is why I’m putting the cross next to their name — but Dennis did agree to all the other 8 pledges.
✅❓ Stacy Smith
I can’t find much on social media, but in this article she is quoted referring to “safe-guarding” (a bit dogwhistly, but not enough for me on its own to be fair), and it says she currently works as chief executive officer of a women’s charity. I think it’s this charity Her Centre, because it looks like this is her in the YouTube video on this page. The charity refers to nonbinary people further down the page (good), and there’s another section that mentions “violence against women and girls” (again, bit dogwhistly), but I can’t find any other supportive or favourable reference to trans people at all on their website. It’s like it is very carefully avoiding mentioning that trans people are welcome and avoiding using transphobic dogwhistles. So, unclear. (Edit: Since writing this, someone has DMed me to say that the charity is inclusive, so that’s cool.) For the LGBTIQA+ Greens pledges, Stacy supported all 9 pledges — nice one.
7. Internal Communications Co-ordinator
Three candidates. One seems a bit suspish and is supported by transphobes, but two are trans-supportive.
❓❌ Sarra Earl and Ivan Noke
Sarra Earl RTed Alison Teal, the openly transphobic candidate above, but it was about something unrelated to trans issues and she otherwise makes no mention of trans people on Twitter at all.
When I googled Ivan Noke green party, this was the first result:
The Facebook post links to the profile of the Ivan Noke who is an admin of the group “Support The Green Party for a better future”, which this article confirms is the same person.
And that transphobe-supporting mailing list email says this pair should be your top choice.
✅ David Farbey
✅ Georgie Oatley and Nannette Youssef
I couldn’t find anything on their joint Twitter account, but Nannette Youssef says trans women are women, and wants a trans-supportive leadership candidate. For the LGBTIQA+ Greens pledges, they agreed to all 9 pledges, which is great.
8. Trade Union Liaison Officer
Two candidates: one supporter of trans rights, and one supported by transphobes.
✅ Matthew Hull
❓❌ Kate Souper and Sarah Bingham
I can’t find much, but that transphobe-supporting newsletter says to vote for them. For the LGBTIQA+ Greens pledges, they didn’t respond at all.
9. Policy Development Committee
There are five candidates, and I couldn’t find anything on any of them…! So, this section is empty.
