This reply to another tweet attacking Scotland’s national rape crisis organisation for not supporting today’s “sex not gender” amendment pretty much sums up this entire “debate” and how harmful it is to real efforts to protect women and survivors. This is what it all comes to.

These are the people “gender criticals” are aligning themselves with. People who couldn’t care less about women. Men who are blatant misogynists. Meanwhile women who dedicate their lives to challenging violence against women and supporting survivors are the ones being attacked.

This isn’t an isolated example. The overlap between these two totally contradictory positions is available for anyone to see, repeatedly and continuously. The fact that people who try to claim some kind of moral high ground can ignore this says a lot about their priorities.

And today all but 9 MSPs voted to vindicate the vitriol of exactly these people, to no legal effect. An amendment that serves no purpose other than to sow division and send a hostile message to trans people. Some who call themselves allies to LGBT people. Explain that one for me.

The debate over this amendment should never have been allowed to become the story here. But this is what happens day after day when any issue involving women’s rights comes up. Anything other than the actual problem - gender inequality and men’s violence - becomes the story.

People supporting trans rights are framed by some as undermining feminist goals, yet it’s these campaigns which do exactly that on a daily basis. They actively seek to undermine feminist orgs - their reputations and their ability to get on with the work they’re trying to do.

The greatest beneficiaries out of this ongoing, seemingly endless, all-consuming debate are *anti-feminists* - people who want nothing more than to see women’s efforts towards equality derailed. This isn’t a coincidence. I’ve said it before and so have many more important people.

So this amendment, regardless of its legal effect, does send a strong message. A message not only about trans people but about the willingness of SNP, Labour and Tory MSPs to stand with the committed feminist campaigners who are under a concerted attack fuelled by disinformation.

I really think we’re at a pivotal moment where the influence of disinformation can win out or where it can be seriously resisted. Today is a step in the wrong direction on that front and I find it genuinely worrying - because what’s going to happen the next time, and the next?

I’m at a loss, so if anyone wants to explain to me why good people voted for this, knowing all of this as they clearly do, that would be much appreciated.