£11,000 Has Been Raised To Keep Trans Women Off All-Women Shortlists

11 female members of the UK Labour party have started a campaign to keep trans women off ‘all-women shortlists’ – which is a method of positive discrimination aimed at increasing the number of female MPs in the UK.

In some constituencies only women are allowed to stand for a particular party, currently this practice is used in the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats.

‘Keep All-Women Shortlists Female!’ is the name of the Go Fund Me campaign, which at the time of writing has raised over £11,000 of the £20,000 goal in 2 days, the page has been shared over 4.2k times.

‘Comrades, we are a group of Labour women who want to ensure all-women shortlists (AWS) remain reserved for females and that women's representation in the party increases,’ reads the description.

‘We believe that the election of self-identifying transwomen as women's officers and their inclusion on all-women shortlists is reducing and undermining female representation in the Labour party.’

The organisers plan to legally challenge the Labour party’s decision to include trans women on all-women shortlists, and will use the money raised on legal fees, any money left over will go ‘to fight against self-id, against the medicalisation of children and to keep women's spaces female-only, specifically: women's hospital wards, gyny screening, prisons, domestic violence shelters, changing rooms, saunas, spas, sleeper train carriages, scholarships, quotas and national and international women's sports,’ according to the Go Fund Me campaign description.

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Reactions to the campaign on social media have been ones of outrage, with people calling the organisers ‘transphobic,’ ‘cruel’ and ‘a rotten minority.’

This comes just months after Labour appointed its first ever transgender women’s officer, 19-year-old Lily Madigan, which reportedly angered not only the press, but Labour Party members too, according to the BBC.

Labour MP for Brent Central and shadow equalities minister, Dawn Butler has condemned the campaign in an interview with British political magazine The House; ‘I think if a trans woman wanted to be included in an all-women shortlist then that should be considered.

“I just don’t think people really need to make a big fuss about it. I mean if one of my team members came into the office and decided that James wanted to be called Jane and was now a woman I would not say “prove it, what do you mean?”’

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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.