Women need their own words, spaces, rights to assemble

I care because I am a Woman. I care because I have a daughter. Women need their own words, spaces, rights to assemble. No other class of people would be told they must accept their oppressor into their own class of people. Moreover, my daughter is disabled and my responsibilities stretch beyond my own lifetime. I want to know her right to same-sex care will be protected. Her right to undress outwith the male gaze is maintained.

In a world in which Women are overly sexualised from an early age it is appalling that we would be asked to give up our privacy. Telling Women to embrace discomfort or that saying no is bigotry is coercive.

My Government has already redefined Woman in one Act- more will follow and in law Women will no longer be deemed to exist as a material reality. This terrifies me as if we do not exist as a material reality violence against Women disappears, sexism disappears, misogyny disappears. How often Women are told their concerns are ‘all in their head’ like their concerns are made up, imagined, but when something is in a man’s head it automatically becomes truth.

I have set up a social media account devoted to this subject in an attempt to get information to as many Women as possible since Governments are not informing Women of the changes that are being made. I attended a demonstration. I attend Women’s meeting. I leafleted re GRA reform. I have written to politicians.

I have been name-called on social media. Being called Terf is a regular occurrence. I have been added to ‘Nazi’ lists. I have received threatening memes. And sexual comments have been made to me. I have been called stupid, and told I need re educated as many times as I have been called Terf.

EH, worried, exhausted but still standing