Author: bomp123

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Self employed / entrepreneurs

I have an impressionable 12yr old son who I worry would be easily dragged into this madness

I care because I am a woman and the old-fashioned kind of feminist who cares about the rights of women and girls.   I care because I have an impressionable 12yr old son who I worry would be easily dragged into this madness that I view “woke” as.   Also, I don’t like being told what to do – I don’t want to be in the situation where pronouns are always requested. 

I have debated online and with friends.   I have raised issues at governing body meetings at my local school. 

I have been involved in quite hurtful social media spats.   On my Facebook page I posted an article about “Karen” White and commented that penises should not be in a women’s prison.   For this I was called homophobic, disgusting, and a disgrace by a work colleague.  

Vic

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Others

If any man can say he’s a woman then all women and girls are at risk

It matters because if any man can say he’s a woman then all women and girls are at risk in what should be single sex only spaces. I do not want to be at risk from these strange males, most of whom, I found out, do not get any SRS and are heterosexual. I now use disabled toilets wherever possible and I have not used any changing rooms in over 2 years. I would like to go swimming but simply can’t because I don’t want these males near me in changing rooms.

As a lesbian it is also very important to me that heterosexual and bisexual males are excluded from our groups and clubs, etc. It does not matter if they have had surgery, they are still male and I do not want them there.

I’ve mostly talked with family in real life (they agree with me) and online with other people who agree. I have been to one meeting with forwomen scot and it was very good.

I got banned from the lgbt and lesbian groups in my city. People simply stopped talking to me. None of them want to know me simply because I say humans cannot change sex and I won’t date a transgender and I want single sex spaces.

Jodie

Categories
Healthcare Public Sector

I quickly realised it was largely abuse survivors and women worried about their children speaking up

It was, in the first instance a bullying issue for me. I was a Labour Party officer, responsible for membership in our CLP and was appalled at the way a small local group were being allowed to mistreat and slander women.

When I started talking to people, I very quickly realised that it was largely abuse survivors and women worried about their children who were speaking up and in both cases, they seriously needed back up. I was a ‘known terf’ by then and thought ‘oh well, I’m out there – may as well get on with it.’

I have written blog posts, and articles for newspapers.

 I have attended planning groups for women’s organisations, and spoken at a WPUK meeting.

I spent as much time as I could spare visiting women’s groups in different areas, and having one-to-one meetings with people I felt could use more support and/or had something to teach me about the issues involved.

I did try to put a motion through my local Labour Party but, after my branch passed it almost unanimously, the LP withdrew it as ‘controversial’ after a man had a tantrum in another branch.

I have been extensively slandered on social media and in my home town – bizarrely, this has had positive consequences as well as negative ones – a colleague and I organised a WPUK meeting in my town which was an enormous positive overall, but led to members of the local Pride group sending slanderous letters about us to the council and to any venue in town they could think of so, I’m self-employed, and have probably lost business through being ‘controversial’ and have certainly suffered a lot of stress.

I was turned down by the local Labour Party as a council candidate. The stated reason was that there was a complaint about me in process but, when I went to an appeal hearing, the reason given was they didn’t like my blog.

Did I lose friends? Not really – losing false friends leads to finding new and more interesting ones.

Kay Green, socialist feminist, former Labour Party officer

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Parent

I care because my daughter declared herself trans male at age 13, she has now desisted

I care because my daughter declared herself trans male at age 13, she has now desisted.

I raised concerns during multiple CAMHS meetings with my daughter expressing concern at their unquestioning acceptance of her trans status, despite a pre-existing ASD diagnosis and clear signs of social influence from a key friend at school.

I have also written to Amnesty about their support for self ID (particularly their campaign for there to be no age limit on the legal process) and subsequently cancelled my membership. I also talk regularly to friends about our experience.

I have been cautious about being open on social media about our situation out of concern for my daughter’s privacy. I have avoided negative consequences by being hugely cautious about speaking out on this topic.

AJT, Mother of a daughter, who was trans and now isn’t

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Others

Women are having their words, their spaces, their privacy and their dignity ripped from them by men

I care because women are having their words, their spaces, their privacy and their dignity ripped from them by men.

I have written to my MP twice (no reply).  I have contributed to many crowdfunders.  I have made my prioritisation of women’s rights clear at my workplace.  

I had a Labour Party canvasser at my doorstep tell me he didn’t want votes from ‘’women like me’ when I explained my concerns.  

Charlotte, Woman

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Others

I have to take a thousand different precautions to keep myself safe – but these are useless if men are free to use women’s spaces

It matters to me because as a woman I have to take a thousand different precautions to keep myself safe – but these are useless if men are free to use women’s spaces. Before lockdown, I hadn’t been to my nearest city, less than an hour away, for several months, because the last time I went there was a man in the public toilets in the central library. I don’t know where else to go to the loo safely!

It matters to me because women’s opportunities are precious. We’ve fought hard to get them.

It matters to me because as a girl, me and two of my friends campaigned to be able to do woodwork at secondary school. We won, and the three of us excelled at it, carrying on with it for 5 years and passing an exam in it. Moreover, two years later, instead of girls doing cookery and boys doing woodwork, everyone had a term each of cookery, woodwork and metalwork. I’m really proud we helped bring about that change. But if we did that today, we might well be told we were really boys and be pressured into transitioning. I never wanted to be a boy – but what aboout my parents? Did my father really want a son?

I was vocal on twitter until my anonymous account was closed. While I was there I tried to engage with people who were open to discussion – not easy on twitter, and it did get quite stressful.

I have joined the local ReSisters group.

I have started having conversations with “woke” family members  – it took me months to build up the courage and find the words to do that.

My twitter account was closed.

Sue, Low paid, invisible yet apparently essential

Categories
Healthcare Others

I feel excluded from forums that previously welcomed me

As an old rad feminist I’m genuinely frightened by what’s happening. This is the biggest attack on women’s rights since we first gained them; it’s a huge safeguarding issue; it’s directly linked to the rise of misogyny, to the pornification of society.

I’ve joined public and private GC women’s groups, supported others through crowdfunders, with advice and on line, written to my (Labour) MP and met with them (to no avail), made FoI requests of our devolved government about a lack of an EA in their trans policy (no joy), leafleted the Welsh Labour Party conference, talked to friends and family to try to raise awareness.

I became a member of our Children’s Commissioner’s advisory group but have yet to find a way to have the necessary face-to-face discussions. Mainly personal stress/distress at the lack of political concern/interest (at best) and outright hostility at worst. I am involved in social justice / community-building initiatives and had an excellent relationship with local politicians. This has come to an end, undermining my capacity to make a positive difference. I feel excluded from forums that previously welcomed me.

Vanessa, old, tired, disenfranchised but still fighting

Categories
Lesbians

We banned him from lesbian events for touching women without their consent

I’m a lesbian and was for years active in a women’s centre which acted as a hub for local lesbian activities and groups and support. I and other volunteers held monthly brunch meetings for lesbian women, we had a monthly lesbian feminist group, a monthly cafe event, a newsletter that publicised everything from walks and bike rides and dining clubs and festivals and weekends away to personal ads. We probably reached the best part of 1000 women. We had innumerable women tell us we’d been a life-saver for them. People actually moved to this area because they knew there was this wonderful, open, established lesbian network they could plug into.

Then a trans-rights activist in a wig and lipstick and long nails came to a couple of our events. 

He stood out because he didn’t look like the rest of us. We asked him to leave. He refused. He came to a brunch, made a speech about how he’d come to educate lesbians about transgender issues and, as women tried to leave the room, forcibly hugged them. They made complaints to us. We banned him from lesbian events for touching women without their consent and took the issue to the police who did nothing. The trans-identified man said he’d take the women’s centre down. And he did.

He applied to become a committee member. The committee at that time was dominated by straight white Momentum Labour women who welcomed him. The BAME women, many of whom are not allowed by their faith to attend events where there is a man present, took their funding and left. Many of the lesbians boycotted the women’s centre events in protest. The women’s centre closed down. The lesbian women’s movement fractured as some women took a GC stance and others took the ‘poor transgender people’ stance. Friends fell out. Younger lesbians told off older lesbians for their failure to be kind and reasonable. This fracture in the lesbian community is still festering and I can’t see a time when we will ever be able to rebuild what we had.

I have educated my MP about this, but while she’s sympathetic and makes GC noises to my face she still maintains a supportive pro-trans public persona.

I’ve written 50+  letters and emails to the BBC, the Guardian and other media organisations, occasionally with success (ie, articles have been changed, headlines have been changed) Lots of emails to Radio 4!

I send postcards of support to many women, particularly whose who are fighting alone within their professions/ institutions.

I’m out and proud as GC on my very secure FB page and found that as soon as I started talking about it, quite a few others started saying that they’d felt the same way but had felt uncomfortable about discussing such things.

I’ve taken a firm, rational, non-emotional GC line in lesbian social groups etc and while some people are offended, I usually find that the majority even if they’re silent at the time, sidle up later to say they agree.

I belong to a Resisters group and have stickered and gone out on the streets leafleting. Again, the majority of people agree with a GC line.

Once you start talking to people you realise that 80% are GC, 10% are confused or don’t care and fewer than 10% really take the TWAW line — and even then can’t justify that belief.

I’ve lost several people with whom I thought I’d be friends for life. I had a lesbian GP friend who is now so deeply enmeshed in transgender ideology that she has gone off to specialise in transgender medicine and refers to me openly as a TERF. She spouts all the Mermaids stuff about hundreds of trans teens killing themselves and won’t hear a rational response. It’s brought out a sort of Messiah complex in her: she’s going to rescue and protect all the poor transpeople. It’s profoundly disturbing to realise that even someone like her — clever, educated, years of experience in public service in the NHS — is so emotionally and intellectually susceptible to irrational ideology. 

I’ve also been very badly patronised by younger women friends who think their brand of feminism (intersectional feminism) is better than my 1970s/1980s feminism. It’s come as a real shock to realise that these apparently impeccably feminist young women don’t centre women in their politics. Some of them treat me as if I have learning difficulties. You know: ‘You can’t blame Issilly for her opinions, she comes from the medieval school of feminism where women hate all men…’

The biggest negative consequence has been realising how irrational and misogynistic and homophobic the world still is, under the guise of being ‘nice’. Lesbians are under attack from all sides, including other lesbians. I feel really glad to have had a wonderful 30 years of positive lesbian feminist culture and so sorry for younger lesbians who have nothing that I had to cling onto.

Issilly, who was just a lesbian until she discovered she was actually a radical lesbian feminist

Categories
Healthcare Men

I saw women being attacked at the Anarchist Bookfair in 2017

Initially, I cared because I saw women being attacked at the Anarchist Bookfair in 2017 and the annual bookfair ending as a result. Since, I have been profoundly shocked by the misogyny of transactivists and the othering of their critics. As an affluent straight middle-aged white male, it all tends to be rather abstract, but I just can’t get past transactivists denying gender is a social-power construct within capitalism and the fact they vociferously accuse lesbians of being vagina fetishists but don’t apply that logic to straight men. The whole area of gender reassignment for children is very disturbing.

I used the fact that our radical publishers had a bookstall at the 2018 Radical Bookfair at Goldsmiths to help Jeni Harvey publish a pamphlet to be displayed their. This resulted in a very public confrontation with trans-activists and our ejection from the fair.

We, Chronos Publications, are now effectively banned from the remaining Anarchist bookfairs and the Radical bookfair. For example, the T&Cs for the latest ‘Anarchist Festival’ encourages attendees to take direct action against hate-speech. That’ll be us then based previous experience. We can’t get books placed in Freedom and their are some issues with Housmans. Other radical booksellers have secretly shown support but can’t say anything publicly.

Bryn Bazzard, Bryn, not seeking authority through one liner bio

Categories
Healthcare Others

I also care about ‘the wrong type of trans’

I care about this issue because this affects all of us.  From women being allowed single sex spaces and the fight against misogyny for that, to children being medically transed by woke parents.  Child safeguarding is a massive concern within this agenda.  I also care about ‘the wrong type of trans’, these people just want to get on with things and contribute to society in a normal way.

I have lost several twitter accounts due to speaking out about women’s rights.  I have supported small independent rad fem businesses.  I have donated to crowd funders and spread awareness of the issues we face.

I’ve experienced TRA pile ons, dealt with furries, MAPs and a whole load of inbetweens, trying to normalise their behaviour. 

V, Terf