Author: bomp123

Categories
Healthcare Others

All women need the security of female only spaces and fair representation

This matters to me because all women need the security of female only spaces and fair representation.  Sexism cannot be addressed if we lose the ability to define each of the sexes unambiguously.

I have handed out leaflets in the street and talked to people to ask them to fill in the GRA consultation in 2018.  I have written to my MP and my children’s schools.  I have attended meetings and protests, signed petitions and contributed to crowd funders.  I am part of a sub-group that puts together info for one of our campaign groups to use in their campaigning.

I have made a point of catching up with all my current and former acquaintances who are school governors, on health boards etc and have made them aware of the situation and issues with safeguarding.  I strike up conversations with women I don’t know and give them FairPlay leaflets.  I occasionally post on social media, mostly Mumsnet with a few twitter posts.

I have been attacked on Twitter and it now makes me uneasy to use Twitter.  I have had a few friends distance themselves from me.  I have resigned from my political party and all the local members that I had thought of as friends are no longer in contact with me.

S

Categories
Voluntary sector

My organisation fights for the rights of all women and I don’t want to stop using the language I use to sound inclusive

My organisation fights for the rights of all women and I don’t want to stop using the language I use to sound inclusive. ALL WOMEN

I have set up a charity. Bintiperiod

On occasion I’ve been told I’m making things up

MKG, CEO and Founder

Categories
Transwidows

He left some very large women’s clothes in a cupboard where I was bound to find them

I am a transwidow. For 14 years I was married to a man who did everything to destroy my love and in the last 4 years taunted me mercilessly. He wanted me to hit him so that he could go to the police and prosecute me for domestic violence. I did not. Finally he left some very large women’s clothes in a cupboard where I was bound to find them and when I asked he said: “It’s true. I’m a transsexual”. Four months later he left us.

Slowly I found gender-critical feminist women on line and I started to learn about the psychiatric and legal framework for gender dysphoria. I had no idea that my life could be so “disposable” to him. Actually I was a victim of premeditated fraud: he tried to take my house and my savings from me, but I resisted such blatant attempts. I should have kicked him out much earlier. He is a criminal – a psychiatrist who knew him well described him as “something of a psychopath”.

More morally energetic men, such as Walt Heyer and Richard Hoskins, have found a way out of the rabbit hole. GD sufferers do know that their beliefs are untenable. That is why they are so, so touchy about anyone who questions these beliefs. But we must not condone insanity.

I have contributed to the Transwidows Escape Committee threads (all 3) on Mumsnet. For 10 years I have written comments under news and other articles on line. I have made contact with the main feminist campaigning groups and met their founders at various meetings all over the southern half of the UK. I know about 5 or 6 transwidows. In 2019 I finally set up transwidows.com (not to be confused with TinselAngel’s Transwidowsvoices.org). I have concentrated on logic or legal or professional psychiatric issues in my comments.

I am campaigning for repeal of the GRA and associated bits of the Equality Act 2010 because these laws condone insanity. I want to attack the laziness and cowardice of the GD psychiatric specialists. They have betrayed their Hippocratic oath to “do no harm”.

I have been banned from commenting under Daily Mail articles – my first tilt at the GD “windmill”. But, as I said above, I have confined my comments to verifiable statements or facts with references.

UW, Transwidow, Scientistranswidow

Categories
Healthcare Voluntary sector

I have bought extra copies of academic books to share

This matters to me because freedom of speech , freedom of thought, freedom of belief and assembly are essential in a healthy  democracy.

2018 – I was in a major National museum  and noticed a Trans person (mtf) using  a very busy female toilet full of young schools girls, mums with babies/toddlers etc.  Unisex toilets were available on another floor. Later I respectfully  asked the info desk if toilet was ‘female ‘ as signed or ‘unisex’. Young male responded it was ‘female’ but ” anyone who identified as female could use it and he wouldn’t have a problem”. I asked him to record my comment inc. my awareness of the  provisions in the EQ Act .

After educating myself by reading books/blogs/research papers and attending events (secret and public) for the last  year consistently (once a week) I have invited individual professional female friends to my house for lunch with the specific purpose of raising awareness about the erasure of womens hard won sex based rights. Thats a lot of tea!

I have bought extra copies of academic books to share also used other guidance from Transgender Trend and followed up my informal conversations with updates about events etc.; met with my eight MSPs ; alerted contacts  to the GRA consultation; personally delivered hundreds of leaflets through doors; have left a political women’s group and wrote a letter explaining  my reasons and personally handed  it to two female MPs so they would know what was going on; spent a year trying to get issue raise at local level of an children’s organisation I volunteered with for 15yrs finally with help of a discussion paper for schools ( thank you  Transgendered Trend) I was able to raise issue as affects vulnerable children; was granted meeting with someone responsible for training volunteers after our meeting  I gave them the Prof Michelle Moore et al book to read; have spoken with my local Catholic parish members and priest.

I have been aware of feeling anxious / tense and worried when raising this issue and the need to be sensitive to each person and their level of understanding of all the issues. Probably lost a few ‘friends’.

Cactus club,  thick skinned, survives in harshest conditions, not troubled by pricks

Categories
Voluntary sector

It has been stressful and frustrating for myself and other staff

I care because in my organisation, I have found that the constant blurring of sex, gender and gender identity in organisational policies, blogs, guidelines and training materials at best undermines their effectiveness, and at worst installs regressive and harmful stereotypes.

I care because I value the power of data to advance the rights of all, and am deeply concerned about the quality of my organisations’ evidence when we use confusing terms like ‘non-man’ or ‘woman-identifed’ in staff or community surveys.

I care because women in the UK are losing their jobs or on ‘performance improvement plans’ for speaking up.

I care because I think there is real work that must take place to fight genuine anti-rights actors and human rights abuses around the world, and until we tackle head-on the issues of conflicting rights we cannot move forward.

I have rewritten guidelines, tools, research papers and strategic documents that: used gender identity instead of sex; included incorrect or problematic definitions of gender; did not use the word women in the name of inclusion and intersectionality. 

I have carefully spoken to staff across the organisation about this issue – always from a rights-based perspective – asking questions, sharing blogs or studies when relevant. I have repeatedly attempted to influence senior managers to follow correct Equality Act legislation rather than Stonewall guidance (with partial success). I have flagged reputational risks of alienating female supporters.

I have listened to women who have been told their feminism is ‘trash’ (by men) and spent time explaining to staff why calling other staff members ‘TERF’ is unacceptable, whilst trying my best to build bridges across staff communities. I have lobbied for spaces to discuss these issues in the workplace.

The negative consequences have been opaque and veiled warnings: be careful, get in line, be inclusive.

There have been impacts on workloads – without a serious policy framework language must be agreed on an exhausting and time consuming case-by-case basis. Hours have been spent drafting detailed policy recommendations that carefully address conflicts of rights which are swiftly ignored or rebutted with the mantra ‘we will be inclusive’ with no time spent engaging in any of the substance.

On an emotional level, it has been stressful and frustrating for myself and other staff. I know a number of staff who feel silenced, and unable to discuss openly on our online work platform because of the backlash, which has included warnings by senior managers. Meanwhile, potentially negative impacts of policy capture and new strategic direction on the communities we work with are yet unknown and unexplored.

Anonymous, Working on Women’s Rights for a UK INGO

Categories
Healthcare Men

As a gay man, I thought I was part of a movement which was dismantling gender stereotypes

This matters to me because I’m a gay man who supports feminism. I see sexism as the fundamental structural inequality. It means that women are unsafe in their homes, workplaces and the street and disadvantaged in every part of their lives. It also means that lesbian, gay and bisexual people and all gender non-conforming people (assertive women and feminine men) are under attack.

As a gay man, I thought I was part of a movement which was dismantling gender stereotypes. Now I feel the LGBT movement is reinforcing sexist stereotypes and dismantling the protections and special provisions that are meant to try to rebalance a sexist society. Self ID and encouragement of children to be trans is the opposite of progress.

I want full legal and social protection for trans people who definitely face discrimination but not at the expense of women’s spaces, sports and sexual equality provisions.

I try to discuss through Facebook but am worried about LGBT activists.

S

Categories
Voluntary sector

I was born with a condition which meant my reproductive organs were not formed properly

This matters to me for two reasons; One, it’s a fundamental threat to women’s rights. and more personally, I was born with a condition which meant my reproductive organs were not formed properly. This was and has been given many names over the years but it remains and issue which is dealt with in the shadows of healthcare and support. Most people just don’t know anything about it. And that’s the way most of us have lived our lives.

It’s newest name is Intersex, which is an umbrella term and doesn’t really accurately reflect any womans experiece and has also had the misfortune of sounding like we are some hybrid between two sexes. Needless to say this misnomer has been a gift to the ‘gender’ movement.

Now I have to read about how our complex health and in some cases mental health issues somehow ‘prove’ that biological sex doesn’t exist. And if I speak up I’m a ”TERF’

I work for a charity and whilst it hasn’t really been a major focus. We have had one diversity training session which spent a lot of time on trans issues but at that time I wasn’t really focused on it. Now I dread a Stonewall type session- I really don’t think I could stomach it without possibly getting in trouble.

The only saving grace of this pandemic is that the focus will be on financial survival and other health strategies for my employer for the near future.

I’m a coward and don’t speak up. That said I used to be able to talk online in a private forum about my condition, but there’s nowhere safe to do that now.

Rena, in the shadows

Categories
Voluntary sector

As an ex prisoner I was horrified at the policies allowing men into women’s prisons

I came to the transgender debate via 3 main channels. Firstly as an ex prisoner I was horrified at the policies allowing men into women’s prisons and could not imagine the thought of women I’d known and cared about having to share cell and living space with men, particularly knowing how traumatised by men many of those women had been. That was my introduction.

Secondly as a lesbian I was alarmed to see the increasing numbers of young lesbians being referred to gender clinics, and realising that their self hatred and discomfort was being used to legitimise what I came to see as a men’s sexual rights movement.

Thirdly, I have a daughter, and while I’ve always called myself a feminist, the call to activism came as a measure to try and make the world better for her and my friend’s daughters. Silence was not an option.

I have over the past 6 years become increasingly vocal against the trans lobby. I have joined many feminist groups, helped develop and execute campaigns with ReSisters, Fair Play for Women and many others. I’ve organised and taken part in many protests, including marching at the front of Manchester Pride with Get The L Out.

I attracted nationwide controversy when I was barred from my local pub for wearing a feminist T shirt. This attracted a lot of press coverage and radio interviews in which I tried to take the opportunity to bring the issues to an audience outside feminism.

More recently I’ve been concentrating on the issues facing detransitioned women and the unique challenges they face. I will continue to work to elevate their voices and I will never stop asking hard questions about trans ideology.

The first thing to happen was that I lost 70% of my friends locally and was threatened with violence from people in my town whom I have never met nor would even recognise on the street, which was a little disconcerting.

I run charity projects providing aid to refugee women and my main donation base is women, specifically mothers, who may pull funding if they know I’m a vocal activist, so keeping these projects separate is always a tightrope act.

The main harrassment I receive is online, which is easily brushed off, but being painted as a bigot in my home town has been difficult. Especially when it’s coming from people who’ve known me for years and know that I’m the opposite. I think possibly the most negative consequence has been really, properly seeing the misogyny that pervades every aspect of life and once you see it there’s really no going back. On the bright side though, the women I’ve met through feminism have been the best friends I’ve ever had and I have no doubt that together we can pull the plug on all this madness.

Rebekah W, Gobby lesbian single mum with pockets full of terrifying feminist propaganda

Categories
Healthcare Others

I’m grateful my daughter is grown up and not the toddler that insisted she was a boy

I care about women’s rights, freedom of speech, democracy. I dislike and fear authoritarian and violent nature of trans activism. I care about democracy and rights of women to meet, right to speak out. I care about accurate use of English language. I care about accurate data. I care about safeguarding children, and vulnerable women. I’m against gay conversion therapy whether it’s psychological by churches or medical and physical by voluntary organisations and the medial establishment. I’m grateful my daughter is grown up and not the toddler that insisted she was a boy.

I responded to consultations on reform of GRA in Scotland and Westminster, to implementation of Gender Representation on Public Boards, evidence on conflation of sex and gender to Scottish Government, responded to Hate Crime consultation. Write to MP, MSP, Cancer Research UK of effect of self ID on clinical trials. I’ve talked to friends and family and small group of people and arranged talk for same group. I’ve attended meetings. Left leaflets in books, metro on buses other public places.

I’ve had some angry messages when I arranged discussion of issues to small group.

Luddite, born in 60s, grew up 80s.

Categories
Others

I find it challenging that the debate is so out of control that there is no debate allowed

I believe that trans people should have equal rights and be treated with love and respect AND I believe that women only spaces should be protected. I find it challenging that the debate is so out of control that there is no debate allowed.

I’ve done very little – it feels toxic/dangerous.

I’ve witnessed negative consequences for others.

Lucy