The Gender Dissidents SurveyThis matters to me because we need and fought for single sex services, spaces and language and I will not give them up.
I have spoken in my role as a councillor on Leeds City Council.
I have been reported to the police, to my employer and threatened.
Sarah Field, Councillor, Leeds City Councillor
This matters to me because I see opportunities being stripped from women and girls on a systematic basis. Women’s spaces, women’s sport, women’s identities – it seems like everything is up for grabs.
I have voiced my opinion on social media, and made sure that my children hear my side of the argument.
Tons of abuse, threats of doxxing (although I am very careful because I would be sacked), threats of assault.
Clytemnestra , Geordie Mum. Quiet-abiding, rarely raise my head above the parapet
I care because as a woman I am terrified of the misogyny from people. I am terrified our rights will be removed and language will be changed to disregard “women” I am scared for the future just to appease the minority.
I’ve posted on social media and discussed in work.
I have been called a terf by a colleague in work.
Louise, It isn’t Hate to speak the Trith, Bumcrackannie
I care about all rights and equal rights, but I am a woman, a lesbian. I have been called a terf, verbally abused on line and during marches, having to be in a group for fear of reprisal… for saying a sex and gender are not the same, being called transphobic for saying a trans woman is not a biological woman and certainly not a lesbian.
I have to be careful about my views at work for fear of repercussions especially when trying to raise safeguarding concerns for young children and people who say they are trans…without any proper evaluation or analysis of their living situation.
I’ve joined marches, online groups, twitters, help crowd funding to name a few.
I have been called terf, bitch, cunt.
DK, Womansworld65
This matters to me as a concerned woman, a mum of amazing daughters, an abuse survivor. This proposed legislation leaves women vulnerable to males seeking to use legislative changes to enter women’s safe spaces
I’ve written to MP, MSP, donated to fundraisers.
Izzi
I’m a 52 year old menopausal woman. I’ve experienced my life as a woman. I’ve had to look after myself, deal with sexual harassment, painful periods, pregnancy, childbirth, an equal pay claim and a lifetime of navigating everything from overt to subtle sexism. I respect and support trans women but their experience is different to mine. They have experienced a different perspective.
I don’t discount anyone’s experience but I want my experience as an adult human female to be valid and separate. It cannot be right that trans women can compete against women in sport. Please can we have diversity of perspective on this topic?
I’ve been moderately active on Twitter. I’ve supported financially where possible. I’ve talked to people – debated. I’ve tried to support women and trans women where I can.
Not experienced consequences so far…. but I’m worried
Jo C, Adult Human Female
My child identifies as trans and is aiming to access hormone treatment while still a teen. My child only recently identified as trans and has self diagnosed their gender dysphoria. Taking medication will affect my child forever. However, because I am uncertain that opting in to a potential lifetime of medical intervention at the age of 15 is something to question, I am thought of as transphobic.
On social media, parents with non-affirmative approaches to trans teens are often described as abusive.
I have questioned women’s loos being converted into GN loos as a way to support trans employees (who I was told would not apply for jobs without more provision of this kind). I have questioned a tick box on a form to identify unrepresented populations – ‘a cis gender female who identifies as a woman’.
When I have questioned whether my child is trans, friends have suggested I a) might not know my child well enough to know, b) am prejudiced or c) do not understand what will be the best pathway for my child.
Fran
I am concerned about the impact on female sports and female only areas.
Retweeted, liked tweets.
Patrick
So many reasons. I care VERY MUCH that women’s voices seem to be repeatedly and routinely ignored, disparaged and attacked. I firmly believe that no child is born into the wrong body. I have gay siblings and the idea that they are somehow fundamentally ‘wrong’ strikes me as deeply and distressingly homophobic, and that this opens the door to a warped form of conversion therapy.
I do not think it is possible to change sex, and that one of the worst aspects of this is the potential for exploitation – financial or emotional/psychological/sexual – of troubled individuals (plus it allows for such horrors as forced sex change /conversion therapy such as is seen in Iran). I think that sexual predators DO go to great lengths to access potential victims and that self ID creates a huge hole in what have been up to now socially accepted norms of day to day safeguarding for women and girls in certain contexts – I believe that both men and women should be able to access single sex spaces and to know that those spaces will be single sex.
It is simply not bigotry to express concerns for the safety of women and girls. It is not hate to state that sex exists and that women and girls are subject to discrimination (at best) BECAUSE THEY ARE FEMALE.
I have done mainly social media, and that mainly (but not entirely) anonymously.
Not experienced consequences on a significant scale – but my partner has struggled with my interest in speaking out about this issue.
Milly
For the last twenty years I have worked with the victims of sexual assault and in child protection. I have seen first hand what male predators do and the lengths they will go to to commit their crimes.
I have no fear of transexual women, fully support them, but I am certain that self-ID will allow abusers to use the trans community as a cover. They will self ID their way into women’s spaces. You will read this and perhaps think I’m paranoid or hysterical, but the things I’ve seen leave me in no doubt of what’s happening here – the targeting of youth online, the anime, the gaming, the grown men disguising themselves as little girls, sliding their way in the LGB movement in order to make themselves seem respectable.
And, the saddest part is that the trans community will be made to suffer by association. And, don’t even get me started on the lack of care for GNC kids, the unexplored and ignored links with autism…. scandalous. My fingers are crossed for your appeal, and for Keira Bell and her case. Maybe they will wake up the world to what is really going on.
Sadly little action, I would definitely lose my job.
I rarely speak up, and am very careful who I talk to. When I do, however, I find people either agree with me or have never given the issues much thought.
Tiff, Not anti anything, just concerned, and a parent
The Gender Dissidents Survey