Author: bomp123

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Healthcare

As a woman our rights and language are being erased and we are being dehumanised

I care because I read about the children being medicalised at an astonishing rate,  the cotton ceiling, Maria Maclachlan and Helen the Guides leader.

As a woman our rights and language are being erased and we are being dehumanised. Also the implications for safeguarding children either through being medicalised, manipulatiin or women and children only spaces. The creeping “emancipation” of children’s bodies and educational indoctrination of children’s minds is terrifying. There is only one logical outcome to this – distancing children from parental control in order to lower the age of consent.

I don’t have a large social group of friends and I wouldn’t dare say anything at work. You’d get sacked. I specifically joined Twitter to find further info and people with similar views to myself.

AC, Middle age public sector worker

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Healthcare Parent survivor

It took me a long time to find my voice and now that I’m supporting my daughter to find hers, we will not be silenced.

This matters to me because I’m not about to have a lifetime of sex based oppression, violence and sexual assaults brushed aside to appease anyone. It took me a long time to find my voice and now that I’m supporting my daughter to find hers, we will not be silenced.

I have spoken out online and within friendship groups, joined activist groups, written to MSPs and spoken to social services and my children’s schools.

I have been threatened with sexual and physical violence online as have my family members, one of which is a child, due to speaking up. I’ve had milk thrown at me by a man when delivering leaflets. I’ve been kicked from online and real life LGBT groups. I have also been kicked from many other ‘support’ groups like ones for autistic people and ones for women to uplift other women and a group for women fighting female cancers.

I permanently lost my twitter account for ‘hateful conduct’ because I differentiated between sex and gender. I’ve been marked red on an chrome extension called shinigami eyes which causes people to attack me online for being ‘transphobic’ even when I’m commenting on things not related to gender like my pet rat group.

Ealasaid

Categories
Healthcare

As a doctor I fear that predatory men will take advantage of “gender identity” rules to assault vulnerable women in hospitals

I’m a senior doctor, who qualified into a very male dominated profession. Sexism (even when inadvertent) was & is the norm, and difficult to get addressed. As it is, female patients’ problems can be dismissed readily if the diagnosis isn’t obvious.

My biggest fear is that predatory men will take advantage of “gender identity” rules to assault vulnerable women in hospitals, as they have in prisons already.

I have started to engage on Twitter: the pile-on to JK Rowling’s tweets have been galvanising for me on this issue. It took a while for me to understand that “transwomen” had extended beyond the realm of people who had actually transitioned (or were in the process of it) to people who are male-bodied and not committed to transition.

I have also contacted my medical indemnity association: the NHS guidance is very woolly on what happens if female patients object to the presence of an obvious man in a hospital ward.

Essentially, the staff are told to try to justify it to the other patients and if all else fails, find a single room for one or other of the parties.

I have been told that I should be ashamed to be a doctor, that they feel “sorry for patients” having to deal with me. I have been placed on a “TERF” blocklist. I have been called racist, homophobic, and inevitably “transphobic” (and that was after bringing up examples of women prisoners being raped).

I have had to lock my account, particularly as I am worried that I will be reported to the regulator for being critical of gender-identity, and could face sanctions on my career.

N, Doctor

Categories
Healthcare

In my youth I went on gay rights marches every year. I marched with trans people

I  first became aware of the misogyny in trans ideology in 2015. I was doing an MA in Social Work and the subject was ‘the value of feminist theory for social work practice in domestic violence. I was 50 at the time and although I have always been a feminist I joined the NorthWest feminist and anti capitalist group to get some up to date theory.

A colleague of mine was doing her dissertation on the reform of the Gender Recognition Act. I hadn’t thought much about this until then. Her dissertation was pro reforming it to allow people to instantly self ID. I then read an article by Miranda Yardley in the Morning Star questioning the effects of any proposed reforms of the GRA on womens rights.This was the first time I had heard of Miranda Yardly.

It was a brilliant thought provoking article and I posted it on website of said feminist group and asked that we discuss it. The very next day I was piled on by three transwomen who called me a TERF, said I was transphobic, mocked me and kicked me out of the group.

I was in shock! I was so upset. In my youth I went on gay rights marches every year. I marched with trans people.

I have raised awareness on Twitter, Facebook and supported others in doing so. I have spoken to friends and family.

Apart from getting kicked out of feminist group (described above)  I am treading a fine line in friendship with a friend of mine who is a lesbian but is totally pro trans and wont hear a word against them. She unfriended me for a while on FB. She said she knows I am not transphobic but is worried other people will think that I am. I am not.

CB, The truth matters

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Others

Women’s rights, which have taken centuries to build, are being torn apart by men

This matters to me because women’s rights, which have taken centuries to build, are being torn apart by men.

I have raised the issue with friends and family and at work.

I have been told I am not understanding the issue or am anti-trans.

Ruth

Categories
Healthcare

As a survivor of sexual assault I cannot stand by and allow men to invade the spaces where women should feel safe.

This matters to me because female rights are slowly being diluted by a small majority of misogynistic men. As a survivor of sexual assault I cannot stand by and allow men to invade the spaces where women should feel safe.

I feel angry that these groups of men feel that they can appropriate female language and can call people who are standing up for their rights as Terfs, transphobic, or other derogatory terminology. Mansplaining at its finest, a very dangerous path we are heading down.

I have drawn the attention of friends who were not even aware of what has been happening. I have provided evidence to family and friends about the proposed changes to women’s rights and the dangers that come with allowing men to identify as female. I would like to raise my voice more and am considering an anonymous blog or twitter page so that I can contribute to this safely.

In terms of my friends and family I have found that they have been open to the information that I have provided. However, I am currently employed in a profession that certainly promotes inclusivity and an understanding of the feelings of others so I would be worried about the consequences if I was to speak of these things on a higher platform.

A, Feminist

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Others

Too many people confuse sex with gender

Because sex is a biological fact. Women have always been oppressed, too many people confuse sex with gender. However much someone may feel they are in the wrong body all the surgery in the world does not change your biological sex. Self ID has opened doorways for predatory men to target women.

I’ve become engaged on twitter via an anonymous account.

I have not really engaged as much as I would like yet. I have been blocked unknowingly by other people on twitter I assume because of tweets I like or have retweeted.

Ruby2shoes, Woman in her 40’s sick of being labelled CIS, menstruator and other demeaning terms

Categories
Healthcare

I’m angry that our centuries of shared experience of constant male subjugation and harassment is, apparently, forgotten.

I am a woman. I am a mother to a daughter, and I don’t want her to feel she must accept male bodies near her in toilets, changing rooms in school and elsewhere and I don’t want her to be forced to compete in unfair situations in sport.

I have an elderly mother and I fear for her dignity in healthcare provision. I fear for women for whom written language is a problem who don’t access healthcare because they don’t realise they’re people-who-menstruate, etc. I feel bad for women who will be excluded for public life due to religion or disability who can’t access gyms, loos, shop changing rooms, etc. I feel bad for women who miss out from all-women shortlists, etc, because of men taking their place.

I worry about young people being subjected to experimental treatment. I worry for the mental health of those who aren’t resilient enough to cope with words like ‘woman’ without self-harming or committing suicide. I worry about crime stats, and male crimes being recorded as female. And I’m angry that our centuries of shared experience of constant male subjugation and harassment is, apparently, forgotten.

I have only discussed this with a few close women friends or anonymously online. All I have spoken to in real life have expressed the same concerns, including an experienced clinical psychologist.

I haven’t spoken up in my own name. I frequently opt out of the conversation online because I find it distressing and frustrating. Thank you for this opportunity.

WildRedWord, Woman

Categories
Parent

I care because I don’t want to lose my rights

I care because I don’t want to lose my rights, having 3 daughters, it scares me that in the future they will have no voice at all.

I only raised this issue on social media as I’m afraid of violence and treats from trans activists.

I have been harassed and threatened.

NW, Mom of 3 daughters,

Categories
Healthcare

We have to be able to ask very difficult questions

This matters to me because if we change the definition of “woman” or “man” to mean anybody who identifies as a woman or man there will be unintended consequences. We need to think through those consequences really carefully.

It matters to me because I’m a child protection social worker. I see an increase in children who’ve experience significant harm now claiming to be trans. Sometimes they’re encouraged by their schools. Those children may develop to live as trans men or women and that is their choice, as adults. However…

we need to ensure a trans identity is not a maladaptive response to trauma, one that may leave the unmet underlying need while the young person seeks increasingly drastic physical changes to their body.

I worry about the fact that we cannot openly discuss this topic. In thinking about harm to the people with the least power and voice (young children) there can be nothing left unsaid. We have to be able to ask very difficult questions.

I worry about trans-inclusive guidance which tells girls that if they feel uncomfortable with someone in their personal space they should ignore that feeling. Children who’ve experienced trauma need encouragement to listen to their feelings, to their intuitive responses. We work with children to help them recognise the danger signals in their body and then act on those (children who’ve experienced harm may have learnt to “turn off” those survival mechanisms, to have a “flop” response to danger.) Yet trans inclusive guidance tells children the opposite. That’s not deliberate on the part of trans groups, but is the result of an atmosphere in which criticism is not allowed and lack of open consultation. 

It matters to me because -I was a girl who didn’t conform to gender stereotypes. As an adult I still don’t conform to traditional ideas about femininity. Trans identities/ non binary/ gnc etc pushes the idea that i may not be a woman, that I am Other.

I have spoken in my local Labour Party CLP meeting, spoken in my local Quaker meeting. I have campaigned through facebook and twitter, handed out FPFW (Fair Play For Women) and WPUK (Women’s Place UK) leaflets at Labour and LibDem Party conferences as well as at a Trade Union event. I have met with my MP.

I have been to meetings aggressively protested by trans supporters who see the campaign for womens rights as fascism.

I’ve been ostracised by some members of my local Labour Party.

I’ve been insulted in the street.

BV