The Gender Dissidents SurveyI’m a woman, and I see our hard earned rights given away to men, at times with the consent of other women and it sickens me.
I speak up a bit online, but I’m a nobody and I guess with little success. I trans peaked a few girlfriends by explaining the issue and sending them articles.
I have been called terf, but who hasn’t. Not much worse because I’m not important enough, thankfully.
Nuria, Woman worried about men taking our spaces and rights, Salagre, Switzerland
I care about this issue for a whole lot of rather different reasons. The first may be defending lesbians from male encroachment on their lives and sexuality. The second may be that I object to any ideology that wants to write the soul (in this case a gendered soul, the one that can be “born in the wrong body”), to reify the soul into legislation.
I’ve mostly tweeted about this. Discussed it with friends and family.
I’ve been called terf a lot and lost Twitter followers. I have no reputation or livelihood to lose as I am an isolated handicapped person living on disability payments.
Elizabeth Hamilton D, Translator, writer, former adjunct in cognitive psychology, dovesandletters, France
I care because the backlash from women has created a hostile environment for peaceful trans people. I don’t want access to female spaces and I know I am male, so I get abusive responses to sharing these opinions. Women are rightly angry and we are experiencing a rapid loss of support as a result.
I’ve spoken on social media. I have written to MPs in my area, the Green Party and Liberals (Canada), spoken to friends.
I have experienced horrific online abuse from people who say they are sticking up for us. I am a “bootlicker”, a “terf”, “truscum” and a “traitor”. I have been told I am a “pedo” and should die.
Jocelyn , Transwomen are not women, Mladydik
I have been in the struggle for women’s rights for more than 40 years. Gender ideology undoes the limited gains we have made and erases the possibilities of winning more. Gender ideology drips with misogyny and lesbophobia and homophobia. It is an authoritarian and regressive ideology.
I organise an annual International Women’s Day rally that is unashamedly feminist and of course recognises that women are adult human females. I have organised a small feminist discussion group to consider the harmful consequences of gender ideology.
I have organised one public meeting in defence of women’s sex-based rights and plan to run more once Covid restrictions permit. I organised a WL Conference in my home city a few months ago. I run several feminist FB pages and contribute to others.
I have been physically and verbally harassed, dropped from’progressive’ email lists, hounded out of my union, socially ostracised and had friends cut off all contact with me to show their left friends how woke they are.
Anna M, feminist activist, mother, grandmother, Australia
Male violence has colored my whole life. Now that I finally understand that and seek to speak out on it, speaking about males and females or attributing male violence to males is “transphobic.” I am being silenced.
I’ve tried to reach out 1-1 with people. I have a sock account where I can speak freely but it’s largely an echo chamber. I still haven’t the courage to speak out publicly or from my real name.
I have lost friends. I stepped off my career path in part because of this but had I not I would have been shoved off.
Cee J, Previously exploited woman, USA
As a Black lesbian, I’ve gone from fully supporting gender id politics to questioning some things to questioning everything. I realized how homophobic and sexist their rhetoric is, how riddled it is with contradictions and inconsistencies that I’m told I don’t have a right to question or challenge or have basic concerns about. This is not progress, it’s fascism.
After residing at a women’s refuge where men are accommodated as residents, I decided to post on social media about my general thoughts on the trans movement and more specifically about how men commit acts of violence against the women at the shelter.
I have been unfriended, disinvited from events, called terf, transphobic trash, etc. The most hurtful consequence, though, has been the complete and utter silence of close friends.
BB, Proud Black lesbian, USA
I care because of the hatred, abuse and death threats directed at anyone who sticks their head above the parapet. I wish we could discuss the issues with respect and civility.
I have asked friends and family about their views and listened respectfully. I have ‘liked’ people on social media, but even that feels risky.
No consequences yet, but I fear them. Mostly I fear being misunderstood.
Blink, Have a grandchild who experiences gender dysphoria
I care because I’m a woman. If anybody can be a woman, “woman” means nothing and our rights will be obliterated. I care because sometimes females need spaces free of male people, no matter how they identify.
I tell everyone I have a conversation with. I’m active on social media. I’ve written to my MP.
Apart from my family getting fed up with hearing about it, no consequences. I’m not accountable to anybody. I have lost one friend, a trans man.
Lucy
I care because women as a sex class are being erased, with the intended consequence that we cannot fight for sex based rights we cannot name. I care about children transitioning and ruining their bodies before they know what they are doing. I would have been one of these children if I had been born later. I care about lesbians being coerced into sex with males. I care about the appalling misogyny of the trans movement.
I care about truth, reality and science and I’m frightened to see these principles being eroded by magical thinking. I care about women losing jobs and platforms because they won’t go along with it. I care about freedom of speech.
How can we progress as a society if certain topics are not debated and tested?
I have attended meetings, written to my MP and visited. Stickered the local area. Posted FPFW leaflets to houses in my town. Used social media, twitter, Facebook and mumsnet to pass around information and contest misleading information. I’ve helped to collate information about organisations that are promoting misleading info about puberty blockers. I’ve donated to many GC causes and to Vancouver Rape Relief.
I have been shouted at and harassed at a public meeting. I have had my Twitter account suspended several times. I’ve lost a friend of over 40 years.
Louise W, Happy to be a TERF
I care because I know what is is to be afraid of men. I was raped when I was 20 . When married my husband was abusive to me and later to my oldest daughter . I left him and shortly after that I was attacked outside my flat when I took my dog out for a last pee . It was attempted rape. The man got 5 years for assault with intent to ravish .
Each time the effect on me is that I cannot bear to see a man naked from the waist down. I still get a terrible fright if someone approaches me from behind and I’m very cautious in lifts , car parks , the street etc.
A non genuinely transitioned man accessing my safe space would totally close down so many things for me . Sports Changing rooms , toilets in bars and restaurants and shops – especially if the are along long corridors / down in basements etc . The whole thing is terrifying.
My eldest daughter is a lesbian and she and her wife are very concerned about this too especially the “your a bigot / terf if you don’t want a girly dick” threats.
I have posted on Twitter and FB . Spoken up at my SNP branch meeting and posted info to the branch Whatsapp . Joined- founder member of a local women’s group for Independence . Shared info with friends. I’ve had a few insults on social media, not to my face.
M, Senior adult Post menopausal woman
The Gender Dissidents Survey