The Gender Dissidents SurveyAccepting transwomen as women undermines the gains that women have made and any future progress.
I have tweeted in support of GC on Twitter and re-tweeted to my followers.
I have discussed the issue with friends.
The only consequences I have had are the usual Shut up Terf etc. on Twitter. Some more threatening than others. Some seem to have an obsession with my appearance but I’m way too old to care.
I generally just block and move on.
Ces, Feminism and football
Matters because women are and have been oppressed throughout history all over the world because they are biologically different from men. That is the only reason.
We therefore need protections because of this. To redefine the word woman to mean anybody who identifies as such completely removes any legal protections specifically for women.
I object to to the word woman being Redefined to include anyone born male. Being a woman is not something that can be identified into by anyone born male. It is offensive to me that this is even being considered. I cannot believe that we have created a situation where somebody who is biologically male can change their legal birth certificate to make it a falsehood. Nobody can change their sex. You are born the sex you are born and you remain that sex until you die. If I give birth to a male child I do not want that birth certificate to be able to be altered to pretend that I gave birth to a female child when it is not true. A birth certificate should be a legal document of Truth not a pretence.
I have contributed greatly to threads on Mumsnet feminist board. I have joined several secret Facebook groups to discussed the matter. I have campaigned with fairplayforwomen handing out leaflets in my local area and explaining to people about the government’s consultation for amendments to the gender recognition act. I am very vocal on Twitter where I have have allied myself again with fair play for women. I have been to many of the woman’s place meetings. I have been to a meeting held in Manchester about detransitioners which was very moving. I have taken part in in Greater Manchester resistors acts of resistance including reassigning unisex toilets and taking them back for females only. I have adult human female stickers and I sticker in my local area when I am out and about.
I have been abused on social media constantly. I’ve argued with people I know on social media and tend not to mention it anymore on Facebook because people don’t seem to want to discuss anything political if it goes against the current woke ideology. People do not seem capable of critical thought about this they just assume that it is lumped in with LGBT rights and so it is progressive.
Kath yer Mum Wife Sister Daughter Woman #adulthumanfemale
. If sex is redefined to mean sex role stereotypes in language and law sex-based discrimination will not end but our linguistic and legal tools to address it will disappear.
I have taken part in demonstrations, gone to meetings, spoken to friends, strangers and work colleagues, raised the issue at work, written letters, contributed to government consultations, written to all-party parliamentary groups etc.
I have been socially ostracised. I have lost friends, been banned from lesbian events, as well as, online and offline lesbian spaces and lost a job.
Jess Silverstone
The biggest issue for me is telling the truth. We all know that sex is binary, and has real world consequences; but in increasingly widespread contexts, it is becoming unacceptable to say that. Forcing people to lie is a particularly objectionable form of bullying.
Privacy, consent and safety come next. An important part of the background to this is how viciously standards of modestly are policed against women and girls, and how much victim-blamimg goes on. Women are trained from infancy to be afraid of men, and to act as if any man may be a sexual predator; and to feel at fault if their efforts to keep themselves safe fail. And then – on the whim of an obvious male wearing feminine clothing – sometimes exaggeratedly so, sometimes positively pornified – we are expected to abandon in an instant those instincts that have been so brutally trained into us or else be labelled bigots.
The ‘only affirm’ approach to gender dysphoria, especially in young people, is also profoundly worrying. We do not affirm anorexics in their belief that their bodies are wrong; we treat the mental distress. Medical or surgical transition should be a last resort treatment for dysphoria; but that view is labelled – in a dishonest parallel with homosexuality – as ‘conversion therapy.’ We can tell that the analogy with homosexuality is false because homosexuality requires no treatment, medical or psychiatric.
I have done all the things listed in the survey.
I haven’t had any negative consequences.
Naomi Cunningham, Employment and discrimination barrister
Trans people need to be safe, but they need to recognise that some people will take advantage and abuse the system to harm vulnerable women. I am a woman and I can see others being silenced for wanting to talk about being a biological woman, by men. This should not be happening.
I have argued that female genital mutilation (FGM) should not be renamed due to transphobia. Girls are abused based on their sex and we need to make sure that others know this and don’t invalidate the traumatic experiences girls and women deal with by changing the language or comparing FGM to trans surgery.
I have been called a terf, been told I need to be slapped by a cock, slapped by a lady dick, told to choke on girl dick, called a transphobe for wanting to keep vulnerable women safe, called a stupid bitch
I have had family members inboxed, had emails sent to my work (I oversee all the emails though so was able to delete and remove all traces of employment from social media) for suggesting that men want to silence women .
Sarah
I care because the erosion of sex based rights will have serious implications for women and gay people.
I have spoken out at work (teacher). I have had to change my twitter account to be vocal and anonymous. I have discussed with friends. Most agree.
I have been accused of being unempathic at work. Shamed on social media as ‘transphobic and even racist’.
The littlest Homo, Gay, not queer
I have always been gender non conforming tomboy STEM moterbike guitars /female band and back in the 70 womens lib but it wasnt until I accidentally stumbled on Dr Jane Clare Jones that I realised in a deeper way that it wasn’t that I liked “boy”things but that labelling those things male was part of a patriarchal system. It made me realise how important language is and that removing language that enables us to express our oppression manacle us more firmly “in our place” in a way that many won’t even notice or if they do will be unable to articulate
My experience at work was of a young autistic teen X who was accused of Transphobia by a class mate Y (who sometimes came in as male sometimes presented as female ). Because X stared at them.
X said he didnt feel he was Transphobic it just made him feel funny that Y kept changing (name as well as clothes) his autism was ignored. There were a lot of demands being made by Y re toilets etc also at odds with our large female Muslim students rights.
Management was in a panic . Transphobia is apparently the worst of crimes
I have taken part in twitter/ discussion with friends/some work mates to raise awareness
I haven’t had any consequences because most people I’ve spoken to think the idea that a man can really be a woman/access women’s spaces /sports is completely mad or were unaware of it and recognise the consequences immediately. I haven’t spoken out on one FB account though because that account is a partially music account to promote bands. I have on the other.
Sophia, Musician, Maths lecturer
I care because I want my daughter to have a safer life than I have had. I want her to be able to be confident in raising her safety concerns and not worried about being declared a bigot because she is fearful
I have spoken to friends. I regularly voice my concerns at work as the topic comes up scarily regularly for an infants school.
I have been reprimanded at work for stepping out of my role to complain that they had changed the protected characteristics in the schools equality policy.
I escalated to governors and they eventually agreed the law had not ‘changed yet’ – my work is now more heavily scrutinised and one of my colleagues no longer speaks to me. I have lost friends and a fb account. I use twitter anonymously. I am fearful of making connections with anyone as I can’t afford to be ‘outed’ and lose my career.
Phyliss
I struggled with my gender identity in my teens, I have been sexually assaulted and took part in a celibate marriage with a person who used me as a depressing up dolly and later came out as trans.
I have talked to people, but people call me names. My youngest daughter gets very angry with me
LMD , Asperger’s female not CIS but woman
I first became engaged with trans issues when I had to teach a unit on queer theory to my A Level class. Having very little knowledge of my own, I followed some trans accounts on twitter and read some web resources to develop an understanding. It seemed to me that trans people were an oppressed minority who needed help in overcoming societal prejudice in the same way feminist groups, the civil rights and gay rights movements had done before. I read what I could and spoke up for trans students at college when other members of staff misgendered them in front of me. I was a good ally.
I don’t remember the exact moment I realised that something was wrong. In the early days I got drawn into an argument on twitter about whether men could have periods. It seemed self evident to me that they couldn’t but apparently they could and i was hateful for suggesting otherwise. I assumed at first this was just a lone crank, how wrong I was. The penny dropped for me when I listened to Rebecca Reilly Cooper’s remarkable talk “Examining the doctrine of gender identity” on Youtube. This video had a profound impact on me, I still listen to it a couple of times a year.
I am now hugely invested in this issue and my eyes are open to the harm “the doctrine of gender identity” does to women and girls. I am appalled at the misogyny suffered by women online.
I despair of the pressure young lesbians are put under to accept trans women with penises as sexual partners.
I am terrified at the thought that my beautiful gender non-conforming daughter will be sucked in by the cult. But I am heartened at the number of women (and some men too) that are refusing to go along with the lunacy.
I like plenty of tweets and reply to quite a few, often debating with trans rights activists at length but, ultimately to no real purpose. Occasionally I summon up the courage to send an original tweet myself but not often. I comment on Facebook threads now and then.
I am too nervous to go full TERF on Facebook in front of all the people I know in real life. My partner hates me speaking out publicly even though she agrees with me. She’s worried I might get sacked and she’s right to be concerned about that.
It worries me too, although not enough to make me completely silent.
I teach at a college where traces of the transcult are creeping in. Displays in the library, genderbread people on display in classrooms. I’ve only been there a few months so I feel I need to get bedded in more before I speak out. I’m hoping that one day I’ll be asked to deliver a tutorial or take my class to a talk or get some CPD that will give me the excuse I need to speak up. I truly feel that I will have the courage when the time comes.
Have you had any consequences? So far, very little. Some ex students have told me on twitter how disappointed they are with me but I can easily take that. I’ve not lost any friends or been disciplined at work. My gender critical activities are too far under the radar at the moment. I can’t help but feel that because I’m a man I get off much lighter too.
R, Gender Critical Educator
The Gender Dissidents Survey