Category: Healthcare

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Healthcare Parent

We must give children who may grow up to be gay the time to decide for themselves their own path

I fear many children are being exposed to ideas and views that would have constituted child sexual abuse just a few years ago. The drive to normalise medical treatment using hormones on children is experimenting on children for the warped ideology of adults with little understanding of the long term side affects. We must give children who may grow up to be gay the time to decide for themselves their own path. Children are not able to make informed decisions on serious life changing treatments.

I’ve spoken to people, posted on FB and Twitter.

I have been called TERF and other such nonsense on twitter.

Jo, So afraid for my daughters having to wade through the lies to get to the truths we all knew to be true just a while ago

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Healthcare Others

I am worried that medical transition will be the opposite of helpful for her

I could write pages… but to summarise: Firstly, because of the impact on children of being taught they (or others) could be “in the wrong body”, the messing with their heads this involves, the way they are indoctrinated to ignore their normal boundaries around their bodies, private spaces, etc. as soon as someone claims to “identify as” something they are not, and the way some are being funnelled towards puberty blockers and further medical transition which I don’t believe will help them long-term and which have numerous potentially serious consequences.  I also know – slightly- a vulnerable young woman who is now “transitioning”, and am concerned for her as I am convinced her desire to transition is a result of her situation, and I am worried that medical transition will be the opposite of helpful for her.

Secondly, the destruction of women’s (and girls’) rights – our rights to single-sex spaces, care and support, safety, dignity and privacy, women’s sports, and initiatives to promote equality in business, politics and elsewhere are being eroded by allowing males to move in on them.  Worse, we can’t even talk about these issues properly due to the very meaning of the words being warped so that “women” can mean anyone.

Thirdly, even data gathering to better understand the needs of women as distinct from men, and the factors that affect us differently, is at risk through people “identifying into” the opposite category. 

Criado Perez’s “Invisible Women” brilliantly highlighted the importance of sex-specific data, but instead of addressing this we are at risk of worsening it with misleading data about “female” rapists, 6ft 5 “women” athletes etc., which also impacts research and policy-making affecting women and girls.

Finally the basic UNFAIRNESS infuriates me; that after oppressing women in every way for centuries, men can now do so by claiming to BE women, and claim they are now the most oppressed minority, all while trampling on our and our daughters’ rights.

So far I have: written to my MP several times and met with her in person once, mainly about GRA reform, though I also discussed child transitioning and other points with her; completed the UK GRA consultation (and also persuaded a few others to fill it in as well) and later also completed the Scottish one (I think there was another one too but can’t remember just now?); donated to several relevant crowdfunders and campaigning organisations; talked to my children’s school about my concerns, particularly about a scheme they were participating in (though without much success I fear); attended a Woman’s Place event; discussed issues with a few close friends and family; sent other letters occasionally or sent cards to thank people who had been particularly supportive; given feedback on surveys etc which used “gender” instead of sex or otherwise erased women; and supported/followed/shared posts/occasionally commented or replied (though I don’t post much!) on Twitter, Mumsnet, newspaper and other comment sites etc.

I would like to be more vocal on social media/in real life, but as I am currently jobhunting and many/most of the likely employers in my area are Stonewall champions or otherwise like to present as very “woke”, this limits me to speaking out only anonymously or “behind the scenes” (e.g. contacting my MP), as I do need to be able to get a job and fear this would be impossible if I was more open about my views.   

I have had to be very cautious about where/how to speak up as I am currently jobhunting and worry about wrecking my chances of getting a job if I am open about my views.  Too many of the potential employers in my area are heavily rainbow-flag-waving, Stonewall-championing organisations and I believe being openly gender-critical on social media, for example, would have a huge effect on my chances of finding a job, which in turn would affect my family as we will need the income in the longer term. 

I also worry to an extent about losing friends, hostility etc if I speak out more openly to friends on social media or more widely in person, though I have talked to some close friends and family and not had any negative reactions so far.

Violet

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Healthcare Others

I struggled with my discomfort and thought I was being intolerant and bigoted

I care because I’m a woman and a lesbian. After the T crept onto the end of LGB, I struggled with my discomfort and thought I was being intolerant and bigoted, but thankfully radical feminism and attendance at a meeting of WPUK in Sheffield, where I heard Michele Moore speak with passion and compassion, changed all that.

I care because definitions matter. Sex matters. Being same SEX attracted matters. I care because gender needs to be eradicated as far as possible, not cemented in an ideology that constrains us all and forces us into rigid stereotyped roles. I care because adolescence is hard enough, but telling children their discomfort is because they’ve been born in the wrong body is homophobic at root and conversion therapy at worse.

Many of my friends, including my partner, would have been ‘transed’ as teenagers if they’d grown up now. I care because women’s oppression is because of our sexed bodies and it’s not something we can identify out of.

I’ve attended WPUK meetings, spoke about the Labour Women’s Declaration at the meeting in Leeds in November 2019 and I attended the WPUK conference last October. I have leafleted for Women’s Place UK. I spoke to a small and partially very hostile local Labour Party women’s forum on this issue. I have raised the issue at a Labour Party-run Women’s Development Programme.

I have peak transed a number of friends who thought they supported self ID through discussion and argument, in real life and online.

I am a founder member of Labour Women’s Declaration and remain part of that working group, writing social media posts as part of that group and on my own Twitter and FB accounts in order to raise awareness and share information.

I have met with my local MP about the GRA reforms and written to government ministers, the Labour leadership and other bodies about this issue. I’m part of a local Resisters group; we petitioned our local council and spoke at a council meeting about same sex facilities. I attended a Resisters residential gathering in September 2019, and am a member of a number of secret online forums. I am part of my local feminist network and am setting up a local group of gender critical women in the Labour Party across my city to support getting motions through CLPs (on hold currently because of Covid 19). I have had face-to-face discussions with someone I know who moderates a national Labour Party forum about ‘my problem with trans women’ but whose mind I have yet to change.

I’ve had tweets reported to and removed from Twitter and for which I’ve refused to apologise, so have had to serve out my suspended sentence. I’ve had posts either not shared or removed from national Labour Party forums with no explanation, and I’ve got into protracted arguments with trans activists on Twitter and FB on this issue, including Morgan Oger. But the worst consequence was a spat within my local CLP FB Forum on which a local Labour Councillor less than half my age (who consequently signed the Trans Labour Pledge) told me to f*ck off out of the LP, called me a transphobe and a bigot, set her mum and her partner on me and the result was that I left the forum and I no longer engage at all with local LP politics; I put what energies I have into the national LWD campaign because I am frightened of this becoming too personal. I admire those women who do put themselves out there locally and receive a great deal of trouble for their trouble.

Flabuless, a socialist realist, I worked in higher education for most of my working life and lament the ‘safe space’ it has become in order that no one’s feelings get hurt or brains get challenged

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Healthcare Others

When archeologists uncover the bones of someone dead for thousands of years, their natal sex is easily discovered

I care about this issue because biology matters.  This is clearly demonstrated by the fact that when archeologists uncover the bones of someone dead for thousands of years, their natal sex is easily discovered.  This matters to me also because I am terrified for my grandchildren, that they may be exposed to the warped views of the ‘Gender’ army.

I have written to my MP to ask that she is raises her voice in ensuring there is no change to women’s rights to safe spaces and that the GRA legislation should not be passed without a great deal more consultation.  I have completed the Scottish Governments consultation on changes to the Gender rights Act.  This is particularly important as I live in Scotland.  I have also taken part in a demonstration against the proposed bill.

I have not spoken in a public arena about my views.

Donella, Granny, great granny, lesbian

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Healthcare Parent

Every public body is captured, including the NHS where they harmfully affirm children’s gender distress

This matters to me because our family has been directly impacted by harmful gender and trans ideology. Due to the toxic nature of this debate, I have struggled to seek support and appropriate help for my child and myself.

Every public body is captured, including the NHS where they harmfully affirm children’s gender distress and systematically shutting down healthy debate and questioning.

I have been part of a parent support and lobby group, I have written countless to times to my local MP, I have been active on social media for over 2 years, I have attended conferences and talks on the topic, I have read reams of material, books and academic papers, I have helped to fund grassroots campaigns.

I lost a twitter account, I was doxxed and targeted on social media and my personal details were published on a website. I had to visit the local police to report a death and rape threat. I had the details of my situation with my daughter published by a trans activist on a large media outlet. I have lost friends and been alienated from social activities. I have suffered severe stress and suicidal ideation at the sheer horror of not being able to speak up about what was happening to my family.

Jill Gardner, Jill, campaigner for truth and justice., itsjillgardner

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Healthcare Others

I am worried about the impact on children

I care because of the impact on women’s and girl’s safety and rights. I am worried about the impact on children.

I have done very little as I am in a very vulnerable situation.

My husband agrees with my stance but cannot cope with me talking about the issue. So I cannot discuss it with him.

A, Retired and very ill

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Healthcare Others

I care as a woman losing what used to be single sex spaces

I care about the harm being done to children and young people especially girls – physical and mental damage as well as misinformation. I care as a woman losing what used to be single sex spaces.

I have complained to the body administering a post graduate student survey when gender id was a required answer. I complained after visiting the Hayward Gallery that the female toilet had been made unisex.

D ATTAR , Second wave feminist

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Healthcare Others

I dread to think what would become of me now

I care because I am unwilling to give away my rights and those of my daughter, granddaughter, other family, friends, in fact every female of any age. Women (and some men) fought hard to get the rights we have, the least I can do is protect them, and even strengthen and improve them, for the future.

I was a typical tomboy as a child; I dread to think what would become of me now. I remain utterly baffled as to how anyone can think medicalising children because of their personality can ever be right, and how can anyone truly believe a man becomes a woman just because they say so?

I found other women who felt the same way I do, via Mumsnet, via social media, by talking to people in real life.With their help and support I was able to develop my views and become more confident in talking about them. I joined a political party, I started a petition, I attended events.

I continue to strive to spread awareness of what is going on via my social media presence and by speaking out whenever I can, writing letters (good old fashioned pen and paper ones!), sending emails, responding to campaigns and crowdfunders, constantly aiming to amplify other women’s voices, and those of our allies. I boycott companies (like M&S) who show no respect for their female customers and I tell them why. Lots of tiny things, but if enough of us do them, they have a massive effect eventually.

My views have been called a bigoted and transphobic by women who I thought knew me and respected me. I have been ostracised from an online social group I actually started. I have received dreadful online abuse from strangers, but it is the condemnation from people who I thought were friends that hurts the most. Many friends supported me during this, but did so privately, they were not willing to publicly support me within the group which was hard to deal with.

On the positive side, it has strengthened some friendships; shown me who truly ‘has my back’, and I have made a group of new female friends and acquaintances who fill me with hope and enthusiasm to keep fighting this grim ideology.

Karen, Adult Human Female with a vote, CUPWomensPledge

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Healthcare Lesbians

I sat dripping tears onto my homework and whispered, “I wish I were a boy”

When I was twelve years old I sat dripping tears onto my homework and whispered, “I wish I were a boy” I thank God that I did not grow up nowadays, when some woke guidance counselor would have taken me under her wing, helped me “become a boy,” and ruined my life.

I wanted to be a boy because I perceived boys had more opportunities–because something was wrong with society, not because something was wrong with my body. That suffering children today are being politicized and sterilized appalls me. I do not support the labeling of gender non-conforming behavior in kids as something that needs chemical or surgical treatment.

Also as a queer woman who experiences primarily same-sex attraction, I agree with Rowling that erasing the significance of biological sex erases the reality of same-sex attraction. That the LGB community is willfully, collectively turning a blind eye to this stuns me.

So far I have done little, out of fear. This February, a trans-woman coworker wrote a threatening open letter in my company’s internal newsletter, saying that “harmful and transphobic” reading material had been left in the break room, and that this would be dealt with as harassment if the person was found out. It turned out the material was only an article about a Pagan women’s ritual, and said nothing about transgenderism. I was deeply unsettled by this event on the heels of the ruling against Maya, and sobbed in the shower over fear of job security.

Around that time I discovered and reached out to the LGB Alliance based in Britain. I went on a silent meditation retreat specifically to receive wisdom of what to do, both at work and in my personal life, with the culture wars having taken the turn they have. When I came back I felt the courage to write a letter to my (very SJA) manager expressing my concern about the coworker’s threats.

She told me I cannot be fired for my views, though she also said something vague about how everyone must be “comfortable” at work. HR asked her to serve as oversight for the internal newsletter so that false claims of what constitutes harrassment do not find their way into it again. So that is a small win.

I have made one social media post defending J.K. Rowling–not her views, openly, but just her character and her right to speak. The response was that she may hold her views in good faith, but they are still “appalling,” “hurtful,” and comparable to racism.

Summer 2017 I worked as program manager at an Episcopal camp. It was one of the most humiliating experiences of my adult life. The first week someone on staff brought up gender theory, I made a couple comments of courteous critique, and was met with extreme suspicion. I quickly came to understand that if I were honest with others about my views, I would be fired; a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy was in place. As I was dependent on this job for housing as well and had no savings, I would have literally been on the street. Some of my subordinates came to recognize my economic dependency and gender-critical views, and used the combination to flout my authority. They took to being very disrespectful in meetings, knowing that if I called them out, they had “blackmail.” After that experience, instead of facing my predicament honestly—that I can’t make myself believe in much of gender theory, and therefore have to become strong enough to be despised—I buried it and numbed. I shrunk from life and didn’t let anyone get too close to me. I didn’t date because of this gender chaos, even though one of my biggest goals in life is to marry and have a family.

It all started coming to a head when I found out last fall about Maya Forstater’s case. I empathized with Maya being fired for her views on gender, as I knew the same would have happened to me. I donated $20 to her legal campaign. So the negative consequences for me the past three years have largely been stagnation and a sense of self-betrayal for NOT speaking up. When I do, I will probably lose most people in my life–my liberal church, my academic friends, my Facebook groups. And I’m not sure what I’ll build upon the rubble, as it’s hard for a feminist queer woman to just run across the street to the Right. But as a wise person said, “If you want to be loved, you must be willing to be hated.” I’m getting there. I don’t want to live like this for much longer.

E.J., who is very glad there was no one to help me “become a boy” when I was a confused, gender-nonconforming queer girl, USA

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Healthcare Self employed / entrepreneurs

How can anyone not care about that?

I care about this issue because it erodes women’s sex-based rights and causes harm to people who will end up regretting medical transition. Gender identity ideology is incoherent and implicitly relies on, and promotes, regressive sexist stereotypes. Legislating that people must regard male people as female or vice versa is profoundly illiberal and undermines freedom of conscience.

The way in which gender identity ideology has been promoted has resulted in a stifling of normal and essential debate in clinical and political arenas. This has meant that in discussions about serious medical treatment for children, political aims have superseded good medical practice, which is extraordinary. How can anyone not care about that?

I have written to a small political party I used to be a member of, sadly with little effect, and written to other politicians. I’ve donated to gender critical projects. I’ve set out my arguments on Twitter. I decided to do this under my own first name and profile photo, which scared me as I’d seen the abuse that other women had received. But as the views of gender critical people are so routinely misrepresented, I felt I had to do this.

People who know me know that I am not a right wing fundamentalist: I supported gay marriage, raised money for refugees, and am an environmentalist. I wanted my followers to see that someone with similar views to them on other things was gender critical, in the hope they’d listen to the arguments.

When I decided to speak up, I gave up my business account on Twitter. I suffer from anxiety and I knew that I couldn’t handle it if I started getting abuse on there, I wouldn’t be able to defend myself properly.

It’s not as difficult to argue back from a personal account. I think I was right to do so, having seen what happened to Jess de Waal (an embroidery artist who was targeted after speaking up). If I wasn’t financially secure I probably would not have spoken up, I’ve certainly lost sales over it.

The debate has affected my mental health but it would have done so even if I’d remained silent – the disingenuousness of many who smear gender critical women has really astonished me. It’s made me despair because the scientific community has gone along with all this, I’ve lost a lot of the faith I had in people and in democratic checks and balances.  I’ve lost one or two friends over it but not many.

Sheena, Ireland