The Gender Dissidents SurveyI think this is the biggest women’s issue of our age. Its stealing our ability to describe sexism.
I’ve talked to people in my personal life. Explained the issue and my objections
I’ve been repeatedly blocked and unfollowed online. I’m sure it would be much worse if I wasn’t anon.
M, Mother of a daughter, domestic violence survivor
As a woman who hasn’t been believed and made to feel bad for being sexually assaulted, I find it terrifying that women’s voices are still not heard. I am not traumatised by the event but other women are by theirs and pushing ideology on people only makes that worse.
Why did my mother have to suffer for years with her womb because they couldn’t be bothered to deal with it, whereas had she identified as man she may have not had to suffer as long.
I was told at 16 I was too young for a hysterectomy as I may want kids one day. I’m glad they didn’t take me seriously in some ways as now in my 30s I am considering children.
However, it is this disregard towards women and their feelings and their bodies that does not sit right with me. This is before we even get on to the topic of men identifying as women being allowed to compete as women in sport!
I am quite active on Twitter in the Gender Critical movement. I was threatened rape on twitter and the tweet was deleted and the account suspended.
KS, Biology cannot be denied
I am concerned about fairness. I am concerned about how easily and quickly women’s rights have been handed over. I want all trans people to be protected from male violence, but not at the cost of women. We need to find a solution that works for all of us. I am also increasingly concerned about the nature of ‘no debate’ and the ideological nature of this discussion. or lack of discussion. Very reminiscent of Catholic upbringing, the idea of not being able to question something, even when it impacts me.
I have spoken to a couple of family members about this. I have been written off ‘having gone right wing.’ I have liked a couple of tweets when I felt brave.
Feeling so unable to speak about something so unfair feels awful. I have never known anything like it. I feel gagged.
My sister in law thinks I have been brainwashed by the American right. I cannot understand how. I am so left wing, so liberal! I just daren’t speak with my friends about this. I am scared that it will end my friendships.
Hannah
I care about this issue because the world is already a dangerous place for women and children. I believe gender self ID will make it more so as men will use it to gain access to women and children.
I care because it’s a nonsense and a fiction to say trans women are women. I will never go along with this outrageous lie.
I care because children are being sold a dream that doesn’t exist when they are told puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries will solve all their problems. Medicalising healthy bodies to fix broken minds can never end in happily ever after.
I have raised awareness by highlighting the issues to people outside of social media.
So far I have not encountered any negative consequences. I do believe it is just a matter of time, though. The more I continue to rage against this ideology the more likely I am to find consequences. It does worry me.
Max, Adult human female
My response is a bit limited because it’s only 3 days ago that I learned that any man can claim to identify as female, without having the hormone & surgical treatment that would alter his gender identity. I’m still reeling at the implications.
At this point – 3 days in, I have argued with – mainly women – on Twitter, and had to block a few.
Marian S, Irish, woman, retired TV journalist, Ireland
This matters to me because women have been nonexistent/erased from history thus far and right now when it’s literally been a few seconds since we’ve begun to wake up and reclaim our place in the scheme of things, they want to erase the very meaning of being a woman…to make way for yet another millennia of History with tales of “mankind” and “human people”…if men are women, then what are women??? What is sisterhood if it includes brotherhood…? This is a war on our minds and on female estate. I’m scared for the future.
I have only now started to speak up on social media.
I’m anonymous on social media and have only broached the topic with people in real life.
AR, A woman who will not chip away at parts of herself to accommodate men, India
As a young woman and lesbian, I can’t ignore the blatant misogyny and homophobia that has taken over the trans movement.
SY, France
I may have limited exposure and knowledge of all the aspects of feminism, but as a female born woman who completely embraces her physiology and sexuality as a woman and developing my own personal relationship and identity as a woman I would like to be able to keep that word for myself. I feel protective about it and it feels like if I don’t change what that word means, then I’m excluding people and therefore a bigot or transphobe or someone hateful. Why does celebrating or embracing my womanhood now feel like its a threat to other peoples rights?
I have commented on posts and replied to comments on facebook and twitter.
I am holding my breath because I feel I will be attacked harshly for speaking up.
Ida, USA
Since I hit about fifteen years old, I have experienced sexual harassment on a regular basis – and worse, on occasion. I have been reminded to be quiet and still and more lady-like since before I started kindergarten. I have been pressured into wearing makeup and shaving because our society teaches women to be unsatisfied with our natural bodies.
All over the world and throughout history, the same things and much worse have happened to billions of women. Rape, beatings, menstrual huts, female genital mutilation, breast ironing, all of it – it is not done to women because we ‘identify’ as women, but because we have female bodies.
Being a woman is not a choice. I didn’t choose to be this; to endure the things that have happened to me. It is simply my material reality.
As women, we experience oppression on the basis of sex, not gender. That is why I care that sex continues to exist as a legal and social category, and that women continue to have single-sex spaces.
I haven’t done as much as I want to. I’ve gotten involved in online feminist communities using anonymous social media accounts. Mostly, I’ve been educating myself, but I have also posted about my opinions. I’ve also talked about some of these things with people in real life, but I have been very careful with whom I talk to. In the future I hope to get more involved and speak out more.
I have received a number of threats and misogynistic insults to my anonymous feminist accounts – but that’s why I’ve stayed anonymous. I know that if I speak about what I believe under my real name, I will face immediate social and professional consequences. I’m not at a place in my career where I feel secure enough in to take that risk, so I plan to remain anonymous for the time being.
Cass, a young woman who firmly believes in critical thinking, USA
This matters to me because it is not possible to change sex, and because women and girls suffer in various ways if men are allowed in spaces where they are vulnerable, undressed or asleep. The Equality Act 2010 provides protection for women but the law is widely misquoted and misinterpreted due to the systematic policy capture by extremist transactivists.
Many trans people do not support the demands of transactivists for the legalisation of ‘self-ID’ ‘gender identity’. I’m appalled by the silencing of many academics who support the retention of existing sex-based rights for women, and by the suspension and banning from social media platforms of gender critical people – mainly women. Safeguarding of children is also threatened by trans ‘affirmation.
I have proposed two GC (gender critical) resolutions in my Labour Party CLP. I organised Defend Women’s Rights meetings locally. I attended several Womens Place UK meetings. I’m active in Labour Womens Declaration Working Group. I constantly post openly on Facebook and Twitter. I am an admin of several secret GC facebook groups.
I have emailed my MP with detail several times, as well as lobbying Labour Party NEC members and MPs. I pointed out that the Labour Party Rule Book does not refer to the Equality Act (!) and incorrectly references the protected characteristics. (Unchanged in 2020 edition)
I am writing my story “Musing on the sex and gender morass: how my life changed on 18th Nov 2017” (when I found out about transactivist demands for Self-ID
I have lost two dear friends as a consequence of my views on sex and gender. Very painful… And I think probably many other less close friends and acquaintances will have distanced themselves. Hard to know. Most people I think say nothing, knowing that it’s ‘toxic’
I have repeatedly been called ‘bigoted’ ‘hateful’ ‘transphobic’ – none of which are true. I left the Labour Party because of this in 2018 and then decided to rejoin in 2019 – but was rejected as a member because I ‘mis-gendered’ a young man who identifies as a woman, and had been elected as a women’s office in the party. (and because I’m a supporter of Palestinian rights) Currently awaiting appeal hearing 8 months later. It’s been my choice to proritise this issue, but that has come at a very significant cost.
Diane Jones, Socialist feminist, retired researcher. Art music literature for sanity retention
The Gender Dissidents Survey