Category: Others

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Healthcare Others

I am a lesbian and object to being told that same-sex attraction is no longer “valid” and is transphobic.

I care because children and young people are being lied to by being told they can change sex. I care that female victims of abuse in refuges and prisons are being further abused by men claiming they are women.  I care because I am a lesbian and object to being told that same-sex attraction is no longer “valid” and is transphobic. I care because young lesbians are being told they are really boys. I care because of the tragic stories of young detransitioners.

I use my real name on Twitter to publicise the issue and history of transgender politics. I have attended meetings and demonstrations. I have supported crowdfunders. I have demonstrated with other lesbians at Prides. I have, with others, organised the 2019 Lesbian Strength march in Leeds. I have talked to friends who knew nothing about the issue. I responded to both the Westminster and Scottish governments’ GRA consultations.

I was suspended from Twitter for asking a question about DNA at a crime scene.

I have lost friends.

I have been asked not to discuss the issue at family gatherings.

I avoid talking about the issue on my Facebook which is mainly family and old friends and restrict my discussion of this to private groups.

Dr Lesley “Ancient Dyke” Semmens , Radical Feminist, Retired Academic

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Others

Gender theory is erasing women as a sex class

I care because I’m a woman and a feminist. Gender theory is erasing women as a sex class.

I have talked about it on Twitter and with friends.

I have been called transphobe and a bigot. I lost my best friend who is trans ally.

Marie, French feminist, France

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Others

I want to fight for my rights without being labelled as “transphobic”

It matters to me because I’m a woman and I want to fight for my rights without being labelled as “transphobic”.

I have shared my thoughts on Twitter, but I still have not the courage to speak up on other social media or in real life with people that are not my own family.

I’ve been harrased and threatened, called terf, bigot, clown, etc.

M, Chile

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Others

I will not be shamed out of what I know to be true.

I will not be shamed out of what I know to be true.

Jen, USA

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Others

I worry that people don’t really listen

I care about women.

I have discussed with family and friends.

I worry that people don’t really listen, or misinterpret what I say. Its easy to assume the worst about people that don’t agree with you.

AJC, Woman, mother, worker

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Others

Women are united by their female biology

I care because I can’t stand to see scientific reality be dismissed like this for the feelings of a minority. Sexism still exists, and to imply that women are only women because of their identification or “women’s brains” totally erases it. A woman can have any brain, any personality, but women are united by their female biology.

So far I have only discussed this with tolerant friends and on social media (not under my own name).

I have faced a lot of online abuse.

S

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Others

I believe women are being bullied and silenced

I care about the physical safety and dignity of women and girls and I think this is jeopardised by self ID and I think it is wrong that we are  being asked to take this risk to appease trans women.  Single sex spaces should be preserved. 

I care about fairness for women in all fields and consider that women and girls face a loss of opportunity in sports and perhaps at work and in education if their places are being taken by males who identify as women.

I am worried that health issues arising from biological sex ie pregnancy and birth, ante and post natal depression, menopause etc may be impacted when male bodied people identifying as women access services designed for females. I believe women are being bullied and silenced, and asked to “be kind” at best. This is unfair. It is important that we are allowed to defend our sex-based rights. Without a recognition of our biology we may lose these rights which is what concerns me most of all.

At the moment not a great deal but I have talked to family and friends and I have started to make my views known on social media. It feels dangerous.

I have been criticized in twitter. A follower of mine whose son is a trans man said something very unpleasant about how I should worry that my husband was raping my daughters if I was so concerned about sharing bathrooms with men.

LAK, For women and  girls

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Others

You absolutely cannot understand what it means to be female if you have been raised and socialised as a man

This matters to me because I am a feminist who believes in equality.  You absolutely cannot understand what it means to be female if you have been raised and socialised as a man.  You cannot understand what makes a female feel vulnerable around male bodies.  Male entitlement.  Male strength.  Male power. 

I have been raped more than once.  Sexually abused from childhood.  Controlled, belittled, groped, patronised, objectified by men.  Being a woman is not a costume, it is a lifetime of looking over your shoulder.  Being born and raised as a male will give you no insight into that underlying fear.

I have done very little.  I’m too scared to put my thoughts out there.  I’ve seen brave women who have spoken out and have been attacked and abused for their beliefs. 

I have lost a good friend.  She has been in an abusive relationship for years, and left it to go into another.  She is a good person and has been raised to “be nice”.  She is nice to her abusers and blames herself.  That is what female socialisation does to you. 

Doris, I am a woman.  An adult human female

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Others

We were absolutely clear about the need to dismantle sex stereotyping (aka ‘gender’)

I got involved with lesbian and gay activism and then feminist activism in the early 1970s.  We were absolutely clear about the need to dismantle sex stereotyping (aka ‘gender’).  And now it is being amplified despite all the successes we thought we’d had.

I raised the issue of the Labour Party deciding that trans-identified men counted as ‘women’ for the purposes of all-women shortlists et al.  I’ve talked to innumerable friends and acquaintances and a few relations.  I’ve spoken at two public meetings (in Newcastle).  I’m involved in the Labour Women’s Declaration Working Group and in a small group doing some research and analysis for the LGB Alliance.

I got absolutely pilloried in my constituency Labour Party….  One friend is suspicious of what I say but not totally disagreeing.  But that’s all.  I’ve had it easy compared to many.

Alice Bondi, retired psychotherapist and very long-term feminist (as in second wave feminism)

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Others

This all just feels like the same old misogyny in a new package, and I’m appalled by how many women are falling for it

I care because the basis of women’s oppression is and has always been their female body. To me, it feels completely wrong and like a new, “progressive” form of misogyny to deny women the language to talk about their own oppression.

The ideology behind the trans movement is logically inconsistent and inherently sexist – that “woman” is an amalgamation of sexist stereotypes, that women could somehow identify out of the violence and oppression perpetrated against them, that men could somehow identify into experiencing life just like a woman, that women who speak up are deserving of hatred, threats, losing their jobs, or violence.

This all just feels like the same old misogyny in a new package, and I’m appalled by how many women are falling for it. Men I might expect, but the women who enforce it are the most painful of all.

I have spoken up on social media and I have donated to feminist organizations. I don’t feel like I have done enough. Most of my speaking up on social media has been under the protection of anonymity, and when it hasn’t been, there was backlash. I’ve also spoken to certain people in my real life about this, and have found that most people tend to agree once I’ve explained my thoughts to them. I have been threatened and called names online.

I have been told that I am a bigot, that I am hateful, and that I need to be “educated” (I hold a doctoral degree in human biology and have never expressed hatred towards anyone identifying as trans).

These things have been said by strangers as well as a close friend. I have had my Twitter account suspended multiple times for saying things like, “Men cannot become women.” I work in a professional career, and although there have been no professional repercussions yet, I really fear professional repercussions if I were to continue to speak out.

D, feminist scientist, USA