Tag: feminism

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Education

Very mentally unwell girls were identifying as boys and as their Biology teacher I was told I had to go along with this

I am a graduate biologist, and a science teacher in secondary schools. because I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with schools, and science being a shortage subject, I have always been able to take other jobs which I was interested in. this included working at Chiswick Women’s Aid, after which I had my first child as a single mother and became very involved in the second wave. having taken an MSc in Health Education I met one of the founders of Terrence Higgins Trust and worked as an AIDS/HIV educator for the NHS where of course I learned a lot about sexuality.

I went back into schools where I taught Biology for GCSE and A level, and spent some while teaching various subjects in FE colleges. I volunteered at a charity for street sex workers.

I eventually ended up teaching Science in an adolescent psychiatric unit. which was where the issue finally reached me as very mentally unwell girls were identifying as boys, and as their Biology teacher I was told I had to go along with this.

Luckily I was planning to retire soon anyway but that was really the catalyst, and then the JamJar happened although I wasn’t there I was firmly hooked into this cause.

I have emailed various people, met my MP (no joy there) read a huge amount, contributed to many discussions on social media particularly in my area of expertise which of course is the objective Biological reality of sex. I wrote a submission for the Oxford case (guidance now withdrawn). I have attended many events, and contributed to all the crowdfunders for legal cases. I also attend Raquel Rosario-Sanchez ‘s feminist meetings in Bristo (or did, before lockdown). I am a member of a small group affiliated to Safe Schools Alliance who are trying to get the Bristol secondary schools to look at the materials they use for PSHE, looking at their equities policies etc, and contacting two of the most worrying schools directly to ask to meet.

Stymied by Covid at the moment. luckily I have not been in danger of losing my job as I am retired. I have been shouted at in my NEU Samba Band that I have to agree TWAW, several people I know have been distinctly cooler in their reactions to me, local Labour people have accused me of being a bigot, and “knowing nothing about Biology”……

Some of my closer friends have asked me to not go on so much as I am passionate about getting the information and implications out to the public.

Alison W, Biologist, Health Educator, Teacher, Mother Grandmother

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Others

I resent that there are no female toilets in some theatres

This matters to me because I feel like women are being erased. I resent that there are no female toilets in some theatres. I resent that some trans women are trying to push women out of Female only sports. Most of all I resent that this is a battle we have to fight.

I’m on Twitter, I’ve written to my MP, talked to friends about why I feel this is an important case.

Some people think this means I hate gay people. They just don’t get the argument.

Lynne, Adult human female, feminist,  boomer, retired but not dead

Categories
Lesbians

I cannot remember an attack on women like this

I care because I am a lesbian and as such I have supported and contributed to Stonewall campaigns over the years. I am appalled and astounded by both the decisions made and the behaviour demonstrated by Ruth Hunt and her cronies and the terrible way in which this has impacted on women – lesbians in particular. I feel utterly and truly shafted by Ruth Hunt, Stonewall and The Labour Party – particular the soggy shower of female MPs we currently see before us. I have actively subsequently supported AWP, SFW, MMN and all if the various groups who have fought against the GR Act. 

I’ve spoken socially and professionally, posted on social media, attended meetings and actions and donated money

I have been a radical feminist for 45 years and I cannot remember an attack on women like this. As a result of my views I have been abused on social media to the point of feeling depressed, called a Terf many times and not often supported by friends, colleagues and even family, who will privately pledge support but are too scared to speak out. I am not in London and feel generally vulnerable as I have no outspoken like minded supporters where I do live. This is why the GC meetings and actions were so important to me when I could get to them. I will continue to fight this nonsense for my daughter and all the women who come after me ✊🏼

Maggie Moon , Radical lesbian feminist, activist and gobshite

Categories
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

Categories
Others

I wrote to the NSPCC and told them why I was stopping my monthly donation

As a child, I was extremely GNC to the point of wishing I had been a boy, and was a very androgynous teenager and young woman. I have no doubt at all I would be transed if I was young now. I also fear for women’s and girls’ sports. All the (very recent) progress we’ve made is set to be lost if men and boys are allowed to participate.

I have written to my MP and tried to meet with him, and I have spoken to friends and family. In fact, I have spoken to anyone who will listen, trying to explain what is happening and why it matters. (Most people find it hard to believe and some think I must have made a mistake).

I post on Twitter, and amplify GC feminists voice by retweeting and liking their posts.

I have also contributed to 4 or 5 crowd funding requests (e.g. Sue Evans,  James Caspian, David Bell, EVAW) and I support Refuge crisis centres with a small monthly donation to help them remain independent. I wrote to the NSPCC and told them why I was stopping my monthly donation, and have written to other institutions such as the National Trust when they show themselves to no longer understand that women are a biological category.

I haven’t suffered any negative consequences.

Claire L

Categories
Others

You can’t fight what you can’t name

I care because as a 64yr old woman with daughters I have experienced sexism and misogyny, I know that this is based on biological sex. I know our own history as women, I know how our biological sex and it’s functions (esp menstruation) are at the root of our oppression. You can’t fight what you can’t name.

I have come out as GC on Twitter, mumsnet and Facebook, using my own name. I am a frequent tweeter on this issue. I have attended numerous WPUK meetings. I belong to a number of feminist groups – local and national.

I have lost one friend due to speaking out on FB, and it’s a very sore subject with a few more.

Diane Brewster, Computer scientist (Retired), Dianebrewster

Categories
Others

I’ve sacrificed my career, my reputation and at times my sanity

I’m a lifelong feminist and trade unionist so I care deeply about the sex based rights of women and girls and our freedom to politically organise and discuss issues that impact us and our access to single sex services.

I’ve sacrificed my career, my reputation and at times my sanity. I have written blogs and vocally spoken out on social media. I have attended meetings and protests, raised in my trade union branch and discussed it with friends, family and workmates. I have completed the government’s consultation. I have sacrificed my own job by refusing to recant my views to my employer after I was reported by trans rights activists (one of them a former friend).

I lost friends and was ostracised out of two trade unions (Unison and the International Workers of the World union). The bullying I received contributed to a mental breakdown and I went off work on long term sick. I was then reported for ‘transphobia’ whilst sectioned in a mental health hospital because the stress of this issue and my employment problems triggered a manic episode.

My employer then told me they would start a formal investigation if I ever returned to work.

Paralysed with anxiety and attempting to recover from severe mental illness, my employer told me it was preparing to finish me on ‘incapability’ and pushed me to apply for early retirement at the age of 39.

My views on transgenderism were cited as evidence of bi polar disorder by my psychiatrist.

Distraught, I resigned instead and now subsist on benefits.  I have had no thanks or recognition from the feminist community for my sacrifices and I believe that prejudice against those of us who suffer from severe mental ill health is the decisive factor here. The lack of support is a major factor in my ongoing depression.I’m afraid I will never get a job again.

Sara , A socialist feminist and trade unionist

Categories
Others

If they win I won’t have a noun to describe myself

I care because if they win I won’t have a noun to describe myself. the word woman will be meaningless as it could equally apply to a man (see Scottish Government’s recent decision that when it says it is committed to 50% women on public boards, women also means transwomen and not just GRC holders but ANY man who says they’re a woman)

I have tweeted, I have spoken to friends, I have raised the issue more than once at my local branch of the SNP, I have emailed and met with my MSPs and also my MP, I have demonstrated outside the Scottish Parliament, I have responded to consultations. I am a member of a secret Face Book group. Secret – can you believe it? I have donated to multiple fund raising causes (eg Maya’s court case)

I am permanently suspended from Twitter because I ‘mis-gendered’ someone (I said someone was trans when they were non-binary. What am i like?)  and I am ‘a repeat offender.

Helen B, Scottish Feminist

Categories
Others

I fought for rape crisis lines refuges and women only services as a 2nd wave feminist

I fought for rape crisis lines refuges and women only services as a 2nd wave feminist. Women having space away from males is vital for their freedom & empowerment. The trans people demanding that men be treated as women just because they say so are putting all of my and other women’s work in jeopardy. Male bodied individuals can be dangerous to women whether they self I D as women or non-binary or not – offending rates of violence and sexual abuse have been shown to remain the same.

I have attended meetings and been very active on social media

I used to work for Galop an organisation calling itself  “LGBT” against hate crime. The services for trans took over and staff started to use hatespeech like “terfs” no one took my problem with this seriously. We were lectured on using “correct” pronouns. Finally I left after a man dressed as a woman followed me into the ladies when we almost alone in the building and was plainly masturbating in the stall next to mine.

I felt I couldn’t report this as he was treated as a woman by everyone else so I left without telling anyone why.

Jay, 2nd wave feminist LGB ally adult female woman

Categories
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