Tag: medicine

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Lesbians

We banned him from lesbian events for touching women without their consent

I’m a lesbian and was for years active in a women’s centre which acted as a hub for local lesbian activities and groups and support. I and other volunteers held monthly brunch meetings for lesbian women, we had a monthly lesbian feminist group, a monthly cafe event, a newsletter that publicised everything from walks and bike rides and dining clubs and festivals and weekends away to personal ads. We probably reached the best part of 1000 women. We had innumerable women tell us we’d been a life-saver for them. People actually moved to this area because they knew there was this wonderful, open, established lesbian network they could plug into.

Then a trans-rights activist in a wig and lipstick and long nails came to a couple of our events. 

He stood out because he didn’t look like the rest of us. We asked him to leave. He refused. He came to a brunch, made a speech about how he’d come to educate lesbians about transgender issues and, as women tried to leave the room, forcibly hugged them. They made complaints to us. We banned him from lesbian events for touching women without their consent and took the issue to the police who did nothing. The trans-identified man said he’d take the women’s centre down. And he did.

He applied to become a committee member. The committee at that time was dominated by straight white Momentum Labour women who welcomed him. The BAME women, many of whom are not allowed by their faith to attend events where there is a man present, took their funding and left. Many of the lesbians boycotted the women’s centre events in protest. The women’s centre closed down. The lesbian women’s movement fractured as some women took a GC stance and others took the ‘poor transgender people’ stance. Friends fell out. Younger lesbians told off older lesbians for their failure to be kind and reasonable. This fracture in the lesbian community is still festering and I can’t see a time when we will ever be able to rebuild what we had.

I have educated my MP about this, but while she’s sympathetic and makes GC noises to my face she still maintains a supportive pro-trans public persona.

I’ve written 50+  letters and emails to the BBC, the Guardian and other media organisations, occasionally with success (ie, articles have been changed, headlines have been changed) Lots of emails to Radio 4!

I send postcards of support to many women, particularly whose who are fighting alone within their professions/ institutions.

I’m out and proud as GC on my very secure FB page and found that as soon as I started talking about it, quite a few others started saying that they’d felt the same way but had felt uncomfortable about discussing such things.

I’ve taken a firm, rational, non-emotional GC line in lesbian social groups etc and while some people are offended, I usually find that the majority even if they’re silent at the time, sidle up later to say they agree.

I belong to a Resisters group and have stickered and gone out on the streets leafleting. Again, the majority of people agree with a GC line.

Once you start talking to people you realise that 80% are GC, 10% are confused or don’t care and fewer than 10% really take the TWAW line — and even then can’t justify that belief.

I’ve lost several people with whom I thought I’d be friends for life. I had a lesbian GP friend who is now so deeply enmeshed in transgender ideology that she has gone off to specialise in transgender medicine and refers to me openly as a TERF. She spouts all the Mermaids stuff about hundreds of trans teens killing themselves and won’t hear a rational response. It’s brought out a sort of Messiah complex in her: she’s going to rescue and protect all the poor transpeople. It’s profoundly disturbing to realise that even someone like her — clever, educated, years of experience in public service in the NHS — is so emotionally and intellectually susceptible to irrational ideology. 

I’ve also been very badly patronised by younger women friends who think their brand of feminism (intersectional feminism) is better than my 1970s/1980s feminism. It’s come as a real shock to realise that these apparently impeccably feminist young women don’t centre women in their politics. Some of them treat me as if I have learning difficulties. You know: ‘You can’t blame Issilly for her opinions, she comes from the medieval school of feminism where women hate all men…’

The biggest negative consequence has been realising how irrational and misogynistic and homophobic the world still is, under the guise of being ‘nice’. Lesbians are under attack from all sides, including other lesbians. I feel really glad to have had a wonderful 30 years of positive lesbian feminist culture and so sorry for younger lesbians who have nothing that I had to cling onto.

Issilly, who was just a lesbian until she discovered she was actually a radical lesbian feminist

Categories
Healthcare

We must remember our hippocratic oath – first, do no harm

I have looked after a trans patient who I met through the injuries they got when they tried to commit suicide.

I then knew a neighbour’s kid who became trans and requested to be known as a different name. This kid’s parent is employed as a parenting expert running Council courses on parenting and I was intrigued and worried as to how miserable they seemed despite a v supportive family.

My sister is lesbian and on the more butch end of the spectrum when she goes to parties though not in day to day life. I realised she would have had pressure to trans if she was living her childhood now and I feel protective to both my patient (who had life changing injuries) and neighbour’s kid.

I have two daughters who are very girly though I myself am a tomboy I would say. As a paediatrician I particularly strongly object to the treatment of rogd (rapid onset gender dysphoria) and in fact all gender dysphoria with hormone blockers /hormones /surgery in children. Logically any of these treatments should be reserved for age 25 plus when brain is emotionally matured.

Legally treatments should be reserved until age 18  I believe but this is against usual medical practice.

I hate the thought these unhappy kids and teenagers may lose sexual health and function, plus libido and osteoporosis etc etc all because the medical profession is failing them. We must remember our hipppcratic oath – first, do no harm.

I have discussed with my sisters who defend trans rights and tell me I’m wrong (including my sister who is lesbian). I have briefly mentioned to my husband. I have read widely on line. I have posted on twitter  once asking whether lockdown may be good for teen trans kids. Otherwise I have not posted as I’m scared of personal and professional repurcussions.

My sisters are slightly distanced from me and critical of my beliefs.

JS, Paediatric doctor and mum of two kids

Categories
Healthcare

As a doctor I fear that predatory men will take advantage of “gender identity” rules to assault vulnerable women in hospitals

I’m a senior doctor, who qualified into a very male dominated profession. Sexism (even when inadvertent) was & is the norm, and difficult to get addressed. As it is, female patients’ problems can be dismissed readily if the diagnosis isn’t obvious.

My biggest fear is that predatory men will take advantage of “gender identity” rules to assault vulnerable women in hospitals, as they have in prisons already.

I have started to engage on Twitter: the pile-on to JK Rowling’s tweets have been galvanising for me on this issue. It took a while for me to understand that “transwomen” had extended beyond the realm of people who had actually transitioned (or were in the process of it) to people who are male-bodied and not committed to transition.

I have also contacted my medical indemnity association: the NHS guidance is very woolly on what happens if female patients object to the presence of an obvious man in a hospital ward.

Essentially, the staff are told to try to justify it to the other patients and if all else fails, find a single room for one or other of the parties.

I have been told that I should be ashamed to be a doctor, that they feel “sorry for patients” having to deal with me. I have been placed on a “TERF” blocklist. I have been called racist, homophobic, and inevitably “transphobic” (and that was after bringing up examples of women prisoners being raped).

I have had to lock my account, particularly as I am worried that I will be reported to the regulator for being critical of gender-identity, and could face sanctions on my career.

N, Doctor

Categories
Healthcare

Difference is what makes us human and should be celebrated

This is crucially important as the only thing that makes us male or female is our bodies and there is no such think as being born in the wrong body.  Difference is what makes us human and should be celebrated, not forced in to limiting social constructs that oppress us all and reinforce stereotypes. 

Bodies matter in other ways too and male bodies are much stronger, faster and more powerful so should not be allowed to enter women’s sports.  Only men rape, so they should not be allowed access to our sex-segregated spaces.  Safety, privacy and dignity are desperately important. 

I am also very concerned about the meaning of language and that words that are very specific can be changed as casually as the definition of the word Woman, now changed in law by the Scottish Government.

I have attended rallies (threatened by trans activists beforehand, who also told the organisers that we were intending to rush the stage and be violent – a complete fabrication).

I help to organise local meetings that are very peaceful but have been subjected to really vicious and threatening abuse by trans activists and even local politicians standing outside of the venues.

I work as hard as I can to raise awareness of the issues involved, handing out leaflets and standing up whenever I am able, to share details and correct misinformation.

I am in a number of groups that share links and other information, acting within a political party to support and protect women’s rights and fight against the erasure of the meaning of being a woman / female.

I have written to my MP and been ignored.

On a training course the transgender trainer was extremely unpleasant when I said that women and transwomen have different health care needs.  They made a complaint to my manager.

I was subjected to very intimidating abuse and threats at meeting venues, monitored by trans activists within my political party and my views closed down immediately when attempting to defend women’s rights.

On Twitter & Facebook I have been told to die in a fire and that I should be raped to death, subjected to outrageously offensive comments and aggression, and reporting these comments to the Twitter and Fb resulted in no action being taken by the perpetrators.

I have had my face filmed very closely by some abusive trans activists (some masked) who were attempting to intimidate me from attending a meeting.

J

Categories
Healthcare

As a nurse I dread the day I have to put patients of the opposite sex in a shared room because of the trans ideology.

I care about females safety and sex based protections. I will not allow them to disappear because I want a better future for my daughter. As a nurse I dread the day I have to put patients of the opposite sex in a shared room because of the trans ideology.

I posted frequently on twitter but left because I was worried about being reported to work. I’m currently writing a letter to my union about their policies.

I have been abused on Twitter.

E H, Reality believing nurse

Categories
Healthcare

There is no justification for using unlicensed medications on children outside of a clinical trial.

I care because I have great concerns about the influence of political ideology on the medical treatment of vulnerable children

I have posted on medical forums about the inadequate evidence for puberty blockers being used in gender dysphoria clinics. There is no justification for using unlicensed medications on children outside of a clinical trial.

This shouldn’t be news but critical appraisal of evidence seems to be a skill that’s no longer taught in medical school.

I was called racist, a bigot, uneducated, ‘old fashioned’ and various other personal insults by fellow doctors. My questioning about the reliability of Stonewall’s publications about suicidality drew comments that I was freakish and ‘messy’ for questioning a deeply flawed methodology. I was then banned from the group for ‘spreading hatred’

Dr S Smith , MBChB

Categories
Healthcare

I see patients who declare their sex to be female but turn out to be biologically male with male genitalia.

I care about this issue because the silencing of women/removal of women’s sex based rights to prioritise the feelings of a tiny number of men who decide they are women is unfair. I support trans people’s right, just like anyone else’s right, to be safe from harassment and abuse and to live their life in peace, but this should not be to the detriment of women and girls. I am also concerned about the erasure of lesbian women and girls and the transing of children.

As a medical professional I am increasingly concerned about the conflagration of sex to gender. On medical forms we increasingly now have to ask someone their gender not their sex and I have personally examined patients who declare their sex to be female but turn out to be biologically male with male genitalia.

Why are we afraid/unable to ask someone what their sex is?

I have raised this with my employer. I examine people intimately and I want to know whether they have male or female genitalia in advance. This affects my preparation for the examination and the equipment I need. The gender question on referral forms and medical forms does not tell me this. This is embarrassing and unacceptable for trans patients as well as medical staff so they are not getting best care. It also affects statistics if gender is used instead of sex to describe the patient in medical records.

I have been VERY careful to frame my concerns in terms of a lack of good care for trans patients rather than my wider gender critical views.

Adult Human Female , Gender Critical Medic

Categories
Parent

This is medicine’s next big scandal

My child identified as trans a few years ago. I wasn’t worried at first, but the more I learnt about the impacts for her and other transitioning young people, and the impact on women and girls generally, the more concerned I became.

I am now convinced that this is medicine’s next big scandal waiting to break, and that trans activism operates as a cult.

I have been to meetings and participated in sharing info on social media. I try to keep evidence on hand so I can counter misinformation.

My child stopped speaking to me – way before I became active. Anything other than full affirmation was not acceptable. I was not supposed to read gender critical sites, and not allowed to express concerns about the medical pathway, even though I offered (qualified) support.

J, Worried parent of older transitioner

Categories
Healthcare Parent

Schools need to work with parents, not push them out of the picture

This is very personal for me. My 14 year old daughter (likely ASD, complex mental health history) told her Year Head that she wanted to transition to a boy. The Year Head embraces this with enthusiasm and formally transitioned her across the school behind our backs. When we found out and told him we wanted to do watchful waiting (non affirmative, giving her a neutral space to grow and develop) he told us we had no say as parents. I had no idea affirmation was pushed by lobby groups to school as the only acceptable approach.

It’s a highly complex, sensitive issue and schools need to work with parents, not push them out of the picture.

I have written to multiple MPs and MSPs as well as the Children’s Commissioner Scotland. I am active on social media and in a parent support group pushing for evidence based medicine around gender dysphoria in children and adolescents. I have attended and spoken from the floor at various meetings – e.g. seminar at the Scottish Parliament on GD in children/adolescents.

I do the vast majority anonymously to protect my daughter’s privacy. I get backlash on social media- just the usual calling me an abusive parent (and one told me my experience was “not worthy of respect in a democratic society” – wonder where they got that from Maya, eh?). IRL has been fine as have only told a small supportive group of friends. School has been a battle with some teachers supportive, others not.


Betty

Categories
Parent

The whole debate has destroyed -democracy

This matters to me because I understand from a cultural perspective the negative impact these proposals will have – women only spaces based upon sex is needed. I also disagree with gender stereotyping and putting children on medicines -how can a child really understand sex and changing it? My eldest said he was a cat the other day now he is a boy again –  just because they display opposite to their sex play. All because a boy plays with a dolly doesn’t mean he is girl and yet according to Mermaids it does. Rubbish.

From what I’ve read it’s used particularly in the states as gay conversation – completely wrong. It also worries me the online grooming of children by older men. If they didn’t scream I’m trans then they would be prosecuted.

That’s the last thing the whole debate has destroyed – democracy. You can’t have opposing views and express them without real fear.

CES

I would love to say that there are two biological sex and you can’t change them. Change the outside if you want – and understand the lifelong pain the drugs and surgery causes which children can never do – but you will still be the same biological sex at the end.

Let children be children.

Let adults be themselves but not at the harm of others.

Let democracy survive and allow debate.

CES

I have reposted as many times as I see on Twitter articles and comments to fill the feed. I’ve filled in forms. I’ve tried to discuss the path the government is taking us down. My husbands family is Muslim so that was much harder – but even they are getting that this we have an impact even on their circle.

I have had threats on twitter – they don’t do anything

CES