Tag: school

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Academics and researchers

I’ve submitted evidence to official inquiries, lobbied politicians, talked to journalists

I care about this because the policies being pushed will have a damaging effect on the dignity, privacy and safety of my daughter, my elderly mother, me and all other women, including our ability to refuse without penalty to be seen undressed or intimately touched by a male, and will displace women from activities (eg sport, shortlists) designed specifically to overcome disadvantages based on sex, and also involve the forced denial of reality and the forced expression of  beliefs I don’t hold.

I’ve submitted evidence to official inquiries, lobbied politicians,  talked to journalists, written and appeared in the media, met officials, written academic articles.  Mostly national level inervention – some cautious local representation to school and guides.

I (as part of a group of writers or speakers related to particular events or publications, not as an individual) have been written about in extremely derogatory ways as hateful/unsafe/anti-trans, on university-hosted websites, blogs and social media, and in communications to the Scottish parliament, and subject to appalling treatment by one organisation I won’t describe here because we are still thinking how best to make it better known.

Lucy Hunter Blackburn, Researcher and policy analyst

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Education Parent

If someone had told me that in 2020, women would be fighting desperately to hang on to the definition of woman I’d have thought they were crazy.

This matters to me because when I was a student in the mid-1980s, I was a feminist (of course!) but I was confident that most of the major battles had been won, and that we were on a trajectory towards genuine equality. If someone had told me that in 2020, women would be fighting desperately to hang on to the definition of woman, in order to protect our hard-won rights, I’d have thought they were crazy.

I have written to my MP, written in support of gender-critical women who raise their voices publicly, written private letters of support to those women; made FOI requests on sex/gender topics; spent several Saturdays leafleting with other women involved in the Fair Play For Women campaign to draw attention to the proposed GRA reforms; completed the govt’s GRA reform consultation questionnaire; completed Edward Lord’s (shocking) consultation on making all City of London visitor attraction toilets mixed-sex; been active on social media; written a (far too occasional) blog; taken every opportunity to talk to family and friends (and selected colleagues) about these issues; attended WPUK and Let A Woman Speak and other events; spoken at Women Say in Hyde Park on IWD 2020; with others, set up a women’s group in our city which meets regularly (before lockdown); am active in a private Slack group for GC professionals in my sector.

As a consequence I have been frozen out of the friendship group I made when my son was a baby, because one of the mothers has a “trans child”. My son has been asked by other students at school (he attends a school which is obsessively proud about its Stonewall status) if his mother is “still a TERF”.

Rachel Bosenterfer, Adult human female. Mother. Loudmouth

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Education Healthcare Parent

We are not a subset of women

This matters to me because I do not want my daughters to grow up in a world where women’s rights are diminished.  We are not a subset of women. I worry for the teenage girls in the school where I work, where they may lose their right to same sex toilets/changing rooms.

I have donated to crowdfunders. I have emailed notes of support to women under fire who express their opinion. I have spoken to my husband and children.  I would more than likely lose my job if I went public with my opinions and I cannot afford to do that.

I have not spoken up. I feel bad about this but am truly not in a position to do so….yet.

JJ

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Education

I see the dismantling of women’s hard fought for rights

I care because I see the dismantling of women’s hard fought for rights and I care about young people’s mental health as a secondary school teacher

I have done very little online as worried about professional consequences. Have spoken with friends, family and colleagues. Have complained to Greenpeace and Amnesty International by email

Any consequences? No because haven’t dared speak up

AM

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Education Parent

It is hard to see doublethink happening in real time

It is hard to see doublethink happening in real time and doubting my own common sense.

I have ensured school’s policies do not conflate sex and gender

Have you faced any consequences? Not yet

L, Left wing school governor, parent to girls

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Education Healthcare

I could not be complicit in socially transitioning a very young child at my school

This matters to me as a parent, educator and former mental health professional.

I don’t want children who don’t conform to rigid stereotypes of dress or personality to feel they don’t fit in and are therefore ‘trans’. I could not be complicit in socially transitioning a very young child at my school (after a trans charity trained senior staff).

I think that much better attention should be paid to children’s social adjustment and mental health, and to tackling bullying and gender stereotypes,  before taking such radical steps, based on what I consider to be a belief system. I don’t understand how Safeguarding can be so easily discarded.

I have written to newspapers and contributed to BTL comments, donated to crowdfunders, campaign groups and signed petitions, communicated with my MP and members of the House of Lords. I have attended meetings and a court case. I have become a feminist because, in middle age, I hadn’t fully understood how a concept so dismissive of women (the idea of innate gender identity; the idea that being a woman is a nebulous ‘concept’ that is up for grabs) could have gained so much traction.

The negative consequence has been that I resigned from my job – a job I had loved and been effective in. It’s had a chillling effect on my sense of security and justice to feel that something so unproven and potentially damaging to the rights and wellbeing of women and children has had so little scrutiny.

I have become aware that certain people feel themselves to have an unviolable sense of having the ‘correct’ views, based on the way they vote, and how unwilling they are to listen once they have placed a label (bigot) on others.

Gemma, Adult human female

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Healthcare

The trans movement is a men’s rights movement

I care about this issue because I am a feminist and have spent much of my working life supporting girls and women in empowerment.

I was a social worker latterly and also fostered girls so am fully aware of the damage that had been done to them, emotionally, physically and sexually. 

I feel that the trans movement is a men’s rights movement. More importantly I believe that it is covering up for paedophilia. It is dangerous.

I have raised awareness of the harm the trans movement does to girls and women. This is to my family, friends, groups I belong to and to my MP. I have written to the safeguarding leads in every school in my local town and the surrounding villages raising safeguarding concerns. I have attended events regarding women’s sex based rights. I have completed consultations on self ID and have written to English and Scottish MP’s to either raise awareness or to thank them for their intervention. I have leafletted a local school to inform them of the threat to children. I regularly share relevant stories or information on Facebook. 

Lastly I have donated to crowdfunding ( including your own) and have signed countless petitions. I am lucky as I no longer work so have not had to deal with any issues in a workplace. However I have found that some people have either not believed what I am telling them or have stated that  they do not want to know. Family sometimes ask me not to talk about it at social events.

 Sara S, Retired Social Worker

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Healthcare Parent

I promised myself that I would never again collude in someone else’s bulls**t.

I care because I have a daughter- having grown up in a very women-unfriendly family and country, I view transgenderism as another robe that misogyny wears.

I watched “Panti’s noble call” and really felt sympathy for people who felt that they were “born in the wrong body”…and later reflected that at no point in his speech did he reference that the abuse he experienced is something that young women deal with ALL THE TIME.

You titled your questionnaire “speaking up for reality” and having been gaslighted almost to oblivion when married, I promised myself that I would never again collude in someone else’s bulls**t. I am very kind,  considerate and empathetic- but I will not reduce my own boundaries to accommodate someone else’s needs. They have to take responsibility for themselves.

I speak to my children constantly (teens) and advise them to keep their heads down about the issue at school.

I refused to work with a school (professionally) that wanted to modify a bathroom to accommodate a (trans) child, under the guise of adapting the bathroom to meet the needs of another (different) disabled child.

I tentatively raise my voice with friends- but most are still at the point of “what’s the harm in being kind?” or “what difference does it make?” without thinking it through to it’s logical outcome, when manipulated by someone who refuses to recognise usual social boundaries, or who refuses to reciprocate respect.

Not really, but then I havent yet been brave- I really worry for my livelihood (I work with ASD children and teens).

MRP, Ireland

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Others

I ran a marathon while carrying a flag that said “SAVE WOMEN’S SPORTS”

As a woman, I want privacy and safety when I use public bathrooms, locker rooms, etc. I want sports to be fair; I want young female athletes to benefit from them the same way I did, and I want elite female athletes I look up to to have the wins they deserve.

I fiercely believe that everyone has the right to choose the circumstances under which people of the opposite sex see them undressed as well as the circumstances under which they see members of the opposite sex undressed. This is true for situations that affect me, such as public bathroom usage and the sex of the doctor who performs my pap smear, as well as for situations that don’t and hopefully never will, such as having to share a prison shower with a biological male or being pressured to wax male genitalia.

I will steadfastly defend this right to choose not only for myself, but for women everywhere.

I ran a marathon while carrying a flag that said “SAVE WOMEN’S SPORTS” as well as the dictionary definition of the word “woman” (“ADULT HUMAN FEMALE”).

I’ve written to my government representatives. I’ve researched and written speeches, which I’ve delivered at school board meetings of a school district that opened locker rooms to opposite-sex students. I’ve attended demonstrations at athletic events of that school district, distributing flyers and holding up large signs/banners.

I boycott companies who support gender identity ideology. I’ve written to those companies to explain why I’m boycotting them, and I explain my boycotts to others. I’ve signed petitions and used social media to urge others to do the same. I’ve given an interview for a feminist radio show and written an op-ed that was recently printed in a newspaper.

I have been dogpiled on on social media. I’ve been called garbage/trash, a TERF, sh*t, a c*nt, and “the f*cking genitals police.” Someone commented on one of my posts with a picture of an anime girl pointing a gun at the viewer captioned, “SHUT THE FUCK UP TERF.” I’ve been told to STFU, and someone commented on one of my posts with a picture of super glue captioned, “Finally, a line of lipstick made exclusively for TERFs.” Someone commented on one of posts with a meme including an emoji holding a knife that read, “Why be transphobic when you can just DIE.” I was told to “die alone.” Someone told me they hoped I lost “every sponsor or scholarship [I] ever apply for.”

For objecting to male people competing in female sports, I was accused of being “mediocre,” “a terrible athlete,” and told I needed to train harder. Many people insulted the way my parents had raised me, and I was told that I shouldn’t have kids myself. I’ve been accused of having “internalized misoyogny[sic]” and of having the patriarchy “ingrained deep” in me.

Emily Kaht, Just a normal woman who’s finally had enough, USA

Categories
Healthcare

Women’s rights were hard won. They shouldn’t be dismantled as though granting them was a favour

Women’s rights were hard won. They shouldn’t be dismantled as though granting them was a favour. I’m sick of black women being used as evidence that black people are not really people. I’m personally insulted at the racist, homophobic and misogyny of most trans narrative.

How have women’s rights and needs advanced incrementally by millimetres, but trans issues are now forefront of public and private policy?

I have shared schools guidance with friends worried about the school decision to turn toilets into mixed sex areas with no consultation.

I have challenged at work (raising safeguarding implications), discussed with family and friends, donated to crowdfunding and amplified the voices of those doing the hard work on social media.

I have been warned off for flagging implications for other protected characteristics. I’ve also been accused of attacking a trans person in a private and left-politics Facebook group for providing alternative information to challenge the statement that trans people started Pride and Stonewall.

Barbarara, Sister, not Cister