Tag: social work

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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

This matters to me personally, as a gay man, and professionally as a social worker

This matters to me personally, as a gay man, and professionally as a social worker. I see the erosion of women’s rights and LGB people’s rights happening before our very eyes, and do not want the country to be taking such a regressive step.

I have raised my voice at work with certain colleagues, though they have largely been in agreement and supportive.

I have been called a TERF on social media and blocked by various people online. My main fear is a complaint to Social Work England, the regulator. While I find it ludicrous that someone would complain when a social worker raises legitimate concerns about women’s rights, LGB rights and child safeguarding, I have seen it happen already to a social work academic.

BF, Social Worker

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Healthcare

In my youth I went on gay rights marches every year. I marched with trans people

I  first became aware of the misogyny in trans ideology in 2015. I was doing an MA in Social Work and the subject was ‘the value of feminist theory for social work practice in domestic violence. I was 50 at the time and although I have always been a feminist I joined the NorthWest feminist and anti capitalist group to get some up to date theory.

A colleague of mine was doing her dissertation on the reform of the Gender Recognition Act. I hadn’t thought much about this until then. Her dissertation was pro reforming it to allow people to instantly self ID. I then read an article by Miranda Yardley in the Morning Star questioning the effects of any proposed reforms of the GRA on womens rights.This was the first time I had heard of Miranda Yardly.

It was a brilliant thought provoking article and I posted it on website of said feminist group and asked that we discuss it. The very next day I was piled on by three transwomen who called me a TERF, said I was transphobic, mocked me and kicked me out of the group.

I was in shock! I was so upset. In my youth I went on gay rights marches every year. I marched with trans people.

I have raised awareness on Twitter, Facebook and supported others in doing so. I have spoken to friends and family.

Apart from getting kicked out of feminist group (described above)  I am treading a fine line in friendship with a friend of mine who is a lesbian but is totally pro trans and wont hear a word against them. She unfriended me for a while on FB. She said she knows I am not transphobic but is worried other people will think that I am. I am not.

CB, The truth matters

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Healthcare

We have to be able to ask very difficult questions

This matters to me because if we change the definition of “woman” or “man” to mean anybody who identifies as a woman or man there will be unintended consequences. We need to think through those consequences really carefully.

It matters to me because I’m a child protection social worker. I see an increase in children who’ve experience significant harm now claiming to be trans. Sometimes they’re encouraged by their schools. Those children may develop to live as trans men or women and that is their choice, as adults. However…

we need to ensure a trans identity is not a maladaptive response to trauma, one that may leave the unmet underlying need while the young person seeks increasingly drastic physical changes to their body.

I worry about the fact that we cannot openly discuss this topic. In thinking about harm to the people with the least power and voice (young children) there can be nothing left unsaid. We have to be able to ask very difficult questions.

I worry about trans-inclusive guidance which tells girls that if they feel uncomfortable with someone in their personal space they should ignore that feeling. Children who’ve experienced trauma need encouragement to listen to their feelings, to their intuitive responses. We work with children to help them recognise the danger signals in their body and then act on those (children who’ve experienced harm may have learnt to “turn off” those survival mechanisms, to have a “flop” response to danger.) Yet trans inclusive guidance tells children the opposite. That’s not deliberate on the part of trans groups, but is the result of an atmosphere in which criticism is not allowed and lack of open consultation. 

It matters to me because -I was a girl who didn’t conform to gender stereotypes. As an adult I still don’t conform to traditional ideas about femininity. Trans identities/ non binary/ gnc etc pushes the idea that i may not be a woman, that I am Other.

I have spoken in my local Labour Party CLP meeting, spoken in my local Quaker meeting. I have campaigned through facebook and twitter, handed out FPFW (Fair Play For Women) and WPUK (Women’s Place UK) leaflets at Labour and LibDem Party conferences as well as at a Trade Union event. I have met with my MP.

I have been to meetings aggressively protested by trans supporters who see the campaign for womens rights as fascism.

I’ve been ostracised by some members of my local Labour Party.

I’ve been insulted in the street.

BV

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Healthcare

I am a social worker and I know that people have lost their registration from saying what I think

Any issue where debate is stifled is frightening. This one in particular feels so cultural and of its time and yet it has real long term consequences for the lives of women and men. I’m also deeply uncomfortable with the medicalisation and (invasive) treatment of something that feels like it is more about social factors -trauma, inequality, mental distress.

Such a lot of campaigning effort and big money is being put into protecting the gender identities of a sub group of vulnerable people – but I suspect that the reason many of these people adopt these identities is because they suffer wider deprivations/exclusions.

When my trans friends ask me to call them by their preferred pronouns I do it to protect them from a reality which is hurting them, not because I believe that this is their actual gender.

It feels like a society-wide avoidant strategy which obscures the real issues of poverty, inequality, social disconnection and mental distress by landing on one coping strategy of many and fetishising it. Which hides the pain, and devalues the suffering of countless others.

I am a social worker and I know that people have lost their registration from saying what I think. Fortunately for me, when I worked in children’s social care I did not have any cases where there was a safeguarding concern related to gender identity, otherwise I would have been forced to be more vocal, but at that point I would have sought professional support before doing so.

M, Social worker