Tag: survivor

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As a rape victim, I don’t want people with penises in my changing rooms, in my toilets, in women’s prisons.

This matters to me as a rape victim, I don’t want people with penises in my changing rooms, in my toilets, in women’s prisons. And as for biological men (who identify as women) competing in women’s sports that makes my blood boil, I know as a female I can’t throw as far, run as fast, lift as heavy as a biological male and it makes me so mad that women, no matter how hard they try will never be able to compete.

I have also been looking into autogynophilia and it scares me, I think a large number of these men have this. I honestly have no problems with people that have fully transitioned. And the vile abuse that people get on Twitter for saying all this is scary.

I’ve liked things on Twitter. I’m too scared to even retweet. I refuse to be called cis, I’m a woman.

I have been called a transphobe by my good friends. I change the subject now because it makes me uncomfortable.

Moonface , Not cis

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Healthcare

I try to speak up because I know what it is like, when as a child you are unable to speak up for yourself

This matters to me as someone who was subjected to years of sexual abuse as a girl, as well as a lot of sexual harassment since my teens, and who has subsequently relied on single-sex spaces to get through life. I want to protect female-only spaces for all the girls and women who need and want them for whatever reason and I try to speak up  because I know what it is like, when as a child you are unable to speak up for yourself.

I think that it is deeply wrong of organisations to disregard the needs of vulnerable, previously abused girls by making them choose between the trauma of sharing spaces such as changing rooms or bedrooms with males or facing the consequences of speaking up when they do not feel able or ready to.

Girls’ trust in others’ ability to safeguard them will be diminished.

I have campaigned by handing out leaflets. I requested to speak to a long-established women’s group who then invited me to present the issue. Following my presentation the group expressed deep concerns about the situation. I have written to my MP and then met and discussed it with him twice – he was fairly dismissive of my concerns of the first visit and chose to centre the needs of one group over the needs of others. On our second meeting he was very rude to my friend who had come to support me. I have helped with women’s groups and with children’s safeguarding groups who have been campaigning. A photo of me, but not my name, has appeared in a main stream newspaper and also appeared in a less main stream media outlet.

I have had a very small amount of verbal aggression in public and have also been shouted at when attending meetings. When an organisation that I was involved with held a meeting, the Grade 1 listed building was graffitied with the words ‘T*RFS F*CK OFF’ which was designed to intimidate attendees. A photo of me appeared in a non-mainstream media outlet where the position of safeguarding group I support was inaccurately linked alongside far-right groups. I have not yet had any issues with my work but this is mainly because I have been very careful about keeping my work life, as a hospital-based nurse (RGN) separate from my campaigning. I have no doubt that if they were linked then someone would try to have me removed.

C

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Healthcare

I’m a rape survivor and a refugee, and I know first hand how important single sex spaces are to the safety of women and girls.

This matters to me because I’m a medical doctor who swore to do no harm and to protect general public from harmful ideologies and political influences that seek to harm and profit from their healthcare. Because I saw the medical scandal unfold and institutions being complicit. Because I’m a rape survivor and a refugee, and I know first hand how important single sex spaces are to the safety of women and girls.

I’ve written extensively from a medical, feminist, ethical and philosophical perspectives. I submitted responses to all the relevant enquiries.

I petitioned politicians and medical regulatory bodies. I collaborated with colleagues to reverse damaging guidances from various medical institutions world-wide.

I have experienced worsening of my physical and mental health symptoms due to highly threatening and inflammatory environment transactivists have created and I have to take regular breaks from all this in order to keep well. None of this would be necessary in a respectful debate, which I normally quite enjoy.

la scapigliata, doctor, radical feminist

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Education Healthcare

I feel so completely and utterly betrayed by publicly funded and third sector organisations

I was sexually assaulted by a boy at my school while I was asleep. In late 2017 I read the LGBT Youth Scotland guidance, which recommends that boys who identify as transgender be allowed to share sleeping accommodation with girls on residential trips, and anyone complaining should be reminded of “equality, inclusion and respect”. 

After my experiences I would have found it incredibly distressing to have to share a bedroom with someone I perceived to be a boy.

I really could not believe that this guidance had been endorsed by so many children’s organisations and not one of them had considered or even noticed the potential impact of this on girls.

I wrote a Children’s Rights Impact Assessment (CRIA) of the LGBT Youth Scotland transgender schools guidance. I used a very comprehensive template developed by the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland. In the accompanying guidance to the template, CYPCS mentioned that they offered support and assistance to those writing CRIA’s using their template, so I took them up on this. I was working with Women and Girls in Scotland and when we published the CRIA we got some press attention, and CYPCS wrote to the Scottish Government regarding the guidance.  The Scottish Government are now working on a replacement, in part I think due to the CRIA and the intervention of CYPCS. I’m now working with For Women Scotland, focusing on children and education.

This has been very personal and sometimes traumatic for me.

I feel so completely and utterly betrayed that no publicly funded or third sector organisation in Scotland has ever spoken in defence of the interests of girls in relation to the issue of transgender inclusion in schools (or anywhere else), including those organisations who are funded to represent women and girls and the issues that affect them.

This is despite the Scottish Government now acknowledging that these ‘inclusive’ policies do indeed risk excluding girls. My family have been incredibly supportive, as have some of my friends, but I think the biggest toll has been on my mental health.

When I heard Shirley-Anne Somerville’s speech where she announced the replacement of the guidance I cried for a long time.

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Parent

My experiences are the experiences of millions of women

My whole life has been determined by my female sex.

From household responsibilities when my mother left home to adult domestic responsibilities.. from pregnancy,  abortion, miscarriage and childbirth to childrearing and motherhood.. from childhood sexual abuse to teen rape.. from low pay and casual sexism in the workplace to a reduced pension entitlement…from my survival as a female infant to auto immune disease post menopause.

My experiences are the experiences of millions of women, and they are not the result of us identifying as female, but are the cold harsh reality of being born with xx chromosomes and being born as girls

The rights that women have now, the rights we have fought for that give women some level of equality and independence and recognise coercion in relationships and rape in marriage and allow women to have and manage their own money were not ceded by men lightly and were granted on the basis of biological sex. Sex matters

I have become active on this issue on social media and have made blog posts and also discuss this issue socially

I have had my Twitter account suspended for posting GC tweets, I have been harassed on Facebook and I have lost friends in real life who have labelled me transphobic

Kate Styles, Woman, Mother, Grandmother

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Healthcare Parent

We…should not be gaslit by those supposed to care

This matters to me for several reasons.

I spent several years in women’s refuges with my child and realising that women and children like us, full of trauma, could be forced to accept having males as residents or staff no matter how they identify is deeply worrying and upsetting.

We need this environment to be female and children only and should not be gaslit by those supposed to care. I worry about vulnerable women in prison, in hospitals, on closed wards. I worry that women’s spaces are no longer women’s spaces and that we won’t know until it’s too late. I am deeply concerned about the huge amount of young people who now say they identify as trans and the way they are being constantly affirmed.

I have written letters, attended one meeting, distributed literature, had conversations with refuge staff, I am active on social media under an assumed name, I have spoken to some people in real life, I’ve donated to as many fundraisers as I can, translated information from Scandinavia alongside other small actions

I have been threatened and abused on Social Media and have been unable to speak in my own name through fear of doxxing. I am unable to speak about this socially as it could affect my sons education as we home educate, so since leaving refuge I have chosen to only speak to those I know share my views.

Leonora Christina

Categories
Parent

Reality matters

Reality matters. If we can’t name reality then we can’t address any unfairness, injustice or exploitation.

I got pregnant from a rape (one of many) when I was a young and vulnerable adult, and how I have been targeted on the basis of and generally affected by, my female biology since I was a young child, has had huge and devastating consequences for my entire life. Sex matters. Recognising sex matters. I can’t live in a world where I am forced to pretend reality doesn’t exist and that males who are uncomfortable or deeply distressed with masculinity or who fetishise the idea of themselves as feminine/a woman are the most vulnerable/the most superior type of woman. I can guarantee none of them are raising their rapist’s baby as a single parent living in poverty. Poverty which has resulted from repeated sexual, physical and emotional victimisation by men since the age of 11.

I do not do as much as I would like as I already live in fear of being re-victimised by violent men.

I have seen the violent rhetoric, the threats, the bullying, the harassment of women who have spoken out. I only speak about my views amongst those I know and trust now.

I lost acquaintances and once I realised the things that were happening to others I became very circumspect about what I say and to whom.

Ms S, Frightened woman,