Tag: “TERF”

Categories
law

I believe it would damage me professionally to speak up

I am a senior woman barrister in a city where another prominent senior woman lawyer has openly promoted the TERF response to attempts to explore trans issues.  I believe it would damage me professionally to speak up because people’s “understanding” of the issues is so dominated by the apparent fairness and justice of openly supporting trans rights, and by the vigour with which this is promoted by others.   If I was directly questioned I would stand up for gender critical feminism, and make the obvious points to be made.  But fear of professional and social abuse is stopping me starting the conversations.

I have discussed the issues widely with my sister who is able to enter the debate in her own name.

Ros , Senior barrister, New Zealand

Categories
law

I feel completely disempowered

I can’t believe that our most fundamental rights like the right to dignity in a same sex refuge are being removed.

I speak to people I trust but can’t really speak out. I wrote to my MP. The response simply confirmed that she supports trans rights and is also a feminist. No real answers to my concerns.

I’m afraid to discuss the issue with anyone outside my home because of potential consequences at work.

I’ve been called a TERF by previous colleagues. I no longer speak about it outside my home. It just feels that the world has gone mad and it’s now somehow taboo to talk about being female a d about female experience. I feel completely disempowered.

Natalie lawyer, Civil Servant , I can’t speak publicly on this

Categories
Healthcare law

How can we fight for rights for a group that cannot be defined?

The trans issue acts to hide the nature of women’s oppression. I am a Marxist and a materialist and I believe that women’s sexed bodies (in relation to childbearing) is the source of our oppression as women.   To deny the reality of this, is to make it seem as if there is no material basis to why we are raped, violated, beaten, subjected to FGM, bought and sold, burdened with caring, excluded, marginalized, underpaid etc etc etc.

Also, I am a lawyer. Legal rights stem from activism. Abortion rights, rape laws, marital protections, childcare, equal pay etc were won on the back of the “women’s movement”. How can we fight for rights for a group that cannot be defined. Are we really going to be able to fight for rights for “vagina holders”. Trans issues are a legal nonsense based on individual feelings, rather than collective needs based on material reality.

There are other issues. I have done immigration cases for 20 years. I do “gender based violence” claims for women and girls.  It took decades of campaigning to have “gender based violence” accepted as a “particular social group” (a refugee category). I have won cases for girls from Somalia based on the fact that 98% of girls will have their genitals mutilated and enjoyment of their sex lives permanently destroyed if they are returned there. Not a single one of those millions of mutilated bodies are “girls with penises” (I am so angry now as I am writing this).

How can people continue to use statistical evidence to highlight violence against women and girls if we are no longer able to define the bodies of women and girls.

TRA logic would say these are also “boys’ bodies” (trans boys) TRA logic would say “many girls are not mutilated” (ones with penises) Its such utter nonsense that I can’t even believe that I’m having to respond to such nonsense in order to continue to protect the lives of children.

I find it hard to articulate the amount of anger I feel at telling children their bodies are wrong!

I am getting more vocal every day!

I post regularly on social media. I comment regularly to friends.

I have been called a terf on numerous occasions.

I have been bombarded with anime threats of violence.

The most hurtful is that I have been a progressive activist and campaigner my whole life. Many of those I campaigned with now consider me to be a nasty bigot.

Barbara M, Socialist, activist lawyer

Categories
Others

This matters to me because women are disadvantaged because of their biology

Accepting transwomen as women undermines the gains that women have made and any future progress.

I have tweeted in support of GC on Twitter and re-tweeted to my followers.

I have discussed the issue with friends.

The only consequences I have had are the usual Shut up Terf etc. on Twitter. Some more threatening than others. Some seem to have an obsession with my appearance but I’m way too old to care.

I generally just block and move on.

Ces, Feminism and football

Categories
Parent

Three out of six of these girls want to have gender reassignment

It matters to me as I have a 13 year old daughter who has a close group of girlfriends. Three out of six of these girls want to have gender reassignment. I feel it’s almost become a “trend”. I feel these girls don’t understand the complexity of it and the parents are not understanding it either. There’s so much more this obviously but it’s worrying me.

To be honest I have so far just tried to inform myself as much as possible and I have had a few discussions both online and in real life. I have been called a few choice words online even though I feel like I was just asking for more information, more evidence. I felt that I couldn’t even ask genuine questions or just express genuine concerns. I was immediately branded a TERF.

M.L.A

Categories
Others

I feel I’m being robbed of my identity as a woman

I feel I’m being robbed of my identity as a woman. I’m not transphobic – I truly believe people should be allowed to live as they want to, but not at the cost of others. Women have fought long and hard to be heard and now we’re not allowed to be called women in case it offends men that have decided to become women? I hate the term TERF and I’ve seen so much hate and threats of violence towards women who speak out.

I’ve tweeted a few times and I’ve spoken to my fiancé about it. I’m scared to be honest because I’ve seen the backlash other people have suffered from speaking up.

Dani

Categories
Others

I trans peaked a few girlfriends by explaining the issue and sending them articles

I’m a woman, and I see our hard earned rights given away to men, at times with the consent of other women and it sickens me.

I speak up a bit online, but I’m a nobody and I guess with little success. I trans peaked a few girlfriends by explaining the issue and sending them articles.

I have been called terf, but who hasn’t. Not much worse because I’m not important enough, thankfully.

Nuria, Woman worried about men taking our spaces and rights, Salagre, Switzerland

Categories
Others

I have no reputation or livelihood to lose

I care about this issue for a whole lot of rather different reasons. The first may be defending lesbians from male encroachment on their lives and sexuality. The second may be that I object to any ideology that wants to write the soul (in this case a gendered soul, the one that can be “born in the wrong body”), to reify the soul into legislation.

I’ve mostly tweeted about this. Discussed it with friends and family.

I’ve been called terf a lot and lost Twitter followers. I have no reputation or livelihood to lose as I am an isolated handicapped person living on disability payments.

Elizabeth Hamilton D, Translator, writer, former adjunct in cognitive psychology, dovesandletters, France

Categories
Men

The backlash from women has created a hostile environment for peaceful trans people

I care because the backlash from women has created a hostile environment for peaceful trans people. I don’t want access to female spaces and I know I am male, so I get abusive responses to sharing these opinions. Women are rightly angry and we are experiencing a rapid loss of support as a result.

I’ve spoken on social media. I have written to MPs in my area, the Green Party and Liberals (Canada), spoken to friends.

I have experienced horrific online abuse from people who say they are sticking up for us. I am a “bootlicker”, a “terf”, “truscum” and a “traitor”. I have been told I am a “pedo” and should die.

Jocelyn , Transwomen are not women, Mladydik

Categories
Lesbians survivor

I’ve gone from fully supporting gender id politics to questioning some things to questioning everything

As a Black lesbian, I’ve gone from fully supporting gender id politics to questioning some things to questioning everything. I realized how homophobic and sexist their rhetoric is, how riddled it is with contradictions and inconsistencies that I’m told I don’t have a right to question or challenge or have basic concerns about. This is not progress, it’s fascism.

After residing at a women’s refuge where men are accommodated as residents, I decided to post on social media about my general thoughts on the trans movement and more specifically about how men commit acts of violence against the women at the shelter.

I have been unfriended, disinvited from events, called terf, transphobic trash, etc. The most hurtful consequence, though,  has been the complete and utter silence of close friends.

BB, Proud Black lesbian, USA