Tag: “TERF”

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Healthcare survivor

There is a special bond that forms between women in the absence of men

My adult life has been marred by bullying, invariably by men, especially those in positions of power, but also from those with whom I was intimate.

I experienced verbal and psychological abuse from my husband, directed at me and my children. I was fortunate to be directed to my local DV shelter by a friend. We did not have to move in, but received help from the wonderful women who worked there.

As I age, I find more and more relief in the company of women. There is a special bond that forms between women in the absence of men. The space feels safer and warmer, and women respond differently to one another when not subjected to the male gaze.

That women who need single-sex spaces for recovery can have that taken from them by the insistence by men who claim to be are women is almost impossibly painful. Those spaces have been set up by women, for women. I feel so angry when men demand the right to enter.

I have responded online to consultations, written to MPs and MSPs. I have donated online to campaign for women’s rights. I have spoken out on social media, using my own name, despite threats of violence, and to my career.

Until last year, I was tied up in an unhappy marriage and too unwell to travel. Now coronavirus is interfering with my freedom, but I hope to join up with other women in the near future, either to meet with  ReSisters group, or attend an organised meeting.

I have received public threats on Twitter, both of physical harm and threats to my career, one of which was a credible threat to report me to the governing body of my profession, which fortunately was not carried through.

I am fortunate to have lived in a place where I was physically out of reach for physical threats or UK police reports and therefore I have felt able to speak more freely than otherwise.

Sarah, 50ish human female

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Healthcare Private sector

I work in a field that is full of trans-identified males

I care because if I had been born 10 or 20 years later, I am 100% certain I would have “transitioned” and would most likely now be among the growing number of detransitioners. I am horrified at the glorification of mutilation of women’s and children’s bodies as a “brave” “choice.” I am terrified for my own daughter and I hope that by the time she is old enough to learn about this shameful chapter in history, it will be just that: history, relegated to the dustbin.

I have not done nearly as much as I would like to. I work in a field that is full of trans-identified males and their vocal allies, and I cannot afford the career and economic consequences if I am blacklisted in my profession due to being smeared as a “TERF.” I am active on social media, for a time under my full name, but now under just my first name.

I have been very fortunate thus far to have avoided being targeted or doxxed by trans-rights “activists.” However, I am very afraid for my and my daughter’s future if I ever am.

M, concerned single mom, Germany

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Private sector

Sex based rights matter – they keep women and girls safe.

This matters to me because sex based rights matter – they keep women and girls safe. It gives women and girls opportunities they would not otherwise have. It’s as simple as that.

I have posted on social media, I have discussed with friends, I have studied to educate myself on the subject, I’ve spoken to trans activists who also recognize sex and want to protect sex based rights. I’ve become part of feminist communities (that center women). I created new accounts when my banned account was deleted (10k followers on Twitter – lost that account for mentioning J Yaniv)

Banned from Twitter, I’m now using a pseudonym  (hiding my professional identity) on Facebook . I’ve lost two close friends who consider themselves “non binary” insist on coerced pronouns, use terms like TERF, and think males should be allowed in rape crisis centers – and that women should concede spaces.

RS, Liberal turned radical feminist, Europe

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Others

I used to be a trans ally, 100% about TWAW

I used to be a trans ally, 100% about TWAW. However, back of my mind was always “where does this logically take us” Then I read about terfs, and how horrible they are. I discovered I agreed with everything they said. Men are not women, porn is not empowering and sex work is not like other work. Then I read all the hatred towards these woman and started getting filled with despair and depression. I just could not believe the world had gone so haywire. I started getting enraged.

I care because our rights as women are disappearing, how men have colonized women and taken our sports, and have taken over and bastardized feminism. All their pushing for sex work and kids to be in states of perpetual puberty. I could not stay silent anymore.

I started off anonymously on Twitter, then was banned after I refused to call a man who posted a pic of himself with an assault weapon and the words Kill Terfs, a woman. I was banned. His post stayed.

I then started talking at work, here and there. I started talking to my girlfriends and my sisters. I started posting GC stuff on my facebook and then I started challenging the pro trans people I met. I met up with a rad fem group where I live and attended a Megan Murphy talk at the TPL, which was protested by 1000 men and antifa screaming Shame in my face.

I post all the time about this issue so people can see what is happening to women and understand this extreme misogyny is not a vulnerable minority, it is a men’s rights group with a ton of power. It has nothing to do with the left.

I have been banned twice from twitter, once over the man with the gun and the second over the man who claimed JK Rowling was a pedophile. I refused to use pronouns. I have been called a Nazi by an old friend. A long time love called me a transphobic bigot and I continue to be told “I am obsessed”. Of course I am, we are fighting for our very rights. I have also been shunned professionally by a VP who I attended rallies with. Suddenly I was a right wing bigot.

Deanna S, left wing socialist GC\Radfem. Never backing down, Canada

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Private sector

I used to be involved in LGBT activism and I feel lied to

I care because I’m a young woman, and have seen women in my industry and in my life disappear into the “gender” fantasy in order to escape from their problems. It is not helping them.

I am alarmed and dismayed at the rapid progress of gender ideology into law and the damaging psychological and physical consequences on young women. I care because I used to be involved in LGBT activism, and I feel lied to. When lesbians protested Pride in the UK with “Get the L Out” I was told not to research them, and that they were bigoted TERFs who wanted trans women out of public life. I took this at face value, and I’m ashamed of this now, as these women had very good reason to be upset.

I’m new to gender critical philosophy, but I have been researching as much as I can. I’ve spoken to women in my life who I feel would be receptive (luckily, they are) and I’ve just recently come out publicly on social media. Right now, I am mostly keeping my head down as I do my own research into the problem on a local level, including the number of girls being referred for transition services and what has been happening legally in the past few years. I think this will give me the best possible basis to speak out strongly for local women later on down the track.

I’ve been called a TERF, and have had friends questioning my motives. Luckily, so far I’ve avoided the worst of what many women go through. I am certain that if my employer learned what I was looking into, there would be professional repercussions.

Amy, Australia

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Healthcare Parent

I am appalled by the message to children

As a mother, I am appalled by the message to children that there might be something wrong with their body just because they don’t fit into society’s stupid rigid stereotypes for girls and boys. As a feminist I am concerned about the natural erosion of women’s hard won rights that comes from eroding the definition of the word woman. I am worried about women losing their safe spaces and women-only platforms.

I have written to my MP and spoken to close family members but I don’t really post on social media and I would be too anxious to post about this. I did tweet using the #theycallmeTERF hashtag once but that’s all. I have supported petitions and crowd funding for legal battles though.

I haven’t really spoken up so no. It makes me feel very anxious.

Jen, Australia

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Others

I have felt increasingly erased

This matters to me because I’m a woman! And over the past ten years, coming into that womanhood, I have felt increasingly erased, spoken over, and silenced.

I have started an alternate twitter account, and had conversations with friends.

I have been called a terf in a bar and been threatened with violence.

E, Young, radical, and XX, US

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Healthcare Others

Women are being sidelined

This issue is at the heart of modern politics because once again women are being sidelined, if not erased, to meet the needs and wants of men. Woman are not a subset of their sex. It matters that I make a public stand to raise the voices of women around the world demanding to be recognised, heard and keep their sex-based rights.

Gender is a cultural construct and an individual can dress & name themselves how they please but insisting that women accommodate the stereotypical imagery so many mtf (male to female) transgender people insist on rather than men moving up and broadening their gender dynamic.

I have spoken with friends and acquaintances about the issues – loss of as sex-based rights in loss of sex-based communities, revisionism of lesbian and gay history, the demand of lesbians to be accommodating the whole concept of “male lesbians”.

I have been called TERF, put friendships at risk, been asked by my daughter not to discuss the issue bc she doesn’t want to fight.

trash alou, Middle aged old lady with a determination to stand up for those women and children who need a voice

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Others

I have suffered discrimination and sexual abuse

As a woman I have suffered discrimination and sexual abuse, we need to have single sex spaces etc to protect women and their dignity.

I have answered the consultation, emailed my MP, posted on social media, talked to colleagues at work.

I have been called  a terf, lost friends.

Helen, Gender free adult human female

Categories
Healthcare Parent

The erasure of woman as a sex class frightens me

As a woman, as a mother of a daughter and as a human, the erasure of woman as a sex class frightens me.

I have tweeted, written to my MP, discussed concerns with family and some friends.

I have friends whose children are transitioning who think I am a TERF/bigot etc.

AHW, Mother of 4