Tag: work

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Private sector

I work occasionally in an abattoir

I am an older woman who does a man’s job. I work occasionally in an abattoir and I work in agriculture. I have little interest in a lot of modern consumerist femininity. I am a woman. I don’t wear nail varnish or make up. I am a woman. I care that young people are being taught lies about human biology and that if you don’t conform to narrow ideas of being a man or woman you require drugs and surgery to make you right.

I am deeply troubled that being trans is also allied with accepting a hyper sexualised existence from a young age heavily influenced by pornography.

I have written to my MP and posted on social media.

I am dismissed for not being woke and for not caring about men’s feelings.

Ros., Middle aged woman who doesn’t take any crap

Categories
Healthcare Media and Arts

I write for a well known website

I first and foremost came to this as a matter of conscience.  I cannot go along with the lie that it is possible to change sex. This was the starting point for a much deeper understanding of the issues that followed.  Now I understand the question of transgenderism as much more complex.

There are many reasons for gender dysphoria and many treatments but I am mostly concerned with the effect it has on women and girls.  Issues of consent privacy safety and boundaries.  The other issue for me is the teaching of gender identity in schools.  This is my main area of work.

I want to stop children being told that they could have been born in the wrong body and stop them being taught a version of queer theory.

I write for a well known website.

Shelley Charlesworth , Former BBC journalist who believes in evidence and open debate about transgender issues

Categories
Media and Arts

Policy decisions should be based on facts

I believe that policy decisions should be based on facts in all situations. I strongly feel that people who need protection or special provision of any kind, and have it for fact-based reasons, should not lose those rights without vigorously examination of the fact-based reasons.

I am outraged that a group with societal power (males) is enforcing a change to the meaning of words that describe women, because they want to, and that no part of the establishment seems interested in stopping them.

I have retweeted relevant information. I have taken the opportunity to talk to people, particularly women, wherever possible; especially in a medical setting. I have leafleted for Fairplay for Women and spoken to the public while doing so.

Some people who have previously regarded me as a reliable source of information now doubt me – they can’t believe that what I tell them about the threat to women’s rights can be true. Some now regard me as boring or obsessive on this subject. Men tend to say they feel attacked by what I say. I have recently changed career, and now doubt I will find employment in my new area of work as I am not ‘right-thinking.’

Anne James., Would-be playwright from a working-class background

Categories
Media and Arts

Not one moment of my life has ever been “cis”

As a rape victim and domestic abuse survivor, I know too well the visceral reality of existing in a female body. Erasing womanhood as the unique experience, both painful and joyful, that it is only deepens misogyny and endangers our rights and safety. In the US, women still don’t have constitutional equality! Sex-based rights are specific, distinct and sacrosanct.

Men who grow up with male privilege will never know what it is to be a woman. They have their own struggles. We have ours. If you don’t think abusive men will take advantage of trans self ID laws, then you truly erase women’s lived experiences and oppression.

Even without the opportunists, women shouldn’t have to justify why we deserve our OWN rights and spaces. You would never demand a PoC justify their need for race based rights or race based organizations.

I have been vocal on social media and with friends. In public conversations I object to being called cis or being forced to declare my pronouns. Cis implies a privilege women cannot experience. Cis erases the struggle women face to rebel against and defy gender stereotypes, roles, and behavior. Not one moment of my life has ever been “cis.”

I have been harassed online, usually by liberal men. Most recently, a progressive male spent the night berating me online, mansplaining womanhood to me, calling me a bad feminist, and telling me that female oppression didn’t matter compared to trans males’ feelings.

More frighteningly though, I have had professional contacts in the political world sever ties and support for me over my objection to trans athletes in women’s sports. This not only bullied and silenced me amongst work colleagues, but it also means I lost out on work recommendations from them when I was looking for a job.

María, Indigenous American, asylum immigrant, mixed race female, rape victim, US

Categories
Healthcare Media and Arts

I stopped being an activist for social issues for a while, trying to understand where I was wrong

This matters to me because I am a lesbian, and have been harrassed by trans activists before I even know what a terf was. When I was younger(around 18yo) I was a vocal feminist and lbgt activists on tumblr, and supporting trans people, but a lot of trans messaged me saying I was transphobic because I asked trans people questions to better understand and help them. After that, I faced more and more issues with harassment based on my sex and sexual orientation, so I stopped being an activist for social issues for a while, trying to understand where I was wrong.

Last year, I came to the conclusion that I wasn’t wrong, and made another blog, going back to being a feminist and lgbt activist. Without the T this time.

I also care because when I was young, I fell in love with my female best friend, and I tried being more masculine to woo her, so I know that being a lesbian can be confusing and I want to help young lesbians to not hate and change themselves.

I created a new tumblr, a twitter account, I try to donate when I can, and to speak up when it doesn’t put me in danger. I plan to volunteer at a women’s shelter at the end of the pandemic.

I have been harrassed online (death threats, pictures of dead and abused animals, threats of men saying they would hurt children if I keep speaking my mind…) and I have lost some friends over it. It’s still something I can’t talk to some of my friends because I know they would disapprove without letting me explain my experiences.

Lavande, Lesbian working in publishing, France

Categories
Media and Arts

I’m a founding member of Canadian Women’s Sex-Based Rights

I care about women’s rights and protections. I care about truth-telling. I care about mental and physical health for all. I care about child safeguarding. I care about preserving my Charter rights and freedoms.

I’m a founding member of Canadian Women’s Sex-Based Rights (caWsbar), non-partisan, volunteer coalition working to preserve the sex-based rights and protections of women and girls as enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

I attended Meghan Murphy’s talk in Toronto and I was appalled at the hate mob that threatened us physically and verbally with misogynist slurs. I felt unsafe and rattled. I’d never felt like that before in my own hometown, which is normally safe and peaceful. As a founding member of caWsbar, I use a pseudonym to protect myself, my family and my livelihood. I hope to be “coming out” soon as gender critical.

Esmeralda Vee (pseudonym), Media worker, documentary filmmaker, mother, Canada

Categories
Media and Arts

I cannot stand the incoherent nature of current trans- orthodoxy

The current state of trans- orthodoxy is directly at odds with my feminist ideals and with L&G rights. From an intellectual perspective, there is an inherent regressiveness to ideas that mark “femininity” as what makes one “female”; this, in turn, has real-world practical implications that are incredibly damaging to those marginalized on the basis of sex: women and girls. Also, from a philosophical/academic perspective, I cannot stand the incoherent nature of current trans- orthodoxy. Ultimately, I think that it currently is hurting EVERYONE.

I should also note that I believe that this new orthodoxy is creating a culture of authoritarianism on the left that will be hard to overcome.

I have made posts on social media, primarily in replies, on topics related to trans- issues, usually speaking about verifiable statistics (including contributing to corrections on homicide claims), conflicts between trans- orthodoxy and queer theory, and the shift in rhetoric and ideology within trans- communities in the last 20 years.

I’ve lost all of my income from one sector of my freelance work, accounting for the bulk of my income. I’ve been vilified in that community as a bigot and a transphobe. I’ve lost some friends – including very good ones – for my so-called ‘hate’.

A, former academic, freelance writer, male, USA

Categories
Media and Arts

I nearly died from severe early onset pre-eclampsia

This matters to me for a number if reasons:

1) Because I am a sexual abuse survivor and do not want to be forced into private spaces with males. 

2) I do not think it’s fair that males are taking spaces reserved for females in leadership, training, scholarships etc.

3) My experience as a woman is totally different to that of a transwoman – I nearly died from severe early onset pre-eclampsia and then my work tried to make me redundant shortly afterwards! We are women because of our female bodies and that matters a lot.

4) The reinforcement of the stereotypes of what constitutes femininity and masculity is harmful to women. Women are not defined by clothing, grooming, mannerisms and behaviours – we all have different personalities and presentations.

5) I am utterly sick of the misinformation and inappropriate content being taught in schools and workplaces in relation to this issue.

6) I am concerned that publicly funded bodies are not recording sex, so can longer measure sex inequality.

I’ve challenged policies at work with incorrect protected characteristics.  I’ve challenged monitoring categories for a research project I am working on – sex has been replaced with gender. I’ve spoken to women and men I trust to discuss the issues. I’ve shared information on social media and written to my MP.

I have been denounced as a ‘transphobe’ on social media for stating my belief in the reality of sex and the need to record it.

M, Floating voter swayed by women’s rights issues

Categories
Healthcare Media and Arts

No one can make make me believe it or say that I do

Transgenderism is sexist. I’ve been aware of being treated in a sexist manner since childhood. Trans activists lie, lie and lie again. They bully, harrass and intimidate everyone who dares to disagree with them. I’m also disgusted by the spineless middle-class professionals earning three times my salary who have waved it all through. I’m disgusted at those who have turned a blind eye to the abuse and slander of honest women. I simply do not believe in transgender ideology, any more than I believe that the earth is flat or a virgin gave birth. No one can make make me believe it or say that I do.

I actually find transgenderism pretty boring in itself as I don’t find it remarkable if a man wears a skirt or a woman has short hair – I care about the impact on women and children, the abusive behaviour of activists, and the ‘respectable and reasonable’ individuals and organisations who provide cover for this abuse.

I have been active on this issue since 2015. I organised a public meeting on women’s sex-based rights in my city that was targeted by trans activists. I’ve attended several other such meetings. I’ve been to see two MPs and written to them, and to other MPs and peers. I’ve written to safeguarding professionals, local women’s organisations, political parties, the NHS, local education authority and the police.

I’ve contacted journalists with stories, and if they haven’t picked them up written and published them myself online.

I’ve signed petitions and open letters and donated to crowdfunders. I’ve leafleted on the street at the time of the UK GRA consultation. I’ve posted on Facebook and Mumsnet. I asked my trade union not to redefine the word ‘woman’ but they refused to engage so I left.

A friend of 20 years instantly cut all contact with me because I posted online about Tara Wolf, a man convicted of assault by beating of a woman, Maria Maclachlan. I don’t have a social media presence any more because I am afraid that I will lose work – I don’t care about people’s opinion of me but I do care about my livelihood. I am also frightened of the unhinged and violent men within the transgender movement. When I was leafleting a young woman called me ‘fucking disgusting’. The biggest negative consequence if I’m honest is that I have lost faith in almost all insititutions’ abililty or even desire to uphold women’s rights; politics, the media, academia and the wider professional classes who attempted to impose the abusive nonsense of transgenderism top-down.

E

Categories
Healthcare Media and Arts

My colleague reported me; she is worried I would not allow a man to follow a girl into the female toilets

I care because I know from experience, & research, that males – no matter how they identify – expect women to give way to them.  They are taught that women are inferior in all respects. 

The trans agenda is based on mantras designed to silence debate in order to remove female rights to privacy, safety & dignity.  

My main concern is over the safeguarding of girls & women:  I have even been told women who have been sexually assaulted need to be re-educated to accept males as women.

I do not believe sex can be changed.  I spent years teaching Equal Opportunities; children learned their sex (female) & race/colour (black) did not make them inferior, it was society’s gender & race stereotypes which did this. 

I care because LGBT+ training, Stonewall & Mermaids, is based on lies.  Our children & women deserve better from society.  They are putting the fetishes of males above the lived lives of women & girls.  Males need to become responsible for themselves, especially their violence, & allow women to become their authentic selves.

I have raised the issue at my place of work.  A place which I am told it is well known children (generally girls) are brought as part of the grooming process.

I have discussed aspects of the trans ideology with colleagues.  This has to be done quietly and in corners as my place of work is a Stonewall Champion.

The company lays on (voluntary) LGBTQ+ training sessions each year; we are encouraged to support the Pride march throughout town, add our pronouns to the end of emails & wear Pride & personal pronoun badges.

I have written to my line manager & head of the company.  I listed the trans mantras which a colleague quoted to me as fact.  I showed by provable research that the mantras were deliberately confusing & based on lies; e.g Trans women are women; children know they are born in the wrong body at 3 years old; trans people are the most vulnerable in the world, thousands of trans people are killed each year for being trans etc. etc.

I have also contacted my MP, who is sympathetic & understanding but not prepared to do anything.  I have contacted my local Council pointing out the errors regarding use of confusing & ambiguous language in their Equality & Diversity Policy.

My colleague reported me; she is worried I would not allow a man to follow a girl into the female toilets.  Her view and that of my line manager is that were I to question him I might upset him as he may be a trans woman.

I have been told I am to be given an official reprimand.  It has not taken place as the company closed down due to COVID-19 the day it was to be administered.

I have been told I am not to allow anyone to think my views are those of the company I work for.

Outside work: due to my views I have left the Labour party, I have left the Women’s Equality Party, my friends laugh at me – as they think climate change is more important, they tell me I have a one track mind, they tell me it is too late (that was from someone high up in the GMB union). On the positive side; I have raised the issue with the local primary school headteacher.  He had no clue what I was going on about but we agreed I had opened the conversation and we could continue if need be at a later date.

AnonymousJ, Sex is real.  Males cannot become women/female