FWIW this is what I wrot when they asked for more info.
Probably way too long! But it's not the initial email. That was really short.
I'd like to talk to you about the proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act and about Trans Rights Activism.
If you have time to read one thing before we meet, this is a great starting point: blogs.spectator.co.uk/2018/02/can-we-have-an-honest-debate-about-gender/
Also it may interest you to know that this issue is starting to show in the polls. I expect you may have seen the YouGov poll this week, showing Labour dropping 3 points, Lib Dems gaining 2 and Tories gaining 1 - so the Tories now have a 4 point lead?
However - did you see the stats show the 3-point fall in the Labour share is entirely explained by a 6-point fall among women? (from 46% to 40%)
This Times article explains why. (Apologies for the paywall!)
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/labour-s-purge-of-the-trans-rights-heretics-p32khgn36
If you have more time, basically my concerns are:
the proposed change to the Gender Recognition act that will mean that anyone who wants to, can identify as a woman / man, no questions asked.
If this happens, that is effectively the end of women's sex based protection, It puts women and children at risk in places we are vulnerable- hospital wards, women's refuges, changing rooms, toilets, prisons. Also what about women's sports and women's rights? And the ability to collect stats where sex makes a difference, like breast cancer rates / crime stats etc?
- the pressure on gender-non-conforming children to transition
Currently, thousands of children who transition to the opposite sex are being sterilised - preventing them going through puberty and leaving them to a lifetime of surgery, medication and sexual dysfunction - in the name of progression, despite the evidence saying many of these kids would grow up into healthy gay adults, left to their own devices. This doesn't seem progressive to me, it's more like gay eugenics. I fear for my children having to navigate this.
It's also concerning that we know there is a significant crossover between teenage transgenderism and other conditions such as anorexia, depression and autism, so that vulnerable kids are being given a "panacea" that includes their sterilisation. How can a teenager really appreciate the implications of this decision? Did you know the fastest rising group of trans people is teenage girls?
See this article for more:
fairplayforwomen.com/5102-2/
And this from Dr Wren from the Tavistock Gender Clinic
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/schools-rushing-on-whisper-to-label-pupils-as-transgender-0d8zm53qs
- the lack of science or any debate driving this
Organisations such as Mermaids, for example, are being allowed to influence policy in schools and public bodies despite the fact that they are a pressure group. They are not experts in any sense of the word. Indeed they keep repeating the most irresponsible of stats - that trans children are at risk of suicide - despite having it pointed out to them numerous times that their stats are not valid, and that to talk about suicide in this way is to encourage it.
The puberty blockers given to children are off label, there have been no studies as to their efficacy or long term effects. It looks like they probably cause brittle bones. And what's the effect of not going through puberty on the brain, for example? Have there been major studies on this? No.
fairplayforwomen.com/fact-checker/mermaids-tg-lying-unprofessional/
- Policy makers bandwagon jumping, without taking time to understand who the players are
All of the main political parties - including your own - are, in my opinion, confusing the Trans Rights Activists (TRAs) with transexuals. Transexuals are the people who have gender dysphoria and have lived as the opposite sex for years, trying to blend in and be accepted. Transexuals are not political as a group. They are who most people think of when we say "transwomen", but it is not them as a group, who are driving the change, and the changes in the law do not benefit them.
Trans Rights Activism on the other hand is a political movement that is aggressively trying to change laws to remove any gatekeeping on the legal status of "woman". They are a broad umbrella for anyone who supports their ideology but including many people we used to call cross dressers, autogenophiles (those for whom dressing as a woman is a fetish) who also call themselves transwomen, also many others, such as transmen, those they call "cis" people (i.e. non-trans) - anyone who supports them. It's a political movement, not a gender.
This movement is narcissistic, cult like and aggressive, particularly in their treatment of women.
Not all trans people are behind this movement. See this for example:
www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2015/12/gender_critical_trans_women_the_apostates_of_the_trans_rights_movement.html
Currently TRAs are attempting shut down women debating this by intimidation and threats of violence - or actual violence.
See this blog and the three short videos.
www.skepticat.org/2017/09/when-vicious-entitled-thugs-attack-i-fight-back/
It shows a 20-something male bodied person (who, we are to believe is a woman) repeatedly attacking a 60 year old.
I'm bringing it to your attention, so you can see for yourself what happened, and also to mention the reaction from the TRAs. They commend the young attacker for bravery and "self defence". They say the 60 year old woman's act of filming them was violent act, that she is a "fascist" and therefore deserves to be attacked. They believe the thoughts of gender critical women (that biology as we have understood it for thousands of years is real) is hate speech and to attack women like her physically is to defend themselves. Women have to meet to talk about this in secret locations to avoid intimidation.
(The speaker corner attacker is in court this Thursday, the TRAS are organising a masked protest).
Why am I mentioning all this?
Well, gender critical women are desperate for our voices to be heard, for us to be able to explain how this ideology threatens our rights and our safety. But these people keep trying to shut us down. Meanwhile people who don't know any better, assume that anyone who criticises the TRA ideology is a right wing bigot. But I, and the other women whom I talk to about this, are left wing. We are not bigots or transphobes. I vote for you, not the Tories!
We are desperate to see debate in public, for people to start looking at the science, for everyone to have a public platform- to discuss this respectfully - including the TRAs.
I'm not seeking support on this from you (although that would be nice!), I just want to have a chat so I know you're aware of the issues and hopefully support the idea that this is a topic that needs debate. And a reassurance that next time you come across a gender critical point of view, and someone else saying "bigot" to silence them, you might say - hold on, what are they actually trying to say? Why is this person so desperate to not let them speak?
I am genuinely fearful for my children having to deal with the impact of these ideas, and for my own safety if I go to the public meetings to talk about this with other women.
I don't know what to make of all this happening on the 100 year anniversary of the suffragettes and supporters winning votes for women (and working class men, let's not forget). Have things really changed that much?
Looking forward to meeting you, thank you very much for the opportunity.