A group with the above name and twitter handle @tsvoices have made an interesting and moving statement which mostly aligns with gender critical feminists.
There are tweets underneath the thread from TRA's that the group are 'terfs' masquerading as transsexuals. Others call them elitist and exclusionary.
An lgbt journalist wants to do a piece and now for the life of me, I can't find that tweet to reference it but it has yielded mass panic.
Anyway here is a copy and paste of the tweet, for those who aren't on twitter.
OUR STATEMENT
- We are a group of transsexual women from all walks of life who were diagnosed with the rare acute forms of gender dysphoria and treated in accordance with the modern medical science.
We've completed medically our gender transitions, successfully integrated in the society & do our best to maintain meaningful personal, social and professional relationships as women.
We value our privacy and the hard earned social and professional respect and strive to remain the valuable members of the society contributing to it in many ways.
Our medical condition, social recognition & human rights are protected by a number of pieces of legislation which are hard won results of the decades of deprivation, ridicule, abuse & our struggle for the basic human rights: to be allowed to be & treated as equal human beings.
- We are increasingly concerned about the erasure of our ‘transsexual’ identity, our medical and social rights and the proposals of ‘demedicalisation’ of our rare condition and replacement of it with the obscure notion of ‘transgenderism’ as an ‘umbrella term’ for a variety of
gender exploring and gender expressing pursuits undertaken by the people who, on most occasions, have no gender dysphoria and very little, if not nothing, in common with us.
We are extremely concerned by the frequent statements in the media made by the people allegedly representing our interests among others that (a) ‘transsexualism’ is an outdated, non-medical, archaic, disused and even transphobic term of describing a ‘transgender’ person;
that (b) ‘gender dysphoria’ is no longer a medically recognised condition and is not required (along with any other medical observation or diagnosis or involvement of the medical professional ‘gate-keepers’) for a person to ‘self identify’ as a ‘transgender’;
that (c) all hard won legal rights protecting transsexuals should be legally altered to cover the wider variety/spectrum of ‘transgender’ people.
- While ‘transgender’ and ‘trans’ were originally synonymous to those diagnosed as ‘transsexuals’, it is evident now that these terms are hijacked and appropriated by the self-proclaimed ‘social justice’ activists, transvestites/crossdressers,
fetishists and people ‘exploring’ their gender, having complex mental health issues or the ulterior motives for their associations with ‘transgender’ community. This development prompted many transsexuals to refrain from using these terms and insist on being identified by our...
original medical term ‘transsexual’, disassociating as much as possible from those claiming to be ‘trans’ or ‘transgender’ without any medical justification.
- We are concerned about the proposed ‘gender self id’ changes to the key legislation protecting specifically our needs and rights and expressly referring to ‘transsexuals’, not ‘transgender’, – Gender Recognition Act 2004.
‘Streamlining’ or making it easier for the individuals claiming to be ‘transgender’ without ‘gender dysphoria’ to obtain in an ‘over-the-counter’ manner the ‘Gender Recognition Certificates’ allowing them to change birth certificates and according them legal rights of the
opposite sex and protections presently accorded to women and transsexuals under the Equality Act 2010 may bring adverse results. We believe that without genuine medical diagnosis, surgical and social transition, assurances of the absence of other mental health conditions and/or criminal record of violent or sexual crimes, an easier way of obtaining such significant documents would only result in the increase in crime and litigation, make our society less safe for everyone and cause a tremendous damage to the hard won good social reputation of the decent transsexual women. We strongly disagree with the recent claims by the Equality Committee that GRA-2004 was not working and needed to be changed dramatically. It worked well for most of the genuine transsexuals and the proposed changes would make it meaningless and serve not the needs of the people for whom it was originally drafted. 5. Having lived substantial parts of our lives as women and with women, we are particularly concerned about the rights of women of all ages and from all walks of life whose safety would be compromised by the uncontrollable self-identification of some men as women, their demands of access to female only spaces, their frequently demonstrated express misogyny, disrespect for the biological needs and specific rights of the young girls, mothers, lesbians and many other, traditionally, female only, social groups. While we greatly value the rights of the transsexuals, we would always object to any ‘trans rights’ encroaching and gradually erasing women’s rights or creating inaccurate medical, sports, criminal, consumer, political or any other statistics. 6. We are strongly concerned about the rapidly increasing transphobia some of our members have been experiencing for the first time in many years as a result of the intensive media activity of the ‘transgender activists’ successfully persuading some members of the public that ‘gender dysphoria’ doesn’t exist, that crossdressers and transsexuals are all the same under ‘transgender umbrella’, etc. Unlike the genuine transsexuals who have spent their entire lives trying to seamlessly integrate in the society without drawing unnecessary attention, seeking confrontation or gaining unfavourable reputation, many modern ‘trans activists’ see no other purpose to their lives than to earn petty political capital by confronting the entire world and demanding it to change and submit to them immediately. Transsexuals, by their very definition, aren’t political activists and until recently tried to avoid any confrontation even with the ‘trans activists’. But that was never a silent permission to make statements or demand any special rights on our behalf. 7. We don’t oppose anyone’s personal right to explore or express themselves and believe that further equality for any such individuals may be eventually achieved by the legislators. But we equally believe that no rights of any group should be treated as superior to any other group, no hard won rights of any group should be allowed to be hijacked or appropriated along with the group’s specific name and terminology, and that the society in general should not be allowed to be made a victim of the ‘loudest’ ‘social activists’imposing on everyone else their new rules and definitions. Men and women, and even transsexuals, were here well before those calling themselves today ‘transgender’. And none of us, no matter how outdated, archaic or ‘cis’we may seem to you, are leaving. Gender expressionists (‘transgender’) would have to learn to live with us and to respect our rights before their rights are accepted in any form. That’s why everything has to be debated, not imposed on the unaware public. And all rights have to accommodate and make sensible allowances for the rights of the other groups you co-exist with. One of them is us – the transsexuals. We know we don’t speak on behalf of all medically transitioned people, but our number is growing daily as more and more of us can no longer keep silent while being erased.
We hope to hear from more transsexual women who share our concerns. We have a secret facebook group to which you may be added - a safe space full of understanding transsexuals and a respectful discussion of our present predicament. ~ THE END ~