Letter from FOVAS *DAMNING* for Stonewall

[Mbwashenzi]

FOVAS (Female-Only Violence and Abuse Survivors) have just published a desperately upsetting account of the impact of sex self ID on women-only services. Worse: there is clear evidence that Stonewall have treated data provided to them by these services in a deeply unethical way.
Please read and share with everyone you can think of.

fovas.wordpress.com/response-to-stonewall-2/

(how do you make a link work doing this on your phone??)

fovas.wordpress.com/response-to-stonewall-2/

fovas.wordpress.com/response-to-stonewall-2/

link

fovas.wordpress.com/response-to-stonewall-2/

Clicky link for you. You use and around the text.

Utterly bloody shocking.

The real education that needs to take place is that of “Consent” and respect of the female part of the population by the male part of the population.

That's the whole issue in a nutshell. Right there. That needs to go on t shirts and posters and be projected onto Mordaunt's front door.

And archived <a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190702212543/fovas.wordpress.com/response-to-stonewall-2/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here

Yes, interesting points about the risk assessments done in prison which did not prevent Karen White from assaulting women there. We're told that there is a robust risk assessment done in prisons. And yet it failed.

So we're expecting women's refuges to make risk assessments, but crucially the refuge will not know the person's former name and crimes committed under that name. It seems unlikely that the person will volunteer that information.

There is no doubt in my mind that the first male person to be turned away from a refuge will then sue the refuge for discrimination. So, knowing that, how likely are cash-strapped refuges to reject someone, knowing that a costly legal battle will lie ahead?

And errm, how come Stonewall are experts in domestic violence all of a sudden?

We know that Stonewall routinely lies about the suicide statistics of people who identify as transgender, so why would we believe their Supporting trans women in domestic and sexual violence services report?

Stonewall are on record of saying that they support self-ID and wish to remove single-sex exemptions from the GRA, so how can they claim to produce a balanced report?

This looks like something concrete that can be taken to the Charities commission, isn't it?

Surely Stonewall itself could set up and run trans-inclusive refuges, given their new self-defined expertise in the area?

There are about 1% transgender people, so Stonewall can have 1% of government funding. The other 99% of government funding goes to female-only refuges.

Knock yourselves out, fellas.

We need to share this everywhere. It completely undermines Stonewall's authority. I am deeply shocked, but not at all surprised.

This is an excellent analysis.

Stonewall are an utter disgrace.
They have become little more than a lobby group for a questionable (several anonymous members and several interesting) trans board

They no longer represent lesbians (the homosexual female ones)
They have even redefined homosexuality from existance preferring some imaginary "same-gender" attraction.

What surprises me is how quickly and efficiently they have got away with it most of the LGB are still oblivious to what has gone on. We are living in a world where Stonewall are unquestionable but slowly they are being exposed. No wonder Hunt is leaving.
There needs to be a full enquiry.
T has to be separated, they should never have been in there in the first place. The T has its own needs and priorities and they cannot use the LGB to hide their regressive (and homophobic) agenda.

We have been notified by a reliable source from one of the organisations interviewed by Stonewall that they chose to deliberately leave out responses about concerns over women’s physical and mental safety.

This is the most shocking aspect for me. I’d convinced myself that organisations were self-censoring, but instead it appears that Stonewall have intentionally ignored responses that highlight threats to women’s safety. It’s absolutely appalling.

@MoltenLasagne
Their trans board need urgent investigation.
What influence do they have and what is their agenda?

This confirms what many of us knew or feared.

Services have got to grow a spine and declare themselves “female only” (and separate facilities need to exist for trans and non-binary people - perhaps Stonewall can help?).

To state the obvious, T&NB persons are valid and authentic and need services - just not ones alongside women like those in this letter.

Please note: Services who do this might lose their funding (despite female-only being protected in law). If so, let’s crowd-fund. I’m in.

Agree with Popchyk services can and should be established to cater for that 1% of the population.

The reason I’m harping on this - TRAs always frame “female-only” as “omg you don’t want us to exist!! Transphobic!!”

Um yes of course we want you to not just exist but to thrive, and to have the services and safety everyone deserves.

We also need female-only services. This is really, truly a thing. This is not about you, it’s about another vulnerable population and what they need.

We have been notified by a reliable source from one of the organisations interviewed by Stonewall that they chose to deliberately leave out responses about concerns over women’s physical and mental safety

Shame (yet again) on Stonewall. And thank you to all the courageous women who have spoken up in the face of what will no doubt be vile harassment and bullying from the Stonewall mob.

To find out that yet again Stonewall has been found out to be deliberately misrepresenting and censoring women's views. The views of women working in and who are victims of, DV, rape and sexual assault. Such a repellent organisation.

Ooo was just on my way here to post this. Such a shocking report, and all those messages at the bottom from survivors. This bit struck me especially:

Yet again we have women so confident that they are so educated about male perpetrators they could tell a violent male. If the women claiming this are so educated why haven’t they picked up one major factor that tells us a man has a likelihood of being an abuser? A male trying to access a women’s space is the biggest visible risk factor you will ever encounter.

Once again for the NATWALT crew:

A male trying to access a women’s space is the biggest visible risk factor you will ever encounter.

How can we make sure this sees as much daylight as possible?

This looks like something concrete that can be taken to the Charities commission, isn't it?

Yes I think so.

Also this from Pat Craven at the freedom programme:

"So many of them [the abuse survivors] have told us that their abusers had a habit of wearing women clothing and make up seemingly to confuse them. This is so common that we have included it in the list of tactics from the HEADWORKER."

Just in case their are any trans widow on this thread.

Does anyone know when this was written. I cant see any date.

It's just if forwarding it to MPs etc., it usually helps to say this is recent ie directly addressing something recent, rather than saying please see this report from last year.

Thanks

Yes to what everyone else has said. Still just about halfway down that page.

This quote: It is a basic of safeguarding that children should not be used to validate the identities of adults.

That is really to the point, as well as all the previous points raised by pp. Heartbreaking, when women and children get used.

I'm carrying on reading. But bloody hell, it's a powerful and grim reflection on Stonewall by women survivors of male violence.

stumbledin I'm not sure when it was written exactly but it must be recent as it quotes from Karen Ingala Smith at the Women and Equalities Committee in May of this year. She just shared it on Twitter a few hours ago so I'm guessing it's pretty recent.

Any male who wishes to be in a refuge and have his identity as a ‘transwomen’ validated by vulnerable women and children has failed the values part of safer recruitment procedures and therefore should not be there.

Yes, totally.

I am astounded and relieved by the honesty and integrity of this report - in a good way. It feels like so many organisations are just being pressured to bow down to the thoughts, expectations and opinions of men these days, I'd forgotten how forthright women could be. And we need to be. These are desperate times for vulnerable women. This feels like second wave feminism again - centering women and children - it could not be more important.

Thank god for FOVA. Thank you to all the women who contributed to this. It's amazing. It shouldn't be necessary for women to have to fight for this all over again.

Having listened to so many govt officials, Penny Morduant, Nicola Sturgeon, Mairi Black, Maria Miller, MPs, children's charities, rape crisis centres and so on, officially tell us that self ID will not impact on women, I cannot tell you all how happy I am to read this - even though it is disgrace that it needs to be said