Herald article raising concerns about transgender rights movement

I googled the author. He doesn't appear to be shy of tackling controversial subjects. Good luck to him, though. Can't be pleasant. Hope his senior management back him.

Charlie that must have taken up a significant chunk of time but you put your point across beautifully again and again. Thank you! I hope you can drink a nice girly Guiness along with a side order of spinach soup to re-fortify yourself

The students at the university have a petition against the author of the Herald article which has hundreds of signatures calling his article transphobic and saying he needs educated. He may appreciate some support for writing the article.

Charley good luck at parent's evening. That's incredibly brave. I hope it goes well.

Wow! Charlie

She’s arguing with those idiots who aren’t even reading what she says it seems- but actually she’s providing a brilliantly clear text book analysis of what’s going on- for everyone to see- what an inspiration.

Yes, I saw a comment the other day (can't now remember whether it was on Twitter or here) but it was a lightbulb moment for me. Something like 'there's no financial incentive to tell someone with an eating disorder they're quite right, no need for any therapy, because if you do they'll die - but if you tell a girl who thinks she's a boy that she's quite right you've got a patient for life'. Depressing and sordid, but I do think for some pharmaceutical companies and US/Canadian HCPs and hospital chains there is an element of this going on.

Thank you Charlie.

I've wondered for a while what / who is behind the trans movement.

I think it must be a mix. It must be much harder for paedophiles and potential abusers to gain access to potential victims, now that people are more aware following the Jimmy Saville scandal and so these men have jumped on the trans bandwagon.

The police have to take acusations seriously, whereas before they could be brushed under the carpet.

I think many politicians quite simply couldn't care less about women's rights and unthinkingly backed the TWAW mantra in order to appear politically correct.

I'm sure there are transpeople out there who just want to live their lives quietly and free from harassement, and it's a shame for them that this is happening.

Then there is the pharmaceutical push for people to be on drugs their whole lives (I think this is mainly in America though).

For thing for sure is that women can never be complacent about their rights.

I'm in Argyll, right by the coast Charlie if you ever come over here give me a shout. I'm 99.9 % sure I know one of the people in that comment section.

reminding myself of course

Thank you for your kind words everyone. I did despair at times, but I used what I learned here on Mumsnet to argue my case and kept reminding me of the Mumsnet mantra - think of the lurkers. (There is a fairly reliable metric in content marketing that for every reader who leaves a comment, there are another hundred who read the comments.) Maybe my words will alert some people to the fact that we are fighting to retain our rights and the we don't fear trans people but male violence.

As for the drink offers, if you're in Scotland, send me a message, I'd love to meet up. I love whisky. And dry white wine. And Margharitas. And Mojitos. And coffee, oh my word, there is just not enough coffee in this world.

I am going to break cover in real life now and take my pack of Fair Play for Women's leaflets and postcards to the parents evening at my DCs school. And hand them out and speak to people about the consultation (if the headteacher allows it). Wish me luck!

Yeah, Charlie, I forgot the shout out for you! Well done! I didn't make it through it all though, because I could not take some of the comments. I honestly, honestly admire your patience.

Charlie, you are the heroine of the hour.

Thank you.

(And I haven't even got through all the comments yet.)

That was a great lunchtime read - have liked lots of comments. Well done Charlie.

What is different about this movement is that it's not a grassroots movement. It's driven from the top down with governments in favour of 'progressive' changes to laws and government funding for organisations pushing the agenda.

But yeah, hackum, I agree that there is something that feels utterly artificial about this TRA 'movement'.

hackum, I get it. But think about what this reflex to blame the Russians also means:

• Putin and his party as a matter of record have ties to a range of European nationalist / national conservative parties (e.g. France, Austria, Germany). They see common cause against 'Western decadence', have a conservative societal outlook. Maybe Putin thinks they are the future and aligns strategically, maybe they are the strongest movement that is not transatlanticist, maybe he thinks this wil disrupt and weaken the West - whatever.

• On these grounds, and considering how widely the 'Russian meddling' hypothesis is generally accepted, it would be strikingly easy to smear us all, every woman who insists that woman=adult human female, on safeguarding, on sex segregated spaces, as Russian stooges, who sow dischord by negating that TWAW and try to help 'Putin's world view' win in this cultural war.

Who will listen to us, once we are branded Putin's useful idiots?

Charlie, you are amazing, whoever you are.

It still always amazes me that lack of knowledge is no barrier to men expressing their views as though they are unassailable facts. Look at how much evidence Charlie gave them and yet not one of them came back and admitted they were ignorant of the issues, apologised and thanked Charlie.
As for the intersex groups, I imagine Charlie didn't name them because they'll be hounded and the TRAs will try to get funding withdrawn.
However there are numerous intersex people on social media who have clearly stated they do not want their condition conflated with trans issues and have repeatedly asked TRAs to stop pretending they speak for intersex people.

I'm prepared to be wrong about the Russian thing. It was just a hunch. The thing I find odd is that transactivism is completely unlike any other kind of activism I've ever come across in its viciousness, its hounding of dissenters and its determination to close down free speech. There is absolutely no willingness to engage in debate of any kind. I know other kinds of activists can be a bit intemperate sometimes, no platforming this and boycotting that, but I can't think of anything else as extreme as this. Which makes me thing that there must be something else very sinister going on. Might not be the Russians, of course.

I love Charlie. Outstanding work. There really is no argument and I wish stupid people would stop tying themselves in knots trying to come up with one.

Wow Charlie, utterly brilliant work

vagender thanks

Manderley - the group has a public Twitter account with a link to their official statement about the article and the petition: www.twitter.com/AbertayLGBT

Great article and great work from Charley!

I shall definitely be endeavouring to channel my inner Charlie from now on. You are a well-informed, eloquent goddess!