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Original poster

Help me reply to Lord Lucas now before debate on Monday

235 replies

refusetobeasheep · 17/02/2020 15:40

He has responded to my email asking him to ensure the definition of women is born female at birth.

His question: How in a women's communal toilet can you reasonably ascertain whether another person is a woman or not?

Please give me your best answers now before I reply.

Especially safe guarding points!!

Will mention the way men walk, talk, look ... that entirely possible i have not spotted a post op trans before. but i would spot a bearded man or someone who made me as a woman feel unsafe. And the new self -ID would mean I would have to ignore my instincts and happily allow any man who says he is a woman to access my communal changing area / that of my 9 year old daughter ..

OP posts:
midgebabe · 17/02/2020 16:00

I don't need to ascertain that.

I note from the data that social norms hold people to the correct facility, so that assaults are much less common in unisex than in mixed sex facilities. I rely on those norms.

Gibbonsgibbonsgibbons · 17/02/2020 15:57

Humans have evolved over millennia to be able to correctly sex each other - it is after all essential for the survival of the species.

Occasionally we are confused by a well posed still photo but with movement, sound & smell it is extremely unusual to be unable to correctly sex another human. Our skeletons are different, movement gives clear indication.

We shouldn’t have to tell - no male with good intentions should ever wish to enter our single sex spaces.

FactsAreNotMean · 17/02/2020 15:55

I wouldn't assume the worst, that sounds to me like he could be preparing for the inevitable gotcha question of "but how can you tell without looking in someone's pants..."

Original poster
refusetobeasheep · 17/02/2020 15:51

I'm not it is bad news - he could be looking for quotes to use in the debate ...

OP posts:
Kit19 · 17/02/2020 15:49

That doesn’t bode well does it....

You know I am SO pissed off with the idea that women can’t spot someone who was born Male - I mean ffs!!

TheShoesa · 17/02/2020 15:48

But also, that is such a nonsense question.

Can he really not tell, if seeing women and transwomen which are female and which are male? (Or does it really come down to ' blokes see tits and make up = woman' paraphrasing Posie in the Triggernometry podcast)

Languishingfemale · 17/02/2020 15:46

Sex segregated spaces are an appropriate safeguarding measure to protect women and children from the small number of men who seek to harm them (the flashers, upskirters, gropers, secret filmers etc) Just as we have DBS checks to ascertain that those adults seeking to harm children may not work with them, in the same way sex segregated spaces where women and girls undress and are vulnerable are a proportionate way of preventing harm.
Then send him the link to this Andrex WaterAid film about Sanjeeda and the need for sex segregated toilets to keep from her harm - ask why women and girls in the UK are having mixed sex toilets / changing rooms imposed on us against our will?

WorkingItOutAsIGo · 17/02/2020 15:46

Also tel him toddlers can do it, dogs can do it, AI can do it. We always know.

WorkingItOutAsIGo · 17/02/2020 15:46

Tell him that as he’s not a woman he won’t know that women have evolved to have hyper awareness of men in all environments as we have to constantly assess the threat they might pose to us. So we can spot a man in a nano second. Trans women do not pass to women.

TheShoesa · 17/02/2020 15:45

Is this any good OP?

medium.com/@katieja/but-how-can-you-tell-7901324d0919