Well, I've just come out as GC on Facebook...

Also, many people with DSD have been asking to be left out of the whole trans issue, as they don't feel it's appropriate to have their condition used in this way.

Disorders (or preferably "Differences") of sex development (aka intersex, but a lot of them really don't like that name so they're trying to stick with DSDs instead) do not "change sex". She really needs to be told that is wrong - they're not frogs or clownfish!

They are usually born with ambiguous external genitalia (not always) and are indeed "assigned" a sex at birth so the parents can record the birth as one sex or the other, and carry on. Sometimes surgery is needed to create useful urogenital equipment, but sometimes the problems don't become apparent until puberty should happen - and doesn't. At that point it may be that a child who was assigned female at birth has genetic testing and is found to be have one of the DSDs, which shows a Y chromosome but it didn't allow for male genitalia to develop normally for whatever reason.
They haven't "changed sex" as such - because they will always have had the same genetics - but they might choose to change presentation.

Well, I've done it -- sort of.
A very woke friend of mine, male, who I've known virtually for over a decade and is friends with a whole brigade of woke people, posted something I HAD to reply to.
He posted a stupid meme that said this:
I’ve never in my life been scared to stand in a room w a lgbtq+, or a PoC. Or a Moslem. or a Hindu. Or any religion. Do you know who I have been scared to stand in a room with? Middle-aged straight white males.

He asked women for their opinions, and everyone was nodding and liking and agreeing.

So I replied: "Sorry, but I've been harassed and assaulted all my life by lots of young men, and black and mixed-race men. The problem is male, not the other qualifiers."

It's pretty tame, I know, but I'm wading into shark infested waters there. Being black myself I guess I'm protected from being called racist (by calling out black harassers).

On another FB thread, I replied to a woman who has a trans-girl kid. I find these mothers tricky, as they are so desperate and emotionally involved they can't think straight. I and another GC women tried to gently talk her down she cites intersex as proof that people can change sex, and says that it's possible to modify the body to make it in sync with the mind.

I did reply, but as a mother of a tb child I think it's almost impossible to convince her. She started by a mild attack on JK, and I pushed back on that too.

I feel I'm creeping forward.

good on your mum

sounds like it went well. the more sunlight the better. for me the last few weeks have been a massive eye-opener to misogyny- course i knew it was bad- but i see its off the scale...

The paper quoted a source as saying: 'In terms of changing what is on your birth certificate, you will still need to have proper medical approval.

Surely it will also show sex at birth and not wipe that out entirely?

And you're not going to be able to march in and find a hippie quack doctor who is willing to say you're a woman. That's not going to happen

At the same time, the Government was said to be preparing to set out new safeguards to protect female-only spaces – including refuges and public lavatories – to stop them being used by those with male anatomy.

From the DM article. This is fantastic news!

@Skateosaurus I'm from the same derby background and oh hell no could I post openly about this stuff!
I'm getting closer, braver but not just yet

Front page of tomorrows Sunday Times. Cant make the article out though.

That is rotten, MashedPotato. I'm sorry for your brave dd - even if I didn't agree with her, it takes a hell of a lot of guts to speak up in this climate. Look how many older more battle-scarred women are too wary to do so.

I've made some quiet, small steps. All very nice and calm. Just asking questions, when people post about it, has prompted some very interesting conversations. And sometimes just saying I support JK. I'm thinking of it as my calm, steady, take-your-time standing up. I am standing up, just very slowly.

I won't stop.

Not about me being GC on FB< but I figured this would fit best here as not worthy of its own thread.

But one of my close friends, who was quite..TRA like until today has been rampaging all over the wokebros and its been glorious tbh. Best thing I have seen from her today? Someone asked what on earth a TERF is.

A woman who refuses to believe that straight white males are the most oppressed people on the planet

A FB friend of mine has posted today #dontbuythesun. My heart leaped: I recognised it as a secret code.

The post has 20 likes and three shares. I thought it was pretty obvious what she was trying to say but the comments show that many are oblivious:
"what have they done now?" "never have and never will" "#neverhave" etc. I think the code might be a little too secret.

People want the legal right to 'live as a woman". What is that? It's just a caricature. A stereotype.

I live atm with my 35 year old son. He is a man, obviously. We live in exactly the same way. We eat, drink, sleep, wee, poop, wear similar clothes, trousers, tshirts and shoes.
I wear a bra, he doesn't.

The main difference between us: He is much stronger. I had some Ikea flatpack boxes delivered yesterday and he carried them up and into the flat as if they weighed nothing; I struggled to even get one pack off the floor.
But it was I who actually built the storage unit, by myself - yes, I know how to use a hammer and screwdriver. He then moved the heavy unit into it's final place.
He wears bigger clothes and shoes than I do.

I can't really think of any other differences between living as a man and living as a woman. Heck, I don't even have periods any more, and he sits to wee (raised in Germany).

Is it "wearing a bra" that identifies me as a woman? But isn't that because of my BIOLOGY, as well as my son's strength and bigger size clothes?

My conclusion: to live as a woman you have to actually BE a woman.

Thank you.

I've sent it to her.

I'm so sorry. :(

Here is a useful article that your DD might like. medium.com/@aeso/istandwithjkr-is-metoo2-0-8827bae0c390

I really want to post on my social media but am scared of the work fallout...reading all the misogyny that JK, and women, have been subjected to, is giving me the rage. Also this idea that 'old feminists' are wrong and the new, 'young generation' are sooo much more tolerant! As a 40-something, I am very happy to call myself an 'old bitter' feminist if that means advocating for sex-based rights.

That’s awful @MashedPotatoBrainz. What kind of stuff are they saying?

I think they got the TRA hymn sheet. But basically she's literally kiiling transpeople by agreeing with JKR and she should be ashamed of herself, she's not the person they thought she was, she's a bigot, she needs to educate herself, she needs to reevaluate her life/aggressive ideas, name calling. But then after they've deleted her gloating about to all and sundry who then jump on the band wagon.

A friend of mine has posted a linked article to be the JKR essay. So I have liked and commented. A group of quite strong minded women have also 'liked'. No-one is daring to argue back

I know it is difficult but ask yourself why you care what other people think, if they don't care what you think?

I've 'come out' on FB and I havent had one single reply/response in any form

That’s awful @MashedPotatoBrainz. What kind of stuff are they saying?

Like I said I’ve deleted myself from social media now. I don’t know if I want people who blindly accept trans ideology, seem unable to think for themselves, refuse to engage in debate and believe that women should be silenced (or worse) for disagreeing with them, as my friends. I don’t know why they can’t see that they are being the very opposite of the liberal, tolerant feminists they think they are!

I think I’d be perfectly happy if my world was just me, my husband and the kids anyway!

You're brave OP, well done. I'm too chicken, although I'm still getting grief. My young autistic adult DD has had enough and is posting stuff to show her clear support of JKR and her reasons why. She's being annihilated by friends and family on FB. Long standing friends deleting her (and me by association). I'm getting messages from others berating me for not berating her. It's really ugly, so ugly that even my DH is deleting people because of aggression they are orchestrating against DD, and normally anything on social media goes over his head. All these are all people we know in real life.

By the time this settles I'll only have DD, DH and the cat as Facebook friends and I've not even said anything.

Could it possibly be that woman is nothing to do with your dress choices, or hair styles, or skin product choices, or hobbies, or favourite colours, or behaviours?

Could it possibly be that 51% of the human race have actually managed to be sufficiently versatile and individual that the only one characteristic they have in common that forms them into a class, regardless of country, wealth, faith, race, colour, fashion, culture the whole planet over, through the entire of history - is being born with female biology?

live as a woman
Looking at the pictures of many of my female friends at the moment that is
trackies / jeans
hoodies / sweatshirts
poorly styled greying hair
monobrows and wrinkles
in fact pretty darned androgynous
so yet again
we women have failed as women

The AIBU Drag thread is interesting at the moment.
Lots of people making the connection between misogyny, bullying, sexual violence and men invading female spaces
without the T word in there anywhere.

Its interesting that actors who just read the words think that TWAW
but writers who create the words
do not

I think the problem is the use of the word gender in the article when the writer meant 'sex'. Gender is just a nonsense. There's no such thing as a pink brain.

Trans women want the right to be spoken to as women or use a different name. I get that, but ultimately its just pronouns and means nothing.

People want the legal right to 'live as a woman". What is that? It's just a caricature. A stereotype. I don't have the legal right to live as a woman. I have to wear jeans every day, because of the workload dumped on me by a society that doesn't make sure men " live as men" I have to learn how to do every "masculine" task whether I want to or not.
I have literally no time to do what I want to do at all.

Its all just a phallacy. One that has been used to control and subjugate women since time immemorial.