Do you think most people simply agree with radical TRA’s from lack of knowledge?

Most people do NOT agree with TRAs. Most people are not media luvvies.

Several years ago I had a medical doctor, one who is passionately pro trans, lecture me at length about the terrible suicide statistics among young transpeople and the shocking murder rate of transpeople around the world. I didn't know much about it at that point, just that as a lesbian I was fed-up with having to encounter men at lesbian events. My very mild and rather naive questions reduced her to tears of rage.

I went and investigated and found this place. Here I found proper analysis of the statistics — and young transpeople weren't committing suicide every five minutes, as she'd said. In fact their suicide rate was lower than that of anorexic young people and others with sever MH disorders. The murder rate for transpeople in the UK was in line for the wider population. In fact that year, if I remember correctly, there had been as many transwomen involved in the murder of others as were murdered.

I wrote her a long email explaining why what she had told me wasn't true with a load of links and information to follow up on. We never spoke again. She ignored what I sent her and she's still out there chanting TWAW at Pride and patrolling her city, looking for instances of transphobiar.

Last year — think it was last year — she went into a shop which frames prints and told them that having a framed image of JK Rowling hanging up was transphobic and they should take it down. It got onto FB and I think the police were asked to have a word with her. She's a total trans fanatic and my blood runs cold when I think what she's telling people about JK Rowling this week. The transgender issue has given those with a fanatical tendency a chance to exercise it with a vengeance.

Yes. I think some people think they're has been a scientific breakthrough that shows you can be born on the wrong body. Other people are misogynist or internalising misogyny and wondering why on earth anyone would want to identify as a female when females are inferior - they must really be women inside if they would demean themselves to join the inferior class.

It's sort of how I used to think when I was in my teens/early 20s.

Most people don't know about autogynephilia. They don't know the trans Umbrella includes crossdressers. They don't know the language of law is being changed which takes away from the hard won rights of women.

Yes.

I think lots of people don't understand the single sex changing room issue because they think "I don't mind using a mixed sex changing room, so nobody should mind using a mixed sex changing room".

However, if you study legislation, you have to ask how it affects everyone.

I would say the average person doesn't know much about it.

I once had a conversation with a man who thought that SRS was able to give a trans woman a vagina and uterus. No dilating or anything needed.

Whatever you think about gender, that's just not true.

My main worry is that kids who are not educated about what transition involves may be incorrect about the kind of results they can get from it.

Yes definitely agree OP, the few friends I've felt able to have sensible discussions with have said they can see the issue now and admitted they just hadn't thought about it properly.

I think it was the care of the rape survivor being 'told off' by a judge during the trial for referring to her (male) transwoman rapist as 'he'. That really seemed to flip a switch for them.

Everyone wants to be 'nice' and inclusive and good little woke lefties, and I include myself in this for the most part. But I won't sell women and women's rights down the river for it.

Most people don’t think to in depth.

Attaching the T to the LGB was the key.

A stroke of genius.

Yes, so many people pitch into the debate without doing any research at all.

It happens often on this board, people join a thread to berate posters for their "transphobia" and then post comments they don't realise would be read as transphobic by activists.

No. My relative has read JKR’s explanation and posted a medium article in response that misrepresents what she said an is all about how sad the author now feels as a result of this literal violence. My relative believes that Trans Woman can have periods and that sex is a spectrum and that ‘womanhood’ is not defined by biology and that’s it’s insulting to suggest it is. She’s been reinforced by a loads of her friends piling on the discussion. Even if she did have doubts to express them would be to make her a pariah in her friendship group.

I posted JK's article on my Facebook page.

I posted it with the tag line that you may not agree, but what is needed is debate. And I promised myself that anyone who responded I would calmly debate with facts and statistics.

From the three or four men who came along to tell me JK was transphobic, trans women are being murdered and killing themselves and JK would probably cause a few more to be murdered with her words, I calmly replied.

I knew they would all either attack, got quiet or say 'well, I am going to back off now before we fall out'

Read what people are saying, what JK is saying, and it's not transphobic. But it does pull apart the whole house of cards. Therefore, supporters are trained online to end debates before they can be persuaded to change their minds; to regurgitate the same scripts to shut down discussion...

No one has ever given me any reason to change my mind, just told me I am wrong...

Yes i agree with you

I said to ds1 partner and ds2 that JKR had been accused of transphobia and that she hadn’t said anything

They both tried to explain that it was probably that she’d ‘liked’ someone else’s transphobic tweet, i got ds1 to back me up as he’d read it

But i think they (and others) see the headline as it were, and if you are accused of transphobia or homophobia or racism you obviously are those things....cos the media and social media have said so

Happens on here...you get a poster A saying ‘poster B said that ....’ and i take the time to go check and more often than Not poster A is FUCKING LYING

I hadn’t engaged on the issue much, but I was pretty much willing to go along withTWAW, to the point of mentally policing pronouns when thinking about the couple of transwomen I thought about. I might still be doing that now if I hadn’t come across an article on a tangentially related topic from a reasonable author, the comments of which had a TRA pile on. I wondered what was going on...and well.

The vitriol of the TRAs is very effective at silencing people, (thus promoting lack of knowledge) but I’m hoping we’re approaching full backfire stage. I’ve had the feeling that some of them have been trying to tone it down a bit recently, anyone else think so?

DP (who is fairly well read and up to date with current issues) believed until recently that transwomen were extremely effeminate, non threatening gay men with severe gender dysphoria.

Transgender advocacy maintains the social hierarchy while redefining homophobia and misogyny as progressive.

I used to defend trans rights, spout twaw. Then i read the feminists threads on here. Yes, definitely lack of knowledge..the T being grouped with LGB made me feel like since im pro lgb i must be pro trans and any challenge to anything that relates to trans is bigotry. 🤦🏼‍♀️

The vast majority of people do think that genital surgery is involved in being designated trans, whereas in reality only a tiny number of male have genital surgery. Most have breast implants and hair removal and call it good.
People are often shocked to hear that over 85% of transwomen have intact male genitals and are heterosexual. They were convince there was no danger to women and girls because they thought transwomen were Gay males who had their penis removed in order to marry their partner.

www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/local/fife/819644/mum-of-supermarket-toilet-sex-assault-victim-warns-freed-attacker-could-strike-again/

Sorry my mistake, a 10 year old was attacked. Look at how the reporter twists into knots trying to describe (not to) the sex of the attacker.

Misleading press is a huge problem, legal fiction causes more hassle than it is worth and creates further danger for women and girls. It is no wonder the public are confused.

I live in Scotland.

Not too far from me a 12 year old girl was sexually assaulted in the middle of the day in supermarket toilets by a man. She punched him in the balls and fought her way out of there. (brave brave child).

The crime was reported as a female crime and the perpetrator housed in a woman's refuge. The child's parent took the story to the press so incensed by the misreporting of the attack and the false impression being given to the public that the attacker was female.

Facts matter.

Yes, that' my experience. Quite a lot don't know much about it at all but are passively supportive, and are shocked when they find out.

Others are more active, but many just take for granted the stats they see, the stuff they hear from clinics, and what they hear from organisations they consider to be good ones.

I really do think so. I kicked off a discussion about JKRs tweets and misogynistic backlash on FB. There was a lot of noise, but no solid arguments. I've seen these people posting their self righteous authoritarian views and not previously had the courage to say anything. But when pushed there barely any substance. Feelz. But not for JKR. It's made me think that those views while noisy are built on sand. They'll wash away when the bubble bursts. I think the backlash is growing. Most comments under MSM articles have been supportive of JKR and critical of the bullying slebs. It's made a lot more people think and got backs up. People really don't like being told what to think, especially when they can see so clearly that it is nonsense.

TRA’s are actively discouraging people from reading her essay. And people I know have disparaged her as transphobic because someone said so. So yes.

All it takes for outrage to occur is for enough woke SJWs to not read an essay.

I used to think Mumsnet was very transphobic. I have a trans colleague and it doesn’t bother me that she uses the women’s toilets. I don’t believe for a moment that she transitioned more then 15 years ago in order to “perve on women in the toilets”, as someone on here once put it. I’m careful to use my colleague’s preferred name and pronouns, out of common courtesy.

In the 90s, I read several articles featuring male cross dressers and often, their female partners. All of the cross dressers had the same message. They were not transsexual and did not want to transition. They were heterosexual and most of them were happily married to a woman (yes, I know that gay cross dressers also exist). They all said that they dressed in woman’s clothes from time to time because it made them feel good.

It was Mumsnet that made me realise that the message had changed. It wasn’t just people with gender dysphoria who were trans. Cross dressers were also trans. And all trans women were women, including those such as Debbie Hayton who believe it isn’t possible to change sex. I saw a man arguing with Debbie Hayton on Twitter the other day, saying he had no respect for her work and would continue to fight for her rights. A rather strange example of mansplaining.

I know that some people have gender dysphoria, that this is very painful, and I strongly believe that these people deserve support and understanding.

I still believe that most trans people are no threat to anyone and just want to get on with their lives in peace. But I’ve also seen many trans rights activists threaten any woman who disagrees with them online. I’ve seen rape threats (one aimed at a 15-year-old girl), and various threats of violence “punch a TERF day”, “kill a TERF”. I’ve seen intimidating photos of people looming over the camera with raised baseball bats (supposedly a TERF’s “point of view”). Not to mention the male-bodied person who showed a worrying interest in adolescent girls, and hoped that that when they went into a women’s changing room, they would see women “with their tits hanging out”. And another male-bodied person who boasted about masturbating in women’s toilets to get back at TERFS.

I agree that trans people may not always be safe or comfortable in the toilets and changing rooms corresponding with their genetic sex, and II think society has a duty to protect them. But I think the best solution is for them to have their own safe spaces, so that women and girls don’t feel frightened or uncomfortable either.

I don’t believe that biological sex is irrelevant or something we shouldn’t be allowed to discuss. I don’t agree that male sex offenders should be able to self-identify into women’s prisons, or that trans women should be able to compete in women’s sports (both are happening now). I don’t agree with the circular logic that anyone who says they are a woman has always been one, regardless of their biology. So what is a woman then?

Yes. LGB people have spent decades arguing for our rights and shedding a light on the homophobia we face. Feminists have spent centuries doing the same for women.

Most people think "transphobia" is a combination of these two things. They don't really know that both the above groups have major issues with the transgender movement in its current form. If they did, they would rethink their unconditional support.

This is why the movement goes to such extreme lengths to silence criticism from these two groups especially. Women are threatened to keep us silent and LGB people are pushed to the fringes of our own community. Because we threaten them the most.

We have the power to expose them, and take away a lot of the unthinking good will that has allowed them to progress so far, so fast. Without that, they would have to fall back on reasoned debate to win their battles - and as we've seen time and time again, that is not their forte.

Imagine if all the headlines stated

"JK Rowling sexism row continues - author under attack for claiming women have rights"

Yes, I agree with you OP.

Men in my life, well they seem to just say "it's a bloke in a dress that's lopped his cock off, but whatever, they are only harming themselves" but then I explain to them that the person they are describing 90% do not have their penises removed and want to be in a room with me whilst I get naked, they switch, and the line "well that's not right!you can't be in a room with a naked man" Comes out

Women in my life are split, some are too scared of the TRA's to speak out but are fully braced with the facts of what is at steak here. But the majority are TWAW, and then once you delve in to the intricate details of GC, 50% have a lightbulb moment but have to join the secret club and the other 40% seem to just say yeah it's wrong, but it won't happen will it , government won't let that happen🤦🏻‍♀️ and 10% shout TERF. 🙄