I just came out as GC at work, to the big boss and I feel a bit sick

Have a fist bump of solidarity OP.

I suggested to our head of HR a while ago that they might like to keep our links with Stonewall under review and I expected that to bring shower of shit down on me.

A really good thread to read, to decide exactly how esoteric all this is to your own life, is

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3348290-It-will-never-happen-resource-thread

Well done for taking this brave (but necessary) stand on this issue. Thank you.

To such an extent that if a boy has characteristics that a sexist society insists belongs to girls, he must actually be a girl.

Here is a current example of exactly how this happens.

mobile.twitter.com/JesseThorn/status/1377289313101078534

People don't realise how much courage this takes.

To such an extent that if a boy has characteristics that a sexist society insists belongs to girls, he must actually be a girl.

Hence the end result that male rapists are being sent to female prisons to mix with women who cant escape from them.

I8toys

It stands for gender-critical, which is an umbrella term for thinking such things as that no-one can literally change sex and that it would be unfair for Mike Tyson to compete in women's boxing, even if Mike said he'd always felt he'd been born in the wrong body.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3145470-Break-it-down-for-me

But I had to today, primarily because in my professional view there is a reputational risk of our company being associated with exclusive gender neutral language such as cervix havers or chest feeders as well as the risk of confusing the people the material is aimed at. This risk needs to be properly assessed and managed before this radical change in language is adopted. I would have been negligent not to speak up.

This is in addition to my personal views that erasure of women from language, particularly around health, is really damaging and disenfranshising.

Well done OP 👏

I was asked to sign off on something that I just couldn't and I said so, and explained why.

and solidarity OP

Feminist Current
SEPTEMBER 24, 2018

'INTERVIEW: The irrepressible Venice Allan on her fight against changes to the UK Gender Recognition Act
by JULIE MOSS'

concludes:

VA: My message has always been that I’m just an ordinary concerned mother and woman. I haven’t really done anything and everyone needs to stand up — this is not the time to be worrying about our reputations and what people think of us. It’s now or never, and if these laws go through, we’re fucked. You don’t have to be an expert. Not everyone likes organizing events, but anyone can do something, and the more of us that stand up, the less they can attack us.
www.feministcurrent.com/2018/09/24/interview-irrepressible-venice-allan-fight-changes-uk-gender-recognition-act/

I felt brave when I put on my employee record that I identified as other under gender and wrote "sex is female" in the free text box. Definitely well done!

I do not believe it is possible to change sex. So I accept that men who claim they are women may have different struggles from other men, and might therefore wish to be seen as a separate class from other men, but that they are not women.

If they feel unsafe in spaces with other men or need additional rights to protect them, then it might be necessary to campaign for safe spaces or separate rights of their own, but moving them into women’s spaces or giving them women’s rights is not an appropriate solution.

Well done. It’s not easy.

Thank you OP- I work in a very woke firm and industry so I understand your nervousness speaking up on this topic.

If you are a bit confused by OP's concern, do read the threads that have been linked. They explain it clearly.

If you have read the definitions of GC and can't understand why it's an alarming position to take, read the threads, or Google JKRowling who's been hounded for some truly unexceptional statements about the reality of being female.

The misrepresentation that GC=transphobic comes from a growing theory that gender supersedes sex. That man and woman are identities unrelated to our bodies.

And also, I think, from ignoring (either through ignorance or deliberately) of the fact that women as a category or class are still structurally oppressed, and generally individually as well. And are the most oppressed majority in the world - anywhere you look, women and girls will be at the bottom of any hierarchy.

And for 50% to 51% of the world's population to be in that situation, globally and historically, is unacceptable.

Well done OP

Ani O'Brien article published May 2019:

'Fundamentally misunderstanding gender critical feminism'

"Feminism is at its roots (that’s where the name Radical Feminism comes from by the way) gender critical. Past iterations of feminism were entirely gender critical, but there is little that can be said to be gender critical about third wave feminism. This is why gender critical feminists reject it. We prefer the radical analysis of our foremothers. Radical does not mean wild or extreme it simply refers to “relating to or affecting the fundamental nature of something”. It is about stripping everything back and analysing the nature of female oppression. For gender critical or radical feminists our “central tenet is that women as a biological class are globally oppressed by men as a biological class.” (continues)

It is our bodies which have always differentiated us from men. It is the fact, as you say, that before contraception we spent our lives pregnant and in the home. It is our bodies and our potential to become mothers that sees us valued less in the workforce (as well as gendered sex stereotypes). It is because we are female that we are overwhelmingly the victims of sexual violence, but rarely the perpetrators. It is because we are female that in some parts of the world little girls have their genitals mutilated, are married off to men, and deprived of education. I am terribly and genuinely confused as to what you think sexism, female oppression, and male violence are, if not based around our respective realities as members of our sex classes. What is feminism for if not to liberate the female sex class?

This does not mean that any of this oppression is our destiny. However, we simply must know what we are fighting for and against if we are to effect change. Sex is WHY we are oppressed. Gender is HOW we are oppressed." (continues)

aniobrien.medium.com/fundamentally-misunderstanding-gender-critical-feminism-baebb2e953e3

Well done op. We all need to be able to voice our views on this.

Well done op, let’s hope you get as much support at work as you have here

JustcameoutGC well done, the more of us that do this IRL the easier it becomes. I am GC in person but don’t identify myself on line as GC as the bullying of women by trans activists is just too vicious

Sorry for my ignorance but why does it need to be said? I've never heard the term before.