Sex Matters survey on public attitudes to men in women's spaces

It seems that a lot of people still don't get it. Or maybe there's a lot of people out there who have family members caught up in this and rather than thinking more generally are thinking about sweet misunderstood Timmy who is now Tammy.

We've seen how family members have affected the positions of politicians so it seems logical it would do the same to the general population.

Plus as we see on here there are a lot of people who don't care about anyone but themselves.And if they don't have a problem they are unable to see why someone else might.

They may or may not decide to have cosmetic surgery such as breast or genital surgery
It could be interpreted that while cosmetic surgery is not a given that some sort of surgery/ treatment is required. I think there is the potential for people to read that as they might have had a boob job or not but they will have had medical interventions.

Somewhere in the commentary accompanying the graphs it does say that an explanation was given which clarified that a transwoman may or may not have had surgery but as a pp said, it wasn’t pointed out that they may or may not be taking hormones. “May or may not” have had surgery does make it sound like a 50/50 chance whereas we know that the odds are different.

I think this should have been preceeded by an explanation of what a trans woman is. I'm sure most people still think they'll have had surgery and therefore are less of a risk to women and girls /at risk themselves if they use male facilities / an object of pity.

It looks like respondents were given the chance to opt out of all the questions at this point as the unweighted base goes from 2432 for the question on care to 1802 for all the other questions. Maybe the 18-24s do find the whole subject more difficult or maybe some of them are fed up with it!

You'd need to read the questions quite carefully before answering. "Should not be allowed" means the agency should not be allowed to exclude, not that the transwoman should not be allowed to do it.

The results are (mostly) much more troubling for the Lib Dems than for Labour - but both parties should take a good hard look. Time to hand round the (fully reversible!) policy blockers to give them time to think?

The question should have been 'Are you OK with a trans-identifying man washing your Granny's vulva without her express consent?'

Agreed, the questions are quite wordy and the 18-24s might be unfamiliar with intimate personal (health) care, but there was a "Don't know" option (which 22% of them went with) and yet a further 33% still chose "Prefer not to say".

Actually, it says “intimate personal health care” so does that mean medical things as well and if so what sort of things?

“Intimate personal care” is a bit of a complicated and slightly coy way of asking that question. It might have been better to add “such as washing, bathing and going to the toilet”l

D'oh - I should have previewed the formatting! The first percentage in each row is "All" and the second one "18-24".

Yes, I'm working my way through the pdf.

Q1: An elderly woman needs intimate personal health care and has asked for female carers. Should the care agency be allowed to exclude transwomen from applying for this job? If this is a subject that you would rather not answer questions on, please select "Prefer not to say".

All 18-24
Should be allowed: 32% 22%
Should not be allowed: 22% 24%
Prefer not to say: 26% 33%
Don't know: 20% 22%

It seems that 33% of 18-24 year olds are too uncomfortable to answer the question, even though, given their ages, it doesn't directly affect them.

You can see the raw numbers by choosing to download the 'text only' bit, so it would be possible to calculate the answers with those excluded.

The numbers are trending each year as more people see the issues that have been dismissed and minimised in the past.

There's a strikingly large number of "Prefer not to say" responses across the board in Table 1 - I don't recall seeing anything like that in any other opinion poll on other subjects. People seem to be very wary of expressing their views. A very large number of "Don't knows" in the survey, too. All the more reason to have an open and honest public debate.

I think some people will assume they are on hormones which aren't mentioned. I'm genuinely saddened at how many women are willing to let transwomen into women's spaces.

The SM website says the poll clarified that: “a transwoman is a person who is biologically male, but who identifies as a woman. They may or may not decide to have cosmetic surgery such as breast or genital surgery”.

I love SexMatters and support them financially, but this is a poorly worded survey question - both too long a sentence and, in effect, a double-negative ("should not be excluded").

Also agree with @FlirtsWithRhinos that many people still have no idea that being a transwoman can mean no medical treatment or even 'dressing as a woman'.

I agree with you HipTightOnions. I’m in disbelief the numbers are that high. It does state that they were clear that transwomen didn’t necessarily have any surgery.

The answers by voters who said they supported Labour did look different from the other political groups for a couple of questions.

That group believed (39% to 35%) that firms should not be able to exclude transwomen from female toilets if male, female, and unisex toilets are all available, and 40% to 31% believed that female-only associations should not be able to exclude transwomen from joining.

The youngest age group in the survey (the 18-24 group) also shows pluralities believing that transwomen should not be excluded in the same two cases but also that they should not be stopped from using female changing rooms and showers.

A lot of people still assume trans women have had their male genetalia reshaped to approximate female, or at least are the traditional stereotype of effeminate and male-attracted.

And 34% of Labour voters want transwomen frisking school girls!

!!!!!