I want to meet other GC women in person

I'm south cambs.

I'm in south cambs. Still quite a way away. I've only been very quietly GC. I freelance so even though I think most of my clients (construction industry) would likely agree with me it isn't something that would naturally come up. I contribute to the forums and garden when I can afford it.

I have members of the family who are super twaw so it's not something I bring up at family events to avoid causing arguments. Feel more confident arguing if I'm challenged now though.

Ironically my biggest support has been my bisexual brother who is younger and seeing a lot of this in his friendship group. He's very rational headed about this which was really encouraging.

I do know it’s shit ☹️ but it’s just how it is.

true @EmpressaurusKitty . Will close my messages again (they were already blocked because TRA’s and porn bots were getting annoying!)

I’m in East Anglia too, and also a single parent. It would be so nice to not have to tread on eggshells!

Quick repeat warning - absolutely anyone can read this thread & malevolent TRAs probably will.

I would really try to get to an IRL event if you can, even if it involves a bit of travelling.

So we cannot do much at the moment anyway

Been disabled due to gross photos being PM to people.

Actually - having said I’m happy to receive DMs just noticed they’re disabled?!! Anyone know how to switch those on? As far as I know I’ve never disabled them!

Happy to be DMd and invited to a Whatsapp in the hope of meeting people near me in person! If only to find people to walk my dogs with LOL.

I think we should keep this thread going.

I can tell you i am in a small WhatsApp group which was set up as we had come to know each other on this board.

It is best to keep your name the same on FWR and contribute where possible as you will becomme recognised and can build trust. I can name quite a few regular posters on this board who i know to be thoroughly trustworthy, as a result of maintaining the same name some over many years.

I don’t even know if you can wear a suffragette badge these days as some people see it as anti trans, when it’s simply pro woman.

💔

My boss has a post op trans kid, so we can’t talk about it at work.

Am intrigued by this thread. I think the desire to be around women with the open acceptance that you don’t have to walk on egg shells over this issue is understandable.

I know I have lost friends over it - followers of previous posts/other threads will know I have been protecting an ASD/ADHD YP through trans identifying as male. Friends either didn’t want to engage (all agreed with our position but just didn’t want to ask ‘how is DD?’ and receive an honest answer) or abjectly disagreed with my/our non affirmation approach. Tbh many didn’t want to engage about the ASD/ADHD either, so the whole thing was deeply lonely. And I say that as a person who was totally there for those friends - I ran beavers and took ones DS for 3 years, including camping weekends; and even I informally fostered one mum’s 2 DSs (they lived with us FT for 8-10 weeks a year and came to us 3 nights a week during term-time for 4 years) so I am fairly sure I wasn’t out of order to expect a little friendship and understanding in return, but was dropped instantly. More importantly, so was my DD. Where was the support and compassion for her?

I ache for a space where I can chat books, film, TV … and just talk crap and KNOW that I can accidentally make a flippant remark about ‘that’ issue without fear of being the topic of a whatsapp discussion that I have been excluded from or getting the cold shoulder (am ND so should really be used to that, but I am not).

It’s not that I want to march the streets and scream about this issue from the roof tops, it’s about wanting a safe space to be my authentic self. You know, that stuff that the ‘other side’ have been screaming about for the last decade.

I only know one person who isn't GC. I chat about it reasonably often, because I happily talk about politics generally with people, either in a light hearted way or more like "wow did you see the news this morning?" I have discussed it with relatives, friends, acquaintances, at church, with randoms in the local shop, at playgroup, with NHS staff during procedures, in the pub, and so on. It's no different to opening a conversation with "Have you seen what Trump's done now..."

If you're wanting to talk to friends about it, I find the safest remarks to suss people out are mild jokes involving catgender (NOBODY half sane really believes in this), or joking about not being able to tell if people are men or women these days (which is presumably not actually inherently offensive to TRAs). Either is just a stupid joke, but provides an opener for the other party to say what they think, if they would like to.

People mostly don't bring the subject up purely because they are not that interested in it. But if you ask, the vast majority are "live and let live, but of course you can't change sex".

I’m in the NW, let me know if you find one.

I think most people are GC. It's just whether you breach the subject in your conversations. It's come up with my hairdresser, neighbours, shop keepers, women standing in a queue at the toilets... all GC.

As pp said, the WPUK meetings used to be a really good way to meet other GC women. Any sort of similar meeting might be good, or the pub bit after a Let Women Speak meeting.

I did not know this existed! I don't think I knew Tumblr still existed let alone that group. I will look into it - I have a friend who is older and who feels very isolated in her semi-rural community but can travel to Manchester. She's always saying how jealous she is of the Scottish groups and how she'd love to be part of that, and she really came alive at Glasgow's Filia.

I've been to a couple of GC women meetups in Manchester, arranged via Tumblr by ukrfeminism. It was lovely, met some fascinating people ♥️

Yes, exactly. We know TRAs actively monitor the boards & I bet some of them would love to get to know GC women off MN.

I am in the east mids, my nearest WRN is not operational for some reason.

I think the problem is that some people name change so are not recognisable, some of us do not and can be found all over this board.

One can run the risk of falling in to a TRA trap where they end up with your details and then hound you in real life. That is why people are so cautious.

WPUK meetings used to be a good place to meet people! FiLiA is also good, though they are probably booked up by now for their October conference. But local WRN networks, ReSisters or Let Women Speak meetings might also be a way of meeting people. I realise it is difficult when you are a single mum. Are you able to tell us what part of the country you are in? Perhaps others will be able to make more specific suggestions.