Pulled up at work for ‘trans views’

There are lots of very well-informed women on this thread who have made excellent suggestions on how to respond. I absolutely agree this should all be put in writing so there can be no question what you were saying and what their response was. I'd also want to keep a copy of the email trail away - just in case it all blows up and those pesky work servers lose the evidence. Paranoid? Yes. But we've seen it happen, time and time again. Funnily enough, only to women. Employers always seem to know who women are when they don't want to follow the law....

Anyway, I just wanted to applaud you OP. It's really difficult to stand up for views that keep being described as bigoted, when they're just factual reality. It's so important for all of us that women refuse to be defined in relation to their proximity to men and that our language and voices aren't eroded.

I see you work in a private healthcare setting, so I think it's even MORE important to have clarity in any conversations about the sexes.

Thank you for being brave enough to put yourself in the firing line. I hope things don't become too uncomfortable for you at your workplace.

Document everything - do try to get them to put in writing as much as possible. If not, take contemporaneous notes.

I've not had time to RTFT, OP, but:

Your beliefs could be described as 'gender critical'. They are protected in law, and your employers cannot discriminate against you for holding or expressing them.

There are several very good lawyers with expertise in this area who I'm sure would be happy to help out should you need it.

More power to your elbow - stand firm! Plenty of us are right behind you.

I don’t think you’ve done anything wrong, I don’t mind someone asking me to refer to them as her/him/they etc. but it’s such a double standard to say “you must identify me as x and yourself as y (cis)”, for me I’m a woman and it’s how I’ve always been since birth (with all the boring generic woman insides 😂) and that’s that I don’t feel the need (or desire) to refer to myself as anything else and wouldn’t appreciate anyone else identifying me as anything other than a woman…

Cos it's written into law that you get protections from discrimination based on sex, because people get discriminated against due to....

(Checks notes as this is obviously rocket science)

...SEX DISCRIMINATION!

If everyone is allowed to identify as they wish based on their own lived experience, it's absolutely fine to refuse to be called cos and reject offensive stereotyping.

Otherwise we aren't being treated equally.

I wouldn’t have a clue what to say either

Yeah, the thing is, they don't. The ones with vulvas in their underwear are consistently treated worse than the ones with penises in their underwear.

How does stopping us from labelling those two groups effectively help the ones with vulvas in their underwear fight against this discrimination?

How would OP be denying a trans person’s anything?

She said she’s not ‘cis’, not that the trans person wasn’t trans!

There’s a difference between saying “I’m not a Christian” and saying “well, your god doesn’t exist and your religion is made-up rubbish”.

Thank you OP, sincerely, for refusing to use that stupid made-up word cis-woman. I can’t understand why anyone’ is calling you ‘mean’. I find ‘cis-woman’ deeply and intentionally offensive.

Erm.

No you couldn't.

Next.

By saying you don’t agree with being called cis, you could be accused of denying a trans person’s existence and experience.

At the same time, by labelling themselves as trans, trans people (with cis being the complimentary term used to distinguish between the two), without consent from those affected, could be said to be attempting to alter the identity and perceived experience of women.

No one, not either side, is winning in this scenario. Either way it plays out there is damage.

I hear you; I don't like the term cis either. And the language policing is maddening, too. But speaking as someone who needs their job, I would have just toed the party line, as I have done at work in the past. A few years ago, I put my pronouns in my email signature, which I think is ridiculous, but I did it to fit in and be on-trend with the company policy. This is the world we live in. These culture wars will go down in history like the McCarthy era. I like my job and there's not many of them around, and I don't want to go through the huge stress of finding another job, so I just play the game. That's what I would have done in your situation, because the trouble just isn't worth it. And most jobs will be the same.

This.

The NHS has completely lost the plot and tied themselves in knots over sexualities and religion I heard this morning that they were trying to recruit existing staff to become Muslims.

Surely if they can chose how they are labeled you can chose how you are. You didnt comment on your trans views you commented on how you were addressed. This is madness ...

Definitely get it in writing. You could preface it with "I'm afraid I'm still unclear about how I went wrong at the recent training session. I'd very much like to have the position explained to me in writing so I can fully understand."

The world has gone bonkers! I’m actually speechless

Much as I loathe Toby Young,
join the Free Speech Union
and let them give you backup

If 'trans' means you don't identify with the gender that is generally assumed to match your sex and 'cis' is the opposite, then it means that you do identify with gender that matches your sex.

Since feminists believe that gender is basically another word for sexist stereotypes/roles, to call a woman cis is highly offensive as it suggests that we identify with and accept our own oppression.

Cis is not a neutral term at all.

Just like trans people, feminists also do not identify with the gender that matches their sex. The difference is that we don't think that means we need to pretend to change our sex, we think it means that we should try to eliminate gender as far as possible.

What an absolute pain in the arse. Why can't people be left alone to get on with their work??? Typical that it was NHS. Thankfully where I work we are not all expected the wear rainbow lanyards, put our pronouns in our emails etc etc and not one person (yet!) has called me Cis. We have the usual eye rolling training online and I soon realised I had to put the most ridiculous answer down not the ones I felt like replying.!

Yes, ask them to put it in writing, and you should also put it in writing the incident - keep it factual, what you were asked and what you replied.

Then both you and your manager sign the note after reviewing it.

In a previous job an incident happened where I was at no fault legally or morally however my employer decided to bully me over it.

I simply called for a meeting with my union rep, put everything in writing with my employer and present and both signing everything that was discussed/ occurred.

Well after it all got reviewed he got sacked!

Are you required to ask men if they could be pregnant ?😳I know nurses who are vehemently opposed to asking this question & indeed they say they are highly embarrassed. Do the latest findings deem this to be inappropriate now 🤔

The OP HAS a gender. It is called WOMAN. Don't be disingenuous and silly.