Why do you care so much about gender issues?

It is inhumane to incarcerate male bodied criminals with, often very vulnerable, females.

Throw in sport, rape crisis centres, and other places where single spaces are needed or can be justified and it matters. A lot.

Because it (I thought at the time) destroyed my life* when my husband decided he was a woman. Then I wanted to help other women in the same situation, and not buying into the gaslighting is an essential part of that.

*My life wasn’t destroyed in the long run but that’s only due to my own strength and the love and help of friends and family.

I’m young enough (24) that I went to school with people who were “transitioning” at 12/13, close friends with one of them. Saw the way it was never questioned by parents or the school just enabled and the blockers and hormones were explained to me, I thought it was batshit then and still do now. Somewhere along the way I stumbled upon a trans surgery Reddit forum. Crazy stuff.
I also had kids young (16) so I’m probably more invested than most because I have a reason to care and have seen for myself how much of a trend it was.

Im curious if any teachers are here and know if the trend is starting to die off?

But, do I also believe that there are people who are the wrong brain in the wrong body - yes.

This is absolutely 100% not possible. You are what you are.

I have a unique point here in that my partner XD. They believe very firmly in Trans rights.
I admit it makes me angry because they do what would be called the 'fun' part of being a woman.
When I come home and they have been swaning about dressed as a female all day, but the house is a freaking tip, and all the housework that ME THE BIO FEMALE is expected to do is not done, that makes it feel more unfair. I have literally said, swan about in a maids outfit all you want......but role play properly and be the maid!

Even more so given that I also do a lot of the 'MALE' tasks.....

Now, would they face danger going out in their getup - most likely - they do not pass.

I have nearly died having kids. I am a very female looking female and I looked like an adult from the age of 13, so I have suffered from all the 'interest' that comes with that.

I fed with my breasts. My children came from my uterus as I am a woman that gave birth. I am a manager at the same level as some men at work - but I still get expected to make the coffee...
I do not support M2F in female sports. But I also don't give 2 hoots if they use the same loos as me and my kids - technically all the male relative and friends we have are more of a risk to them - But changing rooms is another matter if they are open plan same sex with like no cubicles - if you don't want to be in the room with a peen you should not be forces! Just as I would not except men you put up with my and my growler in their changing room. Cooncil ones and unisex and we cope fine there.

My eldest is very much live and let live, but even at her teenage she laughs at how people who do not want to be labeled crap the bed if you miss label them. She says if you look like a duck, I'm going to call it a duck. It cannot get angry at me because I cannot read it's mind to see it identifies as a Crow.

But, do I also believe that there are people who are the wrong brain in the wrong body - yes. As I have said above, I identify as a potato. I am not sure how to put it into words but like, I know I am a female, I like that I am different from men, I like that I can use what god gave me to get what I want. I also like being able to flip bales, and defend myself. But I don't know if I have a feeling of being one or the other. Like, I feel it matters, but I wish it didn't matter, and I think its crazy that it all does matter.
I am aware that is utter confusion.

There is a creator on TIKTOK that I follow that has a very rational approach to it all. Davina I think their name is. I believe they aren't overly popular as they are a m2f that is transitioning but who calls out GC bullcrap. They state that they are not, nor will they ever be a woman - no matter hoe much surgery they have. They are so rational.

I remember seeing an article that had studied F2M that had detransitioned. They found that a high number were actually autistic females.

I can see the process being "I like women. men are meant to like women, there fore there is something wrong with a woman liking women".

I also think that we have actually moved more towards segregating male and female traits, especially in kids, than equality. I grew up in the 80s and 90s and no one batted eye if the girls dressed like boys and were digging in the mud - well until you LOOK like a female in your teens.

I always say I identify as a potato.

Indeed.

I don't know what other women think or feel, except in so far as we have bodies that share characteristics, e.g. periods, and childbirth. Of course, within this there is huge variation - some find periods debilitating, others don't. Some die in childbirth, most (thankfully) don't. But no men experience these things. Plus, we are different statistically in strength and height.

We also share characteristics due to those sexed bodies and the way that society treats us - lower pay, much higher likelihood of rape/sexual assault, double standards on sexual conduct, expectations of caring for children or the elderly.

All these things come down to our sexed bodies and are not shared by any men.

I agree that the libertarian/authoritarian divide is a separate issue from left/right (which I see as primiarly economic).

That said there is a tendency for right wing free market capitalists to be relatively libertarian, and left wing socialists to be authoritarian. It is hard to control the means of production if you are libertarian and in many ways it is hard to be authoritarian when giving companies and consumers freedom to produce, buy and sell.

It is worse than that.

If you actually hold your nose and go on reddit and ask, you will find that trans'women's' sense of womanhood is all about a sense of self, and involves NOTHING in the way of seeing themselves as inherently similar to actual women.

Because, by definition, my sexual orientation must mean something, or in the alternative I am duty-bound to admit that the fact that 50% of the adults in the world are of a sex I am not interested in makes me a hateful transphobic PoS.

Because LGB and women's rights matter. Because child safeguarding matters. Because truth and reality and honesty matter.

It is hard to think of any issue as important.

I mean there are other reasons for sure
But at the heart of the issue is the philosophical fact that no-one has any idea what it's like to be another person - does the colour I call green look the same as the one you call green?

It's kind of mind blowing if you think about it, that someone can declare that an entire class of people are essentially the same psychologically, and then claim to be the same as them despite never having experienced their life

So many fantastic responses here that I shall go back and peruse at my leisure.

My own 3 reasons -
Because I am a medical doctor and believe in non-maleficence, evidence-based medicine and the use of taxpayer-funded health service for real medical need.
Because I have GenZ DC who have been surrounded by this damaging nonsense.
Because I think women should be able to do and compete at sports at any level without men cheating them out of their achievements.

Like others, this has been damaging to my self-image as a kind and inclusive leftie.

(Also, I love JKR for all the good she has done to humanity by being an immense author and wonderful philanthropist and I despise those who relentlessly attack her)

Excellent question, and many reasons from me (I shall cite the most emotional ones only) :

1. I'm a mother. My second son is autistic and prefers "girl trousers" and girl friends. I don't want his healthy and perfect body to be mutilated. I abhorr child "transition"
2. I was assaulted as a teenage girl and again during my first pregnancy. I have the immemorial physical fear of men that men can never understand. I want women's spaces.
3. I'm a career girl. I've been belittled and talked over for being sweet with a soft and low voice. I've had a very hard time coming back from maternity leaves. I hate the idea that women have it harder in their careers because they choose to identify as women. I hate quotas, but I hate even more that men can still women quotas.
4. I hate lying, and institutionalized lying most of all. GI is f* 1984.

I think arguments and positions predicated upon the concept of 'equality' confuse most people, and certainly most Left leaning people. Do women want equality, which in effect, means being the same as men, or do they want 'special treatment', protections and 'privileges' based upon their status as an oppressed group?

I think the Left thinks women can only be liberated if they are freed from their reproductive function and their subsequent role in childcare...hence the big emphasis on abortion rights and on funded childcare. This sort of take on female liberation also leads to the confused idea being a woman is not/should not be a matter of biological determinism. Essential differences between the sexes are often denied.

A good few years back, my ExH suddenly announced he was in fact, a woman. I was deeply offended by this. It's fair to say he was a crappy and abusive man, but that just made it seem to me that being an unsuccessful bloke was his idea of what a woman was! Which truly pissed me off.

I'm not a trans widow, we had already split by that time (because of him being a crappy and abusive man). He did eventually decide that 'being a woman's was too hard too, and just gave that up too, as I expect most men pretending to be women would if people stopped pandering to them.

I didn't find this board until a couple of years ago sadly. I wish I had though, as there have been times I thought I'd accidentally wandered into an alternative dimension somehow until then...

I’ve raised my children to be critical thinkers but they are somehow captured by the gender woo, it’s a subject that they refuse to discuss with me, and they think I’m a rigid old dinosaur for not believing that TWAW, although they can’t quote what JKR said that was so heinous. It makes me so sad to see.

It's the lying and gaslighting that fuels my rage with this. AND the fact that my DD20 is still captured and tells me I'm not being inclusive whenever the subject comes up (which isn't often now sadly)... i pray (I'm not religious but YKWIM) for the day where the scales are lifted from her eyes and she sees it for what it really is.

I’m not sure how much the left has been on the side of women, as a movement. Certainly, as we know, the unions didn’t acquit themselves well over the fight for equal pay, being often more keen to preserve higher wages for men than champion women’s rights. Then the mainstream Labour Party has enthusiastically privileged men’s rights above women’s, if the men say the magic words.

It seems like they pay lip service to women’s rights up to the point where a man wants something. Then it’s time for women to take one for the team and subordinate ourselves, as the service humans they think we are.

For me, it’s the no debate, be kind aspect that cuts deepest. I grew up in a family where truths were not allowed to be spoken and the fear of suicide kept people in line.

The organisational and societal pandering to the extreme trans movement has many parallels. And after having therapy for my family situation, I saw right through it.

It’s been asked how come there are so many committed handmaidens who genuinely believe TWAW.

My belief is that they are mostly young and naive and haven’t worked out that there are so many men out there with the sexual fetishes and AGP. They think that the way men talk to them and behave around them, is the way they think and feel. They haven’t worked out that the way some men talk to each other away from women that banter and locker room talk is indicative of their true feelings.

In a way women are very lucky to have so few of us compelled by extreme and perverted sexual fetishes -but it makes it harder for women to understand that other people don’t think like them.

As for men, I think we all have a bias for our own sex. As said, they mostly don’t have skin in the game. So to them, if a bloke wants to be a women, why cant we let other blokes have what they want. In the patriarchy men will always feel what they want, and what other men want, is more important than what women want.

Not all men of course, but far more than you would think.

I agree this is a large part of where the left has gone wrong. It’s been a real feat of privileging emotion over fact to frame women as the oppressor and men as the oppressed, yet somehow they’ve managed to pull the wool over many people’s eyes.

For me, my only answer is that I'm not, they are. The question is pure and simple DARVO because the other side is the one trying to impose gender ideology. It's the same with shrieks of culture wars when they're not getting their own way, as if they're not the ones waging that war.