So how do I live in the female gender?

[Definitelynamechanged123]

There are 8834 people in the UK who have a Gender Recognition Certificate.
I am one of them.

To get it, I had to show evidence of transition, surgery etc. Lots of hoops

I also had to swear a Statutory Declaration. I had to go to a Magistrates Court and swear a legal declaration in front of a magistrate. It was all very formal.

I had to swear this:

" have lived as a (insert ‘male’ or ‘female’ as appropriate)
throughout the period of years before the date of this statutory
declaration and I intend to live in that gender until death."

This declaration is legally binding. Apparently if I don't follow this, I can be done for perjury.

So...how do I live as a female and live in that gender until death - I have sworn to do this in front of a magistrate.

I was very surprised that so few trans people have Gender Recognition Certificates.

How can you be done for perjury if you don't live in your 'female gender'? The thought of the police investigation file for such a case is mindboggling. I doubt anyone has ever been prosecuted for such a thing.

I'm sure the CJ authorities have better things to do, so don't worry about it.

You can't. You need to understand you are NOT a woman. You can never live as one because you were not born as one. You can live as someone who pretends to be a woman but honestly I would just seek mental help for that instead of trying to figure out loop holes to be something that you're not

So...how do I live as a female and live in that gender until death - I have sworn to do this in front of a magistrate.

Well I presume you had some idea of what living like a woman entails or you wouldn't have wanted to be one. So what does living as a female look like to you?

Unfortunately you can't however you are free to dress however you wish and feel how you wish, being a woman is so much more than how you feel and dress. Theirs the misogyny we deal with every day the having our rights stripped and the continuous fear of being raped and beaten. I'm sorry you feel your in the wrong body it must be truly awful but there is nothing a biological male can do to live our lives

wear what you like
speak how you like
act how you like

stay out of the women's bogs. you're a man and do not belong there

I mean, there are people out there “living” as cats - but I’m pretty sure they are not going in next doors garden to dig up their petunias to take a shit are they?

I couldn’t read past “a hairy woman having a bad day and haven’t had their armpits done for a while”. You do know that women naturally have body hair? And that while some woman choose to remove it because of vile gender stereotypes like your comments above, many women don’t. I’d say it’s a small minority of women that never let their body hair grow back - most of my friends rarely bother shaving in the winter. Some women don’t shave at all. Living naturally in their biological bodies doesn’t mean they’re “having a bad day”. And no woman would assume a woman is a man based on them not having shaved their armpits.

Your uneducated opinion based only on how "things seem to you without any education on the topic" is just that and obviously that. Please stop speaking with such authority on a topic you obviously don't know anything about. Too many people do that, and taken together, it's dangerous, on this any many other topics.

If you haven't personally known at least one transperson well and you haven't read anything about the actual science, and the actual studies on how many ways gender doesn't always neatly line up with sex, you should be learning, not attempting to teach.

You need to understand that this post and the other posts like it are foolish and dangerous.

Well they won't actually have a penis for a start, they may have something that has been fashioned from a clitoris but it won't be a penis
And yes, a woman with muscles and facial hair is welcome in female only spaces as far as I am concerned

@Definitelynamechanged123 The thing about "living as a female gender" is that it is an absurd idea and always has been. "Gender" is not sex, it is merely personality or a (regressive sometimes) stereotype or a feeling; fluid, changeable.

The law that legitimised it was preposterous; the GRA/GRC must be repealed. Anyone who said "if you do this, this and this" you can "change gender" deceived you. They lied.

Women are hard wired to identify a male instantly. We have to because our survival depends on clocking the SEX of an individual. No matter what feminine clothing you might wear, we instantly pick out male traits; gait, height, shape, hands, feet, face shape etc.

Like I have absolutely no idea what it is to "live as a man gender", you as a man have absolutely no idea what it is to "live as a woman gender". Women (and men) are not a costume!

Nobody can "Live in a gender" because it is completely subjective - none of us can ever experience the world through someone else's thoughts and senses
https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~cavitch/pdf-library/NagelBat.pdf
So your "living in the female gender" is exactly the same as you or I "living as a cactus" or "living as a pantomime horse" - it's a performance for society.

No idea. It was your decision, and I hope you are happy with it.

However, I think you need to accept that for the vast majority of the population you are still a man and always will be, so while you can dress how you want ( I am a woman btw and wear trousers/ boots/ jumpers more than dresses so please don’t feel that you need to conform to a gender stereotype of the 1950s),
you need to be mindful of not encroaching on single sex spaces for women because your presence in them can cause real distress to women who perhaps have been abused, or who have religious or cultural restrictions on being in the same space as men. You are going to have to work around situations and recognise that like all of us there are going to be places that you can’t access easily or comfortably. Many other people have to tweak and adjust how they live their life to a greater or lesser degree, welcome to the land of compromise. For example , I have poor hearing so I avoid places and situations that mean I would find it difficult to hear what is happening like pubs or restaurants with loud music, a good friend has severe mobility issues so prefers not to be seated in the gods when we go to the theatre, friends with young children no longer go clubbing until the small hours.

Some people are born having to make adjustments to their lives and possibly their expectations, others through age or infirmity come to recognise we have to make changes, you have actually made life choices which mean you must have thought about how your life would be post transition . You have changed your gender - though not your sex - and obviously you took the change seriously (though many take that step lightly by making only limited alterations to their body and lifestyle,) but now you need to accept that how successful your transition is will depend largely on how you adjust to society, rather than expecting society to adjust to you. It sounds harsh, but that is the way it is.

Simplistically, living in the female gender- to me- is to have fully and irreversibly transitioned including all surgery. Wearing a dress and lipstick does not make someone a woman, are we really still suggesting that’s all a woman is? A skirt and heels? They’re a TW or TM, not a woman or a man- you can’t change your genetics, but what’s wrong with that? What’s actually wrong with being a TW? Nothing. Be proud of growing into yourself.

OP?

there's actual science that explains how some men become women? crikey

O_o

We already do seeing as trans men are just as scared of sharing the same spaces with men as we are. BTW a trans man is not afforded the same protection as a trans woman

I think the fact that I'm a woman who has had my spaces invaded gives me all the knowledge I need to know about who should be in my personal space perhaps you need to recheck your so called research because gender disphoria is a mental illness

Yeah that’s more along the lines of my experience, I keep my safety in mind eg not walking alone at night in dark unsafe areas but I wouldn’t call it a fear, more of a general awareness like looking both ways before I cross the road.

'Living as a woman' starts from birth. It's a life experience unique to female people gained from a combination of practically living with a female body, and the way people with our body types are treated from birth. A male person can not live as a woman, but can adopt some behaviours that they have seen displayed by some women. Generally these are the behaviours you will have observed and consider desirable to emulate, probably around clothing, lifestyle choices etc, which have made being a woman resonate and seem desirable to you. This is not really 'living as a woman' but seems to be whats required for a GRC as i understand it.

What does being a woman mean to you? You have described the physical charge that has happened to you but what do you think being a woman is and how do you feel you fit within that?

You don’t need “actual studies” to demonstrate that gendered social norms and demands often don’t fit comfortably with the wishes of any given person of either sex. That’s all that “gender” is - societal norms. Nobody has to comply.

I’d say there is a difference between being aware of personal risk and being scared though.

I’m aware of personal risk when crossing the road so I stop look listen, use pedestrian crossings where appropriate and teach kids the green cross code. I’m not scared of being hit by a car though.

I wouldn’t walk alone at night in certain areas of my city, I’d follow basic night out safety like staying with a friend and texting when we are home, and when the time comes I’d advise my kids to do the same. But that’s just common sense not behaviours that are a specific response to a fear of rape.

Everyone is different though and if you’ve had the horrific experience of being sexually assaulted in any way then obviously you will be more aware and as you say I’m lucky that I haven’t been. I absolutely have experienced friends and family with terminal diseases. I just don’t see that fearing it beforehand would have done them much good.

I think the thing is women just don't care. We are all glad we have our spaces back. As much as you didn't care when you took them away from us.The fact we moved aside , and allowed this in the first place and you then bulldozed your self in sport too..like the way a man thinks really.

I would genuinely like to know this too.

I’m not sure how lighthearted your question is, but surely if swearing to something that is legally binding, weren’t you tempted to check the requirements “before” swearing to comply, rather than relying on mumsnet to fill you in afterwards?