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.

Absolutely
And now we can stop them invading our spaces

Single sex means singles sex…..We can speak up now!

Whatever you have been led to believe you cannot "live as a woman" because you are not a woman and will never ever be one.

It doesn't bother me if you cut off your cock, take hormones, wear dresses, remove your body hair, do whatever you imagine" being a woman" means, do as much of that as you like, but never think that means you can presume to have magically become a woman, because that is simply not possible. You are a male who has performed body modification, you have not turned into a woman.

If I, a woman, had a hysterectomy and double mastectomy, let my post menopausal facial hair grow, I would still be a woman, I wouldn't have turned into a man, so why does a man who has had their genitals cut off( or, even more preposterously, not had them cut off) think he is a woman? Furthermore, do not ever presume to expect me to go along with your fantasy and refer to you as a woman when you are not.

I'm so thankful that I no longer feel under any pressure to keep quiet about the fact that trans women are not women, I have been vilified by some of my family members previously for stating that, but the law has finally confirmed what I and the majority of women already knew.

For what it's worth OP you sound lovely and I wouldn't mind someone like you in female spaces- fully physically transitioned and willing to go through the hoops to get a GRC. The trouble is all the predatory men and male perverts who get off on 'pretending to be a woman' as if it's some sort of humiliation ritual.

It's a good thing I don't do that then, isn't it?

And nor have I done that.

I'm so sorry for the onslaught of bigoted views about to come your way.

From a biological 🙄 woman

Luckily we don’t have to put up with anyone male born in our spaces anymore.

Luckily no single person can give that permission either.

Everyone sounds lovely until it’s too late

Does this latest clarification of the law stop you doing those things effectively though OP? If so, how?

I do sympathise that you went through what sounds like a very arduous and bureaucratic process for no real purpose though.

I am a very introverted person and I have often wondered about what it must be like for trans people who desperately don’t want to stand out. I’d say it must be extremely stressful.

Why is it bigoted to want to protect ourselves ?

Yes we do and I've been rated multiple times by my ex husband and reduced to a pulp. I am much more scared of being raped than being run over by a bus. It's incredibly common. You don't know anyone who has been rated? Not everyone wants to share. We want to forget. There are many many rape crisis centres. Are they all empty then. You piss me off with your stupidity.

It makes some things harder when trying to live a normal life.

Honestly - it is the toilets. I have only been in the NHS once for an operation and I had my own room. Despite a thread I did elsewhere, I am worried about that.

I am sure people can understand that - as I can also understand women being worried about men in toilets.

When people are out, they need to use a toilet.

It's actually more complicated than xx/xy. There are those born with sex chromosome abnormalities.

You say a lot that you don't want to be seen as male. Your post is asking how you live as a female.

What do you think being female is?

I have no idea if I know anyone who has been raped or not, I’d never presume to know that. I’m so sorry for what you’ve been through and would never intend to minimise your fear. Some of us are lucky enough to have not experienced that and so won’t fear it in the same way. I’ve been physically assaulted by my ex so raised male voices make me fear physical assault. Lots of my friends have no fear of being physically assaulted by a man and can have arguments where they shout and are shouted at because they’ve never experienced what I have. I don’t think they are idiots, they’ve just experienced different things from me.

It sounds like you need some basic biological education.
Whatever you think or want to believe, it is simply impossible for "every cell in your body to reject being male". That comment is particularly ridiculous because every cell in your body is male, has been, and always will be male. Every cell contains your XY chromosomes, the most defining feature of being male.
If you mean you don't like being male, well, that's a mental issue which you would benefit from some professional psychological help to deal with. Saying you've turned into a woman and having surgery won't change the fact that you are a man.

I don’t understand the OP’s thought process. They physically are a man, no matter how they feel about it. Why is the default action then to assume he must be a woman, and to take life changing decisions about surgery to make physical alterations, rather than unpick why their feelings don’t match reality?

‘that means that people may well now have to share a changing room with a trans man, so could be a muscular bearded person with a penis,’

TM don’t have a penis as they are women. They are unable to build muscle in the same way as men, even when taking testosterone, unless they take a huge amount of steroids.

So you’ve had full surgery and obtained a GRC but you haven’t been using women’s loos?

Agree Lovely This is a classic Stonewall tactic of trying to shut people down and it

Seems Stonewall has arrived on the thread with their name calling.
Luckily the Supreme Court saw through their tactics

I don't understand your question. WHy have you gone to court and sworn to do something for the rest of your life, and now you're asking how to do it?

There are clearly a lot of things that people have described about being female.

But if you asked women, I think that many women would agree, some would disagree, some would say that does not apply to them at all and some men would say that some of those things applied to them.

And anything I said would probably get jumped on

All I do know is that I don't want to be seen by society as male. So I do everything I can not to be seen by society as a male.

This is an excellent point. It makes no sense.

Changing rooms

@Definitelynamechanged123 So much ignorance & narrow minded people in the world. Too much black & white thinking.
To answer your question, I think all you can do is just carry on living day to day being yourself, being kind to others, treating them how you’d like to be treated. Those you come in contact with I’m sure will be a little more understanding on what it’s like to be trans. But like everything in life it takes many, many years to change the majority of people’s views.
I like to think I’ve always been open minded, but it’s only since I’ve got a very close friend who is trans that I’ve become more educated & more informed. I thought I knew beforehand, I was very very wrong, I realise now I was clueless. All the trans people I have met have been sensitive, kind & respectful.
There are more individual unisex toilets around than there used to be, not enough though, but hopefully though that will change.
However, you also need to feel safe, and I certainly don’t think a trans woman would be safe going into the men’s toilets late at night.
I suppose we just need to make sure there’s a choice provided for everyone.
Blaming the op for the actions of all the nasty & violent men in the world is just stupid though.
Just to add, I have been brutally attacked after leaving a public toilet by a man. Even so, the majority of men who I’ve met in my lifetime are decent human beings, as always the minority ruin it for everybody.

There absolutely should be a third gender neutral toilet option and this should be a requirement in the same way disabled loos are. It’s appalling for anyone transgender to be put in a position where there isn’t an appropriate toilet they can use, in the same way it’s appalling for women to be forced to share their space in a way that makes so many women feel uncomfortable and unsafe. Women and trans people shouldn’t have to compete for safe spaces. Both should have their own space.

Edited to add that equally you shouldn’t be made to stay on a men’s ward where you’d undoubtedly be uncomfortable. And nor should you stay on a women’s ward where others on the ward would undoubtedly feel uncomfortable. You should be legally entitled to your own third space - it’s excellent that you were given that previously but you shouldn’t have to worry about it each time and to be at the mercy of the hospital. This is exactly the kind of thing trans rights activists should be campaigning for. Something which makes everyone feel comfortable and safe and free to be themselves.