To be absolutely raging that women's rights and well-being count for absolutely nothing?

[Betti935]

A woman with mental health issues whose psychosis meant she was terrified that men wanted to kill her was placed on a "women only" secure psychiatric ward with someone who was obviously a biological male.

The NHS Trust seems to have labelled her a bigot and has confirmed that they will continue to let anyone self-identify as whatever gender they want and be housed on the sex-segregated ward of their choice, regardless of the needs of or risks to vulnerable women.

The woman in question has since had a relapse of her condition but hasn't felt able to access medical treatment because of this.

www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/terrified-patient-treated-like-transphobic-bigot-bsfsgrv2p

I am totally confused by this. Gender self-ID isn't a legal thing yet. So how are organizations doing this? Or is it all discretionary?

Yanbu. I came here to post this. Its disgusting.

Proving, yet again, that, in our society of equal rights, some are more equal than others

The Trust says

“The Equality Act offers guidance about the admission of transgender people to NHS wards and this is something we have also taken legal advice on. This directs that transgender people should be able to self-identify and receive treatment on the ward that is appropriate and in line with that self-identification.”

It's shit, and Ms Molloy is brave to highlight the issue.

So basically the NHS recognizes that trans people have rights but not women? Is that it?

It's shit, and Ms Molloy is brave to highlight the issue.

Yes, I bet she will actually get males threatening to kill her after sticking her head above the parapet like that.

I hope not. Never read the comments below the line would be my policy.

So basically the NHS recognizes that trans people have rights but not women? Is that it?

I think the quote from the article sums it up:

“Hang on a moment: the rights of someone born male being in front of someone born female — where have you heard that one before?”

Shit like this makes me so angry, time & time again women’s needs are last.

I would love to wake up on Monday & have a Freaky Friday day but with the sexes so every role, position & job that normally were filled by men were women & vice versa. I’m pretty sure the men wouldn’t stand for it & there would be a revolt.

Women being shoved back to the bottom of the heap; I can’t help feel that a lot of men would finish that sentence with “where they belong”...

YANBU, I dread to think the abuse she will receive from the trans lobby. It will be along the lines of “mental health issues should not be an excuse for transphobia which is literally killing us. Die in a fire TERF.”
That seems to be the line they take on social media.

She deserves our full support, especially as she has been instrumental in the past for standing up for women's rights for appropriate mental health care when closures were threatened.

I can't access the full article - does anyone have a share token they can post here?

I wonder what Clive Lewis makes of it? He attacked labour women last night for standing up for women like this.

This is so sad. I can’t imagine the pain of being admitted to a ward where you’re meant to get help and security, time away from society to focus on rehabilitation / adjust to a new routine and life.

And then you are forced to LIVE YOUR TRAUMA again over and over every fucking day by being forced to share with a biological man. It must be terrifying when you think you will be protected and are up against institutionalised barriers and rules like this. Poor poor woman.

@betty i’m confident the men in my life wouldn’t have a death threat reaction about this, but you’re right that the trans lobby would.

Any man who forces his presence on a traumatised patient who doesn’t want / need them around in any shape or form is not a man with any shred of decency.

This whole gender debate is beyond depressing when stories like this come up time and time again.

I am getting REALLY fcked off with this now. This is the third story in about as many weeks about women having their rights completely wiped out by this ridiculous trans law. There will soon be NO safe spaces for vulnerable women. What happens to women who have been abused? In hospital? In refuges? In mental facilities? 'Sorry, love, I know this is the most traumatic thing you could ever go through but you are going to have to let Marjorie over there who is, to all intents and purposes still a man, examine you/stick his hand up your vagina/treat your psychosis because HE identifies as a woman. Screw your rights not to be touched by a man and your terror at having that done to you.' What the fck is going on?

www.gofundme.com/fighting-for-female-representatives

If you are a Labour member [or even if you aren't] and believe in maintaining natal born women shortlists for political representation have a look at the above fundraiser.

Not saying that transmen and women are not deserving of their own representation but not at the expense of women [who are already under represented in the Labour Party... as they are also in the Conservatives].

The gist is that the Labour Party may be acting unlawfully in not requiring that transwomen have the GRA but instead can 'self id' their way on to women's shortlists. This will be challenged via legal process and could be a very important test case in terms of self id.

The problem here isn’t actually the transwoman (who, let’s not forget was a patient on the same ward). It’s the NHS for having stupid policies. Even more so, it’s the staff who, rather than treating their mentally ill patient with dignity and respect, chose to label her as ‘transphobic’ and make her experience and condition worse. Letting identity politics interfere with how you respond to patients is unacceptable.

Unfortunately this is a no fix situation. One group of people are always gonna come say unhappy.

Trans people, should not be able to identify until they are living life as a women. Clothes, hormones, and gender surgery.

Otherwise you could change your gender as you feel fit, daily.

It’s utterly horrifying. Being in a secure ward is already a terrifying prospect, and the thought that you could be in that confined space with a male just compounds that.

A lot of mental illnesses go hand in hand with a history of abuse, and hyper sexuality is not that uncommon in mania. When you are experiencing paranoid delusions and they put you in a room with an object of that delusion, we’ll, I have no words really. It’s barbaric. And then to be told you are bigoted for complaining.

Wimmin, know your place.

Jesus wept. It’s just horrific. Poor woman.

The thing is, this lady is older, was able to get out of there fairly quickly, and had enough of a grounding in feminist theory to give her the confidence to criticise the situation once she got out. So many women in psychiatric care are either incredibly young or incredibly broken (often both) and lack the confidence to speak out if something makes them uncomfortable. Many of them are in and out of the same units repeatedly, and may be afraid to 'make a fuss' in case they get a reputation as being difficult. Realistically, how many mentally-ill women are going to suffer fear (and likely abuse) in silence? This is one woman reporting, but I'd willingly bet money that she represents hundreds of women that cannot and will not speak out about their experiences.

Is there any legal requirement for the NHS to provide single sex wards?

The NHS (along with many organisations) is acting as though the forthcoming legislation on the Gender Recognition Act is already in place.

For anyone who doesn't know, it is proposed to introduce legislation allowing anyone to self-identify as the opposite sex without any medical diagnosis/treatment etc. This NHS Trust is already using self-ID (ie allowing people who are legally still male to be accommodated on female-only wards).

It has also been proposed to remove the provisions in the Equality Act which allows single sex services to exclude (or make alternative provision for) transwomen where it can be demonstrated that it would have a disproportionately negative effect on women.

So, in this case, currently if they could demonstrate that housing this biological male on the women's secure ward would be greatly distressing/detrimental to the women on there, it is legal to, say, offer the biological male a private room elsewhere. However, if the legislation is passed, even if it could be demonstrated that this would have a major negative effect on women and the trans-identified male would only be minorly inconvenienced by being moved to a different room, the biological male would have priority and the service would be breaking the law in trying to meet the needs of women patients.

Like I said, though, many organisations are already being oh-so-progressive, acting as though the law has already being changed and ignoring those "silly, bigoted, hysterical" women.