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

This is utterly, utterly appalling.

In fact, I'm assuming that the journalist checked their sources because I'm really curious about this "When she raised her concerns with hospital staff, however, she said she was not taken seriously and her medical notes implied that she was a “transphobic bigot”". Beyond the issue at stake, this is highly unprofessional and not something I'd expect from an HCP - "is showing significant distress in proximity to a patient identifying as a transgender" is something I'd expect - factual and relatively neutral.

I think one of the main issues here is institutions and business get ahead of themselves. Self ID is not yet law and they should be reminded of those protected sex based characteristics in the provision of services.

If you can afford to donate on the gofundme campaign this is exactly the sort of thing that those funds will try to address. Test case will be the AWS within the LP. But I hope one of the investments will be in legally reminding institutions and business of the current law.

I've donated. I think the intention is to run a poll to everyone to does to help decide where else the funds will be invested.

YANBU. When will this madness stop? Transgender males won’t be content until they have driven women out.

Deck
"Even if you are 100% pro-trans everything, SURELY you can see the problem in situations like this?"

Dissent is verbatim. To challenge any of this makes you a transphobe.

Er, that would be 'verboten'

@SeaWitchly - thanks for sharing that link. Here it is again to keep it obvious on this thread:

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

I read this article in the Sunday Times today and was disgusted. Disgusted by the nurse and disgusted by the person at the NHS who decided to justify unacceptable behaviour.

But as she also pointed out, are we really surprised that biological men think their rights are more important that those of women?

I was reading the Twitter feed of Paris whatshername the other day. That was a mistake. People commenting on her feed really didn't get the problem with biological men taking part in womens' sport.

I wonder if all these men would self-identify as women if women still didn't get the vote? I'd like to ask one of them if, if they travelled to Iran or Saudi Arabia, if they'd dress as a woman and subject themselves to the restrictions.

YANBU.

And why do these institutions keep saying vaguely that they have consulted the Equality Act and that's why they've withdrawn single sex services, even when it's clear it's to the significant distress and disadvantage to women such as the poor soul in this psych ward? The Equality Act has single sex exemptions for entirely this purpose. The health trust is choosing not to invoke them.

NHS policies around stuff like this are like they are from the dark ages or something. Another week, another story about how women just do not matter and blokes feelings rule all. Just when women were making real progress too.

.

I don't have an issue with a transwoman on the woman's ward but I think that considering it was a mental health facility and the person in question has a phobia as part of their illness that is specifically triggered by the person beside them the staff should have handled it accordingly. If she was terrified of windows I don't think they'd have put her beside a window for example. Or terrified of people with red hair they wouldn't have put her with someone with red hair. So in this case I think it was very wrong to compound this woman mental health problems for the sake of making a point.

I think it is disgusting that not only did those who were supposed to help her with her mental health place her together with someone she was afraid of, but they also gaslighted her and called her a bigot??

If she was terrified of windows I don't think they'd have put her beside a window for example. Or terrified of people with red hair they wouldn't have put her with someone with red hair. I don't think you are right. I know someone who was on a psych ward, they were frightened of black people (part of the psychosis) but their named nurse was black and there were black people in the bay. I suppose different hospitals might do it differently?

That's interesting Granny. If that's the case I wouldn't expect her phobia to be accommodated. But I'm real life surely with distressed patients caregivers quietly try to make their life, especially trapped on a ward, more bearable. Policy or not.

UnitedKungdom, I think some of it was logistics e.g. moving people who had been on the ward for a while and upsetting them. Also alot of the nurses were black so it might have been hard to avoid contact. I was in hospital once for an op, the anaesthetist came round to speak to me and another woman before the op. She started shouting, "Get your black hands off me." It was horrible.

I just hate being near people who snore as I'm a bad sleeper. Never got moved because of it though.

Where are all the mners who normally say this won't happen, there will be common sense, there will be exceptions and so on?

Their silence is deafening.

I don't have an issue with a transwoman on the woman's ward

Good for you, but it’s not about what you would or wouldn’t have an issue with. It’s about this woman and her mental health.

.

The straw man of red hair/green eyes phobia falls apart when one acknowledges that there are sound reasons for sex segregation and none for other characteristics.

Of all distinguishing characteristics of the human race, SEX is the most binary, most obvious, universally understood, universally experienced, biologically impactful characteristic of any we could mention.

Which is why this era's efforts to subvert the reality of sex are both boggling, but also utterly doomed to fail. Society can attempt to pretend sex doesn't matter, but only for a speck of time in the grand scheme of things.

Unfortunately for us, we've been born in that speck of time. But we'll get to see it through until it's conclusion too.

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

Yes there is. There is a government commitment to end mixed sex wards and hospitals are fined £250 for every breach. NHS choices.

The problem is, you don’t have to have any surgery or hormones to get a gender recognition certificate and legally change your sex. Even men who have full genital surgery often still remain recognisably Male. I’d only seen India Willoughby in what were clearly carefully lit and filtered pictures and thought she “passed”. After seeing clips of her on CBB, everything about her screams “man” - her voice, her face, her gait, her mannerisms, her body.

Sharing intimate space with someone Male, even if they’ve undertaken some physical or social transition, just isn’t an option for many women.

I don't know how you'd handle a situation where a person in a secure psychiatric unit was in a psychotic state of terror and paranoid delusions involving black people.

But I'm pretty sure the medical staff wouldn't use the tactic of insisting to that person that a fellow black patient on the ward was in fact white.

I dont believe the the Equality Act gives biological men the right to access any of women's safe spaces or services.

For example, men are specifically barred from bringing a claim of discrimination in cases related to sex and pregnancy because men cannot get pregnant;
Section 13 6)b
www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/13

And political parties are permitted to have positions that are only open to women;
Chapter 15, section 104, 3 and 7
www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/104

The characteristic of gender reassignment cannot be allowed to override other peoples existing rights. If you permit that you break the Act.