@balsamicbarbara most people on mumsnet have a range of views about things. There are lots of parents here but not all people are parents. There are lots of women here but also some men. There is a huge range of backgrounds, locations and political views. I have learnt many things here by connecting with people who have vastly different experiences from me.
There is a common thread woven throughout of understanding and respecting women's rights and issues. Things like sexual assault and abuse, discrimination due to assumptions people make about women due to their biology eg that they will probably have children even if they don't want to or can't. It is a space to talk about fear of birth, the traumas of pregnancy, post-birth injuries, and how to bring up babies. It is a place to come if you desperately want to conceive but can't. To check out whether you might be on the receiving end of domestic violence and to find support if so. To ask about what benefits you might be entitled to as a single parent, how to make the food last until payday so you can feed yourself and, if you have then, your kids. To talk about how you juggle work and family life, how you get through maternity leave (and even these days shared parental leave) alive, and put yourself back together for work at the end of it. To ask how to get your child to sleep at night or share worries that they are ill. And it is so many other things.
A thread that weaves through all of this is awareness of women and girl's rights and needs and concerns and dangers. Here is why I think many are expressing concerns on this particular thread: We are now being told that potentially any man who decides to say he is a woman can be housed in a women's prison. We are not used to being told someone with a penis who has committed sex crimes is a woman. The whole point of sex segregated prisons is to people with breasts and vaginas safely away from people with penises who might do the women harm because of this. Whatever we call a prisoner with a penis who has committed sex crimes, it doesn't change the reasons they have previously been housed separately to women. Whatever we call people with penises, it doesn't change the reasons we as a society have been putting people with penises in a separate prison building to those with vaginas. Saying trans women are women doesn't change that. Although it does make it easier to obfuscate the debate.
This doesn't mean that we hate trans people or are bigots or transphobic. Not that we wouldn't be happy to have an open debate about how to support trans people in feeling safe, respected and comfortable while also ensuring women are safe.
But we will stand up for women's rights to feel and be safe. Why on earth would you ask us not to, or be surprised if we do this?