AIBU to be extremely proud of Justine Roberts & Mumsnet right now?

[EmpressOfJurisfiction]

Open access link. www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mumsnet-founder-justine-roberts-transgender-activists-try-to-curb-free-speech-on-site-z3sr3nf6q?shareToken=ade388be59ac427155003eff83c5158c

“Transgender activists have contacted Mumsnet advertisers and said they will be organising a boycott of their products if they don’t remove their advertising from Mumsnet,” Roberts said.

“A significant minority of our users feel very strongly about women’s rights and very uneasy [about the proposals]. This is an issue that needs to be discussed and that’s why we’re prepared to take any potential advertising hit.”

I can't believe people are criticising Justine's statement and the important stand MNHQ has made

Thank you and well done!

I think Justine said ‘significant minority’

I am not sure how else it should have been phrased. There are 12m users, that was in the article. ‘Significant minority’ is clear that there are actually a substantial number of women concerned about women’s rights.

Many, many users will not have read a women’s rights thread at all, let alone posted on one. But thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, will have read them, and will continue to be able to do so. That is a good thing.

Just I would guess that, at the moment, the number of Mumsnet users overall vs the number of active posters on FWR who are concerned about women's rights being eroded by trans-rights activists probably is a minority.

Because:

a) Lots of users, like me mostly, are dormant, or 'lurkers'. I read along, I don't post. You couldn't count me in your % right now if you wanted to judge 'how many people like grey walls on Mumsnet'' or 'do you think owning a toilet brush is beyond the pale' assumptions. But believe me, I have opinions on both!

b) By doing this, she's talking about the issue, raising it, so there's a strong possiblity that more people will catch on to what's actually happening right now, and be more active.

c) I'm only starting to be more active because I've seen so many comments elsewhere of 'oh, it's only a small group of radical people', 'oh someone's whipping up hysteria in Mumsnet'. I've realised I need to add my voice and support those who are already speaking out. The flag of 'minority' brought me out of my cave - it may do for others too!

Jux - you need to add a new address to your address book. It comes up as an option just under the standard delivery address

E) and yet here you are again

We know that @Bumblefuddle. You keep telling everyone. Even though you're scared!

Mumsnet promoting free speech - you are having a laugh!!

Justine just publicly told TRA's that she would rather lose advertisers than give into their attempts to silence women on MN and you're focusing on the minutiae, Justa? Really?

Are you aware of what is being said on SM about MN and the type of people who are targeting it? Most companies would have said 'Fuuuuuck that' a long time ago.

Credit where credit is due and all that.

Signed. Very pleased to read this, well done. I will also boycott any advertisers that remove themselves on the basis of pressure from trans rights activists.

TRA incoming alert.

But when they go low, we go high. #TGLWGH

Thank you Justine and Mumsnet. Another woman happy to be acknowledged as one of the “concerned”

Fantastic news, thank you Justine and mumsnet.

Thank you Justine and team for supporting women.

Justine is brave. She has said more than a lot of other public figures, chief execs, Acor hotels, Millwall football ground etc etc. At last real women who have been afraid to speak out can now because Mumsnet has. Suddenly I feel empowered and not scared to say that I believe in women’s safe spaces, that sex is important, that gender is a social construct, that my sons can play with pink toys and not worry that they will be told they are girls and we need to see our GP. At last someone has spoken out.

It very clearly is a minority that speak about the issues, that's a still a lot of people but there are a large number of registered users so it is all proportional. We have no idea how many members and non-members are reading and gaining an understanding so that is hard to express and quantify. I'm very glad to have this space to be able to express my thoughts and feelings with others who agree and those who disagree - the dialogue is the key thing.

Well done Justine, that's an excellent response.

Without MN I wouldn't have any idea about just how mind bogglingly silly some of the ideas the TRAs have been promoting are, and how successful they'd already been in promoting their agenda of no-platforming and closing down debate. Neither would I ever have 'met' the trans people who are as dismayed and upset by the actions this vocal group has been taking in their name as any of the rest of us. Thanks MN. Looking forward to seeing Feminism back where it belongs tomorrow! And now over to add my MN related purchases to the thread supporting the advertisers.

It's a pretty depressing time in our country if to speak freely companies have to be brave. Talk about being held to ransom.

f) don't really know what the 'trans issue' is, so don't care about it. Yet. Until you realise that the offical 'trans' definition now includes those who 'dress up in women's clothes for sexual desire'.

g) was part of the earlier LGB (including T) movement that wanted to care, wanted to be supportive. Introduced a reporting tool at work, despite pushback, that included the option not to report your 'sex' if you were trans. Now realising that being a 'trans ally' means a whole something else than what you thought it was when you did that!

Or, in this case, trying to

I think youll find it's a significant majority justine!!

There are hundreds of thousands of members of MN. It would be incredibly unwise to claim a majority.

Thank you Justine 💐

This is a wonderful thread. So glad to be standing shoulder to shoulder with you all.

I think we are a 'significant minority' in that this kind of issue is only going to get a proportionally small number of people banging their drums about it for a wide variety of reasons. But we still add up to a large number of women and fundamentally we are speaking sense. We will not be silenced. There are all sorts of changes which have been engendered by small groups of people ir even individuals, both good and bad.