AIBU to think that women’s rape crisis therapy should NOT be mixed-sex?

[IamSarah]

Women’s rape crisis therapy in Sussex is currently mixed-sex. The women's groups are open to anyone, male or female, who identify as a woman.

My women’s therapy group was attended by a male who presented outwardly as male.

I am making a legal challenge to the Sussex Rape Crisis centre claiming that women who have been raped or sexually abused should have the option of single-sex female only therapy IF they want it.

This would be in addition to the existing mixed-sex options.

If you are thinking YANBU then please visit my Twitter page which has more information on how you can help women like me secure female only therapy:

twitter.com/sarahsurviving

If you are thinking YABU please let me know how you would explain this to your daughter, mother or sister if she’d been raped?

YANBU. Of course groups should be available that meet the needs of the trans community but not at the expense of biological womens’ needs.

Good luck @IamSarah, it's an important cause to ensure women can access support when they need it, in the way that they need it.

Oh gosh please only contribute if you can afford to. I appreciate there is a cost of living crisis and your kids definitely deserve a treat!

So sorry you have been through similar

Have sent some seeds for gardening.
You are brave
and strong, thank you for defending this essential right.

Really hope you win this one Sarah. The garden is coming along nicely , but perhaps some of us could share on other SM. Having volunteered for a RC centre many years ago I can confirm that much of our time was spent getting rid of male callers who were wanking while speaking to us on the phone. Of course they only want to get off on our awful stories. What the women involved in this organisation were thinking, I can’t imagine. Likewise Edinburgh.

I've donated too - this makes me so angry.

Maybe the men need to get their arse in gear then... and fund their own rape crisis centre .

The problem is a lot of men (and even some women) see rape crisis services as a special favour gifted to women.

Not a necessary, vital service that women need as a direct consequence of male violence.

Where do I donate?

Thanks Muriel, details are on Twitter

twitter.com/sarahsurviving

Or PM me - I am getting around to replying to everyone.

Just bumping this thread, it’s so heartbreaking that you’re having to do this.

Thanks for the bump.

My case is being picked up by the press which should help raise awareness.

Archive article in the Telegraph here that non-subscribers can read:

archive.ph/2022.05.03-171925/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/05/03/rape-victim-sues-crisis-centre-transgender-woman-allowed-join/

I'm so sorry this is such a fight for you Sarah. It absolutely shouldn't be. Sending love and will be digging for you come payday.

I’ve donated. You are a superstar Sarah - hope you’re invited to the next JKR lunch :).

And as a former Samaritans volunteer I can confirm that the sex caller stuff is sadly all too true.

Donated, and right behind you in this fight @IamSarah.

It's an outrage that the women who really need this service are finding themselves in this position, but tragically it's no surprise. These hateful activists made crisis centres among their first targets (Vancouver, Edinburgh). It's pervasive.

As if being on the receiving end of this ugly crime isn't enough, they now seem to want to punish women for having the temerity of having this happen to them. Or perhaps it's speaking about it openly that incenses them so much. We are, of course, expected to enable these criminals with our 100% complicity and silence.

Sarah: you're amazing. That it takes someone who is already in a vulnerable position to fight this travesty says a good many things about current society, and none of it good.

I'll dig again if necessary.

Donated, and right behind you in this fight @IamSarah.

It's an outrage that the women who really need this service are finding themselves in this position, but tragically it's no surprise. These hateful activists made crisis centres among their first targets (Vancouver, Edinburgh). It's pervasive.

As if being on the receiving end of this ugly crime isn't enough, they now seem to want to punish women for having the temerity of having this happen to them. Or perhaps it's speaking about it openly that incenses them so much. We are, of course, expected to enable these criminals with our 100% complicity and silence.

Sarah: you're amazing. That it takes someone who is already in a vulnerable position to fight this travesty says a good many things about current society, and none of it good.

I'll dig again if necessary.

Donated, and right behind you in this fight @IamSarah.

It's an outrage that the women who really need this service are finding themselves in this position, but tragically it's no surprise. These hateful activists made crisis centres among their first targets (Vancouver, Edinburgh). It's pervasive.

As if being on the receiving end of this ugly crime isn't enough, they now seem to want to punish women for having the temerity of having this happen to them. Or perhaps it's speaking about it openly that incenses them so much. We are, of course, expected to enable these criminals with our 100% complicity and silence.

Sarah: you're amazing. That it takes someone who is already in a vulnerable position to fight this travesty says a good many things about current society, and none of it good.

I'll dig again if necessary.

Apologies. Mumsnet froze as I posted this message - I got a lovely little error message saying the site was in a tangle and they'd gone to make a strong cuppa - and it's triplicated.

I’ve watered those plants for you, Sarah. Thank you for what you are doing. I know that this can’t be easy but you are going to have a positive effect on so many lives when you win this. 💐

That's all good Marial - very happy to read your words 3 times. Thank you

@IamSarah very best of luck, you deserve to win

There is a long running thread on Gransnet, on their news and politics section, about biological men trying to take over "female" spaces.

No one is impressed with this happening.

Good luck with your campaign.

www.gransnet.com/forums/news_and_politics/1309546-the-law-as-it-stands-on-sex-part-3

Seems like I'm one of the few that think it, but YABU. If this is a crisis group, then surely they are the victim of rape too. And say its a trans woman, then the likelyhood is that she was raped as an outwardly presenting woman. But even if its not the case, men can be raped too and they deserve access to support just as much as women do.

I understand this could be a discomfort thing and not feeling comfortable around men, but making it a single-sex group opens it up to trans men so there could still be male-presenting people in your group.

Rape crisis groups are spaces for victims - of any sex or gender - to work through their trauma. Surely that's the focus, not what chromosomes and genitals somebody was born with.

Seriously??

Have you ever had rape counseling, 1:1 or group? Is this based on experience?