To not want to lose my only friend over my beliefs

[SilverBranchGoldenPears]

I will keep this very short.
I have one friend where I live- relatively new. I’m far from home. No others on the horizon- I know I need to find more but it’s a struggle. I’m GC and I know when they find out they will not speak to me again. I will not and cannot lie about my feelings on this. Currently she is trying to probe. I feel very sad about it as I don’t care what she thinks, I just want to be her friend. I think people can have different beliefs and get on.
How do I go about it? Should I start the conversation now and accept the consequences?
Should I avoid it as long as I can? and if so how?

I‘m not sure what exactly I’m asking but I am just sad about it. Has anyone else been in this situation? Thanks!

AIBU - don’t be sad
YANBU - it is sad and it’s ok to be sad

Aye, so it does.

I've been sexually assaulted by a transwoman. Want to educate me out of my ignorance?

Personally I couldn’t be friends with someone who was GC in the same way I couldn’t be friends with a racist or homophobe.

Not the same at all. GC is a protected belief under the Equality Act and is legally worthy of respect in a democratic society.

Racism is not. Neither is homophobia.

Another poster who does not understand what GC means.

And what are the stats for this? Very low I expect when u take into account how many men commit such crimes

No, but they can be banned from women’s spaces like toilets, changing rooms and prisons. That’s all men, however they identify.

@HalloumiGeller how do you think that gender critical feminists want to "punish" trans people? I don't. I'd have third spaces that are mixed sex for those that want them, and reserve single sex spaces for those that need them. That seems like a reasonable compromise to me? Is it not?

As a parent of a trans teen, I probably could yes.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42221629

'We submitted Freedom of Information requests to the Ministry of Justice.
It said that 60 of the 125 transgender inmates it counted in England and Wales were serving time for a sexual offence.'

Yes, that’s a good idea.

And I'm sorry that happend to you, but nevertheless it's still rare. Most assaults are from men identifying as men, so go after them.

The rise is measles infections is directly linked to anti-sciencers and those who get swept up on a tide of misinformation.

Ah, I see.

Actually it is a very high percentage of the prison population that have a trans identity. Let me see if I can find the stats.

No. Not pubs - they're mixed sex.

Just spaces already allocated to women such as toilets, prisons, refuges, hospital wards, womens sports, all women shortlists and female changing rooms.

A man identifying as a woman is still biologically male and still a threat to women.

I've never been assaulted by a man in a women's toilet. I've been assaulted by a transwoman in a women's toilet.

Why on earth would I 'go after' men?

Make all toilets and changing rooms unisex as far as I'm concerned. All your suggested approach does is demonise men, when 99% of men are decent who would never assault a woman.

There is no need to bring this up in conversation

You've missed the point.

Unisex toilets are causing chaos in schools. Girls are afraid to use them.
And that’s your solution?

@HalloumiGeller What's next, banning all men from pubs and clubs so they can't attack women

See you don't engage and call people stupid but you are missing the point - unless they are holding a women only night pubs and clubs aren't women only spaces

Calling people stupid and narrow minded is tying to shut down rather than engage in discussion

I have been involved in the labour and TU movement since I was 14, I was at Greenham (women only btw), I have marched repeatedly in support of gay rights. I am not uneducated, closed minded or transphobic - most GC women aren't - we just understand that building an entire identity movement around patriarchal gender stereotypes makes any sense at all.

99% of rapes/sexual assaults are committed by men.

I don’t think that you’ve researched this very deeply.

I am a prison manager. The problem of transwomen trying to blag their way into the female prison estate is a very significant one to me, as is the management of trans prisoners in the male estate, sex offenders changing their identities and vulnerable prisoners being groomed by predatory ones. These are not issues that matter much to the general public, but they matter to me, so I think and talk about them a lot.

If you are a vulnerable woman in prison, the prospect of a male-bodied person turning up in your cell, your association room, in your showers, is very upsetting. If you are a transman, being sent to a womens prison may be upsetting, but will not be physically dangerous for you compared to being sent to a male prison, where prisoners will not maintain the polite fiction that you "pass" and will make it brutally clear that they see you as a woman.

@HalloumiGeller making all facilities unisex will exclude many women who will not or cannot share a space like that with men. Having additional mixed sex spaces would not.

All men are a threat to women then according to your last sentence? This is a disgusting thread that basically attacks trans people and demonises men.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/natureofsexualassaultbyrapeorpenetrationenglandandwales/yearendingmarch2020

'In the years ending March 2017 and March 2020 combined, the majority of victims who had experienced rape or assault by penetration since they were 16 years old reported that the perpetrator(s) were male (98%). Almost two-thirds (65%) reported that the perpetrator was a male aged between 20 and 39 years