my university is allowing men to enter women's bathrooms changing rooms etc!

[whyyyyyisitmonddayy]

I'm a student at this uni. I love it here, but it is a left leaning uni (as am I!)
I should add, I'm quite slight and petite and am generally very nervous of men.
Today, I got this email saying that they're letting people choose bathrooms or changing rooms based on "how they feel" and stated that whichever bathroom etc you want to use, you can enter in the name of inclusivity!
I'm very open to gender identity etc. I'm bi, and I have friends of all gender identities. I have trans friends, those who don't conform to binaries, etc, and I respect them greatly. and I am completely okay with sharing the majority of bathrooms at the uni, as that doesn't both me. I personally don't understand how you can feel like something you are scientifically not, but you only live once so you might as well be your true self.
but now I'm left wondering about gym changing rooms at the uni, as I'm not as okay with that. one does not have stalls and neither do the showers, so I'm expected to be be vulnerable in front of those who have genitalia which I don't want to see or be in bare in front of.
this also opens up the chances that a guy could walk into women's changing rooms, watch, and cannot be challenged
it also raises question of faith. it is not excluding women who cannot be naked in front of anyone but women (same goes for men). "just use the stalls, disabled loo etc" doesn't cut it as their isn't enough of those to go round and then those who actually need disabled toilets can't use them.
I also want there to be a couple of women only bathrooms too, because it doesn't seem fair I'm being told men will be entering women's bathrooms and the uni supports this, but religious / personal wishes to be in women only spaces is being walked over.
this is less about trans women entering these spaces, and more about harmful men entering them (although I don't want to see male gentalia in women's changing rooms full stop)
I can't speak out or ask as I will be ostracised and it's not worth my future.

https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/press/ncvs-trans-press-release/

I guess there’s a debate about the language. Clearly trans women suffer violence and hate speech at a rate which is statistically significantly higher than cis women which is the point I was trying to make.
Im not debating that cis women are vulnerable and subject to physical violence and other assaults.
my concern is that transwomen are vulnerable and deserve protection and support. I’m not sure that allowing them into “women’s” spaces is the best way to afford them that protection but the alternative seems to me extremely cruel to a group which is demonstrably marginalised and vulnerable.

I'm UK and say bathroom. I know there's no bath in uni toilets, it's just habit.

OP I'd try to anonymously get the message across if you're frightened of being unfairly treated.

Between that and the changing room issue, your uni sounds awful!

Not just yours OP. Universities all over are dragging their heals on the Supreme Court confirmation of the law.

The alternative doesn't need to be forcing trans women into male bathrooms. They should have male/female areas and mixed areas. Or single spaces.

Always 'cis' women who need to do all the compromising.

You could try creating a burner email and forwarding it to one of the journalists that reports on these stories. Janice Turner in the Times I think, Suzanne Moore for the Telegraph for starters.

Can you please link to these stats?

University's have huge numbers. You wouldn't be identified by saying which uni you attend.

Which country in the uk as it would narrow it down to legislation. Are you from the uk? Stalls is not a phrase that’s used here normally. It really isn’t going to be a problem here if you name the university. If thousands got the same email, loads of people will feel the same as you. I can promise you there will be other women and men that won’t want this either.

How would the university find out your identity?

You're just making this up. The giveaway was the life drawing...

We don't need the offensive prefix for woman/women.

The only prefix required is 'trans' for the pretend women.

No of course not, showing us a copy of the letter would be too "outing" for which Uni she's at and OP has mad eit clear that she isn't even prepared to report them anonymously because of "Backlash".

Quite right!

How many biological women when asked their sex (its usually obvious, and generally wouldn't be asked, but lets be hypothetical here) would say they were a "Cis woman" and not just a "Woman", like there was any other kind.

No, they don’t, they have a higher rate of being VICTIMS of sexual offences.

This is not at all true.

But even if it were are you suggesting that women need to act as human shields to vulnerable males?

And are you extending that to all vulnerable males or just the ones who wear dresses?

Frankly? Put up or shut up. As the saying goes.

You want to appear all fluffy and nice and supportive. But you aren't and you want someone else to take the flack

Slow handclap. Well done.

Sorry, but this is bullshit.

You're right that if harmful men wanted to harm you they'd find a way, but there are plenty of cases where transwomen have utilised being able access single sex provisions to abuse girls and women. It's a fetish.

The trouble is that if there are no safeguards, rules, or laws in place then there's hardly any consequence for their actions. There are no deterrents because they know by and large they can get away with it.

I have experience of this. I have been repeatedly sexually harassed in a female only space by a transwoman and I am the one that's been demonised for trying to raise the issue, forced out of work, and lost an income.

I am the one who got branded bigoted for not wanting a man to video call, record and ejaculate in the cubicle next to me while I was on my hands and knees with hyperemesis so violent, it made me wet myself from the abdominal contractions, meaning I was often in some state of undress. I'm the one that got told it wasn't possible for there to be a man in the womens bathrooms because the man in the womans bathroom hadn't come out as trans, despite being over 6 foot, broad shoulders, 5 o'clock stubble, deep voice, square jaw, adams apple, massive feet and so until they say they are male, they're female. I'm the one that got told I'd be doxing them and outing them if I took my complaints further. I'm the one that was told the authorities wouldn't help me because there was no evidence of wrong doing and all people want to do is use the toilet, and gaslit into thinking I'm hearing and seeing things that aren't there.

If burglars wanted to burgle your home, they'd do it, but you make it much easier for them if you leave the door unlocked.

Does the sign on the door have magical properties that stop those with a penis entering? No, of course not. But at least now we have legal recourse for those that continue to push those boundaries, even though it's still so bloody hard to get service providers and employers on side because of their woeful lack of equality impact assessments, risk assessments and updated policies that reflect the law.

Are you sure?

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11200137/#:~:text=Wald%20χ2%20test%20P,IPV%20relative%20to%20cisgender%20women.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2820301#:~:text=Past%2Dyear%20physical%20violence%20was,TGD%20individuals%20from%20discriminatory%20violence.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/26895269.2024.2440856

I no longer pay any attention to this given that we have doctors saying that sex is a nebulous dog whistle and claim that asking for single sex provision rather than gendered is a hate crime.

It's meaningless where everything is a hate crime.

This isn’t true. 😏

Nope. Wherever prison stats are collected they show the same pattern of men with trans identities having hire rates of sexual offending. UK and Canada are remarkably similar with around 48% of TIMs in prison having convictions for sexual offences vs around 19% for the rest of the male prison population

They're just changing the language to gaslight the population

I can't even begin with a study that thinks that women are a subset of a class of people which includes men.

Not to mention that that 'violence' includes words and applies to a country that i don't live in. I wonder if the males in this study partake in risky activity? I know that in South America the high incidence of violence against males with trans identities is directly linked to the fact that so many of them are prostitutes. Not that that is acceptable of course.

In this country I think the reliable source is our own Ministry of Justice statistics which demonstrate that transwomen are at least as likely (if not statistically more likely) to commit violent crimes than any other man.

Frankly put these men are not women's problems. We are not their mothers.

It's fine to not want 'unharmful' men looking at you either, or to have to see them in a womans changing room. Why are there single sex changing rooms in the first place of it's fine for men to be in an open plan space getting changed with women?

None of this research seems to be from the UK.