Physiotherapy SEEN

[VenusEnvyXX]

I am concerned about the CSP's position statement on transphobia and want to explore whether members think the CSP would benefit from having it's own SEEN.

If you're not familiar with SEENs, they are a balance to the LGBTQIA+ groups, can be formally recognised and eligible for funding on an equal footing as other network groups. They exist in civil service, journalism, police, HR, city, and the NHS one is nearly ready to launch.

I do not agree with Rob Yeldham, and previously, Karen Middleton, when they say that physiotherapy has a transphobia issue. If there is evidence of this I have not seen it.

I have been contacted by a number of CSP staff and members, who share my concerns that this announcement misrepresents the law, defames members and manages to be both unnecessary and unclear.

It seems that people who are diametrically opposed to the view that sex is real and immutable are employed by and in positions of power and influence at our trade union. This is absolutely fine, it is important for a trade union to reflect its membership. I am uncomfortable with the views of activists forming policy without due process and debate. I hope to be wrong, but I suspect that might have happened in the formation of this CSP position statement.

It is difficult to speak up about these issues, people are scared of being accused of transphobia, and rightly so, the personal penalties can be high.

If you would be willing to share your views or insights with me anonymously here then I'd be grateful. Alternatively, (and if you are willing to trust that I am who I say I am!):
email - [email protected]
substack - @venusenvyxx
twitter - @gussiegrips

I am proud to have had a long career in physio and it seems to me that this is little more than a training and communication issue, which, like sex, is not complicated.

bests
Elaine Miller

This one perhaps?

May have to click on the image to view it fully

This actually makes me feel quite sick. I think I may be cancelling my membership on this. It feels like going back to the 90s to be told “men are lesbians too. “ “A bit of d* will soon see you right. “ horrible.

Well, that's all quite something, isn't it?

I can't believe they put out that tone deaf post in the first place, never mind locking it and blocking commenters, never mind doubling down with "transphobia!" post.

Women who know more about lesbianism than I do argue that being a same sex attracted woman is not transphobic but adding penises to the lives of lesbians is lesbophobic. I'm inclined to agree.

The CSP can't know if they have blocked members from that thread. If you are on twitter can you check if you have been blocked by any CSP sub groups? There's an NHS LGBT+ group which blocked me ages ago - I assume there is a shared rainbow warrior or they use "terf blocker." (terf blocker is a bot set up by Amy Challenor. Amy's dad is serving a long sentence because of terrible crimes, I'll add a bland press link, but, "trigger warning", it is an egregious case. Amy is an example of what I mean about unintended consequences - the Greens and Lib Dems thought "oh, great, young trans person! Let's put him in a position of power and influence" which wasn't fair on Amy because he has zero of the skills required for politics and I suspect that his assorted paraphilias got in the way of his common sense, as paraphilias are wont to do)

Where did the CSPs PR approach of "prevent dissent" come from? I don't think it can be from Jon Ryan, he's been doing our PR for donkeys years and is really talented. The blocking on twitter and locking and refusal to answer questions on iCSP is, well, not a good example of member engagement.

Who runs these social media accounts? I don't know the first thing about algorthims but the engagement in general is dire. Videos with half a dozen views - so even CSP staff aren't looking at the stuff we are putting out?

I thought my trade union and governing body was supposed to be transparent? It looks to me like every question we asked on iCSP was dismissed, the outrage of women on that thread was dismissed and the latter is worse because it's public facing.

Anyone seen what's going on in midwifery? The journalist who wrote our reduxx story was the one who found the "midwifery students being taught to catheterise penises' story. I won't tolerate our profession being portrayed as "physio hates lesbians", thank goodness the press is really busy covering "yet more crazy news" (my First Minister has called an emergency meeting at Holyrood - there will be a fuss later on today so no one will be interested in "professional body hates lezzers") but I can totally see why the twitter-lesbian-pile on happened. Oh, and forcing "cis" on members? Just sod right off.

I suspect there is a very small group of people at the CSP who see gender through "The Family Guy Lens". They don't want to debate because debate is transphobic. They don't want to consider the needs of people who lose out if we slap Queer Theory over everything because prioritising the needs of people who aren't trans is transphobic. The EDB and LGBT+ group have unilaterally decided that 65k people will just follow Stonewall, GIRES, Mermaids, TransActual's collective vision. It would be laughable if it wasn't dangerous.

The twitter thing is unfortunate but easily solved by getting the LGBT+ group to listen to lesbian members. It's telling they haven't seen the gross offence in their blind spot - but, lesbians seem to expect the blanket dismissal and disrespect of their sexuality these days. It's absolutely not ok.

Righty ho, I'm going to be flat out for a few days. Am hanging out with some furious lesbians.

*https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/aimee-challenor

I think complaints are a good idea, Muns.

I think HQ needs to get a grip. This is gaslighting lesbians .Same sex attraction not same gender.I see comments are closed as per usual. They can’t take the push back.

Yes that's the one the sex specific female althete one. I was looking at the programme for this years conference.

Also strange how the transphobia statement and comments do not appear in the "popular" items on icsp. How many members will miss it entirely? It has over 130 comments yet is buried.

Yes, I have just sent them an email. It will be interesting to see if they reply!

Ahh Martina Navratilova just quote tweeted it! Great to have someone of her influence hi-lighting the issue!

Ooh brilliant

I tweeted her the link to Reduxx, I don't know Martina Navratilova, but seeing as how the transphobia policy mentions that physios don't know anything about sport maybe she'd be interested.

So, someone in the Big Lesbian Network is keeping an eye on what's going on - it does no harm for this to get attention. The CSP could have spoken to us, they could have allowed the thread to run, but they chose to prevent perfectly our professional discussion.

This is who runs the Rainbow Warrior CSP account. Anyone know Laura? It would be good if we could engage her in a conversation.
x.com/laurarathbone/status/1783452899856535600

For clarity, I also don't know any other Wimbledon Champions.

Jeez, the things you land up saying around gender. "I don't know Martina".

Argh 😡

It's SO OFFENSIVE.

"transphobic hate" = "same sex attracted women"?

Or just "same sex attracted women who won't pretend that penises are female".

or just "women who won't think, say and do what we say they should think, say and do"

I wonder how many of our membership are female? 80% ish?

It’s getting completely ridiculous. Who ( if anyone?) is advising the csp or the lgbtqia+ groups!
Do they not keep up with current news, what’s happening generally?

Sadly, I agree engagement of CSP membership is so low most physio’s won’t even have registered this.
Pretty sure most of them wouldn’t be happy though.

How is best to get the word out without getting an HCPC complaint 🤔

None of my colleague are aware of the recent transphobia statement from the CSP. I was talking to a colleague today who has quite keen political views but had never heard of the Cass review. I think a lot of this stuff just flies under the radar for most people…..

This might be of interest, it mentions some things they are changing to limit trans ideology in NHS <a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20240427194008/www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/04/27/nhs-to-limit-trans-ideology-with-new-constitution/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">telegraph

This is who runs the Rainbow Warrior CSP account. Anyone know Laura? It would be good if we could engage her in a conversation.
x.com/laurarathbone/status/1783452899856535600

I don’t know her but by the looks of it, I doubt she’d want to engage in any conversation that wasn’t #bekind or #TWAW. Suspect it would be #omgyouhatefulterfs all the way.

She is listed on this page as one of the network’s communication officers so I guess she and the other officer (a “pansexual demifemale”) run the X account together. https://www.csp.org.uk/networks/diversity-networks/lgbtqia/about-us

This is really positive news! My department have got zero understanding of the complex issues surrounding this topic. We had an IST about EDI and the suggestion of how to be more inclusive was everyone declaring their pronouns and to make toilets gender neutral…..
I think to have proper government policy on this will make it much easier to challenge. I also wonder how the CSP will respond to it!

https://x.com/legalfeminist/status/1784687053717774449?s=46
Rachel Meade outcome against SW England and her employer has come out and she has been awarded damages.
CSP should be taking note.

The history of her case, for those who may not be that familiar
https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/unlawful-discrimination-by-soc/

My post has been hidden for the moment as it links to Rachel’s Meade crowd justice page (I posted to give history of the case for those who may not be that familiar ). Some paragraphs pasted below. Will be interesting to read through the subsequent summary of the outcome of the case.

‘My name is Rachel Meade. I am a social worker who has spent my working life in the health and social care sector. I have been improperly sanctioned by Social Work England, the regulatory body for social work registration, for speaking up about women's rights during the government’s consultation period on reform to the Gender Recognition Act. Following the sanctioning by Social Work England I was suspended from work by my employer and continue to subject to a disciplinary process and have been informed that I am at risk of losing my job, which is my vocational career.’
I was investigated by SWE due to a complaint being made by a 'friend' and former colleague who screen shot posts I shared within my private Facebook group over a 2 year period suggesting that these were indicative of my fitness to practice as a social worker. These posts were in the context of Government consultations to proposed reforms to the Gender Recognition Act 2004. Many were from National newspapers such as The Telegraph and The Guardian as well as women's rights advocacy groups such as Fair Play for Women and Women's Place UK.
^^
The proposed reforms included a self-declaration model of changing legal sex removing the current need for checks and balances- i.e. the requirement to have a diagnosis of gender dysphoria and to be seen by 2 medical professionals. Since the idea was introduced, some policy makers have acted ahead of the law by allowing men who identify as women to access women only single sex spaces as well as encouraging schools, under anti bullying policies, to let boys that identify as girls to use girls' toilets and changing rooms and share accommodation on residential trips. Schools are also encouraged to socially transition pupils with dysphoria within school setting without informing parents. We have also seen police forces across UK recording crime statistics by self-declared gender identity instead of sex skewing crime statistics.
^^
It is vital that professionals working with vulnerable members of the public, in health, social care, education, with children and families, the elderly and within the criminal justice system are able to interrogate these ideas and policy changes without fear of losing their job’
^^

Thanks for sharing. What an awful thing for this lady. Three years of trauma going through this process. So glad she has won her case.