(NC to avoid outing by location, fairly long-term poster here).
The Sheffield feminist group Women of Steel have started a petition asking the council to consider women's concerns in regard to Self-ID and not dismiss them as transphobia.
Only Sheffield folk can sign so please share widely if you agree, in the hope of reaching some that may not be in the online feminist loop.
Here's the petition: goo.gl/forms/qMP3MsdkcOJC63fT2
Here's a statement of our position: bit.ly/2Ni2Y0V
Some context: We had a Women's Place meeting last year and since then one of our Labour councilors has been slandering and abusing the venue on Twitter. He has also commented on the "Trans kids burn TRFS" flyer saying that it just shows how some people feel about TRFs (a word he uses liberally in his own tweets). This from a man who was chucked off the licensing board for having business interests in an escort agency, and is known to have used fake Twitter accounts to abuse constituents who disagreed with him.
At the last public council meeting, a transwoman, apparently encouraged by this excrescence of a man, asked a "question" which falsely accused the WP venue of transphobia, including out-and-out lies about WP itself. This was met with rapturous applause from the councilors, some standing. It seems many have swallowed this frightening nonsense whole.
The petition however, is not about any individual (that situation is being dealt with separately) but will give us an opportunity to talk at the next meeting, which will probably be the first 3 minutes of sense many of the councilors will have heard on the topic. Women and girls are at risk from this council, who may well make bad decisions about local single-sex provision, school guidance, etc, if they don't start to get a better understanding of the issues.