I peak transed my mum with this article, she is writing to her MP now. We had a long conversation about it a couple of weeks ago and she had no idea. She is educated, progressive and not at all conservative, so I am a bit surprised but she instantly saw it as a threat to all she thought women had achieved in her lifetime.
On a different note, I think one of the reasons the TRAs accusations of bigotry are so powerful is that women are socialised to be inclusive and welcoming to others. It massively goes against the grain to draw boundaries; if you think about how recent things like the tea video are and the move towards affirmative consent and the prevalence of rape myths. And society colludes in the lack of boundaries, because women used to be the property of men and are still seen and scrutinised as a public good. We are supposed to work for the good of others, whether that is our children, families, husbands, paid service roles and so on.
But I think transactivism is a form of abuse, because saying no is not listened to here. People on this board have discussed the issues of consent around transing children, but not so much, I don’t think, the fact that consent is violated by a male-bodied person changing in a female changing space. The changing might not be sexual (but with AGP, it is surely?), hence the issue of consent could be moot, but not listening to no is abusive. Female people (not all, but many) are saying no. Why is it okay to ignore that no and push past fenale people’s boundaries? The place I experienced that before was in an abusive relationship.
The TRA counter-argument would be that trans people’s rights to a safe environment are not being respected by GC women. This comes down to the definition of safe and where the danger lies. If there is a physical danger from men or an internal discomfort, then why not have separate cubicle spaces, gender neutral toilets and so on?
The TRA argument (also evident in some policy documents) is that separate spaces goes against the innate sense of gender identity (hence is unsafe). This is where JT is spot on, the idea of an innate sense of gender identity is akin to a belief - but other religions do not force non-believers to adapt (at least not in this country). And the provisions which the gender identity religion demands clash with the beliefs and provisions other religions need (so Muslim women need same sex bathroom space to participate in public life, but so do many no -Muslim women wish it; many Christian women believe there is God-given sexual difference —but not necessarily the hierarchy that goes with it in the Bible—). Why does the gender identity religion win out? Is it about power? Because that would mesh with understandings of abuse too, particularly the silencing of criticism and turning it back on the unfriendly, aggressive women. Yep, been called that before for seeking to defend the things dear to me.