Threat to our jobs?

[Geographytrainee]

If we attend meetings and are gender critical on social media are we risking our jobs........ I am a teacher and am worried.
Which I realise is exactly how some would want women to be.

No your job is not under threat for attending a meeting. The TRAs just want us to think that. There are no grounds for sacking someone for attending a meeting.

If you're a teacher it's probably best not to be on social media using your real, full name anyway, so that students and parents can't find you with a search. Most teachers I know use first+middle name on FB, or something like that, as most schools have fairly stringent social media policies for staff.

I'd say that it's even more important to be pseudonymous if you're posting gender-critical things - MN and Twitter are better than FB for that.

Regarding meetings I can only say that I sincerely hope not, and I wouldn't want it to put off anyone wanting to attend. There were hundreds of women at the London WPUK meeting, and only a very number of TRA protesters, so there was no possible way for them to identify everyone, let alone bother their employers.

This is reassuring, I hope that I am unrecognisable on social media..... No real names etc but I must admit that I am actually scared. Scared of what is happening-and it seems to be happening so fast! - and also scared for my job etc.
This really does feel like very threatening times to be a woman with an opinion!

No your job is not under threat for attending a meeting. The TRAs just want us to think that. There are no grounds for sacking someone for attending a meeting.

A woman was attacked at a picket in the last few days, after being recognised as having attended the London meeting.

It looks like they are photographing and recording and cross referencing in order to make connections...and yes that is exactly what they are doing.

So please be careful out there.

No threat

You are expressing a philosophical belief which is a protected characteristic under the Equality act.

Don’t use militant language and you will be fine.

I actually think it’s very handy to be drawing fire. This is the tactic used by the suffragettes. It’s scary but I increasingly think it’s necessary

I feel it's important for any meetings held by gender-critical or radical feminist groups to be framed in such a way that nothing is said that can be held up as an example of hate speech. It has to be quite careful.
WPUK meeting I attended was very considered and calm.

And it's good to ask journalists to attend.

That way there's recordings etc that can be referred to if someone does go through the horrors of having their workplace contacted.

I was photographed leaving the meeting. By people whose faces were hidden, as well!
So it's possible someone will tell my work, and I would like to be able to say 'yes I attended a meeting where women talked about our lives and the way we would be impacted by changes to the GRA' and stand by it.

I am scared too, especially after reading about the picket line stuff.

I used to work in a profession which is currently being dominated by TRAs and lots of students and lower ranking staff are attacking anyone not on the exact same train of thought. I genuinely worry for former colleagues.

I now run my own businesses and I am visible as the owner. I daren’t attend meetings anymore because I have a family to feed and can’t cope with the thought of losing work or having my reputation impacted.

I think the only way forward is to take these conversations out of the internet and into real-life spaces. I also think it's important for women to be able to experience the energy of women-only spaces for themselves.
I understand women being nervous but as long as the content of talks is acceptable to public scrutiny, the protesters look like a loony fringe group.
www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/our-region/edinburgh/vegan-campaigners-protest-at-edinburgh-s-cheese-fest-1-4687217
Kind-of like that.

I think the OP might have heard about the unionist who was attacked (and only escaped harm because of police presence) on her own picket line because she'd been identified as someone who's attended a Woman's Place meeting in London last week? There's a thread here:
Woman attacked for attending a WPUK meeting

And yes, trans-extremists are trying to get women sacked. I was doxxed. Since that complaint to my employers I have had to be very careful. I never write anything more than vaguely gender-critical on FB, and I Tweet under a made up name.

It's utterly appalling that this is happening to women in 2018.

Do consider discussing it at work.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong or phobic with discussing the balance of rights.

@TheRagingGirl yes, that is exactly what has worried me.

Trans activists are trying to get women sacked, so if you have no legal protection against dismissal (for example you are part time or have been with the company for less than 18 months) use a throwaway account under a pseudonym.
People have had their homes graffitied, and been physically attacked. So if you are vulnerable to those kinds of attack, use a pseudonym.

What you should be able to do (in theory, without any backlash) is support The Equality Act, its our last remaining piece of human rights legislation. And so far, every single political party is working against it. That should concern people more than it seems to.

@UpstartCrow, would you recommend not linking the throwaway account to an email account that you already have/use and to set up a new one just for the throwaway social media account ?

@RoyNUT won his disciplinary . Kiri Tunks is a Teacher and VP of the NUT. Teachers seem to be better positioned to challenge things than other professions because of decent Union protection. I imagine it’s down to how much your particular school has imbibed the koolaid.

@RoyNUT deserved to win his case - he said nothing wrong.

There is significant difference as a teacher, however, between what Roy Wilkes said and stating in the workplace that transwomen are not women. Roy came from a position of defending children and I'm glad he won his case. But let's not pretend that that is the equivalent to voicing a lot of the other stuff people say around here regarding toilet access for transitioning people etc, or refusing to use staff members who are transitioning's pronouns. The latter would, in fact, be a disciplinary in schools, as would discussing that the transitioner was not a woman.

There's a difference between anything that is seen as protecting children's rights, and something that is seen as attacking a minority. If you're in education, I would advise being very, very careful with what you say at work. Regarding children? It's up for debate. Regarding staff members or adults who are transitioning? Tread very carefully.

Its worth knowing that heads and school leadership are clueless and ambivalent about child protection policies and procedures.

They breached the child protections processes so badly with my DC that I applied for a judicial review of the schools actions, an Ofsted rated fabuloso blindingly perfect school.
The local EA legal team response to my judicial review was this "child protection procedures are not set in stone " and this was their justification for not knowing what the procedures said, how to follow them and for damaging three innocent children. Child Protection in schools is optional. The judicial review agreed with this.
Ofstead supported the school. They asked the head if the head was happy, they head said yes so Ofstead was happy.

No one, absolutely no one, regulates schools.

I am still dealing with the PSTD of finding this out the hard way.

It's starting to sound like Communist China with the denunciations.

Anyway, I use a nickname on Twitter (which I do use somewhere else but that doesn't give them much more), I've just nc here again and I don't post this stuff on FB (except in one secret group). I've just been through my Twitter and taken off photos with me or other people in, in case of reverse image search.

It would be bad if they linked my Twitter to my business Twitter as that would then lead them to Companies House which has my full name and address. Hmm.....maybe I'll close the company Twitter account.

My employer wouldn't give a flying fuck if I said trans women were men. They'd probably agree. And none of my clients would care either.

@Bangkokhilton

Me too.

Call me out. Get on with it.

@VanGoghsDog

Sorry that was to your post.

Call me out. Get on with it.

I will be in the Southampton Echo next week explaining why. In my own name.

Workwise, I'm in a fairly unusual position. I'm a church minister and as such I'm an office bearer, not an employee. I've been speaking out - in January I preached a sermon which focussed on the silencing of women by TRAs and how they are seeking to take over women's spaces and destroy the rights of women and girls. This Sunday I gave my congregation an update - encouraging them to read the article in the Sunday Times and giving them a quick overview of what it was about. I also told them about the trade unionist who had been attacked and how they had identified her as having attended a meeting. I've also been filmed and photographed leaving a meeting. My main focus in the update was on the silencing, intimidation and harassment.

At the end of the service one of my members expressed concern that they might turn up at the church. They might, and I have been aware of that since I started speaking out publicly. Thinking about it - I should have a plan in place should that happen.

Another woman, visiting the church today with family, has invited me to speak at the local Soroptimists Club about trans issues. I've agreed - pleased to be asked - and that will be sometime after the summer.

I'll not pretend I'm not apprehensive about speaking out, but I think of all the women before me, and now, who have knowingly taken risks which have benefitted me in so many ways in my lifetime, and I refuse to let this insanity undone all their efforts.

I worry about my job but post on twitter under a pseudonym. I'm 50 so I think I'm probably less conceded than if I were in my 20s or 30s.

One of the things it's important to know about the woman who was physically attacked on her own picket line is that her union appears to be backing her up on this. Attacking a union member in front of other union members when that union member is on union business: not a good idea!

Funnily enough, I think we are safer (albeit for certain values of "safe") than we have been for the last couple of years. I was open for a while, then went very, very quiet in namespace, then am beginning to be a LOT more open, in my own name, cautiously, over the last couple of years, and now I'm at the "fuck it" stage for about 75% of my online and offline presence.

I think one of the reasons that there's currently a massive backlash against us (Posie's arrest, the physical attacks, etc etc) is because the tide is, very slightly, beginning to turn.

I’m out at work but having to censor myself because I’m boring my colleagues rather than for fear of getting into trouble