Fighting a losing battle?

[ANameforToday]

Has anyone got some positive news about campaigning against the proposed changes to the GRA? I know there have been a few articles now in the media presenting a more balanced view but the suspension of members from the Labour party, closure of GC social media accounts, investigation into David Davies and now shutting down Venice's clothes swap are just a few of the issues that are beginning to make me think this goes too deep and we can't win. I'll still be attending the WP meeting next week and will continue to write to people about the issues but am feeling v downhearted about it all tonight. I worry for myself and my daughters.

Think how the Suffragettes must have felt - and then think about what they ended up building for their daughters and granddaughters. Women matter.

Nope, we have to keep on keeping on otherwise we’ll end up living in some dystopian nightmare. The TRAs are raging narcissists and the public are seeing them for what they are in all their raging glory.

Nope.
People are peak transing every single day.

We need to keep on keeping on.
It’s a battle but they are slowly but surely tripping themselves up.

I understand that feeling, tempers are fraying, it feels like being under siege at times, relentless wilful misinformation & misrepresentation. But, when I think back to what this place was like back before Spartacus & the difference now - it's been a gradual build as more & more people hit peak trans. I think when this does go fully mainstream (when the debate actually starts) & a light shines on all of it, there won't be any hiding behind mantras & manipulation.

Never give up. We are 51% of the country, and we will be heard. How long did the suffragettes fight?

Our parliament is a bastion of free speech and political debate, I'm hopeful nothing will come of the complaint, but they have to investigate it.

More and more people are waking up to this

Good for you attending the meeting next month - it's something that really annoys the transactivists. So we should do it more.

Women talking on Mumsnet seems to annoy them too - so do that more!

We are chipping away with ManFriday and the other groups. Keep going we are making a difference!

And yes, going to the meeting will inspire you. You will come out feeling your optimism renewed & more determined to keep going.

I believe that the tide is turning, too slowly yes, but it is turning. One of the most important things I've seen is women being supported and validated via MN and then going out there doing stuff. Manfriday, the Girl guides etc. The support here is giving women the strength to get out there and challenge and publicise this madness.

Other PPs are right, the suffragettes went through hell, much worse than us. They weren't only ridiculed they were imprisoned, force fed, beaten up and sexually assaulted.

We need to keep positive. We have the internet, we can communicate ideas and organise at the click of a keyboard. We will not be silenced.

Sorry, no I do not have any positive news to report.

I agree that it does feel like a losing battle, and all the political parties are in too deep, I personally cannot imagine a turnabout anytime soon.

Despite trends and popular beliefs, facts are facts, I think at worse it will last for a generation. I feel no comfort in that though.

Unfortunately it will take time for the young people who are made infertile and given life changing surgery or drugs to reflect and give their voices to the ridiculous notion that a person can change their biological sex, or liking pink/blue means you're a boy or a girl.

In the long run I believe the it will be viewed in the same way we consider ECT, the children sent to Australia, and the satanic child abuse claims of the 1980s. At the time all these approaches were endorsed by professionals and considered the right thing to do.

I believe we're doing a lot just by being here on Mumsnet and talking about it - it's aggravating the shit out of them

This evening I've emailed two of my prospective parliamentary candidates and asked them for their views on self ID and - more importantly - how they'd vote. I'm going to see one of them later this week. I've also garnered more support for the petition from people who had no idea self ID was even a thing.

I get how you're feeling AName - sometimes it feels like change is too slow in coming. But change ^is^ coming - and people like you and me are part of the movement that's bringing the change. Good things that we might not know about yet are happening all over the place.

We all need to lean on one another from time to time; when it all gets to be a bit much.

Lampage your last two paragraphs are so true.

I have a feeling that this will turn out to be one of those episodes in history that people write humorous books about.

Lampage, I also agree with your analysis that this gender ideology will be seen as, say, ECT (and don't forget frontal lobotomy) is seen now.

This article (from Australia) has just turned up on my twitter feed:

Sidney Morning Herald: I will never be able to have sex again

It is shocking - we are watching -helplessly- a horrific scandal in the making.

vimeo.com/262696686

Christina Patterson tells it like it is.

But more of these stories are trickling out. We can share them and slowly we can change the narrative. My fingers are crossed for the he wolf trial to make the news too.

Thanks all, reminders to keep.the faith and keep going were just what I needed.

I think the tide is turning but it will get worse before it gets better. Basically, activists who think women are being unnecessarily dramatic about rape...I think a young woman will be assaulted by one of the individuals hijacking trans identity in the self ID spaces and then that will be 'proof'.

I was recently with some 70 year old women doing a focus group on something unrelated and one of them said 'in twenty years time we'll all wonder what the hell we were thinking with all these different boxes'

Terftastic that article is both horrifying and heartbreaking.
I note it was written in 2009... I wonder what 'Angela's' husband makes of the situation in 2018, especially in Canada where it seems that the kool aid has been drunk by most of the media and those with legislative responsibility.
I wonder where Australia is currently in regard to this issue... they may be more 'right wing' politically at the moment but otherwise there is also a drive towards a more 'inclusive' society as in the recent legislation change towards approving same sex marriage.

That Australian article is absolutely devastating.

I think it is slowly changing. Newspaper articles on the impacts are starting to increase - GG, man Friday, Scotrail and now Swim England guidelines have been removed. Comedians starting to cover it is also a great step forward - laughter is effective at puncturing the myths etc. Thank you the woke jeans ad from SNL, Ricky Gervais and others. There is still a long way to go especially in Universities, schools and in the political parties and I think it will take stories of assaults and the impact of medical interventions and the damage done to really open peoples eyes.

A number of stories in the press have referred to Mumsnet and Mumsnetters raising questions e.g. GG and Scots Rail so expect more attacks on Mumsnet.

[https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/swim-englands-advice-on-transgender-swimmers-torpedoed-bx6gwmc3z] Times link on Swim England sorry could someone provide a token.

I agree with the others, OP. Keep the faith! It's like a dam. You don't notice the little things chipping away at it but when it breaks, it breaks. At some point, even the liberal-leaning general public will realise that this isn't a movement trying to gain greater acceptance for dysphoric people, but a men's sexual rights movement intent on nullifying women's rights and harming children. It will happen. (Hopefully before the far right seizes the narrative.)

Basically, activists who think women are being unnecessarily dramatic about rape..
I had one of these this morning on twitter, NAMALT and all. Linked him to this article from last year by cnn on sexual abuse percentages across the world and he just casually dimissed it and retweeted me saying look an insignificant account.. (I am anonymous on twitter). Makes my blood boil, he didn't even look at the article.

I think we have to acknowledge this will be a long fight. The aim to to stop self ID, we don’t even know when the govt is going to revisit this law, so really the timings are in their hands.
In the meantime we have to keep going and spread the word!

God, that article is horrific.

I have no doubt that surgery is beneficial to some transsexuals.

But to wilfully ignore past sexual trauma as a reason and say it means nothing, is scandalous.

That poor Andrew. What a nightmare.