Are you inadvertently being transphobic? Find out here

[AskBasil]

A lot of Twitter transactivists think Mumsnet is transphobic. Every time women ask for a definition of transphobic, they get blocked, so you may be confused as to whether you're transphobic or not. So I thought I'd be helpful and give you a few examples of what you must not believe, if you don't want to be a transphobe.

If you believe any of the following, you are transphobic:

• Female mammals gestate their young in their wombs. This includes human mammals.

• Only females menstruate.

• A penis is a male organ

• A vagina is a female organ

• You can find out whether your baby will be a girl or a boy by going for a scan

• The duchess of Cambridge has given birth to a baby boy.

• Gay men have male bodies and want to sleep with other men with male bodies

• Lesbians have female bodies and want to sleep with people with female bodies

• A woman is an adult human female. A female in this context, means of or denoting the sex that can bear offspring or produce eggs, distinguished biologically by the production of gametes (ova) which can be fertilized by male gametes

• A man is an adult human male. Male in this context means of or denoting the sex that produces gametes, especially spermatozoa, with which a female may be fertilized or inseminated to produce offspring.

These are just some of the basic things you need to stop believing if you want to ensure you don't engage in wrongthink. I hope this is helpful and will guide you in ensuring that you learn to think correctly and stop being a terrible bigot.

Talking about female genital mutilation is transphobic

Wearing hats

Public transport

Doctors asking for medical histories.

All been described as transphobic.

It’s mental and totally trivialises the problem of actual discrimination against trans people.

Knowing the difference between a woman experiencing menstrual cramps and a man suffering intestinal pain as a side effect of medication.

Under Birds' Eye (genius).

Well not so much inadvertently, no. There is a lot of deliberate transphobia on here though.

Which specific posts on this thread please? You can’t just drop in and start accusing people of transphobia without being able to provide clear examples. That just reinforces the point the thread is making.

Questioning ideology, questioning changes to laws that affect women’s safety is not transphobic. Asserting scientific fact is not. Questioning potential relaxations in child safeguarding is not transphobic- children with gender dysphoria are a vulnerable group and their safety is absolutely as important as any child’s - they will be affected by this, possibly disproportionately.

Just like you're trivialising now Hermi!!! The irony/ lack of irony/ ironic lack of irony in this place is like nothing I've seen anywhere else.

But go on, trivialise FGM and transgender rights all in the same post.

Erm, I do not think trivialising means what you think it means SupermatchGame.

Either that or you're wilfully misinterpreting HermioneWeasley's post.

You can’t just drop in and start

Oh you know me Bowl, well known seagull apparently according to some so yeah I can. I can comment or not comment when I like for as long as I like and I'm not answerable to you.

and questioning Bowlofbabelfish, everyone knows questioning is transphobic.

get with the program.

But supermatch - these things HAVE been described as transphobic. And people have been shouted down for speaking about them.

Which dilutes the concern for genuine transphobia. Don’t you see that? When an extreme section of TRAs starts haranguing women for talking about endometriosis, they completely overshadow the real and genuine struggles trans people face.

Because ‘I’ve been discriminated against at work’ is a genuine complaint, and one that should not be happening. I think we can all agree on that.
But ‘women talked about endometriosis and I’m going to call them out on Twitter for being exclusionary ’ is ridiculous.

It is ridiculous Bowl and people can see that. Trying to insist that transitioned women are referred to as male and man when the law and medical profession advises differently is also just as ridiculous.

As I said above, there are places where the needs of transwomen and women overlap, and those where they are different. We should, in an ideal world, be working together in those overlapping areas. Male violence, safety, for example.

The reason we aren’t is that a section of the Tra lobby is wanting to push their wants at the expense of the rightsvof women and girls. Not to preserve our rights and add theirs, to actually diminish ours.

That’s why people are concerned and angry. And it doesn’t benefit us, it doesn’t benefit transwomen who want to just get on with life, but it sure as hell benefits men who want safeguarding provision weakened and women’s legal right to safety weakened.

What a minefield! Cheers for this OP, much appreciated.

Whatever would the Feminists do if we did not have SmG to remind us it is the LAW every twenty minuter. I just can't think how we could get on.

Whoops.

Turns out I am actually transphobic as hell.

What about this? I am a TIM (I think that’s the word we’ve settled on) and my partner man.

I believe this makes us a gay couple, not a straight one. If I were heterosexually inclined I would not refer to myself as a ‘lesbian’ because, by definition, a lesbian would not be physically attracted to my biological male body, no matter what surgery I have had done.

That men with a fully functioning penis are insisting they are lesbians baffles me.

Discussing miscarriage is transexclusionary. Actually saw this being said to a lady on twitter talking about the physical trauma she experienced while losing her child.
That sucked

Blessed be the fruit shoot
Under Bird's Eye
May The Wine Open

Had to repost. So funny

I think it's increasingly transphobic to be trans from the looks of it Truscum.

Trying to insist that transitioned women are referred to as male and man when the law and medical profession advises differently is also just as ridiculous

Supernatural I completely agree with you Obviously a woman who has transitioned is still in reality a woman, and it would be pretty ridiculous to believe they are actually a man, given that it is not possible to change sex.

By the way, stop saying the ‘medical profession’ advises that men with a GRC are actually women. They don’t.

Phychiatrists have said that in the past, not doctors, surgeons, cardiologists etc.

I still have a prostrate, and a history of prostrate/bowel cancer in the family.

If a doctor treated me ‘as a woman’ I may very well die.

Tthe medical profession does notadvise that transwomen referred to as female SupermatchGame.

I do believe we've had this conversation before and established that while some psychiatrists may advocate referring to people with gender dysphoria by the pronouns of the sex they would like to emulate, if a transwoman turns up at A&E and insists they are biologically female they will be met with this look by busy medical professionals.

Trying to insist that transitioned women are referred to as male and man when the law and medical profession advises differently is also just as ridiculous

In that i disagree. Woman has a biological meaning. The current law is badly worded and sets law against observable fact. Medicine and science does not say that a transitioned person becomes the opposite sex. In fact it’s dangerous in treatment terms to do so - did you see the thread the other day about medics treating a trans man in late stage kidney failure using Male eGFR values? He is now in stage four (ie terminal) kidney failure.
What we need, in my opinion, is language that codifies the rights and needs of trans women (and men, although oddly no one seems to push that as much...) without co-opting that of women. Our needs overlap at points, but trans women face challenges natal women will not, and natal women face issues that transwomen will not.

We need the law and society to acknowledge this, to create a framework that protects all groups, without removing rights, protections and safeguarding structures for women, girls and children.

We can put men on the moon - we must be able to do this.

My view is that transpeople have rights. And so do women. The extreme TRA lobby are damaging to transpeople - and they are a grave threat to women and children.

The question is how do we legislate to protect everyone, while maintaining existing rights and protections? and its very difficult to have that conversation because the TRA lobby do not want to have it.

Discussing miscarriage is transexclusionary. Actually saw this being said to a lady on twitter talking about the physical trauma she experienced while losing her child

That’s horrendous My sister had quite a hard time and multiple miscarriages when she was trying for DN. How ridiculous is the idea that instead of sympathising and trying to help where I could, that I would shriek at how unfair it was of her to talk about her biology with me.

Fucking loony.

The actual definition of transphobia is to have an irrational fear of trans people which a lot of people on Mumsnet appear to have.

Yes, I’m fucking terrified of myself.

Boo!

(Startles in the mirror)

Truscum you seem to have come out of your shell recently. I'm very much enjoying your new, louder voice