Advice from GC feminists, please ?

[CareerEnding]

I'm gender critical, I do not believe that trans-women are women and the proposed Gender Recognition Act worries me. I have been fairly discrete about it - a few of my friends know, I've alluded to it on social media but I'm not out as #manfriday, although I did support Women's Place earlier in the year.

It is likely that my workplace (deliberately vague as its identifying), where I am in a Senior role, will be publicly supporting the calls by various LGBTQ+ charities for progress to pass the GRA as soon as possible. This is more of a knee-jerk response to recent lobbying than a considered, thought-through position, but is not open for discussion.

Assuming I keep my job (I suspect it won't be long before I'm doxxed), I'm wondering how I will be able to continue to DO my job. I will be expected to publicly present my organisations position and support the GRA. I know that there are other GC feminists here who work in places which have adopted policies written by Mermaids etc..... How do you cope? Is it possible to detach?

bumping for you x

can you "twist" the message by talking about how welcome TW are to identify with women and speak up on issues such as Domestic Violence?

Talk about inclusion of transmen in women’s spaces and how their needs are never mentioned by anybody ever it seems.

Assuming I keep my job (I suspect it won't be long before I'm doxxed), I'm wondering how I will be able to continue to DO my job. I will be expected to publicly present my organisations position and support the GRA

Have you considered winking?

"Transwomen are women and our organisation would like to publicly express our ongoing support for the LGBTQ community"
*winks

"We wholeheartedly support the proposed changes to the GRA and will begin implementing a trans inclusive bathroom policy throughout our organisation."
*winks

Dead pan delivery of completely crazed message and off-the-wall examples that inadvertently (but oh so clearly) trample other groups' rights so that you peak-trans your entire audience - someone should be able to link to the brilliant document with all the self-id categories and you could liberally refer to these when giving examples. And no doubt some witty mners can come up with some great scenarios etc for you to use in your talks.
Unfortunately you will have to pretend to be crazily on board with self id but this may be the only way to survive the battle in your profession.

Ugh, I am worried this is going to happen in my workplace soon. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before our mandatory diversity training is updated.

I’m not very good at keeping my mouth shut at work, but I’m already working on my exit plan.

would it be good to prepare and practice a few safe phrases that are hard to object to?

I think the appropriate response is to express concern about what appears to be the underlying homophobia in much of what is being advocated for by government backed groups like Mermaids.

How big is your organisation? How central are trans issues to what they do?

Would it be possible to request a sideways move for the duration?

You could allude to trans issues in your personal life making the campaign a bit too close to home and therefore you may not be the best spokeswoman. This wouldn't be a complete lie - freedom of expression is a human right and a hugely important part of everyone's personal life. It's highly unlikely anyone would question further but if they do you could just say it's a very sensitive situation that you'd rather not talk about (true again)

Is it very likely you'll be doxxed? If you've only made a few allusions online and have been discreet in RL, and as long as you don't work for a LGBT org, I reckon you'll be OK.

Please do ask your workplace how they intend to make special provisions for people identifying with all these genders.

You'll keep your job if you've made a few mild comments on social media. People are allowed to have views that might be divergent from their organization's, as long as their conduct doesn't embarrass.

I think I'd try to dodge any situation where you might have to be TRA cheerleader - volunteer to lead on something dull instead, or go with something like Pencil's suggestion.

@YesItsADebate

Please tell me that’s a spoof.

I only got as far as “Caelgender: a gender which shares qualities with outer space or has the aesthetic of space, stars, nebulas, etc.” before I wanted to dig my own eyes out with a rusty spoon.

I would become the most politically correct advocate for trans ever. Bring it into any conversation, especially how awful Radical feminists are. Use the most ridiculous examples possible to demonstrate how badly trans people are treated. Start using the word ciswomen all the time. People will become so sick of it they'll peak trans.

I kind of like the winking suggestion though and the subversive suggestions

Or if you're proper senior and it's a small organisation, just tell them to fucking stop it.

I've been through work related shite over this. Look after your mental health first and foremost. If push comes to shove there are other jobs (and yes I realise that's easy to say ...)

@YesitsaDebate

Trying to work out my favourite from the list. I need to be me.

Magigender: a gender that is mostly gender and the rest is something else

Vocigender: a gender that is weak or hollow

Hmm. Tricky one. I'd strongly recommend getting some professional legal advice on this if you don't want to/don't feel able to go along with your employer's campaign because it's not straight forward (and I speak as a lawyer with a fair amount of Equality Act experience, although I haven't had to deal much with the religion/belief provisions in practice).

My brief thoughts are that:

• you could probably come with a philosophical belief that counts as a belief for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010 (whether this is phrased as 'gender critical feminism' or a more specific belief that transgender people should only be permitted to change their legal sex after a diagnosis of gender dysphoria and verification that they have been living as the opposite sex for 2 years). Tribunals have held quite a wide range of things to be beliefs covered by the Equality Act including pro-environmental beliefs, anti-fox hunting, and a belief that the public sector should be efficient IIRC. White supremacism wouldn't count as a belief for the purposes of the Equality Act because it's not a belief compatible with human dignity and conflicts with the rights of others, but whilst gender critical feminism isn't popular with everyone I don't think it would fall into the same category IMO (although this hasn't been tested in the Courts/Tribunals yet).

• If your employer punished/fired you for refusing to part in activities supporting the amendments to the GRA, you could sue for indirect discrimination. The 'indirect' bit means that your employer is treating you the same as everyone else (ie everyone is expected to take part in the activities) but it impacts badly on you because it conflicts with your beliefs. However, it is possible for an employer to justify indirect discrimination. The closest case I can think of is Ladele in which a registrar was fired for refusing to perform civil partnerships. In that case it was held that the employer was justified in firing them because it was fair for them to insist that all its employees act in a non-discriminatory way to same sex couples.

• There are some arguments that you could make to say that the discrimination is not justified and the situation is different from Ladele. Presumably this isn't a central part of your job. It might be that it would be feasible and reasonable to let you opt out of taking part in these activities to promote the GRA amendments. Further, they are asking you to take part in a campaign to change the law rather than just uphold and apply the current law. But all of this is untested, there's not a huge amount of case law and these types of cases are always so fact-specific that it's really hard to judge. This is why I'd highly recommend seeking proper legal advice if you wanted to do anything other than grin and bear it and follow the company line.

Start using the word ciswomen all the time. People will become so sick of it they'll peak trans.. Also use cisman whenever mentioning anyone male, I literally never hear anyone telling men they have to refer to themselves that way. If we all start doing it maybe they’ll get on board!?

This is more of a knee-jerk response to recent lobbying than a considered, thought-through position, but is not open for discussion.

I don't have any useful suggestions, only a question about the quoted bit.

Why? Why, why why? I see this all the time. In everything I know of women's rights, it's always a fight. It's never a done deal. It's always up for debate.

Then along come transwomen's rights (not transmen's), and within the blink of an eye of course they'll be fully accommodated and it's not up for discussion. Which would be fine, except that actual rights don't involve trampling other people, not even women.

So how is the sudden embrace of TRA's demands possible?

The only explanation I can imagine is massive sexism that has no trouble recognizing men when it sees them. But they're supposed to be women. So why is it never open for discussion?

*quixote" the only answer that seems to make sense to me is: thefederalist.com/2018/02/20/rich-white-men-institutionalizing-transgender-ideology/

This is more of a knee-jerk response to recent lobbying than a considered, thought-through position, but is not open for discussion.

Surely the underlying issue is that the lobbying has only come from one side of the argument. I would get GC organisations to lobby your organisation. If it starts to get complicated your organisation may well decide to avoid the issue for now.

Also, identify who is blocking discussion. I doubt very much that you are the only critical person. If you can identify each other you can support each other and get the discussion started.

This one gets my vote (depending on you style, if you can pull it off)

Dead pan delivery of completely crazed message and off-the-wall examples that inadvertently (but oh so clearly) trample other groups' rights so that you peak-trans your entire audience - someone should be able to link to the brilliant document with all the self-id categories and you could liberally refer to these when giving examples.

I would be (deadpan) going on about how all-woman-short-lists should be open to absolutely anybody, even men, IF they 'identify' as women. Take it to its ridiculous conclusion. But that's just me. You do what you feel comfortable doing. Peak trans the entire room, all at once!

Some great ideas, thanks. I can do deadpan, and can easily start to implement some new processes to embrace the spirit of the GRA that I know will be objected to by my boss. I may well have a quiet word with an employer lawyer I know as well. The "this never happens" Facebook page may be useful as well so I can counter the "but no one would do that!" arguments.

@RunRabbitRunRabbit I would get GC organisations to lobby your organisation

This would work well, I think - my boss is a people pleaser and will adopt whatever cause keeps the person he's most recently talked to happy. Which GC groups would you suggest?

If your boss is a people pleaser who goes by the last thing he heard, show him the Mermaid 'gender spectrum' which suggests only white women are women, and black women are masculine, GI Joe types. Ask him if he actually supports that. Sound very shocked.

goo.gl/images/xh6TMa

archived link
archive.is/4Mr5e

If you're worried about coming across as a bigot, the Cotton ceiling is a brilliant subject, there's a really good thread here. Lesbians being pressured to suck a lady peen is NOT that progressive is it?
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3241510-Cotton-ceiling

General thread for trans resources

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3175252-A-trans-resource-thread

Your boss is probably going to need a bit of guidance because all these terms are very confusing!

transwidow.wordpress.com/2018/04/04/queer-theory-glossary/