Dear sir or madam ... the ‘to whom do we write to express our womanly fury’ thread

[Bowlofbabelfish]

Right. Gloves off, letter writing time (I know, I know, such fury, but keeping it civilised..)

I want to spend my week composing and writing letters, emails and missives to whomever is most effective. I want my damn voice heard.

I am not on Twitter, so can’t do any of the twitting stuff.

So: my MP. Already done but will do again.
Penny Mordaunt
Anyone got a link to where individuals can respond to the consultation?
who else?

Any official bodies/individuals who need to hear our voices?

We need to stand up and be heard here. Where do we target our letters of protest?

I was thinking about this Bowl and I think it may be useful to consider other avenues. There will be individuals and organisations not neccesarily aware of the fuller picture.

For example you may be a member of professional bodies etc and understand the wider consequences which are relevent/may impact their work.

I also wonder whether amongst MPs and ministers it may be useful to direct concerns to those with specific briefs which may also be directly affected.

I was talking with a friend of mine who is a nurse practitioner about the article in the independent re smear tests. She was very concerned about the obvious issues raised:
inews.co.uk/news/health/nhs-woman-transgender-nurse-smear-test/

Find your small, local, women's orgs and children's orgs and ask them if they intend to respond to the consultation. Point out safeguarding issues. I've done this and two are going to respond - very concerned re: safeguarding.

@Lang - I'm happy to write to everyone! does anyone have a kind of template or standard points to make list?

Quiz
There are some examples of letters / emails sent today here:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3295480-Penny-Mordaunt-MP-Trans-women-are-women-that-is-the-starting-point-for-this-consultation

We need a list of;

• people to write to
• templates to use as guidance.
• arguments to use on social media and IRL.

Start with your MP and your friends and family.
Subjects that are easy for people to grasp include mixed sex hospital wards, Girl Guides and mixed camping, and sports.

Your local ward councillors, council leaders and local party leaders.

CEOs of retail organisations.

there are previous threads which may be of interest:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3206250--Siren-MP-letter-templates-are-here

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3198021--SexMatters-MP-letters

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/2995738-Gender-ID-bill-Gender-Critical-To-Do-List

Try to personalise your letters- copy & paste letters are easy to spot & may not get an answer.

Ask specific questions.
(Work for an MP)

On writing to MPs and Ministers...

MPs will only respond to their own constituents - they may pass your letter along to the correct MP for them to respond (for example, neighbouring MPs will often get correspondence that should have been sent to the other one, and have standard arrangements in place to forward it on)

You can ask your MP to share their own views on a particular matter. You can also ask them to raise the issue, on your behalf, with the relevant minister. This is a particularly effective way of getting a reply from a minister, as ministers have to reply to MPs (a Cabinet Minister can delegate it to a junior minister in their department, though).

You can also write directly to a minister or member of a Parliamentary Committee, making clear that that is the capacity in which you are engaging them (ie not as a constituency MP). In many cases you are likely to get a reply from an official instead of a minister (though if the numbers who write on a particular issue are high enough, this gets noted at senior levels in the department in question), and probably just a standard response - at the moment, it will probably be along the lines of encouraging everyone to participate in the forthcoming consultation blah blah blah

I am still chasing an answer to my letter which I sent to my local MP 3 months ago. My local MP happens to be Jeremy Corbyn.

This might be me being daft, but when we say 'writing letters', we do actually mean the old fashioned traditional papery letter writing don't we? Not just dashing off an email?

Bit of both. I think they have to reply in writing if you submit in writing or is that something I made up in my head..?

It’ll depend who I am mothering at I think. MP and parliament via paper.

Mithering. Not mothering.

I sent a letter. On good paper in a nice envelope. And an email. I’m also phoning his office a lot (the young man boy who always answers the phone knows nothing about the GRA and is keen to help but completely incompetent, we have hilarious kafkaesque convos now)

hmmm

as Lang says, organisations that can and should respond to the consultation

so

rape crisis
women's aid
shelter
leisure centres with single sex facilities
Youth hostel association
care quality commission which regulates care homes

I am furious and need to channel my anger into something productive

royal college of midwives
women's institute (yes I know they've caved, but I refuse to believe my lovely WI really understand what they're doing)
organisations that provide residential trips for kids like PGL

What about organizations that support older people like age uk & saga? If you're planning for intimate care you'd be interested in this.

What about science/ medical professional bodies or organisations? There is some serious challenge to scientific facts in the TRA ideology. If we go too far down the rabbit hole doing research in areas where sex matters might be considered transphobic.....What do you think bowl?

Here's my postcard:
"Having codified into law that transgender identified males (transwomen) are female, with legal documents to reflect they are female, despite their fully intact penis and balls, the only thing left to decide is what to name the HALF OF THE POPULATION that are neither males nor transwomen and whether they are entitled to any legal rights at all."

Have written a humungous email to my local MP and cc'd in the leader of the local council.

Currently in the middle of responding to the GRA consultation itself.

Thanks for starting this thread Bowl and to others for the links. Will sit down on Saturday and get writing!
Nothing constructive to add but after the 'delurking' thread came about, I want to register my support.

Crumpets your support and understanding is constructive.

Don't underestimate the power of your contribution right now, when women are literally being silenced, deleted and banned for writing biological and scientific facts.

In answer to the ‘does it have to be an actual letter’ I work for an MP. Emails & letters are treated with same level of response. We aim for reply (by letter) within 2 weeks. Longer than that and we feel behind.
If you have heard nothing after a month- do send a follow up. If you send stroppy emails about no response after 24 hours, MP might be annoyed with you!
(They can get 100s of emails and letters every day so responses can take time)

I think its worth writing to the editors of BBC programs such as Newsnight, Jeremy Vine, Victoria Derbyshire etc with the specific issues of comments made by presenters or guests raised.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3295715-Paris-Lees-on-What-makes-us-human-R2-Jeremy-Vine

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3296339-Newsnight-now-Pink-News-Editor

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3294478-Victoria-Derbyshire-show-today-transgender-children-buying-time-by-delaying-puberty