Response from my MP

[TorchesTorches]

After a couple of chasers, my MP responded today (Labour, female). She wrote quite a long response which quoted the 2 in 5 young trans attempted suicide stat. I am going to refer her to Andrew Gilligans Sunday Times article, but are there are any other sources actual verified stats i can use?

It is a careful response and she says that single sex spaces are under no threat (hmmmmm) and she has womens concerns at heart etc etc. She is aware of the work of FPFW and 'welcomes that'. It's so studiedly neutral (except those glaring stats.) I am a bit non plussed.... Help please with good reliable quotable stats from excellent verified sources!

www.transgendertrend.com/the-suicide-myth/

[[https://www.transgendertrend.com/suicide-by-trans-identified-children-in-england-and-wales/]

Great thanks for this.

Rereading my MPs letter, i do think she has drunk the kool aid, and is aware that she probably has to hide the bottle.

Great to get a response.

On the single sex spaces please send her a copy of the FPFW report on the serious problems with these and concerns over GRA reform in refuges and other survivor support services. Ask her how these women’s voices will be heard if they can’t speak publicly without fear of losing jobs or funding, and how the issues they raise will be tackled.

fairplayforwomen.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/FPFW_report_19SEPT2018.pdf

This by Kathleen Stock also v good on the inadequate quality of evidence including suicide stats that GRA reform proposals were based on: mobile.twitter.com/Docstockk/status/1050345289142407168

I would point out that self ID doesn’t in any way deal with the issues that might make somebody suicidal.

A certificate can’t cure a mental health problem.

How can women-only spaces be maintained when biological men have documents, including a birth certificate that say they are women? The segregation problem already exists but what protects us now is the relatively low numbers of transwomen. When 5000 becomes closer to 500,000 and the majority of that transwomen, we will begin to notice the effects much more.

I think single sex spaces are a bit of a myth , even now, unless GRC-holding transwomen voluntarily exclude themselves.

I’ve had really positive correspondence with my MP, who is on side life with this and is presenting my views to Penny Mordaunt with his endorsement. In my latest (!) email to him, i said the below in relation to the issue of single sex spaces -

“While I was pleased to read the Select Committee’s assurances that the proposed legislation would not change the exceptions under the Equality Act, I remain concerned that, until specific drafting can be reviewed, there is real risk that the interplay between the two principles (sex is a protected characteristic, but people with a GRC have the right to be treated as the sex into which they identify) may render the provisions of the Equality Act toothless at best. Also, unless the drafting around sex specific exemptions is suitably explicit and robust (which would then be protested by trans rights activists who want trans women to have all the rights and protections afforded to natal women), it would place unreasonable pressure on organisations to apply the exceptions themselves, opening them up to litigation and to the sort of aggressive protests we have already seen from Trans activists.”

Op. Terfedoff above posted this important piece of work on suicide stats. I just want to reiterate it is by a Professor of Sociology at Oxford. In a way I wish he had published it somewhere else because Transgender trend is dismissed by the TRA lobby as anti-trans propaganda, and it might be missed by people on that side of the argument who really could do with knowing this stuff.

www.transgendertrend.com/suicide-by-trans-identified-children-in-england-and-wales/

At least you have had a reply to answer.

I asked mine if she felt a 14 year old girl should have to strip with a 14 year old male bodied person. It was after Brighton and Hove's helpful guidance for schools.

Nothing , nada.

I don’t get this, as I understand it there are no single sex spaces any more. Have i missed something?

Hi, just sent my reply back to my MP following her response yesterday. I was hugely helped by your replies and was able to provide counter examples to her points. I also linked to the excellent yorkshire post article about the cancelled GRA meeting that leeds city council perpetrated.

I probably have no hope of converting her under labours current shambolic stance on this issue, but i can at least hold her to account, now that she has the correct/ additional information.

You might also want to send a follow up with the I fo that Stonewall, who Labour have aligned themselves with on this, recommended to government that single sex provision should be removed. I'll get the quote

It's just so totes amazing that an act will suddenly melt away those suicide statistics, not that they reflect reality in the first place.

Oh, it won't let me attach a screenshot

as I understand it there are no single sex spaces any more.

There are.

Men have a right to single sex spaces and if you invade those spaces they call the police and you are asked to leave.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3261705-Turns-out-Hampstead-swimming-ponds-are-single-SEX-after-all

twitter.com/MadamBiro/status/1052900087771336705?s=20