Open Letter about Trans Media Portrayal signed by lots

[CrazyToast]

This open letter (text is below, not linking to Pink News), tweeted by Sarah Champion MP and put out by Helen Belcher has got me despairing.

The total lies in this letter boggle my mind! How can legitimate professionals put their names to this without researching?

"This coverage has often conflated trans women and girls with sex offenders, implied that all trans women and girls are threats, and has usually been insufficiently challenged."

Don't they understand that no one things ALL trans people are threats? Just that male bodied people are potential threats and that we DONT KNOW who is dangerous and who isnt so we have to treat everyone with caution? Don't they understand that all women operate like this, it is anticipation of risk? Is this just wilful misinterpretation?

"The reality is that trans people are far more likely to be targets of violence than other women."

We all know this is false. Handful of trans women killed in UK in a decade vs two women a week.

The letter in full

We strongly condemn the way the British media has given significant coverage to small groups who wish to push organisations to break existing law with regards to trans people. The Equality Act protects trans people from discrimination and automatic exclusion from same sex spaces, yet over recent days, weeks and months, the media has given significant space to activists who wish to roll back trans people’s existing rights.

This coverage has often conflated trans women and girls with sex offenders, implied that all trans women and girls are threats, and has usually been insufficiently challenged. The reality is that trans people are far more likely to be targets of violence than other women. Isolated extreme and abhorrent cases cannot be extrapolated to infer the behaviour of all trans people. Those countries where gender recognition is operated on an administrative rather than a quasi-judicial process also do not provide any evidence to support the assertion that trans people are a threat or misuse the process to cause harm to others.

The relentlessness of the hostility across the media and the media’s inability to adequately challenge the false claims put forward have led to a significant decline in the mental health of many trans people. Reports of suicides of trans people are on the increase. Free speech does not give free reign to cause people harm.

We call on the British media to revise the way they cover trans stories, to look at the reality faced by trans people rather than focus on extreme theories which have no basis in fact, and to apologise for the significant emotional and mental stress they have caused to trans people over the past year.

Helen Belcher – Chair, LGBT Consortium
Baroness Barker
Dr MJ Barker
Michelle Brewer – Barrister, Garden Court Chambers
Baroness Brinton – President of the Liberal Democrats
Christine Burns MBE
Baroness Burt of Solihull – Women’s Spokesperson, Liberal Democrats
Lord Carlile of Berriew
Lord Cashman
Prof Brian Cathcart – School of Journalism, Kingston University
Dr Louise Chambers – Lecturer, Goldsmiths College, University of London
Sarah Champion MP – former Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities
Dominic Davies – Pink Therapy UK
Martha Dunkley – ClinicQ
Jane Fae
Fox and Owl Fisher – filmmakers, My Genderation
Kate Green MP – former Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities
Susie Green – CEO, Mermaids UK
Dr Adrian Harrop
Prof Sally Hines – School of Sociology, Leeds University
Jennie Kermode – Chair, Trans Media Watch
Fiyaz Mughal – TellMama
Claire McCann – Barrister, Cloisters Chambers
Monty Moncrieff MBE – CEO, London Friend
Layla Moran MP
Prof Surya Munro – School of Human and Health Sciences, Huddersfield University
Nik Noone – CEO, Galop
Lord Paddick
Prof Julian Petley – Professor of Journalism, Brunel University
Tris Reid-Smith – Owner, Gay Star News
Linda Riley – Publisher, DIVA Magazine
Paul Roberts OBE – CEO, LGBT Consortium
Cat Smith MP – Shadow Secretary of State for Young People
Dame Caroline Spelman MP
Jay Stewart MBE – CEO, Gendered Intelligence
Jo Swinson MP – Deputy Leader, Liberal Democrats
Dr Damian Tambini FRSA – London School of Economics
Peter Tatchell
Dr Ben Vincent – Chair, GIRES
Dr Paul Wragg – School of Law, Leeds University
Dr Tray Yeadon-Lee – School of Human and Health Sciences, Huddersfield University

That list is such a joke!!😆😆😆😆 What a bunch of misfits!🤣🤣🤣🤣

I can't believe Brian Paddick signed - what a slimey little toad!

He signed up to:

The reality is that trans people are far more likely to be targets of violence than other women

A fucking police officer. 60% of police call outs are for DV and women make up the vast majority of victims. How could he rubbish his experience as a police officer by spouting such an outright lie?

And again it is pretty devoid of facts, isn’t it. It doesn’t try to address the points women have made. It just basically says ‘you are being mean, please stop’.

That's a pretty poor effort 😀

UGH my MP is there too. I didn’t vote for her but god that’s depressing. I’ve never written to my MP before but am determined to now.

More like: "You better stop! Or Else."

The signatories don't really compare to the huge list of academics on the "other" side.

I'm interested to see that most people on this list have added their occupations, but Harrop seems to have decided not to identify himself as a Doctor for a change. I would have thought it would be the perfect chance for him to prove his intelligence or some such narcissistic thing.

Embarrassing.

The names are the usual twitter trolls and people with clear vested interest. They don't remotely compare to the calibre and broad range of names on the academic letters and the stonewall petition.

x-post remember!

Maybe I'm picky but it's pretty horrifying that none of those signing knew that it's free rein not reign. To give free rein is a riding metaphor.

These signatories are shit!!🤣🤣 if I were one if them I think I would have the Tippex out....quick get my fucking name off there..😂😂😂

Jo Swinson is extremely disappointing.

Maybe I'm picky but it's pretty horrifying that none of those signing knew that it's free rein not reign. To give free rein is a riding metaphor

They should read MN more. That is quite a favourite of the Pedants. You learn a lot here

Also gutted Jo Swinson signed. There are a few profs, MPs, and - though I disagree, activists who've achieved a lot (tatchell) ...........and bloody Harrop - what's he done except a masters in misogyny

We strongly condemn the way the British media has given significant coverage to the trans activist lobby who wish to push organisations to break existing law with regards to women. The Equality Act protects women from discrimination and protects their sex spaces, yet over recent days, weeks and months, the media has given significant space to activists who wish to roll back women’s existing rights.

This coverage has often sought to deny that sex offenders have utilised the loosening safeguarding that has arisen with self ID and used the identity of transwomen to offend. It has ignored and concealed that sex segregation exists to protect women from the class of men which includes 98% of all violent and sex offenders, and that transwomen offend at the same rates. It has also ignored that 45% of trans prisoners currently in UK prisons are sex offenders. Instead coverage frequently deflects these facts by a false claim that women concerned about this are accusing all trans people of being a threat.

The reality is that women and children are far more likely to be targets of violence than transwomen. Only 8 transwomen have been murdered in the UK in the past ten years, with none of those murders being hate crimes or due to their trans identity, while two women per week have been murdered by their partners or ex partners has remained steady throughout the decade.

Isolated extreme and abhorrent cases have occurred because of the attempts to remove women's sex protected spaces. Self ID cannot be denied as a convenient means to enable and facilitate the behaviour of those men who wish to remove the right of privacy from women, their right to be apart from men in the most vulnerable of circumstances, and take no regard of women's consent, faiths, cultures, experience of violent or sexual crime, or vulnerability. Self ID actively makes women less safe. Those countries where gender recognition is operated on an administrative rather than a quasi-judicial process are providing evidence to support the assertion that women are experiencing men misusing the process to cause harm to others. In addition these experiences are often not recorded, or crimes are recorded as women, or pressure is placed on organisations and the press not to report on such crime (as in the case of the Cologne rapes) as being 'transphobic' and likely to cause harm to the reputation of trans people. Women's experiences are being silenced and concealed where they are inconvenient to the agenda.

The relentlessness of the hostility across the media and the media’s inability to adequately challenge the false claims put forward have led to a significant decline in the mental health of many women. Free speech and silencing has included threats of rape, violence, actual violence, masked males attempting to prevent women meeting to discuss the law of the country they live in, to intimidate and to photograph, to doxx, and all this from apparently 'vulnerable' people. Misleading suicide statistics have been used without context to claim high proportion to the population has been rife, with these being verifiably false when compared to national statistics. Irresponsible discussion of suicide against Samaritan guidelines has also been frequently used in an attempt to sway the argument and to silence women from being heard.

We call on the British media to revise the way they cover GRA related stories, to look at the reality faced by women rather than focus on extreme theories which have no basis in fact, and to apologise for the significant emotional and mental stress and to the severe damage done to women's rights that they have enabled over the past year.

There. Fixed that.

All the usual suspects.

All the usual lies and histrionics.

Pardon me while I yawn (are we allowed to yawn again or is it still forbidden?)

So we have a badly written letter, misinformation, DARVO, usual suspects as signatories and using false suicide stats.

Has anyone produced an AWA bingo card yet? Because this one is a winner.

I’ve emailed Jo Swinson. I contributed to her campaign to get her re-elected. I won’t be doing so again if I’m not happy with her reply.

Signed
Jane Fae - campaigner for extreme porn;
Susie Green - mother who took her male child to Thailand aged 15 to have elective genital surgery and advocate for controversial medical treatments on children to correct their non conformance to sex stereotypes which have the inevitable side effect of sterilising thise children;
Peter Tatchell - campaigner for lowering the age of consent to 14 and advocate for 'consenting intergenerational sex' between adults and 'young people';
Fox and Owl - queer heterosexual couple and makers of accidentally hilarious propaganda shorts;
Mr Adrian Harrop - chronic mansplainer who is scared of the dictionary and has been accused of harassing multiple women online. Also bezzie mates with Helen Webberley who offers an online assessment service for gender nonconforming children and will also prescribe them experimental off-label drugs for a price, and who has recently been found guilty of running an illegal medical practice.

I'm only surprised the list doesn't include Paris Lees - thinks women who don't enjoy catcalls are prudes and went to prison for committing a serious assault;
Sarah Brown - invites women to suck their formaldehyde pickled balls;
Aimee Challenor - furry, bronie and adult baby who knowingly hired (and covered up for) their own dad as campaign manager and enabled him to influence policy around safeguarding in children's groups and schools while he was being investigated then prosecuted for torturing and sexually assaulting a pre teen girl in his attic while he dressed as a baby;
Lily Madigan - Labour womens officer who suggests women who argue for women's rights should go fuck themselves and campaigns for those women's removal from the Labour party;
Natacha Kennedy - self confessed transvestite who misleadingly signs their academic papers under both their male and female names;
Jess Bradley - NUS trans officer currently under suspension for taking pictures of themselves exposing their penis in public places including their own workplace and posting them online, and also encouraging other perverts to do the same;
Tara Hewitt - NHS advisor who is anti abortion and anti IVF and against lesbian mothers. Also an ex- Tory candidate and public advocate for BDSM and roleplaying as an animal during sex;
India Willoughby - thinks women who don't shave their legs are dirty and promises to keep pushing the concept of 'trans women are women' on women Until. It. Penetrates.

The list could go on and on, couldn't it.. Wonder why some of the most prominent TRAs names are absent? And why Jane Fae has no description in the list?

All we need to win this is for these people to have more exposure. Let them sign their daft letter, let's make sure everyone who reads it knows exactly who the signers are.

"The Equality Act protects trans people from discrimination and automatic exclusion from same sex spaces"

Is that even true?

Is that even true?

No. And even if it was, it would only mean that we should campaign for change to EqA.

at Jo Swinson

Knicknack that amended letter is a thing of beauty.
Joan that "behind the scenes" signatories list is so good.

I thought it was true?? I'm just completing my response to the GRA consultation and my whole take on the Equality Act protections is that the onus should be on those who want to go into a single sex service as a different sex to prove that there will be no harm to the existing service users.

Knicknack that amended letter is a thing of beauty. It sure is.

It is fascinating seeing who is not on the list.