Evening, Glinner, you star. You did ask, so...
I first began to get an idea of what we were up against a decade or so ago. I knew two lesbians who were on a regional Stonewall committee. Also on that committee was a Q guy who, it turned out, was making secret recordings of the committee meetings for his PhD. The committee chair knew, the rest of the committee didn't. This was 2008, perhaps — well before the formal inclusion of Q and T but there was already discussion of Q and T, with T sort of tagging along with the Q agenda. Long story short, the Q PhD student quoted a perfectly reasonable gender critical remark that one of the lesbians on the committee had said in a public lecture. He quoted her out of context, ridiculing her and giving the impression that she was transphobic. He also gave enough information for her to be identified by at least one of the people in the audience who warned her what had happened. She took this up with Stonewall who did nothing to support her or the other lesbian on the committee who protested about this. The gender studies department of the university supported their student and insisted his behaviour was ethical. It was made clear that being GC was a problem. The dykes were thrown under the bus. That was my introduction to the whole trans and queer world and the end of my support for Stonewall.
Next thing that happened was that a mtf trans person turned up at a local lesbian event. When the women who ran it asked if they could meet privately to discuss the situation this individual became aggressive and started the whole 'I know my rights as a woman' number' and demanded access to lesbian events and the local women's centre so they could 'educate' women. It's a weird situation: you're trying to be polite and reasonable but basically you've got someone with male characteristics refusing to offer any useful information and behaving in what feels like a threatening manner. Lots of lesbians are quite vulnerable and isolated and a place where they know they'll be among other women like them, women to whom they don't have to explain themselves and where they won't have to deal with the male gaze or male judgment is important. This individual didn't feel safe to be around: they had come to proselytise.
Anyway, because of this individual's threats an fears of legal reprisals (even in those days the police were unsupportive) they were granted access to the main local women's organisation. They attended an event there but made unwanted physical contact with a number of women who complained. As a result of this a significant number of women stopped attending events. A number of younger woke and lib-fem women decided the older second-wave women were bigots and transphobes. Women who'd worked together for the benefit of other women for years fell out with each other. Over a period of 18 months or so, everything fell apart and shut down.
The lesbians went pretty much underground. The local women's centre which supported various women's group — the BAME women's group, the lesbians, mental health services for women and so on — folded as women took pro and anti-trans sides. There is no coordinated women's network in this area any more.
The transactivists around here have gone on to threaten other women-only groups. There was a women's music festival that attracted female musicians from around the world. It folded when the organisers were approached by a notorious local transactivist who's also infiltrated Women's Aid. You have to understand that many women's groups, organisations and events are run on a voluntary basis and a shoestring. When transactivists pitch up and threaten to cause trouble women have a limited amount of energy for fighting. They either let the TRAs in or shut the organisation/ group down. I could weep when I think what we've lost over the last decade.