The sentiment of surprise at the strength of feeling on the issue was also expressed, several times, by MSPs at the recent Scottish Parliament Census Bill debate.
They were incredulous that a one page Bill should have led to a huge report. The bill, they kept saying, was only ever supposed to be about allowing the posing of two additional questions.
But what did they expect?
After all, the accompanying documents conflated sex and gender identity as well as trans and intersex and suggested changing the sex question to add a third option. They consulted mainly with TRAs and their orgs and neither women nor data users were really asked for their opinions.
I'll tell you what they expected. For twenty years or so, our politicians have been lobbied behind the scenes, away from public scrutiny, on trans rights and trans inclusion. The first, uphill struggle was to protect transsexuals from discrimination and allow them a legal status that protected their lived identity.
Fine, of course, except that unbeknownst to the public, who had barely heard of let alone understood the Gender Recognition Act, the actual goal even back then was apparently legal sex self-id.
Whether that seemed too out there for our politicians, whether they thought that in order to get support for the GRA they had to tread lightly at first, whether TRAs were advised from the start that self-id would be a step too far or whether they tried pushing for it but backed off after experiencing resistance, I don't know.
Fact is, the GRA was passed without the public taking any notice. But what did not go unnoticed by the TRAs was where the strongest objections had come from. I find it striking that the same sports bodies for instance who warned back then that legally female but biologically male athletes would be a disaster for women's sports, are today not just embracing the idea but are rejecting any opposition to male inclusion in the by now familiar manner.
The strategy clearly was one of attempting to change opposition to self-id from within the organisations voicing it. And they succeeded, even with our erstwhile feminist organisations.
But again, that was a strategy out of the public eye. Both policy makers (in govermental bodies and NGOs) and TRAs were used to getting things done behind closed doors. No one ever thought to ask the public, and like the boiling frog metaphor, the changes were so gradual, no one understood the consequences until it was too late.
The latter, of course was aided by the fact that the first to suffer, our most vulnerable women and children, are largely invisible and voiceless. Even if individuals were brave enough to raise concerns, it was far too easy to ignore or silence them. If your life and that of your children may depend on the organisations helping you, you're going to be scared that continuing to speak out or even bringing it up in the first place may result in support being withdrawn.
But now self-id is everywhere and people are taking notice. Several MSPs raised the point that during the initial stage of the Census Consultations none of the established women's organisations responded and neither did the grassroots women's rights groups who are active now.
Hence they thought nobody cared.
Only, all of the grassroots women's rights groups who are raising concerns now, didn't actually exist during the initial consultation period in the 2015/16 winter. They were founded in 2018, largely in response to the GRA consultation that brought the issue to the attention of the public. And the people are not pleased. In fact, they are opposed to self-id, by a huge margin.
And although on this isse it takes a while for people to understand that the self-id campaign is neither like the gay rights campaigns nor an actual trans rights campaign, once they do, most are so shocked at what's been happening that they are very vocal and willing to take action. Just like me. In my entire adult life, I've never campaigned on anything. Now I'm a member of several women's rights groups all founded in 2018, have leafletted my local high street and all my neighbours, friends, family and anyone I meet.
Politicians better get used to the strength of feeling on the issue - seeing the rights of women and girls under attack is bound to incense a lot of people. We are half the population after all and closely connected to the other half.