Not women only shelters.....

[alwaysreadthelabel]

Sorry for the fail link but just read this and I find it unbelievable that people still don't see the issue with this. Words fail me.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6894599/When-man-called-Mark-locked-threatening-kill-mother-child.html

Indeed .. one has to ask why the so-called "media on the left" persist in ignoring this issue completely. Perhaps it too has been groomed by the anti-women activist organisation that is Stonewall?*

Definitely, the two pronged attack has been, groom the left, discredit the right.

He isn't a victim of domestic abuse, he is an abuser

Good point from SmellsLikeAdultSpirit. It would be more justifiable if a trans woman who had experienced domestic abuse wanted to be in a woman's hostel. If decisions were being made on a proper case by case basis, this person would not be suitable because of previous behaviour. Instead, it's a fox in a hen house as *NeedMoreSleep posted.

On one hand it’s great that the Mail cover this. They are capable of producing a clearly written well researched article, will defend press freedom robustly, and lots of people, including in the US and Australia, will read it. Caro last week, Julie this. Keep it up!

But equally we need the Guardian to wake up. A few friends have started to think about transgender issues, in part because a local teen has announced they are transgender. I had mentioned the GRA gently a few months back, but got no interest. I have since forwarded links to some James Kirkup, Janice Turner and Andrew Gilligan articles. Friends have picked up on the regressiveness of giving gender rather than biological sex the priority, and of suggesting medical interventions a first step rather than a last resort.

However they are astonished that this has all being going on without them knowing. They had assumed listening to the BBC and reading the Guardian would keep them abreast of current affairs in a thoughtful and considered way.

I have yet to suggest they might be better informed if they read the Mail.

So sorry to read this inritatum. I really hope something gets sorted for you. Unfortunately, it is often the sharp elbowed who get what they want at the expense of others wwhose needs are greater. In your position, I would find this very unfair. We need to find solutions that are fair for everyone who has experienced domestic abuse.

Inritatum

I cannot tell you how appalled I am that Stonewall aren’t using their money and reach to set up specialist services for people like you instead of decimating the women’s sector.

There are so many reasons that Stonewall should be deeply ashamed.

Good luck with your court case.

Inritatum I’m really sorry to hear about your situation it is just unbelievable with all the money stonewall has, that there is nowhere for transwomen like you to go. They should be ashamed of themselves. I hope you can get out of this situation soon and are safe and away from harm.

inritatum

Firstly
Your situation sounds horrible and I really hope it can be resolved soon.

You've nailed it about stonewall. They should be actively campaigning and making separate spaces for transwomen and men. Third spaces. I don't know why this is constantly ignored.

It's a great article.

I do have one issue though: using the terms "refuge" and "shelter" to refer to homeless and probation hostels muddies the waters in a UK context. The article covers provision for:

*bail/probation hostels for recently released prisoners
*homeless hostels
*domestic violence refuges

These are three distinct types of provision for different sets of clients provided by different types of organisation. It's confusing when UK articles use terms as they are used in the US (where these services are often combined).

inrit

I am truly sorry for the situation you are in. Your story shows just how damaging this whole tra nonsense is. You can't have a conversation with it or attempt to come up with alternative ideas. Its their way ir the high way.

The ridiculous thing is that I dont think theres a person on this board who wouldnt signed petitions, attend marches, contribute financially etc to the setting up of a shelter for transgender abuse survivors. Instead ant funding received by the likes if mermaids and stonewall is wasted on taking women to court for thought crimes as opposed to setting up the services you mentioned.

Theyndint care about you. They care about being seen to "fight for you" when so many trans people do not even want to be a part these extreme brainwashing tactics.

If they truly cared then making sure you had somewhere to go would have been one of the first things they campaigned for.

Instead they just bully people who dont drinknthe kool aid and accuse us of wishing you all dead and actively murdering you.

Iritatum - so sorry you are going through all that and I hope it is resolved soon so you can feel safe again. I, and many others, who have concerns about opening all women's spaces, would welcome and actively support a move to create new spaces which would help you.

Inritatum I too am appalled that Stonewall and other TRA actions have meant that specialist services that are appropriate and comfortable for you are just not available.

I am happy that you feel you can say that here, you know us well enough to know you would, regardless of all the stupidity printed elsewhere.

Hang on in there. Come back and vent if/when you need to

I hope Jess Philips MP and Maria Miller MP have read the article.

They both wrote forewords to the Stonewall survey, when it was published. They wrote of their satisfaction in seeing that service providers were considering the needs of ALL WOMEN (sic) and were inclusive (of men). They endorsed Stonewall's approach.

I really hope that journalists start to pick up on MP's and Ministers' collusion with Stonewall . State approval has led to injustice for the most vulnerable women. .

Inritatum

"There is absolutely nothing else. You know, with all the shouting of the TRAs and Stonewall's bullshit, you'd think something like this would be important - that getting services set up for trans people who needed them should be a priority."

Perhaps some of the Trans community needs to start campaigning to put pressure on Stonewall to set up specific Trans shelters ... run by and for the Trans community?

I'm not looking for sympathy and this isn't a "me, me, me" post, but the situation is messed up. It seems the only solution where I live at least is (a) go into a women's refuge, (b) walk away and end up on the street, or (c) stay in the abusive environment. There is absolutely nothing else. You know, with all the shouting of the TRAs and Stonewall's bullshit, you'd think something like this would be important - that getting services set up for trans people who needed them should be a priority. Perhaps they might get round to it when they've finished medicating kids and erasing women altogether.

Stonewall and other lobby groups are utterly squandering the opportunity to set up targeted support services especially given how much money they have. Sadly, as is often the case, the ideological war they are raging is more important than the actual wellbeing of the people they claim to support.

There are services and initiatives being set up for males. It's hard to say whether they would be of use to you or whether they have considered the needs of males who identify as trans but perhaps worth giving them a call to see if they can help.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-43230406

www.mankind.org.uk

Perhaps some of the Trans community needs to start campaigning to put pressure on Stonewall to set up specific Trans shelters ... run by and for the Trans community?

Quite.

Same for gay men. Brian Paddick complained that there was no provision for gay men when he was a victim of DV. It simply did not occur to him to tell his own, stupendously funded, lobby to set about creating this provision. He just told women they should budge up and share theirs.

There is insufficient provision for women as it is. If other groups need protection and services, then I'd suggest they campaign for Stonewall et al to open its coffers (orders of magnitude bigger than any coffers belonging to the women's sector) to create them.

Jacky how well do you think that would go down with the TRAs? They don't want that. inritatum is a small voice of sensibility in a sea of TWAW.

Someone already tried to campaign for a refuge for transwomen and there was zero interest.
This isn't about providing safe refuges for transwomen, it's about infiltrating women's safe refuges. It always has been, and anyone who can't see that is either complicit or a bit thick, quite frankly.

"The mantra was that trans women are women and they are vulnerable. Even if they have a criminal record, if they are transitioning, they are not a risk any more because they are women now"

That's exactly the thing, isn't it? Organisations - Girl Guides, NSPCC, councils, gyms, you name it, have been groomed to believe that a male is no longer any threat or risk to women (no matter what his previous history might be) if he declares himself to be a woman. In this case, the mere putting on of womanface is enough to transform a violent abuser into a harmless woman, apparently.

PS I can't be the only one enraged by the media's rolling over and accepting the directive that they call people like Addis 'she' and 'her'.

Lots of people might view the Daily Mail as unreliable propaganda, or shit stirring. But it has the biggest circulation of any newspaper. It is the paper to get this stuff into.

I have zero doubt that these refugees have been pressured. I heard a radio four programme about three years ago of women's aid managers who were clearly highly emotional about the need to keep places female only. They've been got at, just like everyone else.

And of course, of fucking course this is a green light to abusers everywhere. They said that 4% of their clients were trans. Four fucking percent????

How's that, then? When only one percent of the population is. Way more than the general population, and they are all in need of a refuge?

The entire point of a refuge for these women is that they know they are female only.

I'm glad the article showed it was Stonewall, and Stonewall alone, who was pushing for this.

They are, indeed, a massive antifemale organisation. I want the press to ask them questions. I want them to ask why they wanted to change the EA to eliminate women's protection. I want them to ask to define the word lesbian. I want them to confirm that two men having anal is lesbian sex if they identify as women.

I want to hear their reasons. It can't be hard to answer.

A few years ago I had loads of nappies my son had grown out of, sanitary products I didn't need etc. I phoned my local woman's aid to see if they'd like them. They said yes please but that they'd need to meet me in a car park bloody miles from where I live to collect the stuff in case I was an abuser using it as a tactic to learn the location of the shelter. So, basically, a 5ft2 woman donating hygiene products is too much of a threat to know a shelters location, but a 6ft man with a history of domestic violence is welcome. Fucking sick.

The problem is, that in Scotland at least, these organisations need to be trans inclusive to receive government (and probably other) funding.

Lots of people might view the Daily Mail as unreliable propaganda

Those people may like to examine their own prejudices.

Outsourcing your own thinking is never a good idea regardless of whether you outsource it to BBC/Guardian/Stonewall or the National Front!

OvaHere "There are services and initiatives being set up for males. It's hard to say whether they would be of use to you or whether they have considered the needs of males who identify as trans but perhaps worth giving them a call to see if they can help."

I did ask my social worker about this and her response was that there were no services locally and that I couldn't go into a male shelter anyway "because I wasn't a man".

Rock and hard place.

I did ask my social worker about this and her response was that there were no services locally and that I couldn't go into a male shelter anyway "because I wasn't a man".

I don't think you should just take her word for it. From what you have said she has her own very fixed ideas about TWAW and all that entails.

It may be that she is correct but I would want to hear it from the source rather than someone who may have their own agenda.