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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Allison Bailey to sue Stonewall

999 replies

OhHolyJesus · 27/06/2020 08:20

There is a crowdfunder so I won't share the link but here a part of the text. It's long but brilliant and this isn't the half of it. Off to find my wallet...

The new trans activism: all scrutiny and critical voices labelled ‘transphobic’

In early 2018, when I first heard that plans were underway to make the lives of trans people easier, my reaction was that this was a good thing and I did not give it a second thought. I kept coming across the term ‘TERF’ but ignored it. I thought that bigots were simply being called out.

Then one day I clicked on a link: terfisaslur.com where someone had collated the online abuse that was being directed at women who I realised had entirely valid concerns and questions about the wisdom of replacing sex with gender.
I learnt that the new trans activism wants to smash the distinctions between men and women; replacing sex with notions of gender identity; making sexual difference a matter of self identification; and demands that any and every man that wishes to identify as a woman must be allowed to do so.
I learnt that the new trans activism is focusing, inexplicably, on young children and declaring them ‘trans’; treating puberty as a disease to be blocked with powerful drugs; delivering our young people into the arms of a multi-million pound industry of big pharmaceutical companies and plastic surgeons.
I saw that the same males who would have society regard them as women, were quick to brandish knives, axes, baseball bats and nooses, as they threatened with rape women who questioned the wisdom of replacing sex with gender —TERFs.
I realised that the new trans activism operated a crude but effective system of punishment and reward: agree with every demand of the trans lobby and be safe; object and face vilification, abuse, boycott, character assassination and cancellation.
I was horrified (and terrified).
I wanted to look away, to pretend that I had not seen it; that it did not reveal the worst woman-hating, lesbian hating, misogyny that I have ever come across in my lifetime.
I did not look away and I urge others not to either. Thanks to brave women who have come before me, such as the late, great, Magdalen Berns, whose courage and no nonsense approach to calling out the new trans activism as the men’s rights movement it so clearly is, gave me courage.
I realised that I did not have to accept that any man can claim to be legally a woman, without having to undergo any hormone or surgical intervention, psychological evaluation or risk assessment.
I realised that it was okay and necessary to say that it is reckless and naive to think that men will only identify as women if they are stunning and brave and harmless: that the wicked, abusive, predatory, unwell and downright cantankerous will, by some miracle, refuse to take advantage of free and easy access to women, to their politics, safe spaces, sports, legal protections and identities.
I was shocked to discover that significant numbers of male sex offenders are permitted to identify as women and nothing is being done to stop them. In England and Wales, some 40 per cent or more of trans identified males in the prison population are men with convictions for sex offences, including rape and possession of the most serious indecent images of children. I read a steady stream of news reports from around the world of males who identify as women committing serious sex offences.
It is repugnant to me and wholly unacceptable, and frankly unbelievable, that the new trans activism demands that sex crimes committed by males who identify as women are recorded as having been committed by women; and that these males can demand to be referred to by female pronouns.
I discovered that women incarcerated in prison are left vulnerable to serious sexual assault and mental anguish, as males, including sex offenders, are locked up with them. The new trans activism demands that a man’s desire to identify as a woman is more important than the right of imprisoned women to safety and dignity. These women have no way to escape, no choice, they are locked up. I do not see how this is anything other than state facilitated abuse and mental torture.
Where there should have been discussion, investigation and inquiry, there has been the silencing of concerned and critical voices; not voices from the far right, but from women like me, who are of and from the progressive left.
Mantras have been chanted because the new trans activism is a movement that cannot bear scrutiny: TRANS WOMEN ARE WOMEN; TRANS RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS; TRANS PEOPLE ARE WHO THEY SAY THEY ARE; PROTECT OUR TRANS SIBLINGS, and so on, do nothing to engage with and address the serious concerns that exist about replacing sex with gender.
The new trans activists are joined by politicians, journalists, lawyers, writers, entire organisations, and assorted celebrities, in the chanting of these mantras to shut down debate, while others who are appalled at what they see happening are too afraid to speak out. It is cult like behaviour, it is Orwellian, and it has disgraced and shamed a generation.
Labelling all critical voices ‘transphobic’ is a cynical political ploy of the new trans activism. It must be resisted.

Surviving child sexual abuse: understanding that women and girls are oppressed because of their sex and not their gender identity
The man who sexually abused me as a 9 year old little girl; the man who targeted my single-parent mother; the man who told me that I could trust him whilst he slipped drugs into my orange squash to render me helpless as he sexually assaulted me, was tried and convicted of multiple sexual assaults against me in 2015, and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. He was released from prison last month (May 2020) to serve out the rest of his sentence on licence.

I make this disclosure now because I feel compelled to stand in solidarity with other women with similar experiences of male physical and sexual violence. It is not weaponising trauma to say so, any more than recounting racist abuse is.

We must not allow men or women to bury, minimise and ignore the visceral reality of male violence. We must not allow the new trans activism to force survivors back into the closet; this would be an abuser’s charter.

It should be a cause of great alarm that the new trans activism takes such a regressive and shaming attitude to disclosures of abuse. This culture of denial and belittling has been the bedrock and the hallmark of every abuse scandal. It is a red flag that signals a safeguarding catastrophe in the making.
It is women like me whose lives have been torn apart and seriously blighted by wanton acts of male violence that know that men are often not who they say they are or claim to be.
I know that conflating sex with notions of gender identity will leave women with no legally enforceable boundaries against any man.

I know that if the new trans activism is not brought to heel, women will disappear as a political class.

OP posts:
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19
Cascade220 · 28/06/2020 11:47

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Whatsnewpussyhat · 28/06/2020 11:49

It is odd that they put it back on at midnight then shut it down asap once target was hit.
Hmm

charlestonchaplin · 28/06/2020 11:51

No coincidence.

CaveMum · 28/06/2020 11:51

As others have said, if you are looking for other worthy causes you can search for Katie Alcock's campaign against Girl Guiding UK.

Sexnotgender · 28/06/2020 11:54

@AbsintheFriends

OK, I'm standing by. But the longer it takes, the more cash my pissed-off meter is racking up.

(And for any lurking TRAs - I am not a billionaire far right Christian fundamentalist. I am a very angry middle aged woman with an established career, a paid-off mortgage and kids who have flown the nest. Do not underestimate us.)

Exactly. I’m a very pissed off woman who happens to be a higher rate tax payer. I have disposable income.
Waspie · 28/06/2020 11:58

I'm glad it's back up but angry at the actions of CJ. I was lucky and donated before it was closed down yesterday. I am expecting my tip back from CJ though.

My partner wanted to donate so I've suggest he donate to Katie Alcock today and wait for Allison's to be available again and then we'll both donate after pay day.

Chrysanthemum5 · 28/06/2020 12:02

I've donated to Katie's appeal against girl guiding instead (and I see the time for this has been increased to another 30 days so still open for anyone else to donate Smile)

Chrysanthemum5 · 28/06/2020 12:02

Oh and I made sure I removed the suggested donation to CJ

TheTamingOfTheresa · 28/06/2020 12:09

great thread. Another extremely pissed off middle aged woman here. Not an enormous amount of disposable income, but enough to happily donate to this. Onwards x

WanderinWomb · 28/06/2020 12:12

I think the gender extremists are on a confidence high. Forstater Rowling Nicholson Linehan Bailey etc but all it does is get this topic out into public view.
Outside this corner of Mumsnet and a tiny corner of Twitter and s few Pink News readers most people are still oblivious.

There have been a few articles a documentary and Newsnight reports over last couple of years but its still very niche.

Hopefully this case and the removal and reinstatement on CJ will make a few more waves on the press.

I did think AB maybe said too much on her CJ intro . When I read it was thinking 'play your cards a bit closer to your chest'.
Let's not speculate too much. I am really looking forward to this case, it's going to be a long wait.

While waiting those with some spare cash could look up Rosario-Sanchez case and the others mentioned above.

FleetsumNJetsum · 28/06/2020 12:18

Older woman here, pissed off that I was not "allowed" to donate.

OvaHere · 28/06/2020 12:21

Allison made a statement

Allison Bailey to sue Stonewall
BoreOfWhabylon · 28/06/2020 12:24

Allison is one pissed-off older woman. Good for her.

Trailing1 · 28/06/2020 12:25

I work in a shop in minimum wage but I will donate what I can to these campaigns. It affects all of us from every walk of life.

CharlieParley · 28/06/2020 12:42

CrowdJustice have in my view now quite publicly fucked up by seemingly censoring Allison's original statement and closing her campaign without talking to her first.

Because A) CrowdJustice campaigns do not get closed automatically or even routinely by the website after reaching their stretch target. On the contrary, the purpose of the stretch target function is to allow you to continue fundraising for as long as you need and can, while allowing funders and potential funders a transparent and easy way to assess the success of campaigns. The decision when to close is down to the campaign owner as long as your campaign does not go against the platform's rules. Now the T&Cs of course allow the platform to close it down, but we've all seen the original statement and if you check the T&Cs, neither Allison's statement nor her campaign goals breach them.

And B) they claim not to take sides in whatever case funding is sought for (you can't publish a campaign to break the law, obviously). This is simply good business sense as both sides in a civil matter could have campaigns here based on that principle. But by censoring Allison's statement, and the wording of their own they have now accepted responsibility for the content of perfectly legal campaigns. That's a precarious situation for this kind of platform.

If you haven't seen the platform or Allison's statement before, here's the typical make up of a campaign:

  1. establish the credentials of the person seeking legal redress;

  2. explain who in their view wronged them and how they did it, and what evidence exists to support the claims of wrongdoing;

  3. lay out why this is a matter for the courts and/or what laws are alleged to have been broken;

  4. outline the proposed course of action and (if known) name the law professionals engaged in the matter and

  5. regular updates about the case.

Allison's campaign was factual, the available evidence impressive, her conclusions logical and the allegations in line with the described events.

In short, the merits of her case are such that there's a reasonable expectation she can indeed take this to court.

CrowdJustice normally prides itself in not taking a side for good reason - the law is complicated, messy and people fallible, on either side of the divide. In our courts some cases succeed that shouldn't, other don't that should, but the one thing CrowdJustice exists for is to make both kinds of cases happen even if those seeking justice don't have money of their own to bring them. It allows access to justice for many more people, whatever their (lawful) campaigns. An entirely laudable aim.

I fail to see how their actions in Allison's campaign are in any way justifiable.

twoHopes · 28/06/2020 12:57

I think this case has exposed the flaw in Crowdjustice as a platform. If you look at their Twitter feed you can see how they champion particular funding campaigns and push particular view points. They shouldn't be doing this. If they claim to be neutral and "not taking sides" then they should treat every case as equal and not promote any of them through social media or other channels. Otherwise, in the case of Allison Bailey, they are actively blocking people from getting access to justice.

It's a shame to say this (as there aren't many tech companies with female CEOs) but this is an abuse of power and I hope the CEO is held to account.

NotAssigned · 28/06/2020 12:59

While I know that you can't post direct links to crowdfunders, would it be a good idea to have a list or thread of the current ones with enough detail that people who have a bit of spare cash could google and donate to?

ahumanfemale · 28/06/2020 13:00

Donated to Katie and Maya.

No donations to CJ though, because "justice" appears to be ranked in order of who they agree with..or want to be seen agreeing with.

ChurchOfWokeApostate · 28/06/2020 13:04

This is just so.... sinister

Shedbuilder · 28/06/2020 13:04

I donated £5 to CrowdJustice as a kind of thank-you for enabling Allison to raise the money to take this on. Now that they have done this I've asked for it back. If everyone who donated a fiver does the same it'll give them a few minutes hassle if nothing else.

My guess is that they won't return it but I donated it in goodwill — goodwill which they then betrayed by shutting Allison down and hiding her page and suspending her appeal.

Shedbuilder · 28/06/2020 13:05

That's interesting, Two Hopes. And could be very useful for Allison"s case if they have clearly shown bias in the past.

Time for a new CrowdJustice?

OhHolyJesus · 28/06/2020 13:08

Spot on Charlie

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TeaAndHobnob · 28/06/2020 13:37

Donated to Katie also now, thank you to the poster who reminded us about her and Maya.

Thehollyandtheirony · 28/06/2020 13:59

Perhaps there is a secret GC feminist working at CrowdJustice? The crowdfunder wasn’t on my radar at all until they banned it.
Now I will definitely donate.

pombear · 28/06/2020 14:03

For anyone coming late to what's happened over the last day, Anya Palmer, a feminist lawyer on twitter, has just compiled a useful summary of events here:

twitter.com/anyabike/status/1277219504259555329

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