After an unpromising beginning, this thread has turned out to be quite informative for those new to this issue and forum. Thanks all to those who took the time to write so clearly about many aspects and nuances of their concerns and the overall political landscape. It took over an hour to read through and although I skimmed a few posts, I also read a few posts a couple of times over, particularly @Ramblingwords comprehensive post on page 11 of this thread which is just gold. I wished I could snip quote or easily link to the post, but perhaps I've missed a button/function on this board.
Anyway, I came here originally to get a sense of the shape of the larger debate, followed by belatedly tuning into much of what's been happening on Twitter. I don't engage a great deal on Twitter, especially on trans matters. For me, it can often feel a corrosive, unilluminating timesink, unless discussing professional topics and its been helpful in that regard. For those of us who fully medically and surgically transitioned some years ago, and are just leading fairly conventional lives, it's been helpful to obtain a nuanced picture by coming here and finding a few substantive threads to read.
It's true. I don't have that childhood formation or experience of structural oppression as a young girl, but like other women, I've faced down unwelcome behaviour, been patronised, fought like hell for comparative pay, undermined at work, told to smile, told once to wear a sari (!), had my breasts stared at, sworn at for being a complete bitch... and assaulted at night, in the street, by some pissed bloke in his 30s, just a couple of hundred yards from the flat. I've been asked at least a dozen times why I don't have kids, to which the only honest reply is that I was unable to have them, which usually ends the conversation. I stopped wearing makeup in my 40s unless for certain meetings or occasions, and when not at work, muck around – like many of us – in trackies, jeans and t-shirts. These are shared overlapping experiences... which is ultimately, is all we have as humanity.
Some of the intrusive and disturbing behaviour that others here have described here across a range of places, platforms, spaces and activities sounds absolutely horrific... and I can only apologise for those who have hurt people in the past. In some people's eyes, I may be lumped in under some sprawling trans umbrella term, but these are not people I personally communicate or associate with. My friends are mostly (biological) women, and some gay couples scattered across London and the world. I'm close to my sisters who live abroad... but the idea which I've read elsewhere on this forum, that as a transwoman, I represent some kind of overarching apocalyptic threat to gay men and lesbian women and their political struggles, is going to take a while to absorb and reflect on – especially to understand how this particular hypothesis is formulated. Slippery slope arguments aren't always persuasive.
There are a couple of comments buried deep in this thread I can't currently find and may come back to in another post. Someone asked why we can't monitor and influence our own 'community', someone touched on cancer and there was another long well-intentioned post buried in there somewhere which could do with a revisit.
Thanks again.