@CloudyVanilla
I'm defending women's rights love. Trans women are women.
You know, Cloudy, when I first came to this section, it was to do what you're doing. I went away and looked up all the evidence, to prove how wrong they all were. The problem was, they weren't wrong.
Transwomen are the safest demographic in the country, with half the average murder rate. Some years, no trans people are killed at all. (This should be something to celebrate; instead, we're told there's a murder epidemic.) Women, on the other hand? Two a week killed by a present or former partner, in normal times - it was five a week, in lockdown. We have 1300 men in jail for sex offending, the vast majority against women, at a time when 1.5% of reported offences even see charges, far less convictions - and do we really think women report, most of the time? So that's a fraction of a fraction of what's really happening. How are you able to assert, then, that transwomen suffer more violence? What's the basis of that claim?
Single sex provision is dramatically safer for women. That goes especially for hospitals, btw.
1 in 50 male prisoners identified as women in 2018. In 2016, from a population of 200,000, there were 60 transwomen sex offenders in jail, which is the same, proportionate to population, as any other male. 126 were jailed for such offending that year, from a population of 33 million - men, and it was in excess of 13000. Rhona Hotchkiss, SMP and former prison governor, has stated that there are now more transwomen sex offenders than female sex offenders in Scots prisons. Why are transwomen entitled to access women only spaces in vulnerable settings, if their offending behaviour is that of any other male? That makes no sense. We don't exclude all males from women only spaces to demonise or other them, or because we think all males are violent predators. We do it because, while clearly most men are not predatory and/or violent, almost all violent predators are male. If transwomen are no more nor less likely than any other male to pose a risk - and therefore massively more likely to pose such a risk than female people - why is it discriminatory to exclude them, in a way it isn't with everyone else of that shared biology? Why is a male person's belief about themselves more relevant and important than the safety, dignity and comfort of female people?
Single sex spaces in domestic violence support are markedly better for women. Single sex spaces in homeless shelter support are markedly better for women. Single sex spaces in prisons are not only markedly better for women, but mandated as a basic human rights standard by the UN. Most women in prison are there for non-violent offending, and previous victims of male violence. Many are severely traumatised and almost all are terrified of males. How is it okay to place people of male biology there, let alone violent offenders? It clearly is not. Yet it is happening. Frequently.
Sport is not fair, if you don't segregate by sex. That's so obvious.
When surveyed, most women thankfully agree that we need to respect trans people's rights to live as they feel safe, happy and honest. And when you ask how they feel about sharing personal spaces, or sporting provision, with transwomen who have had no surgery, they're equally clear: the answer is overwhelmingly a no. This is not contradictory. You can respect someone's right to live a safe and happy life, in freedom, as who they want and need to be, while believing that other people also have rights. Even women.
As for your claims that there's already a right to use women's spaces - actually, that guidance was created by a quango, which has since withdrawn it, and it's going to Judicial Review (Google Ann Sinnott, for details). So we'll find out soon, won't we? Right now, nobody knows.
Finally, you say transwomen are women. Okay, then you erase biology when considering whether someone is a woman. I'm sure you also think regressive, sexist stereotypes are worthless, what with your fulminating against heteronormativity. So. Without resorting to sexist stereotype, and with biology already excluded: how do you define a woman? You seem very confident on this, so please do explain. What is the definition?
Here's hoping this doesn't go poof, too.