Transmisogyny in women’s shelters.

[Whatdoyoudowhendemocracyfails]

A year-long investigation has concluded a “cohort of powerful feminists” is deliberately freezing out transwomen from accessing services for domestic violence victims.

Didn’t realise we had so much power

gal-dem.com/transphobia-sexual-violence-sound-like-a-man-hang-up-vawg-investigation/

It's because the services are for women.

They can put in the hard work like everyone else and campaign for funding to start up their own specialised services.

I think what this investigation shows is shocking and sad. I work in a frontline women’s organisation tackling violence against women and I’m happy that the organisation I work for is fully inclusive of trans women.

@AllCatsAreBeautiful

I think what this investigation shows is shocking and sad. I work in a frontline women’s organisation tackling violence against women and I’m happy that the organisation I work for is fully inclusive of trans women.

And did you ask the victims who use the shelter how they feel?

Thought not.

Stonewall have so much money that they don't know how to spend it. So Stonewall come on and make some shelter's for trans people

I think your post is shocking and sad Allcats.

When women (and children) are asked the response is a resounding no.

Here's a report from 2018 'Giving a voice to silenced women' fairplayforwomen.com/our-research/
Why don't we put them first for once?

The priority should be the needs of the female service users - how do they feel about the service and its policies?

Staff-centred services don't necessarily make good services for the service users.

I'd like to know just how this apparently powerful group of feminists has been keeping trans people out of shelters. How exactly are they denying access? Do they stand outside and bar trans people from entering? It's such a batshit claim.

‘If they sound like a man, hang up’ sounds like a wise and effective policy in terms of safeguarding for the vulnerable women (and possibly children) in the shelter. I can’t see anything wrong with it.

It doesn’t discriminate against trans women who have fully transitioned either, but it does stop 1. men who are taking the piss or 2. seeking to harm a former partner from wasting their time. In rare cases a trans women who might still not have completed transition could be hung up which is unfair on the miniscule number that might happen to but overall on a numbers basis the first two scenarios are far more likely to happen so I can’t blame the shelter employees for erring on the side of caution.

*hung up ON - correction for my post above.
I can just see the typo screenshot now... ‘MN nest of vipers calls for trans lynch mobs!!!!’

Is the Cohort part of the International Network of Powerful Lesbians?

@AllCatsAreBeautiful

I think what this investigation shows is shocking and sad. I work in a frontline women’s organisation tackling violence against women and I’m happy that the organisation I work for is fully inclusive of trans women.

@AllCatsAreBeautiful, could I just ask whether your organisation also assists gay men who have been the victims of domestic violence? Also, does your organisation offer shelters, or just support and advice?

A year-long investigation has concluded a “cohort of powerful feminists” is deliberately freezing out transwomen from accessing services for domestic violence victims.

As long as they’re freezing them out from services provided for women, well done you powerful feminists you.

These kind of shelters are for people whose sex is female!! Full stop. You can't put an adult in a children's home just because they're "young at heart"!!!

There should be specific shelters for transgenders. I totally support that idea

I can't understand why on earth a trans woman would seek shelter in a women's refuge. Same as going in women's changing rooms and loos. These are places where there's a likelihood of encountering a radfem or GC woman. They are so horribly dangerous, these women of literal violence, that it must be dangerous, no? Why would they want to take that risk?

Now, where these women of literal violence definitely won't be, is in male only spaces. So wouldn't trans women be safer there? We know they're not facing violence from men, because they never tell us that men are the problem. Listening to their lived experiences, listening to their voices when they're brave enough to speak out despite this literal violence, it's always women who are the threat.

If they are not safe with women and don't want to be with men, then I fully support the activists' campaigns for specialist services aimed at this minority, vulnerable community to ensure their unique needs and challenges can be fully served.

But no. Still complaining they can't break down the doors to women only spaces.

@AllCatsAreBeautiful

I think what this investigation shows is shocking and sad. I work in a frontline women’s organisation tackling violence against women and I’m happy that the organisation I work for is fully inclusive of trans women.

What you think doesn’t count. It’s what the women who need these services think that matters. Women fleeing domestic violence, who are desperate, are hardly in any position to question the presence of males in refuges. Their safety and mental well-being should be paramount. Any person who can’t see that and put such women’s needs first has no place working in a refuge. There must be separate services provided for transwomen, which is, in law, perfectly feasible.

@AllCatsAreBeautiful

I think what this investigation shows is shocking and sad. I work in a frontline women’s organisation tackling violence against women and I’m happy that the organisation I work for is fully inclusive of trans women.

Its so telling that you're focused on your own happiness in this situation. This sector seems to have been hijacked by people intent on pushing their own agendas, using vulnerable women who are in fear of male violence to do so.

The part that really jumped out at me was this:
Cora remembers one member of the counselling department declaring that it was “unsafe” for cis survivors using the centre’s services to have people in the building who had not fully medically transitioned. She was challenged by Cora and her colleagues, who explained that this transmisogyny went against the fundamental principles of sexual violence workers: that you must believe survivors.
But not survivors who are women, obviously...

Literally what is to stop an abusive husband turning up at a shelter and claiming he's now a woman to access his partner?

For those who think "it would never happen!" domestic abusers have turned up in all sorts of places to kill their partners/ex-partners as well as their partners' mums, children and new spouses. It's not beyond the realm of possibility at all!

@AsTreesWalking

The part that really jumped out at me was this: Cora remembers one member of the counselling department declaring that it was “unsafe” for cis survivors using the centre’s services to have people in the building who had not fully medically transitioned. She was challenged by Cora and her colleagues, who explained that this transmisogyny went against the fundamental principles of sexual violence workers: that you must believe survivors. But not survivors who are women, obviously...

My jaw was slightly dropping at the arrogance of “Cora” educating the counsellor about how to work with sexual violence survivors.

Literally what is to stop an abusive husband turning up at a shelter and claiming he's now a woman to access his partner?

That will no doubt happen, if it hasn't already. I used to work in a women's refuge, men would try to send their mum/sister/older daughter in, either as a visitor or claiming to be a victim, to persuade their partner and/or gaslight their children so they'd nag to go home. Sometimes just to check their partner was there, so they didn't waste time bombarding the wrong refuge with phone calls threatening to torch the place etc Now hurray! They don't need to bother entrusting that task to useless women, they can just identify and go in themselves.Yep we should definitely be making that easier, sorry 'fully inclusive'

What strikes me is

1. none of the people mentioned seem to have much understanding of the vawg sector. It's well known that its common for heavy breathers to call rape centres or for abusive men to try find the locations of shelters. Its not rare at all. Having strategies for managing that is part and parcel of the day to day running of them. It makes me wonder how much experience these anonymous commentators actually have. It reads like they're volunteers who've come into a complex sector they don't really understand and tried to throw their weight around. And 2) why on earth aren't they fundraising for trans-inclusive services if they believe they are so badly needed? As others have said upthread, I'd be more than happy to contribute to a shelter for trans women. I've never seen trans activists campaign for this. All of their 'activism' is always so destructive. It's never campaigning for more funding or extended services, its always about removing funding from those they deem not worthy or removing rights from women to have sex-specific spaces or female rape examiners. I remember a little time back, seeing someone proudly display how they'd removed Vancouver Rape Relief posters and how others had disrupted one of their fundraising events handing out fliers to tell prospective donors not to donate. Imagine if those people had put that considerable passion and energy into fundraising for trans-inclusive shelters instead? I can't help thinking that if they tried building instead of destroying, we wouldn't need to have this argument at all.

For me, the whole piece is fascinating because it’s an insight into what FWR posters have been noting for a long time - it’s younger women who are driving the TWAW cult and older, more experienced feminists are being dismissed as bigots.

”many junior workers were attempting to ensure inclusivity for trans survivors. But senior staff, made up of cis women, responded by shutting down the conversation altogether.”

It’s easy to believe people are basically good and “trust your gut” when you’re young. But I expect those older, more senior women running the shelters have seen a lot more of the damage men can do, and are rightly sceptical of self-ID being abused.

There’s also an example of the keys to the twitter account being removed from someone pushing a personal agenda - a few big corporations should show similar spine.

I slightly laughed at the attempt to reframe 70s feminists as trans-inclusive. I haven’t read much Dworkin but Germaine Greer certainly bloody wasn’t.

And confirmation that Mridul Wadhwa is more interested in providing services for TW than “cervix havers”