@SirenSays
I'm confused why people assume I have no trauma. I'm a survivor with severe CPTSD. You don't typically live in these shelters because life is going swimmingly...
We aren't talking about men presenting as men in female spaces. We're talking about transwomen presenting as women and I know several transpeople who pass and haven't been clocked. So to me, they'd just be another service user, and that's not really any of my business.
That's sadly not correct.
Where organisations are fully trans-inclusive, there is increasingly no gate-keeping of the kind you suggest (males who "present as women" or who "pass"). Such gate-keeping is considered exclusionary and often labelled transphobic. As is the assumption that all males who identify as trans suffer from gender dysphoria or wish to transition in any way.
The minimum threshold for inclusion of males in the female-only therapeutic environment is therefore frequently a mere verbal statement of identity. No changes required.
(FAOD that's males presenting as men accepted into the space as women. Women neither informed nor consulted.)
And we're not assuming you have suffered no trauma, but that your trauma is different from ours. I'm hypervigilant. Found out not too long ago that my lizard brain (my amygdala) is now running so hot that I don't even need to see or hear someone speak or see them to know whether they're male or female when they are behind me and stepping closer. I was rather happy about that, too, coz when the guy exploded, I kept myself in check. Because I was already on guard. But what that also means is that I cannot reach a state from which recovery is possible in the presence of males.
So, I accept that you are fine sharing with males when accessing VAWG sector services. Do you accept that I am not?