Times article: Protests over trans woman heading rape crisis centre

[stumbledin]

Quote: Rape Crisis Scotland, which runs 17 member centres in the country, said they were “proud” to have Wadhwa “as a colleague within our movement”.

Sandy Brindley, chief executive, said: “Mridul Wadhwa brings to this role extensive experience working in the violence against women sector. All rape crisis centres in Scotland work within equality and employment law. There is a lot of misinformation and targeted harassment in relation to Mridul. We think this is unacceptable.”

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/protests-over-trans-woman-heading-rape-crisis-centre-wp7hwbv09

Open for comments (I hope the Times isn't beginning to see this issue as click bait ). Very little to the article is about breach of the EA and more about the emotional aspect. Would have thought they would have done something more thorough.

[BernardBlackMissesLangCleg]

The bald fact is this person lied about themselves so they can work with vulnerable women

I make no comment on the motives behind that action. But even taken without any context it’s pretty disturbing isn’t it?

[aliasundercover]

@PlanDeRaccordement

What experience she has had has been uniformly rated by her clients as abysmally bad, uncaring, and dismissive.

Where did you find this info, please? I'll be arguing about this at the weekend, and I'd like to be as informed as possible.

[ThatLibraryMiss]

@AdjustableAssholeSettings, I get this when clicking the share token link. How odd!

[AngelicInnocent]

[quote ThatLibraryMiss]@AdjustableAssholeSettings, I get this when clicking the share token link. How odd![/quote]
Same here

[heathspeedwell]

Me too.

[endofthelinefinally]

I subscribe to the times online. There are still no comments, yet there are constantly people typing. Clearly there is censorship going on. I wonder if they will allow any comments at all?

[BSJohnson]

And me

[HipTightOnions]

I don’t care what sex a person is to be head of a rape crisis Center. Can be a woman, man, TW, TM, whatever

However the role was advertised, citing the EA, as being open to women only.

[AdjustableAssholeSettings]

I use a VPN, I don't know if that makes a difference. @ThatLibraryMiss @AngelicInnocent

[Kit19]

Once the appointment of someone born male who doesnt even have the legal fiction of being female is accepted as meeting the EA criteria (I understand they have no GRC) then pretty much any organisation can point to it and say "well x identifies as a woman so they meet the criteria under the EA exception"

Rape crisis edinburgh could of course have chosen not to use advertise under the section of the EA that allows exemption. they could have just made it completely open and that would have been transparent - but having chosen to use the exemption, it is outrageous to then appoint a TW

[DaisiesandButtercups]

I switched to a different browser and was able to use the share token. It doesn’t work on my usual one.

[endofthelinefinally]

There are a couple of comments showing now...

[Rhannion]

This person worked at the rape crisis in Glasgow before so this isn’t the first time safe guarding and the law has been ignored to allow validation. It’s appalling

[AngryBananaSund]

I get this when clicking the share token link. How odd!

What’s even stranger (odder?) is that the link did work for me, but now it does not. I wonder if The Times has updated the article and now it has a new ID, (looks hopefully at someone with access to create a new link)

[endofthelinefinally]

The SNP are hell bent on removing all women's sex based rights. This was entirely predictable. I wonder why/by whom the comments are being blocked?

[Rhannion]

There are 6 comments so far...
Thank you for the share token. More and more sunlight !

[endofthelinefinally]

The most recent comment was typed 8 hours ago. That is a long time.

[TheFleegleHasLanded]

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/9b9beccc-b80f-11eb-98e3-d1306649ebf7?shareToken=a63a6d9b6f0a382c893abac0573b2089

Try this one

[CharlieParley]

@Nonmaquillee

In addition to the main issue, this person lied to get the job??
Isn’t that usually a reason for dismissal?
People in Scotland are being gaslighted on this issue to a ridiculous extent.

Mridhul did not lie to get the job.

There are plenty of reasons to object to a male person running a rape crisis centre whose client base consists of more than 90% female users, especially when that person has never centred female victims in their public statements.

But please understand that at no point did Mridhul ever lie to get a job with Rape Crisis Scotland.

When Mridhul first got a job in the women's sector, it was at the beginning of transitioning and sex was then still very obvious. The job in question did not involve counselling women, but travelling throughout Scotland to educate and train the men and women who work in professions that come into contact with victims of sexual violence.

Mridhul was reportedly doing a good job and so landed the same kind of job working for Rape Crisis Scotland. Again, no counselling of victims involved.

Mridhul then received a national Scottish award in 2015 as an outstanding LGBT campaigner and gave a speech about being trans.

The first job as manager of Forth Valley Rape Crisis came after that. They appointed Mridhul knowing that this would mean having a male manager.

Unfortunately, the misconception that Mridhul lied about being male to get a job in the women's sector is given much support by Mridhul reportedly saying "no one asked about my sex, so I didn't tell" (or some such thing). The reason why no one would have asked at the point of getting that first ever job in the women's sector is because it wasn't necessary or relevant, as that wasn't the kind of role the occupational requirement is intended for. (There is no reason why someone who trains external professionals, both male and female, on how to better serve victims of sexual violence, both male and female, should have to be female and not male.)

If we continue to be outraged about something that Rape Crisis Scotland knows did not actually happen, our protests will continue to be dismissed as malicious gossip and harassment.

[CrumpetShaw]

"She is reported to have left the party in December after MSPs overwhelmingly backed an amendment in Holyrood to allow survivors of rape and sexual assaults to pick the sex rather than the gender of the person examining them.She tweeted that she “could no longer call it home" . How DARE she think it's OK to tell traumatised women they have to accept a male-bodied person intimately examining them!! It makes me sick. She doesn't care about victims of rape. She only cares about furthering her own agenda.

[CrumpetShaw]

Ps thank you for the share token x

[Carriemac]

Well they lied by applying for this current post then .

[Helleofabore]

I hear you Charley. However, applying for a role that stated it was invoking the exclusion would be construed as knowingly being deceptive in applying in the first place.

[Helleofabore]

X post Carriemac

[ProfessorInkling]

What.