Lorraine - I hope you read this post. I thought the article in The Guardian today was interesting, especially your comments on the Stock interview. I wonder if you have read her book because you say you pride yourself in discussing both parts of the argument together.
It’s interesting you mention your views on transgender men were formed by the ‘old-style’ type that was a bus driver. I knew a bus driver like this too when I was a young girl, and they seemed nothing other than polite and kind. But also had a different experience - a man in a dress masturbating at us schoolgirls by the woman's toilet in the local park - so we all avoided the toilets, went the long way round and avoided him. Being ‘kind’, not making a fuss. I also wonder what became of both of them.
You also mention how much Dunblane affected you (me also). The evil perpetrator was an ex-scout leader. Along with Jimmy Saville and countless others, he got himself into work with children and vulnerable people. It’s a fact that most violence is committed by men and men that transition/pretend to transition have the same offending rates. I have been threatened by a man with a weapon when I was a child. I was just about to go into a toilet - luckily I didn’t so I was out in the open. Horrendously my daughters (younger than yours) already know girls who have been raped. I know my offender got 3 months in jail. The CPS have dropped the charges against the rapes.
You are so close to getting to the point of view of the women on this board.
It’s about prevention when it comes to safeguarding. We are not trying to take away anyones rights. We are trying to keep our own. And childrens. And that means difficult conversations that take a while to explain, because we want to show, like JK Rowling, that our life experiences have taught us that we need to stick up for women. Even the definition of women. So that we keep our rights and safety.