Mridul Wadwha and the thought police

[IamSarah]

Great article in Spiked Online about Mridul Wadwha's latest shenanigans:

www.spiked-online.com/2022/02/01/the-thought-police-are-here/

To briefly summarise:

• Mridul was born male

• Mridul is legally male with no GRC

• Mridul is the CEO of Edinburgh Rape crisis

• Mridul claims women who want female only rape crisis services are bigoted and should 'reframe their trauma'

• The CEO of a domestic violence charity Nicola Murray stopped referring women to Mridul's rape crisis service due to Mridul's misogyny

• Mridul reported Nicola Murray to the police for committing a hate crime

• The police actually visited Nicola Murray to question her thinking

Barley do you think women who have been raped should have the option of a single sex rape crisis group?

Do we really live in a world where it's considered "hate" for women to ask for single sex anything, AKA no penises?

On Mridul planet it seems so.

@IamSarah

Barley do you think women who have been raped should have the option of a single sex rape crisis group?

Personally if someone wants to set up a group for women born biologicallly female then I wouldn't have a huge problem with that in the context of a properly funded VAWG sector that meets everyone's need. But Edinburgh Rape Crisis have chosen to offer a service which is inclusive to trans people and under 18 year old males and that is also their right. And there is clearly a demand for that, in their most recent published report they say they supported over 650 service users and delivered nearly 2000 appointments so clearly it is a well used and popular service.

But they had that.

And because (I guess) no one wants to give more money (including a well funded LGBT charity) they can’t have it anymore.

I have evaluated a number of charity services and all of them will tell you that they have x nós of service users which means that they must be offering a great service

What they very rarely factor in is that they are providing the only service of that type in the area so it’s their service or no service

If Edinburgh rape crisis centre are the only rape crisis centre in Edinburgh so it’s them or nothing id query how much of a choice biological women actually have

And there is clearly a demand for that, in their most recent published report they say they supported over 650 service users and delivered nearly 2000 appointments so clearly it is a well used and popular service.

Some women are still going, so who gives a fuck about the women who don't feel able to access the service, eh?

Healthcare and support services are not businesses. It's not a simple matter of determining whether you ave enough custom to justify the number of staff you have, because it is not a Dominos Pizza franchise!

It is a rape crisis service, supposed to meet needs of all women in the area. It is no longer doing so. I have seen accounts from women saying they feel unable to use the service for myself.

I think rape victims need a service they can access comfortably. All rape victims need this. Some rape victims want a single sex service. Why is that difficult to accommodate?

It's interesting that in about 2016 Edinburgh Rape Crisis published a report giving a survivor's experience of reporting her rape, and her recommendations, and one of them was the exact same thing for which Wadhwa flounced out of the SNP when they later voted for it in Johann Lamont's amendment.

Ie female police and justice system support after rape.

@PurgatoryOfPotholes

And there is clearly a demand for that, in their most recent published report they say they supported over 650 service users and delivered nearly 2000 appointments so clearly it is a well used and popular service.

Some women are still going, so who gives a fuck about the women who don't feel able to access the service, eh?

Healthcare and support services are not businesses. It's not a simple matter of determining whether you ave enough custom to justify the number of staff you have, because it is not a Dominos Pizza franchise!

It is a rape crisis service, supposed to meet needs of all women in the area. It is no longer doing so. I have seen accounts from women saying they feel unable to use the service for myself.

And if they decided to only work with those born biologically female then the services would be removed for trans women, and quite possibly trans men, intersex women and non binary people would also not feel comfortable using them.

They are not a statutory public body, you might think they should be and I don;t think I'd disagree but they aren't, they are an independent charity funded by a mixture of charitable trust donations, lottery funding, council contracts and private donations and as such have the right to work with whichever service users they choose.

@DoubleYouOhEmAyEn

I think rape victims need a service they can access comfortably. All rape victims need this. Some rape victims want a single sex service. Why is that difficult to accommodate?

Exactly this. My local rape crisis centre made it very clear I wasn't welcome in their groups because I asked for a single sex group.

Mridul Wadwha has made it very clear that women will be 'challenged on their bigotry' if they ask for a single sex group.

Most female survivors just can't be bothered to deal with that shit on top of dealing with their sexual violence.

"Intersex women".

Oh put a damn sock in it. You may like to hang out on ableist forums when you're not telling the mummies off here, but we don't want to put up with that shite here.

And if they decided to only work with those born biologically female then the services would be removed for trans women, and quite possibly trans men, intersex women and non binary people would also not feel comfortable using them.

So what about my local rape crisis service that has a dedicated trans, non binary and intersex group? And also welcomes trans women into the womens only groups? Trans women have 2 groups to choose from. T

Women like me who asked for one ADDITIONAL single sex group are refused and blocked.

Why would a rape crisis centre do that? Who is their priority?

@PurgatoryOfPotholes

"Intersex women".

Oh put a damn sock in it. You may like to hang out on ableist forums when you're not telling the mummies off here, but we don't want to put up with that shite here.

What is ableist about acknowledging the existence of intersex people? Do they not deserve services that meet their needs?

The constant force-teaming of people with medical conditions, and subtle othering of them, as if they aren't women. That's what.

You remind me of the kind of person who thinks people with Down Syndrome aren't human. If you don't like being so eeriely reminiscent of such people, take your foot out of your mouth, and put a sock in there instead.

fuck me Barley

all people with disorders of sexual development are male or female (because every human is)

fuck off with your othering of them

@PurgatoryOfPotholes

The constant force-teaming of people with medical conditions, and subtle othering of them, as if they aren't women. That's what.

You remind me of the kind of person who thinks people with Down Syndrome aren't human. If you don't like being so eeriely reminiscent of such people, take your foot out of your mouth, and put a sock in there instead.

I thought the general consensus here is that people like Castor Semanya aren't women. They still deserve services if they are sexually abused though and I'm glad that inclusive organisations exist which provide them. I'm not really interested in getting hung up on the topic except that they are one group likely to be excluded were Edinburgh Rape Crisis to change their policies and only offer a service to biologically born females.

@IamSarah

And if they decided to only work with those born biologically female then the services would be removed for trans women, and quite possibly trans men, intersex women and non binary people would also not feel comfortable using them.

So what about my local rape crisis service that has a dedicated trans, non binary and intersex group? And also welcomes trans women into the womens only groups? Trans women have 2 groups to choose from. T

Women like me who asked for one ADDITIONAL single sex group are refused and blocked.

Why would a rape crisis centre do that? Who is their priority?

The funding of VAWG services is in perpetual crisis and the sector is run by indepedent charities who can work with whichever services users they want. If you don't like that model, and there are good reasons not to, take it up with the government not the frontline organsations. It is not their fault if alternative provision does not exist and it is unfair to attack them for it. They have chosen to be a trans inclusive service, they are the ones getting up every morning to do the work and it is their right to decide what can of service they offer and who to - provided they remain within the Equality Act - and there is nothing in the act whch prevents service providers from offering a service to two different protected groups.

We've had a first hand report from woman on here of how a disinterested Mridul made a service user feel unsupported and uncomfortable.

And if they decided to only work with those born biologically female then the services would be removed for trans women, and quite possibly trans men, intersex women and non binary people would also not feel comfortable using them.

Women need a service and they overwhelmingly prefer female support. This is precisely why the Equality Act references rape survivor support groups as an example when describing why single sex spaces are sometimes necessary.

And why ERC specified a female was required for the role that Mridul took. Despite being male.

Rape victims are overwhelmingly female. And of course perpetrators male. There will be a very very small need for transwomen to access a service like this; Stonewall could probably offer individually tailored support without breaking stride. Yet they don't. Why is that?

Also recall that Women s shelters in Scotland lost funding to 'gender neutral' service provision. Company providing this was linked to Mriduls husband iirc.

barleybadminton 90% of adult rape survivors are women.

98% of people believe women should have the option of a single sex rape crisis group.

Women are being let down and gaslit by the organisations that are supposed to help them.

If it was your mum, sister or daughter who had been raped would you support her if she only wanted to recover with other females?

Or would you be like Mridul and tell her to reframe her trauma?

Stonewall could probably offer individually tailored support without breaking stride. Yet they don't. Why is that?

Because they have neither the funding in place or the expertise to do so.

If it was your mum, sister or daughter who had been raped would you support her if she only wanted to recover with other females?

I've been raped Sarah, I don't need to ask someone else's experience.

I've been raped Sarah, I don't need to ask someone else's experience.

That wasn't actually the question. Not what you are happy with, but what you would support for women.

Women need a service and they overwhelmingly prefer female support. This is precisely why the Equality Act references rape survivor support groups as an example when describing why single sex spaces are sometimes necessary.

This.

I've been raped Sarah, I don't need to ask someone else's experience.

I'm sorry that happened to you. Would you be able to talk about it with the embodiment of your rapist? Would you be able to talk about it in a women's group with a man, dressed in male clothes, leaning back and smiling at you? Because that's what happened to me.