I recently got a Pixy bob as a last-ditch self defence against the bloody nits my daughter has dragging in from school each day. Likewise, I no longer bother with make up (my skin thanks me) and I ditched high heels in favour of stompy boots after my second pregnancy.
By TRA standards I must have transitioned to a man.
However, this is where the double standards come in. I think the reason why the self-ID bill has been reduced to a name change on an electric bill is because anything else shows up the mysiogyny. How do you get a transman to "prove" they are living as a man? Not everyone wants crossed sex hormones or breast removal. (Which is fair). But plenty of old fashioned women have short hair, trousers and face hair, if nature wills it.
You can "prove" transwomen were such in the past because they opted for long skirts and hair in the past which had no social cachet. They were dressing down' from their social class. To do so in the face of public opprobrium meant they had to have a reason for it. Hence the argument that cross dressers were safer in the ladies. Which was then extended to every man who did not want to change anything at all except their access to bodies.
I might add at this juncture that I have no problem with men in skirts and I don't think a social lie is the equivalent to bio reality. However, back when it was the exception, not the rule, it was politely ignored.
If transpeople do not want the social formula to end up mean trans=pervert, they need to come down sharply on the side of safeguarding. Because the perverts will use the loophole (just as they did for scouts, church, celebrities etc.) and because we can't tell the difference between the trans person and a bad faith actor, we have to assume that are chancers.
As a mother, I will do whatever it takes within my power to protect my daughter. That means I will scream at the 30-year-old man in the ladies changing room, I will ask about mixed sex toilets at school and push safeguarding where I have to. Because if a man is in there, it's for validation or paraphilic reasons. A decent man would not cause us that distress. He would not want to be there. And yes, transwomen (or MtF, if that's your term) are included. They can use the men's or mixed sex. If they want to shout 'be kind,' do it at those men. But they won't - not will we see such campaigns
I include prisons and refuges in my fight that I will never be likely to use because, unlike the users, I am not hobbled by that burden of circumstances and I have a voice I can use to help them. Rapists should be never be locked up with women and it horrified me that this present government has allowed it. It horrifies me that a future Labour administration would cheer it on. We are asking for really basic protections; the right not to be raped, harassed or abused when in a state of undress or vulnerability.