Experiences of a Trans Person

[invalide]

I think it might be healthy to document here the experiences of someone from the other side, and for you to pay it some mind.

I'm an early-twenties STEM student working in renewable energies, and outside of my course I'm a photographer and musician. I've travelled a fair amount and adore my home country of Scotland. Living in Glasgow, I have found a queer community of beautiful people who create a joy to everyday life I treasure.

At the beginning of this month there was a 'Let Women Speak' rally held here that some of you here attended; I have seldom felt more unwelcome and stripped of dignity than while in your crowd, carrying out my photojournalistic duties (images 1&2). While capturing Kellie-Jay Keen pathologising my friends as subhuman perverts and members of the crowd flaunting their homophobia and their use of dogwhistles (subliminal far-right messaging) I was being brazenly looked up and down, receiving steely gazes and pursed lips and hushed whispers behind my back. While photographing the first speaker after Keen, who began her piece portraying autistic people as children devoid of agency, I was approached by one of you who made it clear I looked too queer for their liking and was squaring up for assault. I made my way out at this point (captured at 8:42 here and 9:09 here).
The atmosphere your movement brought to George Square was one I've only before experienced while documenting far-right rallies in Eastern Europe, where I have been hounded through the streets and beaten up for the same reason. I assure you, your ideology would feel very much at home there.

At the other side of the square things couldn't have been more different, you were bathed in colour and music and hugs and laughter, the place is full of friends dancing and dressed resplendent in whatever camp pretty things they felt like (images 2&3).

Ours was a crowd of locals; I strained to hear a Glasgow accent in yours.

Ours is a city that at short notice manages to fill the top of Buchanan Street (image 5) in solidarity with the queer community - the last time I saw it like this was during COP26. It's one that fills George Square in a candlelit vigil for Brianna Ghey.

Your movement has meant I'm called a pervert and a groomer while going about my average daily life. Our morally vacuous, increasingly fascist political class (thinking also of Magnus Hirschfeld and of Martin Niemöller's famous poem) is picking up what you've started and they're running with it. You may not call yourself a homophobe, a white nationalist or an antisemite, but you're sitting awfully comfortably considering that those that do find your movement incredibly attractive.

People troll these threads for screenshots, of course, but that isn't our fault.

Indeed.

Some of those screenshot seekers have even been forced to join MN and create those screenshots themselves because those brazen bloody women with their pursed lips wouldn't provide the evidence the screenshot seekers insisted was everywhere.

I don't think many people have issues around having to have a DRB check, do they? (I know there was huffing and puffing at the inconvenience when they were introduced) But that was introduced as a direct result of a flaw in the system being spectacularly, and tragically, exposed.

Same with the private ownership of firearms. One incident, again a devastating and awful tragedy, led to the immediate tightening up of firearm ownership rules.

So, in theory, if we look at the girl that was attacked in a supermarket toilet, one attack has exposed a terrible flaw in current practice. So how are we going to deal with that? (my preference? 3rd spaces)

EpicChaos · Yesterday 23:45

. . . @Boiledbeetle is a woman after my own heart where glace cherries are concerned - yum yums, as are cocktail cherries and those still on stalks in greengrocer shops.

I'm very partial to those juicy black Amareno cherries & stock up on them whenever Lidl or Aldi have them in as an Italian week 'special'.

(am now craving cherry pie filling and cheese on toast. roll on lunchtime)

"There is a safe middle ground that can be found, I truly believe that"

What middle ground exists that does not let males of any identity into female spaces?
Because the "middle ground" here means saying that SOME males can get in and some cannot.

And because SOME males are predatory scumbags that want to hurt women and girls, we therefore chose to let NO men into our spaces for our protection.

It's a really simple concept but one that seems to anger a lot of people. I question the morality and sanity of anyone actually FIGHTING to let men into women's spaces, to make it that bit easier for the wrong kind of man to have an opportunity to hurt someone.

Trans women, as I've said, could be the nicest most law abiding folks there are.
But they are STILL part of the group that commits 99% of sexual assaults and violent crime. The stats stay the same.
And because remain males with male patterns of behaviour, they should not be in female spaces.
Any female arguing that they should be, is literally throwing the safety of women to the wolves.

A simple concept for most of us.

And even if every male has been personally soul screened by Layla Moran and is absolutely lovely and safe, there are still women who cannot use mixed sex spaces, who do not perceive that a male has changed sex, and are therefore excluded from spaces and any provision at all to permit this male person additional choices .

It is not ok to exclude women. It's not. They're not a sub species.

Trans women, as I've said, could be the nicest most law abiding folks there are.
But they are STILL part of the group that commits 99% of sexual assaults and violent crime. The stats stay the same.
And because remain males with male patterns of behaviour, they should not be in female spaces.

Also, I simply don't believe these
male people are women. It's an ideological belief I don't share, and believe is harmful, and in this country thankfully we have freedom of belief. I don't want to share spaces where I am vulnerable and expect to be with women only, with male people. My privacy and dignity is important. My feelings matter as much as those of any male.

Do you think all priests are paedophiles? Or all scoutmasters? Do you think men that want to worship God or get boys out into the open-air are all perverts?

Or do you think that paedophiles and perverts realised that priests and scoutmasters were in a unique position to access boys, out of the public eye and away from guardians and parents and therefore were drawn to the professions?

Have you heard of the men who deliberately became schoolmasters or took up policing as an entire career, in order to access vulnerable children and victims? One even bought his own school!

The reason eg the priesthood was statistically more likely to involve paedophilia, is precisely because priests were treated like a secret caste who could do no wrong. Indeed, even when they were caught, they were merely moved to a different parish. Happy days for a nonce.

Trans activists have successfully campaigned for there to be not a single solitary space for women and girls to be, especially when they are naked. Including prison. When they go to the toilet with a knickers down, when they take the clothes off or foe for bra fittings, or having intimate care down or when they talk about their rape. They are not allowed to do it without men present. But only a certain cohort of men. Those in the secret caste.

Giving an entire cohort of men this kind of power, this kind of access is going to lead to every predator, pervert and deviant in the country signing up.

The best bit?

There is no criteria, other than saying some words out loud.

You don't have to study for years, or show up at a scout meeting every week, or buy a school. Just say some words. And if the women wont comply, you can fucking threaten then with violence.

Take the cohort of trans women, the ones you're defending. First of all they are male. Males constitute 98% of all sex offenders. This is the reason we segregate.

Secondly, a significant number of those men are what MPs call erotic cross dressers. Their demand for access already involves sexual arousal. Thirdly, they are five times more likely to commit sex crime than other men, according to statistics.

And finally, even men who had not the slightest intention of identifying as trans, will do so, because they are being provided with unprecedented opportunity to access vulnerable women and girls. The 'sacred caste' protection.

not to mention, most women don't want to get undressed with even the most benign of men. I don't want to disrobe in front of my father-in-law, and he's delightful.

The answer is no. And you are not ever going to shame women for pointing out the, frankly numerous, reasons why.

Absolutely.
Just the fact that women don't want men in their protected spaces FOR ANY REASON including that they JUST DON'T should be enough.
There shouldn't have to be any qualifiers.

But it is never enough.

Yep, just reminds me of that “Behold! A man has arrived to share his opinions” meme.

Not all men, not all transwomen, but we all grew up with exposure to exhibitionists ('flashers' ha ha what a joke) and voyeurs ('peeping toms' ha ha what a joke), neither particularly rare, neither ever welcome, and until a decade or so back there was a chance that the cops would respond to a report, or that the school would send round a warning message, but now?

Now the exhibitionist and the flasher can declare themselves transwomen, claim that gives them a right to access all women's spaces, and attack as 'bigots' the women who refuse to change their lifetime practise and welcome this. Women who have dealt with creepy men all their lives, and who know that boundaries are stretchy, and that sexual aggression against women should be taken seriously.

You do realise that the "this never happens" posts are in response to the posts stating that transwomen pose no threat to women, right? They're showing that that claim is as inaccurate and full of wishful thinking as the idea that men pose no danger to women. (You'll notice that I've actually found some examples of posts for the claim I'm making.)

"There is a safe middle ground that can be found, I truly believe that"

We were told very recently on a thread, another one started by a male person - this one about male people using female single sex spaces that a 'compromise' was available.

What was the compromise? Well it was not clear.

But it seemed the compromise was that we 'listen' to these male people. We continue to campaign for single sex spaces to never include male people over a certain age. While understanding that some male people will still use those spaces as they have done until such times as laws are tightened.

Like we are not fucking doing that right now!!!

Fuck me it was a confusing thread where we were being scolded by posters for using blunt words, while one of those posters used inflammatory language (while denying they were inflammatory). All the while we were being told to compromise while it seemed to also mean 'aligning with male allies who still insist on using the female single sex spaces while ultimately working to exclude them from those spaces'.

It is nothing new really. But it is farcical to see it in action. It is very much 'I don't want to be seen as aligning with you evil, mean women, but the reality is that I do, I will just scold you and distance myself. Because you loudly say no, and I, well I want to be seen as the 'reasonable' poster. Even though I am just repeating what many of you have said just as reasonably over the past years.'

Alternatively, "There is a safe middle ground that can be found, I truly believe that"

means, 'I will allow some male people to have access to female single sex spaces even if this excludes other female people, because I prioritise those male people'.

There are a few different ways this plays out.

Flashers and peeping tom behaviour is always illegal though.
Whether you're trans of not has nothing to do with it.

Just the fact that women don't want men in their protected spaces FOR ANY REASON including that they JUST DON'T should be enough.
There shouldn't have to be any qualifiers.

But it is never enough.

The reason it is not enough? Social and structural sexism and misogyny, including that internalised by women and girls, that is baked into the way we all process the world.

I'm a middle-aged perfectly healthy pagan Lesbian and I don't want to share women's bathrooms, changing rooms, sport teams, Lesbian social groups, etc., any women's spaces with biological men. Full stop.

I have NO sympathy; I simply do not care about men's aka transwomen's feelings.

Whether you're trans of not has nothing to do with it.

I quite agree. Some male people are flashers and peeping toms. It has nothing to do with gender identity. This is something that women and girls would be generally rather not be exposed to, so we have female only spaces and safeguarding measures.

This is such a good post.

And of course it's true. My DH was abused when he was in care as a child, by a man who deliberately took a job as a houseparent in a children's home. The man was not qualified for the post but in the 1950s there were no safeguards for children.

The man has served a long prison sentence now (thanks to one brave man who took out a private prosecution) but the number of boys and girls who the houseparent sexually abused has only just started to come to light, thanks to the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry.

This 👏

Here's the middle ground: stop calling me a Nazi for wanting boundaries across men won't pass. And I'll accept that as an apology.

I applaud your son, and obviously by extension his mother's parenting skills!😁

I think that's more evidence of a failure of reading comprehension than anything else I'm afraid. That's a bit of a crowbarred one. Try again.

“Do you not see that misogyny and anti-queer violence are two cheeks of the same arse?”

thats a very MALE metaphor youve used there.🙄

CremeEggQueen · Today 11:48
Flashers and peeping tom behaviour is always illegal though.
Whether you're trans of not has nothing to do with it.

EXACTLY! You're getting it - and one way to reduce the incidence those crimes is to keep males out of women's spaces.