Safe spaces for women (and anyone else who says they’re a woman) help by completing Leeds survey

[Ouchiebum]

Leeds council are consulting on creating safe spaces for women. But not just for women. For anyone who identifies as a woman ie men and women, therefore giving people who are most likely to harm women ie men access to the space designed to keep them safe.

I am really annoyed about this survey and am asking as many of you as possible to complete it to point out that women needs safe spaces based on sex. Not on how people feel.
https://surveys.leeds.gov.uk/s/OWA2023/?dm_i=7IRL,39I6,19VMAF,C5JW,1

I think is fair.

I’m mostly flabbergasted that a local authority - you know, actual local government - have just straight up told people that they’ve no intention of this being proper research or consultation. They’re not interested in learning what people think. They’re touting for ‘data’ to confirm and enable what they already want to do. They actually say this in the intro.

I shouldn’t be. I know lots about local authority consultation practice, and most of it tells me they’re only interested in looking at it from their own perspective.

It doesnt matter. As long as we get our say and its recorded that we will not be ignored, that's peachy.

It's a rung in the ladder that we are dissatisfied with gender woo.

When it finally ends, which it will, this will lead to us being incarcerated but that too is peachy.

They might ‘redact’ it all as ‘hate speech’ of course.

I don't see how they could redact mine as "hate" speech. I didn't even mention trans people.

Unless reminding them that sex and preg&mat are EA2010 protected characteristics is now deemed "hate" speech...

Yes, quite possibly (mad as it seems). The recent poll my Sex Matters found that support for the Stonewall position on gender identify and women's spaces was actually higher among women than men.

How has Leeds gone from the place where the original Reclaim the Night protests began, to this rubbish?

RTN was a grassroots protest about West Yorks Police curfewing women, IIRC. So Leeds has actually stayed the same in terms of levels of misogyny coming from public authorities.

But it was about safe spaces? Unless I misunderstood? One of the purposes of the survey seemed to be to understand the potential demand for an app that could be used to direct women and girls to nearby safe spaces. I'd imagine that at least some of these safe spaces would be adverstied as women-only, in which case it is absolutely relevant to understand if they are actually also open to men.

I am well aware of the origins, just horrified that the city council is still so regressive, forty + years on! Mind you I do know it's the same council that backed the Holbeck experiment.

Done. Thanks for sharing.

Done... shocking survey .... but duly made some good points .

I have travelled all over the uk for work, and solo travelled internationally for work and pleasure, including to India and Thailand. The only place I have been assaulted, is Leeds, twice actually, neither of them serious, thank goodness.
Many apologies to all those that live in Leeds, but, to use the words of a female ex MP, I feel ‘there is something of the night about it’ , 24 hours a day.
I have filled in the consultation, such as it is, I can tell you that I know the SEX of both the assailants (men) and it wouldn’t have mattered what gender they were projecting at the time, I’d have known they were men. The only difference may have been that any slight hesitation on my part, whilst I weighed up the situation, could have resulted in a far worse outcome for me.

If you do not not Leeds council to know where you are and where you have picked up this survey ie MN you need to reject all cookies as Leeds pick up the link using cookies.

Me too.

I've also pointed out that an app that finds safe spaces for 'people who identify as women' would make me feel unsafe.

Do you think the survey was really 'created by women'?

whoever wrote it out ‘cis women’ last on their list of women they welcome, after trans women and non binary women.

Doesn’t mean it wasn’t written by a woman priding herself in what an incredible ‘ally’ she is though.

But pointing out that sex is important in this respect doesn’t undermine the survey, it strengthens it. So win win.

It is about dressing how you like, being the person you want to be

The problem here is that the person someone wants to be is definitely not the person you would want to encounter in the women’s toilets. The sort of person that gets sent to prison for rape, for example.

Ha I noticed this, the non binary woman. They don’t even adhere to their own ideology

Done

If there's point-scoring in such an important context, surely it's on the part of the council? They didn't have to asterisk women, and proactively link them with “hate” - warning women and girls that they ‘stand against’ their hateful views.

The idea that women are disproportionately hateful towards trans people (even though it’s other males who assault TW) because their fears and concerns about men aren’t alleviated by “transition”, is pernicious misogyny and male supremacism.

That their municipal authority openly takes this view will make many Leeds women and girls feel less safe.

Giving this another bump in case anyone has missed it and wants to complete it.

I filled it out twice as I realised I had so much more to say 😀

Survey is recommended. Some daft questions but lots of text boxes to explain why they are daft. Years ago I did some work around issues with the nighttime economy in Leeds, with some very good people employed by Leeds City Council. My understanding is that things have improved. Maybe the people I knew have left. I can’t see them putting something like this out.

BBC are now promoting this survey: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-65961217 with an inaccurate title: "Leeds women urged to contribute to city safety plan", when if you click on the survey it's clearly still requesting for "someone who identifies as a woman", not an actual woman.

The article also should have a warning, as the further clarification of woman in the survey states "trans, non binary and cis women" which contains a slur.