Is anyone else finding being gender critical has affected their mental health?

[BluebellBlueballs]

Maybe I need to take a step back but that feels like capitulation.
I just feel I am being persecuted for my beliefs.
Two people in my life one a sibling one a friend, both men, have washed their hands of me completely after finding out I joined women's gender critical networks.

Told I'm in a hate group etc.

I used to be quite open about being GC because I didn't think I was doing anything wrong. I guess I thought of it as like joining extinction rebellion or something, OK some people don't want it forced down their throats but no need to lie or hide my activities. But it's not like that at all.

I've had a sort of mh crisis over being cut off by people close to me, and others not so close to me, for having what I see as a difference of an opinion over TWAW. But I'm being made to feel like I've joined the ku klux klan.

Sometimes I wonder if its worth it any more but that's how this movement seems to operate, by shaming the heretics into silence.

Can anyone relate?

Chats about cheese, swapping recipes, chats about cake, favourite drinks....

Hi everyone, can we get some peace and love on this thread please?

Sorry, but what does this even mean?

It means this thread is being watched and HQ are probably fielding reports about it. It's a heads up to keep within guidelines so the thread can stay. Although guidelines are not always clear, it's better to lose the odd post than the whole thread.

I saw someone posting about this thread on twitter 2 days ago, quoting the OP and my earlier posts. They are not happy but MN will let us keep discussing if they can.

I know it's annoying but MN was one of the only places that let women talk about the impact of gender ideology on women's rights and what self ID, etc. could mean for us and for our children and I'm always mindful of that and grateful for it.

My MH has been suffering since 2016 and the referendum campaign, followed by two hasty general elections, the total clusterfuck of Brexit and Johnson and Truss, and the cost of living. I lost three friends because they supported everything that has happened in the last 7 years.

But I’m new to the trans debate and the discovery that I’m gender critical. The friends and family I’ve talked about it with seem to broadly agree even if they’ve never really thought about it much before. I’m always swapping books with my sister, and as she’s a mum to teenage boys and also a health visitor, I gave her Hannah Barnes book about GIDS at the Tavistock, and she was enthralled by it, even phoning me last week to remind me to watch the ITV programme about it, and asking if she can lend the book to other people.

My niece, a Labour activist in her late 20s who works at a university, seemed rather disapproving when I joked “I’m a terf now, you know”, but she has always been on the same political page as me and I know she values my opinions, so time will tell on that one.

So far then, I’ve not had any social grief over being GC, but it’s not much of an issue here in rural Devon anyway, and I’m retired so don’t have to worry about work implications (although of course Maya Forstater and others have now established it’s perfectly legal to believe sex is immutable).

But I am exhausted by the polarisation of everything else, the constant culture wars, the setting people against each other, the feeling that there will never be societal harmony again. It’s so depressing. What will the next thing be that winds us all up?

So

Ot is ok for the trans movement to be victims of a genocide of suicides because … persecution.
But if someone on here talks about it being hard to be ostracised because they know their biological facts it must still all be peace and love?

ok

I’m just not sure this is a peace and love type of topic, unless women can’t speak about our real experiences and feelings. Would that it were!

This is the thing that winds me up above all else,

if it was across the board then I would still think its very very stupid but I’d appreciate that it was the ‘new’ thing to do

but its virtually always only women so they can get to fuck, its not inclusive at all and anyone who says it is is either a liar or very stupid….or they think I am stupid, which is worse

💐 to everyone who is struggling with friendship groups

apart from my children who think i talk about it to much (usually on the back of a thread on here so its mumsnets fault 😉) I don’t have an issue with friends or family with the exception of one person

this one person has a trans child and although they know I am supportive of them I refuse to be a cheerleader and i think they struggle with that…its no loss, luckily they weren’t a very close friend but i do hope they are ok

This

the vast majority of the population is not gender critical or a tra

they just don’t believe you can change sex and have issues with ‘some’ aspects of it

there are obviously some people who call themselves gender critical and have more information and knowledge

also tra means trans rights activist, its not a slur….its a statement of fact, they actively ‘work’ for trans rights

There's absolutely nothing posted on this thread that could come even close to delete-worthy.

If GCs can't even have an outlet for reporting their stress and mourning of relationships lost to this ideology, while the Reddit trans groups can be as loud as they like, then I can only draw another, negative, conclusion.

If they don't believe you can change sex, I think they are gender critical. The TRAs have made up stuff about what GC actually means in order to spin their alleged victim status. Don't fall for it.

Yes, because standing up to modern ideologies is exhausting, realising how stupid most of humanity is and how easily people submit to a few loud voices is rather demotivating.

Can’t relate I’m far too busy and have bigger and realer issues to dwell on. Where do you have time to focus on these things?
perhaps they just got a little fed up of you making mountains out of mole hills.

People find time for things that motivate them and which they consider of great importance and value.

Not sure why you even bothered to post at all if this issue is of no consequnece to you.

Manyb people are not naturally political creatures, they go with the herd; those that post here tend to be politically tuned in. It's not for. everyone, though - but someone has to do it.

I am not falling for anything

gender critical means critical of gender , lots of people haven’t thought twice about gender or it’s stereotyping but they are still very well aware the humans can’t change sex

Gosh… and yet you found time to admonish the OP!

@Mumtothreegirlies As a mother of 3 girls, this issue is extremely relevant to you.

Not too busy to post though eh?

Not girls, “girlies”.

i don’t understand why people bother to post on threads that they are not interested in…mainly to say that they aren’t interested

i bet there are loads of threads they wouldn’t bother on

problems with MIL - can’t relate, not interested

parking problems - can’t relate, not interested

it actually suggests that they aren’t busy at all …

is “peace and love” a euphemism for “lighten up”?

Theres hardly a lot of petty fighting here (just some discussion with the resident sea lion), mostly just women sad and disillusioned at being treated as bigots for believing in biological reality

I've said this on here before but I am yet to meet anyone who disagree with me on this subject.

Most people I know couldn't care less if someone wants to present as a stereotypical version of the opposite sex and certainly have no hatred for anyone who does. We just all agree that humans can not change sec and in certain circumstances, we need single sex spaces to be retained.

Luckily it hasn't affected my mental health but I'm constantly baffled by the people going along with it. I think they are the opposite of progressive. Maybe they are transprogressive!

I have been deleted twice this week for saying someone displayed their own lack of thinking and that was an issue that they had to deal with. Two different people on two different threads where the poster was goading.

I suspect there is also some heavy reporting happening at the moment to go with the loud refrain of accusations reaching a crescendo again.

I've linked up with a couple of GC guys from MN as a result of my posts. Poor bastards! Lol.

My heart goes out to all those who've suffered genuine loss. My advice, after a year of therapy and self reflection, is to compartmentalize feelings. There's so little we can do to change outcomes, but that doesn't mean we can't talk about the subject where safe and practical.

We can also get deep feelings of self worth by realising we're principled and human on this, we didn't pick any fights, we didn't choose to be science deniers.

In the darkest moments, remember we're good people, in a very uneven and unpredictable world.

For me, this is my salvation. Having come on here to realise I'm not so isolated. Seeing the level of humanity from the women and mums here. And realising I'm not the intransigent or reality denying one.

Add me to those who’ve been deleted for a post containing only a biscuit when faced with an OP that was clearly written to goad.

Also recently for mentioning castration when not talking about cats and dogs.