Sarah Phillimore makes a great point in that X thread. She says:
This is a new and curious argument I have seen deployed frequently now. That we should ignore law or guidance which seeks to ensure X, because X won’t actually ever happen.
This is a point that bears making far more often. It's something women have been warning about on these boards since probably long before I first found FWR, but I've rarely seen it seriously made beyond them. Perhaps that's why there's a determined group of 'X' and Reddit posters who are determined to brand this site a hotbed of transphobia: because everywhere else, similar discussions have been censored, at least until recently.
As far as the GI movement at least is concerned, the more often the 'this never happens' attitude is repeated in internet slogans and at protests, the more entrenched it becomes. See also: 'predatory men are going to attack women regardless, so if female spaces are opened up to natal males, what difference does it make?' It's tantamount to putting your fingers in your ears and going 'la, la la', and places far too much faith on the word 'if' given women's safety and sometimes lives are what's at stake here.
Delighted to hear Joanna Cherry has been appointed to this role. We are in serious need of some balance here, to say the least.