Independent Woman email

[YorkshirePuddingsGreatestFan]

It's never been harder to be a woman... and today, my thoughts are with our trans sisters. For while it is difficult (impossible, at times) to go through life as a cis woman – when our reproductive rights are being eroded in 'modern-day' America and our bodily autonomy taken away; when "Your body, my choice" is echoed in the mouths of misogynistic men on the streets and on social media; when women in Afghanistan are banned from showing their faces or hearing each other's voices – now, a startling Supreme Court ruling has effectively outlawed and excluded trans women from all public spaces.

That this can happen in Britain, under a Labour government – that it can stand on the shoulders of our deep-rooted values of diversity, inclusion and tolerance – is unthinkable, bordering on perverse. It was with a deep sense of shame and solidarity that I spoke to the journalist Diana Thomas, who writes for us on Voices, this week – about how this ruling will directly impact her life and the lives of other trans women (and your lives, too).

She told me she was barely able to watch the ruling come in, because she was so terrified about its impact. "Our lives are at stake," she said. "It's devastating. I will now be excluded from all women's spaces." Diana made an important point that is all too often missing (or misunderstood): that this ruling affects only trans women, not trans men – that of the infinitesimally small percentage of trans people within our community (0.055%), this impacts approximately half of those.

And so, this tiny number of vulnerable trans women (let's not forget that the trans community is the most targeted group within the LGBT+ community as a whole) now have nowhere to go; are effectively being told they don't – can't – belong to British society... because of what? Lack of proof about the impact of trans women on cis women, and a movement funded by the far right in America.

As my colleague Kat Brown pointed out, this ruling also means that any woman who doesn’t resemble some mythical feminine ideal also risks being challenged in loos and changing rooms – and indeed, this has already happened to Kat (she stands at a statuesque 6'1").

First, they came for trans women. The question we now need to ask is: who’s next?

Victoria Richards
Voices editor

What a load of melodramatic tosh!

I agree. If the whole Trans thing had stayed as a small number of people with genuine gender dysphoria then very few people would have really cared about their inclusion in day to day spaces like women’s loos and suchlike. But the loud trans activists insisted that TW=W and that any man who says he’s a woman today should have full access to all women’s spaces, sports and healthcare. That is what pushed us into today’s ruling, and I do have a lot of sympathy with those that just wanted to quietly get on with living their lives.

Me too!

I don't get '... that this ruling only affects transwomen...' when it doesn't.

Are they all such clowns?

– now, a startling Supreme Court ruling has effectively outlawed and excluded trans women from all public spaces.
😂😂😂

I know I shouldn't laugh... but... < snorts >

So do they all get rounded up by .. army? Police? a special task force? and sent to a special place it they dare to set foot outside their front door?

What a wanker 😂😂

It sounds like a Monty Python sketch!

More than one perspective is possible.

But you know the old saying 'You're entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts'? That applies to perspectives too.

If you've been on FWR much, you'll know that we tend to prioritise facts and base our opinions and perspectives on facts, rather than vice versa.

So when somebody writes something that's not based on facts - like
has effectively outlawed and excluded trans women from all public spaces.
and
a movement funded by the far right in America
it's likely that the general 'perspective' on here is going to disagree - vehemently in some cases! - with what VR wrote.

Other perspectives are possible, but will be questioned on the basis of fact.

Well said MarieDeGournay 👏

What a hilarious pile of wank from a ridiculous “news” channel. Of course the ruling applies to “trans men” in the same way. Idiots.

Diana has always been very strong on 'identify as' not 'identify with '

If Diana had the first clue about women's experience they would know why they shouldn't be on a female ward and would be falling over themselves to make sure the women's needs were met, even if it meant Diana had a crap time.

Because that, not clothing, is step 101 of womaning.

Congratulations to anyone who got passed 'trans sisters'

Omg what bollocks. And made it ‘all about them’ again!!

That’s ok. You can setup facilities, services and sports and share them with transwomen. What this ruling is making possible is that if you say women only, it is women only. Otherwise you just say mixed sex.

and you can’t setup male only and mixed sex and not women only unless you have a very good, justifiable aim for it (looking at you, rape crisis centers).

so what is there to complain about?

It's not a perspective it's a fact.

Can anyone explain the logic that it doesn’t affect Transmen?

We don't all have to believe what you believe.

Couldn't get past 'It's never been harder to be a woman' tbh.

I really think it has.

I don't have any issues with anyone disagreeing with me. Zero. I'm happy to be respectfully able to agree to disagree.

I think @ClawsandEffect is just on a wind up now.

Nope, not at all. But it isn't on to dictate to anyone. I completely understand that not everyone shares my POV and that the GC can hold quite strong positions on the issue. But that perspective is not the only one.

The bit that really got me was comparing the effects of this ruling on transwomen with the plight of women in Afghanistan. Horrendous! How fucking DARE you?
Just... arrrgh!

It was never ok though. They were always men encroaching on women's privacy. And they always wanted to be seen as actual women.

The suffragettes had it easy

My stepdaughter is 6'1". She's also quite slim and doesn't have huge breasts. But she's very clearly female and has never been challenged in a women's loo.

now, a startling Supreme Court ruling has effectively outlawed and excluded trans women from all female single sex public spaces.

Phew, that was causing my eyes to itch. I didn't read beyond this to be honest.

I'm interested in learning about what you actually believe.
Do you think there are any differences between a man and a woman, or are they both "any adult, male or female"?

I'll understand if you don't know, but please have the honesty to say so instead of pretending I've asked something else or just dodging the question. I'm asking in the spirit of trying to understand the perspective that sex is irrelevant to being a man or woman.

I'm not gender critical. I support trans rights as a feminist.

I'm aware you have a very strong opinion to the contrary which I find perfectly acceptable, I just happen to not share that opinion.