Does anyone else feel disheartened?

[ItsCoolForCats]

I was so elated at the ruling and the implications for women's sex-based protections.

And I am happy that certain media outlets have realised (begrudgingly in some cases) that refusing to air the concerns of women over the last decade has lead to a very one-sided debate. It's great to see orgs such as Sex Matters being quoted so extensively now.

However, I'm really disheartened by the sheer scale of the push back and by the fact that so many women don't support the ruling. I mean, why would anyone think that women don't deserve fair and safe sporting opportunities, for example? Why is it always women that are expected to forgo their rights?

The Supreme Court ruling should be definitive, but it doesn't feel like the end. There is the judge bringing the case to the ECHR (I know some legal experts have dismissed any chances of success), but I think activists are going to pile a lot of pressure on the government to make concessions and look at amending the law. The disquiet about the ruling amongst so many Labour MPs about the ruling is concerning me.

Is anyone else feeling a bit dejected?

Sort of. I was so relieved that the SC did its job. But the consequence is also that the TRA backlash is infecting social media, and my teen DD has suddenly started telling me again how 'offensive' I am and how 'you obviously haven't even heard of Brianna Ghey'. That sentence alone appeared to me to be the perfect microcosm of what is wrong with society.
My DD - and she will be only one of so many - has chosen to believe factually incorrect nonsense spouted by unknowns on the Internet over her own parents, and to conflate that factually incorrect nonsense (in this instance, she seemed to think that the killers hadn't been given custodial sentences) with the SC judgment in order to decide that she hated us because we 'hate trans people'. Apparently we 'hate trans people' because we tried to explain that the trial of Brianna Ghey's killers had been conducted properly and the killers given custodial sentences well in line with Sentencing Guidelines.
So I quickly moved from relief and happiness to complete despondency to be honest. It just feels intractable.

It's not surprising because it's not just, or even mainly, a legal thing. It's about people and what they believe to be true and good.

It's going to take a good many years for the committed believers to accept gender ideology is really damaging. And certain kinds of organisations are so full of these people, schools, the arts, universities.

The ruling will help the push back on this stuff begin seriously, but now it's also an operation to win hearts and minds.

Personally I think an important step will be change on the medical/science side.

"you obviously haven't even heard of Brianna Ghey"

"of course I have, what does he have to do with anything?"

I did for a while but the way more bodies/ companies are moving, plus bits that seem to be coming together re Cass, is making me more hopeful.

ppl in the arts are being total tits. There will be a lot of embarrassment soon.

I don’t feel at all disheartened. In fact, quite the opposite. Sure, there’s a very vocal push back from the usual suspects but in the real world we see universities, NHS trusts and other public bodies putting their policies ‘under review’ and on the sports field in only the past few days we see football, netball and cricket banning transwomen from the women’s game. I’d say the cards are falling pretty quickly. The insurance companies are going to be our most powerful allies in this battle.

I'm a millennial, but at the older end of the range. I am so grateful for everything the women before me did to fight for our sex-based rights, which is why it makes me despair when see the 'my feminism is intersectional and always will be" types seem so keen to give them away. And some of the guff they are coming out. I just can't get my head around it.

I think this is right, that there are many people who do quietly agree with the ruling (or who at least have some misgivings about self ID), and it is a loud, obnoxious minority who are dominating the discourse. And it is true what pp said that the TRAs are not going to give up without a fight. They have never been prepared to make concessions, which is why we ended up here

Great post. 💯this

That is really worrying. I think it's Tik Tok. There are seemingly intelligent young women on there extolling the virtues of intersectional feminism and saying that the ruling harms ALL women. And the video is viewed millions of times, and young people in the video can relate to the women who's made it, so they assume everything she's saying is true.

It was never going to b easy but we are making a lot of gains.

Plus the TA response has been disjointed.

Legally they seem to be relying on Agent Jolyon who has taken on 8 Trans cases and never won one or achieved anything than getting very well paid. GLP are not a serious threat. In fact anything they try may backfire because it will shift case law further in a pro reality direction. The attention and money they are taking will undermine the TAs significantly.

Politically the TA faction inside the Tories is done. Inside Labour it is getting increasingly marginalised. It is clear that the Labour leadership see nothing to be gained from supporting the TA stuff now.

Even the SNP are preventing TA groups from getting involved in providing advice.

The Lib Dems are desperately trying to find a way of following a middle road like Labour was doing previously without denying the law. It isn't sustainable.

The Greens are the most TA party going but they are fumbling their response badly and the fact is with more court cases coming for denying biology coming they might be forced into bankruptcy.

Meanwhile we have the slow grind of recapturing academia, local government business etc.

Yes. What you're hearing is the epic tantrum of a very loud, aggressive and militant segment of the population. But, offline and in the real world, less than 1 in 5 people (18%) of the population disagree with the SC judgment.

I tend to be glass half full.

Sports are tumbling. Other areas will follow.

Anyone who was scared to speak out in their own place of work now clearly have the law of their side, not just as a belief but a matter of law.

Organisations who acquiesced to avoid cancelling rather than from any conviction now can roll back hiding if needed behind the SC decision.

The full guidance will need to deal clearly with the 'what about the transmen' question though.

I was ecstatic initially but the pushback has been so disheartening. I stupidly expected people to accept the clarification by the SC however so much misinformation is being spread on SM and even watching TV last night a presenter on SKY sports, reporting on the ban on trans players playing in woman’s teams, was almost spitting in fury. He was scathing. They interviewed a female footballer in an inclusive team but no GC female player.

It’s a cult, a set of regressive ideas, an ideology.

look at any ex cult member and how hard they struggle with adjusting to civilian life. And these are people who knew it wasn’t right and had doubts.

the gender ideology doubters but went along with it will go through the next few months/years flip flopping between SC ruling being a good thing and it not. They’ll chop and change whilst their mind readjusts.

it’s the zealots making the noise that are the problem. Often autistic with rigid thinking being told no so their safe bubble is collapsing or fetishists throwing their toys out the pram in a rage they have to put their paraphillias back under the bed because mummy caught them.

I’m not worried. I have energy to carry on the fight.

it took years to get into this mess, it will take years to recover. But the progress recently has been fantastic. So the toddlers are having tantrums, when the grown ups ignore them it'll stop.

Nah, I'm still elated! It's like waking up each day and remembering it's christmas 😍

Muppets can 'push back' all they like, no political party, public body or private business wants to risk electoral wipe out, legal catastrophe and public humiliation by backing an ideology based in fantasy.

I'm hoping NHS Fife don't settle, for the pure joy of watching Naomi Cunningham eviscerate them on the world stage in real time.

Cheers!

Nah, I'm still elated! It's like waking up each day and remembering it's christmas 😍

Muppets can 'push back' all they like, no political party, public body or private business wants to risk electoral wipe out, legal catastrophe and public humiliation by backing an ideology based in fantasy.

I'm hoping NHS Fife don't settle, for the pure joy of watching Naomi Cunningham eviscerate them on the world stage in real time.

Cheers!

This thread has been so helpful.

OP, I've travelled the same arc as you - and was quietly horrified in a union meeting this week where the Alphabet Officer took up quite a bit of the time ranting about horrible Falkner and Phillipson and how they're going to take a motion to the annual conference to condemn the ruling and in the meantime they're finding ways to get round it...

But at the same time - everyone knows it's THE ACTUAL LAW now. And ranting aside, organisations are making changes.

And we're hearing clear language in the media for the first time in years, and (IMO) the activists now sound woolly and daft because there's something to compare them to.

I don't think it's over by any means, but we've got the tools now. We need to use them and keep chipping away, because the momentum is with us. That analogy from a PP about the Allies in WWII was perfect.

No, I,m not feeling disheartened because to my mind it was obvious there would be push back and resistance. People don't just roll over when they have very strong views on a matter. Rolling back trans madness was always going to be a twenty year programme, with many challanges and blips on the way.

Feeling elated is a heightened emotional response, and dejection is on the other side of the polarity. I'm fairly steadfast and certain, that within time there will be a roll back and a gradual acceptance of the nature of reality - in which sex is real and has consequences. Fewer young people will get caught up in the trans madness, and those that already have will learn to accept that their rights have limits too.

Our local paper had a story yesteday about the first NI council announcing it will.follow the SC ruling (doesn't technically apply here, so it wasn't a given that they would).

The below-the-line comments were mainly in favour. But the really encouraging thing was how many men were framing their approval explicity in terms of the importance of women's rights.

That's helped me articulate a thought that's been rattling round.

This has all been like a mad Ponzi scheme or witch craze. Without a supply of new fanatics, the existing ones are going to have to settle down eventually, aren't they? The demands only ramped up to such an insane level because the previous ones were met without question to satisfy an ever-growing screaming crowd.

Social media distorts our perception of reality. It is good to stay off social media for significant periods of time during a day. Back in the actual world things are far calmer....and the real world is where the job of challenging trans madness actually happens. A significant infrastructure has now been built which can, and will, challenge impostions and infringements in the workplace and in schools etc The argument will not be won on social media. Social media just fans the flames.

Yes, I do think we might start to see some quite extreme reactions from the most emotionally unstable and zealous. As you suggest the rigidity of thought and black and white thinking that are typical of autism, but also of cultists......will not be able to contain or soothe itself.

The Greens are increasingly becoming, and being seen as, a party of nutters and extremists.Looking at yesterday's election results...they don't seem to have made any gains at all.......certainly not in the results that have so far been announced anyway.