Expressing 'gender critical' views

[ArabellaSaurus]

If you hold gender critical views-

-There are two sexes
-Sex is immutable
-Biological sex matters, and laws relating to sex should be based on sex not 'gender'

• please tell me if you feel able to express these views:

-To friends and family
-On social media
-In a professional context

I'm keen to hear whether women in particular feel that their right to freedom of belief and freedom of expression is upheld in the UK today.

Many thanks.

I told a friend and she said she thinks less of me now. Didn't go down well at all

Oh that’s really sad, @Orangesandlemons77

I keep wondering what it is about this particular issue (and particularly men thinking they’re women) that becomes sooooo untouchable.

As a PP says upthread, I wouldn’t know my colleagues’ or my students’ religious or political views and I certainly wouldn’t want them sacked or sanctioned for their views. So why does “gender identity “ get such a free pass?

I suspect it’s about men and their right to run the world and to define the world. But that’s too simplistic an answer - or is it?

I would really like to have discussion with a lesbian and for that matter a gay man. What are most lesbian and gay men’s positions on dating a trans person. I’d be very open to hearing if they see no problem in it.

To family - yes generally. DH and my children hold the same views as I do, thank goodness. Siblings/parents/inlaws - they are aware of what I think but I wouldn't bring it up on purpose, but neither would I hold back from expressing my view.
Friends I am pretty cautious which makes me sad really. I have discussed it v slightly over quite a few years (going back to the initial self-id conversation). No one has ever raised it with me.
Social media - anonymously on here, never in my own name.
Professionally yes. I have raised it at work in the context of policies, I have raised it as a school governor, and I have cautiously raised it with colleagues (eg we have news screens in some offices so I made some mild comments about FWS). I have also raised it with various MPs/local councillors/Police commissioner candidates etc. That doesn't really fall under 'professional' but it is in my own name.

To family, yes. Most agree with me. I am retired but do some p/t online work. I would not post my views anywhere my gig economy employer would see them, I am pretty sure they would stop employing me (for the best of reasons, of course!). I also do volunteering at LA venues, and I live in city in the heart of England - I would find myself out of my volunteering if I voiced my views, so I don't.
Why are we all suddenly baby blue and baby pink btw? I don't like it.

This

Although we blokes are not directly threatened by men pretending to be women in the same way as real women, most of us are reasonably GC but nervous about stating so too loudly, particularly at work....

With some family - husband, adoptive mother - I'm completely open. With other family, including my own kids and my bio mother, I have to be more careful. With friends, I'm similarly careful.

I volunteer for an organisation that favours GI views, and yet most of the volunteers are crusty old second wave feminists like me. I keep my mouth shut, and I suspect they are doing the same!

On the social media thing, I should have added that my "SidewaysOtter" accounts were set up to be a separate gender critical account from my usual social media accounts, both on MN and elsewhere. I try to give away as little personal information as possible under this username to protect my identity.

I know quite a few women who have separate "GC/women's rights campaigning" accounts for the same reason.

Friends and family - yes
social media -im only on mumsnet so yes
work - its never come up, but yes I would say what I feel

My family know, though not my sisters as one is deep into the Omnicause and the other has a daughter who has a TIF friend, so....

At work, when necessary I play along with it with the clients, but my colleagues know and share my views.

Family and friends absolutely open and bang on probably too much about it.

Professionally I’m VERY cautious and couch things in very neutral terms so that no one can ever accuse me of anything.

I do assume that everyone is secretly GC and if they’re not, they’re a moron. So my strategy is to avoid morons and big up the LGB - because I do care deeply about their rights.

-To friends and family - yes, and most of my friends are with me despite being generally lefty liberal types. Family is divided, it's caused fallouts and flounces but it's approx 50:50 and I'm not being told what to think and say and have made that clear.

-On social media - I don't post much anyway and don't actively announce it, but you could probably work it out if you combed through who I follow etc.

-In a professional context - I'm in a field where I have to tread very carefully, but situations have come up where I've had to delineate certain things I won't do/promote and to my surprise that seemed to be accepted without a fuss. I think various people I work with know/guess, by dint of me not doing pronouns/announcing my allyship/declaring I'm NB which is practically de rigueur. But they don't bring it up. I think either they agree with me and everyone's just keeping their head down, or they don't rock the boat because they think I'm probably not the type to take it lying down and would come out fighting.

One person I work with is very mild-mannered and even-handed about things but I actually suspect her of being behind an anonymous GC X account that I follow. Can't say anything though!

To family, mostly. To friends and on social media much more cautiously. In a professional context in credibly cautiously and with much reference to the Cass report.

Family and friends, yes, openly GC - though I test the ground carefully on first raising it

Social media - i am a dr so have only anon, non-posting social media except LinkedIn where I never post anyway (I do follow gc accounts).

Professionally - I am openly GC in my team, having done sone professional work on the subject. But wouldn’t raise it unless nec outside my team and treat pts very carefully (my views are irrelevant to their individual care but i will talk about detransitioners, link with autism, sex being important medically etc).

I asked a male gay friend of mine about this at the time there was a minor news item about a couple of trans-identified women in a gay sauna. They got asked to leave. Interestingly, it didn’t become a year long expensive court hearing, nor were the men running the sauna arrested and handcuffed by five armed police. But that’s by the bye.

My friend said, he’d have been interested in observing the situation ( not in a voyeuristic way but just to see how it panned out) but that for him, it was always about cock.

i tend to agree.

Yes to family

With friends, most of them are from running, so they understand the issue of female sport being affected by male bodied people in an adverse way. But I wouldn't go further than that, like to talk about toilets or changing rooms.

At work, not a chance. I have a very woke employer. So not (openly) on social media either though I sometimes "like" a GC comment, albeit cautiously.

Do you know any non GC doctors?

No. I do know some Drs who believe in the importance of medical treatment though and are VERY affirmative in manner because this is 'best pt care' in their eyes. But even the most affirmative dr i know agrees sex is important to know and decries our horrible system of medical gender self-id.

Wow! Out of interest do you live in london?

Unfortunately I can't really discuss my views in real life at all. Some people might be accepting of it if I did, but I suspect that most of my very liberal friends would be highly disapproving. I also work in a very captured organisation so would probably risk my career progression if I did. Online stuff done with your name also carries a risk of doxxing.

I suspect that many many people feel the way we do, but there's such a huge threat from a vocal minority that we could be at genuine risk if we were to be open about our views.

To friends and family - yes. I am pretty open about it. If someone who is a 'friend' has a problem with it, they are free to not be my friend anymore if they think that's terrible.

Social Media - No. Though I use my real name and do follow GC accounts on X. I generally don't post anything on social media except here anyway.

Work - definitely couldn't where I used to work (and we did have a TIM using the ladies and it always made me uncomfortable). It's never come up where I work now and it's not something I would just raise for the sake of it. These days, I would flag it up as an issue if a man was using the female toilets though but that's because I am less reliant on keeping my job than in the past so I can be bolder now. Knowing the law is on my side helps too.

With friends, and family, sure! It's just what everyone thinks anyway. No one believes men can turn into women with magic spells. Come on.

At work, no of course not I have a mortgage. It's just one more elaborate charade we all pretend is real, along with Meyers Briggs and Agile ceremonies and KPIs. If it's really really important like women could be harmed then I will (and have) do something but just in the general course of things around the office, no.

Here's the thing. We GC people are being asked (not just on Mumsnet) if we would speak on this to family, friends, work for fear of reaction, shunning, cancelling etc.

Does anyone ever ask the gender ideologists if they would speak on this for fear of reaction, shunning, cancelling etc. and if not, why not?

So we have the science and evidence-based majority (according to surveys) seemingly running scared of a minority that are wedded to unscientific non-evidenced based views.

Which is absurd. So yes, while I don't make it a big topic of conversation I am totally open about my views and if that gets me cancelled - tough shit. With friends like that you don't need enemies.

I am retired so the workplace is not an issue but I would still not buy into HR's lies.

To friends and family
To some, my DCs are aware and DD gleefully calls me a TERF (like it’s a bad thing). I’m fairly cautious and have a SIL who was gleefully telling me about a 7 year old child of her friend who was ‘bravely transitioning’ 🤦‍♀️ and how he’d been round for some girly time, I just left the room as our views were just so diametrically opposed there was no point talking any more.

On social media
God no, that would be career suicide.

At work
Definitely not! I work for the NHS as a senior nurse and have policies stating that we treat people by their ‘gender’. When the Supreme Court ruling was published our CEO reassured us all that we wouldn’t be changing any of our batshit policies.