THE USE OF APPROPRIATION
We have been grateful for the many respectful replies we have received on here and on social media.
It is heartening to know that our call for moderation and curbing the excessive use of language is something that others also support.
However, there has been an increasing tendancy to see appropriation of intersex people brought into this debate.
We wish to make clear that intersex conditions are not the same thing as being transsexual or transgender. We have been told this by more than one such person with an intersex condition and we urge that you listen to them and not seek a way to imply you are like them. It is unfair.
These unfortunate people face a partially understood medical condition that carries many problems but is not known to be related to whatever is behind being transsexual.
We fully support research by scientists wanting to look for causes of transsexualism - be they physical, psychological or sociological. Knowledge is power to help future generations deal with what we know is a traumatic experience.
Yet we are very concerned to see some activists calling out academics who are endeavouring to fund meaningful investigation. Some even seek to get them into trouble with their colleges or employers just for doing this.
That is utterly wrong.
The search for a cause to transsexualism is a valid enterprise and we should not pre-determine any conclusion it might reach.
Science is evidence led - not conducted only if it agrees to prove what someone wants to be true.
In both of these actions we urge that those applying them for what they consider to be valid reasons please think again.
Similarly, we have noticed analogies used on social media to make those with a gender critical perspective look as if they have reasons for their opinions that seem unpalatable. Not merely genuine viewpoints, which we accept that such views very often are .
We cannot and should not impose our beliefs onto anyone.
Comparing treatment of transgender people with how the Nazi regime handled those of which they disapproved 75 years ago has become commonplace.
And transsexuals who support the rights of women to self determine their boundaries - as we 14 creating this blog do - get called truscum or quislings and even collaborators with agents of terror.
Many brave and honourable women challenged totalitarianism in occupied France and their sacrifice should not be demeaned.
As we approach Remembrance Sunday and the 100th anniversary of the end of the Great War the use of such analogies to blacken the reputation of any woman, or trans woman, who does not follow ideology is disrespectful.
It unfairly appropriates and also diminishes those women who stood against oppression in past generations.
UPDATE FRIDAY 19 OCTOBER 2018
The GRA Consultation has now closed.
As you can see we are now 14 members of this informal gathering hoping to seek a way towards mutual understanding.
There are other transsexuals supporting us and we are grateful for their encouragement.
We have been overwhelmed by your response on here and elsewhere. Thank you. There are a few replies from people who disagree with us but we respect your right to have a different opinion. We have not deleted these posts from comments. That is not how we intend to engage.
Rather we seek to find a way to move this debate forward from the polarised attitudes that dominate social media. Disagreement is fine so long as we all respect one another's right to an opposing view and try to work together. If replies are civil then they can be critical.
Words are too often used as weapons in a war of ideologies. This pushes discussion further apart. We need open discussion in search of a way forward that might be acceptable to all.
Hopefully, government will now be doing this and we would ask that the media, also, follow a more positive stance when seeking answers.
It is easy to select examples of awful events or activities that prove your own beliefs. We do not minimise them. If they call for condemnation on either side we will do so without reservation.
We have listened to your ideas and thank you for suggestions.
Under consideration is finding a platform where discussion can be friendly and words that demean either side are excluded. Blogger is not designed for this but we will continue to post messages here and hope you, too, will continue to offer your thoughts.
Hopefully we will find a place and time where we can have a good debate over a couple of hours, perhaps, as a trial run. Then, if that is successful, we can take it from there.
You deserve to have your say free of the political ideology that has so far dominated all sides of this debate. That is why we are here. And we respect your help, advice and support in trying to achieve this aspiration.
Watch out for our next update with further details of the next step that we hopefully take together.
A STATEMENT TO THE MEDIA
It is not the policy of this blog to approach the media. However, we welcome anyone making reference, or quoting from, its content if they so choose.
Nonetheless we were asked to give a comment as the GRA consultation period ended. It was not used, but we thought you might like to see what we wanted to say.
COMMENT:-
Really this is all about respect.
Transsexual women have always respected women, because, whilst we do not claim to literally be one, we live as one through mutual respect and a bond of trust between us and them over many years.
The transgender movement seems to have lost that concept. It is now about acquiescence and rights not mutual understanding.
No wonder women - and society in general - are starting to disrespect trans people.
You reap what you sow.
We just wish they would wake up to how this is not all about us. But about all people. All of us live in a community and you do not become part of that community by demanding entry and telling them that their rules are wrong.
Transsexuals understand that.
Transgender people need to or they will find themselves facing a less bright future than they deserve.
TRANSSEXUAL WOMEN OPPOSING
SELF-ID:-
Why we are afraid
NB:- Please bring this blog to wider attention. If you support the contents then pass on the link. Post any comments below. We will respond to these in our next statement on this blog.
SOME FACTS:-
We are a number of individual transsexual women who are expressing deep concern over planned government changes to the GRA
(The Gender Recognition Act; an act passed by parliament in 2004 by large majority.)
- It was written for transsexual people
- Doctors giving evidence then predicted there were 5000 of us in the UK who would qualify.
- As of August 2018 there were 4910 registered. About 3000 are transsexual women (who transition male to female) and the rest are transsexual men.
Yet the UK government state the act is not being used by enough applicants and want to extend it to add up to 500,000 people who define as transgender - including cross dressers.
Consultation on this plan is about to close.
Transsexual person
A medically diagnosed condition from childhood.
It involves acute stress from knowing that psychologically
that person is of opposite sex to the physiology of their body.
A transsexual person knows that you cannot change biological sex but extensive psychotherapy and medical assistance alter their body to match with the mind and live in harmony.
A large majority have had surgical alteration.
Transgender
A desire to adopt the lifestyle of the opposite sex, full time or part time, often expressing this via clothing and make up.
The desire to have surgery or other medical treatments is much less common (some suggest as low as 10% of cases only).
Few wish to see doctors or be psychiatrically evaluated. Some transition back and forth.
The transsexual women who have approved this statement say:-
(please quote or tweet any of the following)
“Transsexualism is not just a feeling in our heads or about dressing up. We knew we had a problem, sought medical advice and followed treatments proposed to try to resolve the problem."
"Medical transition was the last option after following medical treatment, not the first. It was not a choice.”
“Government suggest removing all medical gatekeeping and the crafted bonds of trust that establish medical necessity to change our legal status. We believe these safeguards are vital as a show of respect from us to society when seeking access into protected spaces such as toilets. Nobody should just demand this by right.”
“Transgender individuals deserve rights. However, women already have reasonable concerns about ceding their own rights to transsexuals via the GRA. Now transsexuals with rights gained through years of medical assessment are asked to hand them on to people who have done none of that. Diminishing further still the rights of women.”
“We worry that many of the 500,000 transgender accessing legal status would still be physically intact with male bodies or even capable of rape. Medically transitioned transsexual women would be as much at risk from them as would women.”
“Adapting the law would mean that it no longer covers a long established medical condition. The planned GRA changes would allow any person to state that they have changed sex and obtain a birth certificate proving so without any medical involvement at all.”
“We firmly believe that birth certificates should only be altered when doctors agree there are legitimate reasons. This change would remove that long standing principle.”
“As Transsexual people we know surgery does not mean that we literally become women. But we will happily engage in discourse with women to set boundaries based on mutual accord. We respect their right to do this.”
“We make these physical changes to live within society as women without wishing to usurp women's necessary needs for privacy. Our medical treatment has left us mentally healthy adults who have for years afterward contributed fully to society. That is all we have ever sought.”
“We are very concerned by the aggressive tactics and angry demands of the trans activists and just want to continue living peacefully via mutual respect as we have done for half a century. But changing the GRA from medical assessment must concern society, in particular women, who understandably say NO.”
“They may conclude that the only solution will be to exclude everyone - including us. They cannot possibly know the physical or mental status of all those newly self-identified women who now selfishly demand acceptance because they say so.”
“The proposed changes materially disadvantage women in order to benefit up to half a million who merely choose to self-identify as the opposite sex for various undiagnosed reasons. The 5000 presently registered transsexual people for whom the GRA was created 14 years ago are unhappy to be expected to cede rights to those unprepared to give society more than just their word that this should occur.”
“If government choose this route, our years overcoming a medical condition and establishing our life to contribute fully to society becomes minimized to the status of a part time cross dresser or a sex offender asking for transfer to a female jail. Both are real events that have occurred recently.”
“Some transsexual women who transitioned half a century ago are so scared about how this may damage their life we fear they might become prisoners in their homes. They are being told they may no longer be able to enter ladies toilets despite not having had male anatomy for most of their lives."
"As a consequence - and like many women - we transsexuals ask the government to listen to us as we say NO to self ID."
We are 14 transsexual women who do not know one another but have come together to express these concerns.
Our occupations are as follows.....
1 x Writer and Event Organiser, 1 x Railway Engineer, 1 x Author and Radio Broadcaster, 1 x Chartered Engineer, 1 x Caterer, 1 x Retired Teacher, 1 x Broadcast Engineer, 1 x University Lecturer, 1 x Talk Show Host, 1 x Advisor at Citizens Advice, 1 x Electronic Engineer, 1 x Support Worker, 1 x Wedding Planner, 1 x Content Creator
IF YOU ARE A TRANSSEXUAL MAN OR WOMAN AND YOU AGREE WITH OUR CONCERNS PLEASE SHARE THIS MESSAGE AS WIDELY AS YOU CAN.
IF YOU FEEL ABLE TO DO SO THEN PLEASE POST YOUR OWN OCCUPATION (NO NAME REQUIRED) IN A MESSAGE ON THIS BLOG.
WE WILL LATER ADD IT TO THE LIST WHICH WE HOPE MAY DEMONSTRATE THAT TRANSSEXUALS GO THROUGH THIS PROCESS TO BECOME NORMAL PRODUCTIVE MEMBERS OF SOCIETY.
TRANSSEXUALS ARE NOT HERE TO ALTER DEFINITIONS OF WORDS IN A DICTIONARY OR OPPRESS OTHERS FROM DISAGREEMENT.
WE DO NOT DEMAND AUTOMATIC ACCEPTANCE BY ALL.
DISAGREEMENT OR CONFUSION IS NOT TRANSPHOBIC TO A TRANSSEXUAL.
IT IS HUMAN NATURE AND UNDERSTANDABLE
