This is a story about being fearful in my workplace. About terminology. I'm a health care worker. I primarily work on labor and delivery unit where the ideology is creeping in with “pregnant people” terminology and “body feeding”. In a space where women are performing their most powerful and most vulnerable act, they can't even be women. And their beautiful, functioning bodies are reduced to that which cannot be named. And yet. What is the first question any person asks of a pregnant woman? What is the first announcement after birth?…." what is the sex of the baby". Research shows that children who know and can use correct anatomical terms for their bodies are less likely to be victims of sexual abuse and violence. Yet we are removing women and their body parts from healthcare discussions?! I am just stunned and pained. Now I have to choose Politically. The side that will protect my daughters’ reproductive rights? Or the side that will protect them from dangerous gender ideology (and maybe also their reproductive freedoms from puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sterilization).
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No Conflict, They SAid
In Australia and around the world, legislation is being introduced that replaces sex with gender identity. Advocates insist that there is no conflict of interest. But governments are not collecting data on the impacts of this legislative change. We're worried about the impacts on women of men using women-only spaces, including but not limited to: changing rooms, fitting rooms, bathrooms, shelters, rape and domestic violence refuges, gyms, spas, sports, schools, accommodations, hospital wards, shortlists, prizes, quotas, political groups, prisons, clubs, events, festivals, dating apps, and language. If we can't collect data, we can at least collect stories. Please tell us how your use of women-only spaces has been impacted. All stories will be published anonymously. If you know of other women who have been impacted, please encourage them to tell their stories too.
This site is run from Australia, New Zealand members of the LGB Defence, AWW Inc. and supported by LGB Alliance.
As a teen I found a man watching me under a partition as I was naked, drying myself. By the time I dressed he had run away and escaped. After a while, I got over it and didn't think about it for decades. Last year, however, I was in the shower in my gym and a male face appeared under the door. I was shocked by my instinctive reaction. I couldn't breathe, my heart pounded, and my knees turned to jelly. All because it triggered the forgotten memory. It seems the body doesn't really forget.
It turned out the male face was a kid of 6 or 7, but my body knew *instantly* it was male and reacted.
I'm lucky really, I've never been raped. But I can't imagine the trauma of a rape victim encountering a male where they shouldn't be. Women need single-sex spaces. Every decent man knows that.
I live in Scotland but would rather it said I live in the UK. Scotland is a very small place! In my trade union, more and more men are identifying as women and taking traditional women's roles, including on the regional and national Women's Committees. Their excuse is that women don't seem to be interested in sitting on Committees. For a number of years, women have been asking for Women's Committees to take place in the evening or at weekends when it is easier to get someone to look after children or the people we care for. The Union doesn't listen and expects all women trade unionists to be in jobs where the employer will give us time off for union meetings. This is not the case, and we are not being listened to. Biological men who present as women are not, in the main, single parents nor are they unpaid carers. They are in more traditional jobs where employers recognise the Union and so are given paid leave to attend meetings. Women are being done over by the union and by these men. These biological men presenting as women do not know what it is like to be a woman who suffers heavy periods at work and so needs more toilet breaks; or is pregnant and needs to sit down on the job due to the pressure of the foetus on her spine, or is going through the menopause and needs to go change their uniform because of hot flushes. They know nothing of being the main carer of the family's children or older adults or members who are disabled. Neither do they know of the discrimination in terms of pay or simply being a woman in the workplace. And yet the union is listening to them whinge about the "rough" uniforms they have to wear, or the fact they are not allowed to wear make-up at work like these are so important. I have been a trade unionist all my working life - 43 years - and wouldn't work unless I can be in a union, but I am struggling to find a trade union that still represents biological women and their rights rather than biological men who present as women. I suspect the same is true in other countries where there are trade unions. There is no reason why the unions cannot have transsexual committees dealing with specific issues that these people face at work.
organizations working to protect women-only spaces
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