shared accommodation on coach trip

My mum used to like to travel. As a widow the trips were made affordable by mum sharing a room with another woman also travelling alone. Mum took a coach trip around Tasmania and was put in a share room with a person who said they were female on their booking form.

It was clear to everyone on the trip that this person was not a biological female. Mum had no choice but to share the bathroom and room with this person. The tour company said as the person said they were female there was nothing the company could do and no other rooms were available. This was the last trip mum took other than when family could travel with her.

The experience of sharing a bedroom and bathroom with a man identifying as a woman left her feeling unsafe and vulnerable and unable to risk travelling alone again. The appropriate behaviour for the person would have been to get a room to themself.

#australia #tasmania #coachtrip #sharedaccommodation #identifyingasfemale

public bathrooms

Was using a public women's bathroom after having a few drinks with a friend at night, came out to wash my hands and there was a man in there. I nearly jumped out of my skin. If someone is truly transgender and wishes to be a female I think it’s important they not dress and have facial hair like a man and truly make an effort to dress and look like a woman because for all I know this was just a pervy guy trying to take advantage of drunk women in a public bathroom. How would we know the difference otherwise? Thank you for caring enough to ask for a woman’s opinion instead of assuming the rights of a very very tiny minority of society are more important than those of 50% of the population. In the future will the winners of prime minister elections be those with the least amount of votes because they must be vulnerable? What happened to democracy where everyone gets a vote instead of just a loud few people. I agree with the concept of a third bathroom space that could be used by anyone as then I would use that as I would be mentally prepared to run into absolutely anyone in the bathroom but when it says ‘female bathroom’ I don’t expect to see a long haired bearded fellow in there with me.

#australia #sydney #publicbathrooms #toilets #beardedmen

changing the subject from feminism to gender identity

My experience was fleeting but made me wonder about the females who put up with this behaviour on a constant basis. I attended an open political gathering that was meant to be about the history of feminism and anarchism. The organisers jumped too quickly into question time and what followed wasn't questions as such but long-winded comments (not unusual for these kinds of events I know) from MTFs about the awfulness of feminism and TERFs. This dragged on for some time, but nobody told them to get to the point and ask a question. Growing restless, I put my hand up and caught the attention of the panel, and then, finally it was my turn. I made a point of acknowledging the trans activists and asked about the positive history of feminism and anarchism. After all, the event was supposed to be about feminism and anarchism and as a non-anarchist that is what I was hoping to learn about. I wonder how many political meetings in which feminism and women are supposed to be the topics at hand are now being dominated by endless hand-wringing about gender identity. I also wonder how easy it would've been for me to feel free to ask a question seeking favourable responses about feminism if I was a member of the group that organised the event.

#feminism #anarchism #changingthesubject #genderidentity