Glorianny
Dickens
I said (what is so difficult to understand) that transwomen are not easily identifiable and those who think they can tell necessarily put more butch women at risk.
If we accept that sex and gender are not the same thing and that transwomen are transwomen and therefore cannot use women's toilets or other spaces, because biologically they are men... then so-called "butch" women would not be at risk of anything.
I realise that the logistics would be complicated and would need to be addressed - perhaps men would have to accept transwomen in their spaces and vice versa.
Those who are transgender make up a small section of the whole population, and now they want to shift the dynamics of that whole to accommodate themselves. And in so doing, deny the rights of millions of women who, at present, are not protected by any specific legislation other than that of human rights which everyone has.
So millions of women are not protected from the crime of misogyny, but a few thousand of transgender individuals are protected from the hate crime of transphobia, and the loudest of them are men who are TWAs insisting that their 'feelings' take precedent over the biological reality of women.
Oh dear are we back to this again. If transwomen must use male facilities in the interests of equality transmen must use women's.Which means there will be people who look like men in women's spaces. For those intent only on assault or nefarious activities it saves them the bother of dressing up. A man could walk into a woman's toilet and claim he was a transman. If anyone thinks transmen don't look like men watch "Hunted".
I entirely agree misogyny needs proper legislation. Inserting the word "sex" into this legislation wouldn't help.
Glorianny I did say the logistics would be complicated and simply put forward a debating proposal, so there's no need for the "Oh dear are we back to this again".
The point is, it comes down to this - women do not want men in their toilets, changing rooms, or other spaces where they are undressing - unless by consent. Although it's not an every-day occurrence, women have been assaulted, often enough for us to be wary, and transwomen have taken advantage of their freedom, along with men who have tried it on in some way.
The difference between the two private spaces - both men's and women's is that largely speaking - men do not feel threatened by the presence of a woman, for fairly obvious reasons. It's highly unlikely that any man is going to feel intimidated by a transman in his changing room. He might feel a tad uncomfortable of course - hence my recognition of the difficulty with the logistics of the whole thing.
What matters to me, and other women in support of JKR, is that we as women are, or were, faced with misogyny, assault - look at the number of women who have come forward to admit that they've been groped, grabbed at, shouted at, cat-called, had obscene sexual comments made to them in the street, by men. And if we believe that sex is immutable - then we simply don't want men - however they are attired, in places where we are having a pee, changing clothes or getting undressed for an examination, unless by consent.
I'm sure some men value their privacy also - but they are not under threat, and never will be, in the same way that women are.
Misogyny is very much alive and well - in spite of the Feminist movements, it's something most of us have endured to some degree or other all our lives, either mildly or violently. A man who has been through male puberty will remain a man-regardless of how he identifies. And those men who have identified as women who have been charged with and convicted of assault and rape, exist and there will be other offences, it's not suddenly going to stop. Also, not all transwomen who've committed an offence against women will get caught - or even be reported.
And those men - identifying as women but also committing offences against them - are nothing more than misogynists, and misogyny, so far, is not deemed a hate crime - but transphobia (dependent rather on subjective interpretation) is.
