YES i would feel safe, there is no reason to feel threatened, tell me what could possibly happen? chances are you probably have already used a female toilet which a trans person has used as well and you didn’t even notice, people already judge them a lot for unfortunately being born in the wrong body and now they can’t even use their toilet because their body doesn’t match? (pretending a female born with a male body) that persons mentality is of the gender they truly are so i think the chances of your privacy being destroyed? is very low. Your telling me the safety of a toilet is based on the people who go in there? There are past criminals who have probably used a public toilet same time as you, should we ban all criminals and send them to a different toilet because perhaps they can’t be trusted? No.
For me it’s not just about toilets.
I, of course, do believe trans people have rights. I recognise they are a marginalised group. I believe that gender is a social construct.
i will also say this; women have difficulty entering public spaces. From catcalling, to being groped, to being abused - all of this behaviour stems from the public sphere historically being the Male domain, something that is still present in the psyche of people today. We have had to fight and negotiate for our place in this public sphere - to be able to walk down the street in a skirt and not have it be commented upon. To be able to walk alone at night. By
virtue of being born with a specific set of genitalia, women have been removed from certain privileges. We continue to fight for these.
There is also the fact that, statistically, the vast vast majority of women have been sexually harassed or assaulted in the UK. I’d go so far to say that every single woman in the U.K. has experienced a form of harassment or assault at some point, ranging from unwanted advances in a pub, to someone grabbing your bum, to full on attacks. It is prevalent. I include myself among this statistic, as does JK.
I also do not see trans women as being a threat or as being perpetrators of this abuse at all. Most I’ve known are gentle souls with more empathy than most. This isn’t about these people being abusive.
for me the issue is this; women have carefully negotiated their place in the public sphere. If we - as a society - deem any people who are biologically Male AND decide they identify as the gender female, should have access to these spaces, it removes arenas that have been ringfenced for biological/cis women and it opens our public spheres to anyone who claims they are a woman. It’s opens our protected rights and spaces to exploitation.
we have had the vote for just a hundred years, compared to thousands of years of oppression. Until relatively recently, a woman was
property of her male relatives or husband with few legal rights. It is mind numbing, just how recent this state of affairs was.
it isn’t about if I mind a trans woman in a bathroom; it’s about minding if a trans woman can use female only gym areas, women’s only swimming sessions, designated women’s sporting events, women’s changing rooms, women’s domestic abuse facilities, women’s health facilities and so on.
in worst case scenarios, women who have been subject to abuse from men (I volunteered in a charity supporting these women) sometimes find they cannot feel safe or secure in the presence of men. To state that any biological Male should have access to these women’s spaces based on their gender identity alone, is
an idea worthy of discussion at the very least. No one should have TERF yelled at them over it.