Thread by @Gurdur

1/ It's interesting that I actually get asked my opinion (quite rare, really); thanks! But be prepared; this is going to be a really long answer, and each part of the answer is essential.
Also, to keep this thread flame-free, it's a tweeps-only thread (only Mutuals can reply).

https://twitter.com/nolab123/status/1327414996330971136

I DON'T Block for people disagreeing w/ me. I rarely block; takes quite poisonous behaviour for me to do so. I do unfollow & mute for rudeness, gross sociopathy, or malice. Only tweeps can reply in this thread, so I'm asking all not to flame either me or the original questioner

3/ So, really, this is all going to come down to can y'all tolerate me as much as I tolerate y'all? 😋 😝

Let's get real. I am sadly all too used to people unfollowing me or even shunning me because I didn't go along with their favorite slogan. It really gets on my nerves.

4/ My personal POV on this is muchly formed by toilets. Third World village communal toilets. It's the village communal toilets in the Third World, where women and girls get raped. IOW, villages need segregated toilets to keep women and girls safe.

5/ I once got flamed by some American idiot on that specific issue who literally replied to me, "They can always close the door!"

If you have no idea what village communal toilets are usually like, don't even come near me, let alone try flaming me.

https://twitter.com/Gurdur/status/1327419913905074176

6/ First off, no-one in their right minds should be abusing others for being whatever they want to be, as long as it's not grossly harming them or anyone else. Want to be trans? Be my guest, it's not my worry, is it, it's your life, not mine.

7/ But let's not pretend the issues are just that. If that was the sole issue, it would be all so easy, wouldn't it. Except: hey, real life, and psychopaths, and people being arses, and so on. Don't worry, I #BothSides soon too.

https://twitter.com/Gurdur/status/1327422667159461888

8/ Once you say being trans is pure *only* self-ID, we start getting to real practical problems in reality. Problems like Karen White.

independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/…

9/ read that above press report in full. Not the only case; a person self-ID'ing as a woman demanded access to women's shelters in Canada, raped several. Or this case in the USA. women's prison
news.wttw.com/2020/02/19/law…
Lots of cases like these to do with self-ID, shelters, prisons

10/ So! Lots of practical problems with self-ID on the legal front, & safety for women & girls. That's undeniable. I'm not here to solve these issues, I won't even try, I'm just giving my POV, because asked, describing the issues.

Now let's get onto other issues.

11/ Every single medical & surgical procedure carried out on another person carries risks. The stronger the meds, the more invasive the surgery, the more risks there are.

Nota bene: giving someone else a hypodermic shot is actually assault. Medical legalities are *complex*.

12/ There's very clearly a *big* rise in young girls self-identifying as male, in the UK. Why? Pick your own fav thing to blame. Some blame pressure on girls as girls; I personally see a lot of peer-group pressure etc. @AbigailShrier wrote her book on mostly this & consequences.

13/ Starts getting really awkward once you start throwing meds and surgery into the mix. Puberty blockers, & hormonal meds, are *heavy* meds. They carry big risks, & often cause *irreversible* changes. Bit of a problem if you become a desister, someone who changes their mind

14/ Throw in gender dysphoria, &other p sychological problems. Should you grow to one day accept the skin you got born into? Do you try to alter that skin to suit an idea of yourself? Does gender dysphoria have any genetic roots?
Ethical/practical/philosophical/medical problems

15/ Many, not all, of the deep problems now sketched out. NOT an area for easy slogans. Now let's get onto abuse, pressure, etc. Again, NO flaming anyone present on this thread, I *will* act against anyone flaming those I quote here, or, rly, me too

https://twitter.com/CrankyOldBats2/status/1327417110201503749

16/ When I go onto Twitter each day, really, I choose each day whom I will get abused by. I've been abused by angry lesbians, gays, cis, straight, Biblical, Islamist, atheist, trans, & practically any tribe you can name. I'm a flame-magnet.🧐

https://twitter.com/CrankyOldBats2/status/1327417110201503749

17/ I was even once flamed by a pair of very angry Brit lesbians who apparently just could not understand my original (clear) sarcastic tweet.

But let's not pretend. The social pressure & bullying has recently been mostly from the trans activists' side. And it's been big.

18/ I don't see campaigns to get trans' books effectively banned. I do see a campaign to get @AbigailShrier's book banned.

I don't see campaigns to defund trans' shelters. I DO see trans' campaigns to defund women's shelters.
nationalpost.com/news/canada/ca…

19/ Do I have any skin in the game? As a social person who cares about social ethics, yes. As someone who once had a contract put out on him because he delivered a woman safe to a woman's shelter (her angry ex put a contract out on me, long but funny, true story), yes.

20/ A 60-year-old woman got beaten around by an angry person ID'ing as trans. I know the woman in question. The physical assault on her was inexcusable, yet every day on Twitter, you can see boasts from people about wanting to beat up TERF's, even murder them.

21/ Every day on Twitter, you can find instances of trans people accusing lesbians of transphobia for not personally accepting "lady cock/dick" into their personal lives and hearts.

Excuse me? That's simple stand-over intimidation tactics.

22/ Defunding rape-crisis centers, boasting about wanting to beat up TERF's, demanding unfettered access to women's shelters, prisons, changing-rooms, toilets. The pressure and bullying seems quite one-sided most of the time.

23/ But how about Jessica Yaniv? Who turned *quite* a profit by intimidating immigrant women in Canada? Demanding they wax Yaniv's male genitalia; if they refused, Yaniv sued. We're talking poor women trying to make a living, not well-off companies

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

24/ Abuse just today, that I noticed. Y'all know, I see far more than I ever comment on.

25/ Issues. You have the issues.

And once we get to book-burning, censorship of reasonable authors, intimidation of poor women beauticians, stand-over extortion, rape, then I am going to be SO on the side of the ones being bullied. I make no excuse for that.

26/ You can add to that: concern for others. Some of those who go too much into sex-reassignment surgery will regret it later; desistance happens. It's very worthwhile to enable others to first really try living in their own skins first, before trying to radically change the skin

@threadreaders @threadreaderapp please unroll

so now a ThreadReaderApp unroll of this whole thread exists, on:

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