Thread by @SexNotGenderNI

This a/c was created from a large group of NI people of all backgrounds & sectors of NI. Many anonymous for fear of job loss, bullying at work, their kids being targeted. @ClaireHanna your comms officer is blocking women for speaking up #SeamasBlocksWomen

archive.is/jVMZ5

We know only too well the horrific, misogynistic abuse our female politicians get. We have women in our network in very senior positions at work who feel they have too much to lose to put your name to it. But we are going to need more politicians to listen to us and to speak up.

The story being told is that fighting for males in women's spaces and the erosion of the specific language necessary for robust laws is 'progressive'. It is not. We have LGB people hounded out of groups for their 'genital preferences'. NI is experiencing an overcorrection

from our very real issues with homophobia and bigotry, but it is perpetuating these issues under a new name. It is NOT hateful to protest medical harm done to healthy young people who need better mental health support.

It is NOT hateful to stand up for a woman's right to be cared for by a female in her most vulnerable state - in hospitals, rape crisis settings, refuges. It is NOT hateful to defend girls' and boys' rights to have single-sex toilets & accommodation for privacy, safety, dignity.

It is NOT hateful to point out that no-one can 'ID into' an oppressed class, that no-one can 'change sex', that pregnancy, breastfeeding, stillbirth, miscarriage, endometriosis etc are women's experiences, and that women have a right to meet to discuss these without males.

In our various groups, we often swing from despair at the extent of the capture of our organisations to hope at the steady stream of new messages and requests from people who felt they were alone, because no-one wants to listen to their concerns about women's & childrens
rights.

We're frustrated that our press and our politicians have ignored this. We're getting messages from people saying they've been stonewalled by their MLAs, or that they've said things like 'it's too toxic' to discuss. This is NI! We are used to extending hands across the aisle!

Why is it that women speaking up about the real harm already being done to women and children are branded hateful bigots by elected representatives and ignored by the media? It's misogyny, pure and simple. Well we see it, we are fighting it, and #WomenWontWheesht.