Thread by @yrhenwrach

Merched Cymru/LGB Alliance Cymru's webinar has just started. Chair, Sarah Tanburn says this week has proven that 'no debate is over' but we're still being ignored in Wales and GC voices not included @fmwales
#CanThePlan
#SexNotGender
#DimDiolch

Plan isn't fixable, says Sarah. Urges Welsh Government to start again, and be fair and transparent.
#CanThePlan @wgmin_education @WGMin_Health @WG_Communities @fmwales

Laoise from the Countess Didn't Fight For This talking about the picture from Ireland where #SelfID brought in in 2015 without consultation. Huge campaign of awareness raising of impacts undertaken.
#CanThePlan #DimDiolch

Countess have undertaken campaign around indoctrination of school children. Ideological 'experts' have filled a gap. Talks of 'pledge packs' - normalising pronouns. Also run polling to show our position is not fringe. Only 17% agree with #SelfID
#DimDiolch
@wgmin_education

Women previously not involved in activism have got involved because they've understood the existential threat of #SelfID. The threat to their daughters. Awareness of disquiet now and politicians must take notice - @fmwales
#CanThePlan #DimDiolch

Rhona Hotchkiss with the view from Scotland #WomenWontWheesht
Hate Crime bill introduced without defining what 'hate' is and misogyny not included. People could be prosecuted for conversion in own home, or actors on stage saying something as part of drama.
Terrifying.

Rhona now talking about gender replacing sex in terms of raped women choosing their examiner. @JohannLamont led the campaign and thankfully this was thwarted.
#CanThePlan

Gagging clauses added to funding agreements for charities, so no dissent can be expressed. Dystopian.
@WG_Communities
#CanThePlan

Deception encouraged in schools. Parents to social transition kids at school, but lie to parents. Teachers fear for their jobs in raising concerns. #CanThePlan
@wgmin_education

MSPs throwing around accusations of 'hate groups' without providing any evidence.
They dismiss it as a side issue.
#Silencing
Ribbons are now violence.
Everyone is too afraid to speak out.
#CanThePlan
@WelshGovernment

Get many and varied people from all across Wales speaking out, advises Rhona. Numbers growing in Scotland and #WomenWontWheesht
Get out there on the streets and get ordinary people involved.
#CanThePlan

@SonyaDouglas 'I base my value on what's left when all else is stripped away'. Keynote speech.
She starts speaking of Sarah Everard, the loss felt by her mother and her daughter visiting her in her dreams.
'My rage comes out as tears' - you have to cry.
#CanThePlan

'We know as mothers... that we would do anything to protect the children around us'. She went from someone who said 'yes' to saying 'no' to protect.
We say #NoThankYou despite being vilified.
#CanThePlan

Sonya reads a poem she wrote for her daughter when she was born. It's beautiful and I'm crying 😭❤
#CanThePlan

We still have to juggle climate change, brexit, food banks, but this is the fight on the table. It's existential, says Sonya.
#CanThePlan

How to live - first we cry and then we DO SOMETHING.
We just have to state the truth, the light will shine.
We take the anger and rage, we use it.
Sonya is not reading the speech she wrote, but she's eloquent, nonetheless.
#CanThePlan

@SonyaDouglas reading another poem. She feels she is ROARING, everything she does feeds into this fight.
Does she let a lie into her and her daughter's life? A lie needs commitment, you have to feed it. Reality is rigid. Truth is solid ground. @fmwales
#CanThePlan

Sonya reads another of her poems, about identity and belonging, her lovely accent coming through.
Doesn't matter who you think you are, it's what you do with yourself.
#CanThePlan

Much of their success (gender lobby) depended on secrecy, says Sonya. Now we're shining a light.
They will step out of the shadows and persecute those that stand up to them.
She's seeing things that are making her cry. Hold on.
#CanThePlan #DimDiolch

Last rule from @SonyaDouglas fight like your life depends on it.
Reality needs you to defend it. We can't live in a world where it's ok for our daughters to be killed.
We have to fight for a world with a future.
#CanThePlan
Sonya is awesome.

Sonya ends with one more poem #CanThePlan

@Doctor_Az_ next greeting us in impeccable Welsh. He's introducing himself - a consultant psychiatrist specialising in gender dysphoria.
#CanThePlan

His mother helped him come to terms with being a minority growing up in Wales. She helped him embrace who he was, he didn't need to change himself.
#CanThePlan

@Doctor_Az_ describes 11 types of transsexuals in his book Trans. Large variation between these groups, and many confounds and overlaps with other conditions such as autism, or experiences such as trauma.
#CanThePlan @WGMin_Health

Regretters are invisible. But important, as they warn us about oversimplification. Trans is umbrella term. No simple solution.
#CanThePlan
@WGMin_Health - please talk to @Doctor_Az_

Dr Az talking about youth subcultures. He was a goth, there were lots of goths. Thankfully, no medical treatment was advised. He challenged boundaries, was subversive, wore makeup.
Music was the basis for subculture before the advent of social media.
ROGD is current subculture.

Talking about parents leaping on trans idenfication in very young kids. They watch a quick documentary and affirm, affirm. They aren't allowing exploration.
Teachers are suggesting trans to tomboys.
#CanThePlan

@ImWatson91 up next. Former transman, including medical transition, now detransitioner.
She experienced trauma in her teens, believed if she'd been a man it wouldn't have happened. She hated being a woman.
These are real people @WGMin_Health - who been harmed. #CanThePlan

It was under 6 months from being seen to medical intervention. No talk therapy. Social transition before any diagnosis of GD. She had history of poor mental health. They were aware of this, but it wasn't mentioned. Terrifying @Eluned_Morgan, please listen. #CanThePlan

Really poor follow up from clinicians. Sinead regretted, but took a while to detransition - she felt she had come too far. Then she started looking for others - she found many like her, similar stories.
Points to @post_trans research.
#CanThePlan

What are we doing to our daughters, sisters, young women? We're telling them it's good to trans, we should be helping them, not providing escape route. Affirmation only is dangerous @WGMin_Health
There will be a tidal wave of detrans coming. No support available.
#CanThePlan

@ImWatson91 is understandably angry. Do not affirm, it cements the identity.
Question. Challenge. Otherwise the results are harmful and irreversible.
Do not be 'kind'.
Raw, painful testimony.
#cantheplan

We have to stand against the prevailing wind, says @SonyaDouglas
Don't be kind, at the expense of telling the truth. The lie is unsustainable - people will detrans, or live with a disconnect.
#CanThePlan

"We can't speak the truth if language is taken from us" says Sarah Tanburn of @LGBAllies_Cymru
#CanThePlan

@cwknews from @Transgendertrd - @WelshGovernment - teaching children they have a gender identity, more important than sex coincides with huge increase in referrals of girls to Tavi.
#CanThePlan
Teaching a denial of reality is a harmful experiment @wgmin_education #CanThePlan

Dermot from @ALLIANCELGB talking about 'queer', he doesn't want to reclaim it, he was assaulted by people shouting it. Gender is akin to religion, he says. He doesn't embrace the word that Stonewall says he should be comfortable with. 'Queer' is political language.
#CanThePlan

Political language has a political purpose. Purpose of 'anti-trans' is to shut down debate.
#CanThePlan #DimDiolch

Language is the battlefield. Hardly any mention of LG or B in the plan. All about the TQ.
#CanThePlan

@helenstaniland on now. She's talking about soundbites 'trans rights are human rights' - it gives no detail, she has tried to break through and find out what the actual ask is. They use nebulous terms to appear like majority view - its not.
#TheStanilandQuestion
#CanThePlan

Helen talking about post-truth. We must retain our language and fight till there is no fight left. Labour Conference was illuminating in how much ground has been lost.
#CanThePlan

@BevJacksonAuth from @ALLIANCELGB now: the word and the experience of being lesbian is being erased from life and history.
Lesbianism is the bottom of the pile, it seems. 2 mentions in LGBTQ+ Action Plan from @WelshGovernment - no good for lesbians.
#CanThePlan

It's causing confusion in children and physical harm in young people. We have to be angry, says Bev, there's plenty to be angry about. Channel it, use it, challenge, ask people to define what they mean. Speak out!
#CanThePlan

The numbers of young women (39k) fundraising for double mastectomies should be a big wake up call, says @BevJacksonAuth. Something is going wrong.
#CanThePlan

Stephanie Davies-Arai is driven by anger, but not helpless anger. Use you voice, however you can. Anger alerts us to something being wrong.
#CanThePlan

Statement being read by anon gay man, here in Wales. He fears repercussions for stating that sex is real and same-sex attraction is a reality. He's been kicked out of his community, called a genital fetishist.
#CanThePlan #DimDiolch

'LGB people are hated, and we are silenced' says anon gay man who has been harassed, vilified for sticking up for women and LGB people. This is what no debate does @fmwales @WG_Communities
#CanThePlan
#WomenWontWheesht

Feel courageous, feel proud, we are winning this war says Bev.
Chair advises contacting your 5 members of the Senedd, if you're in Wales. Contact the ministers too.
Respond to the consultation (even if not in Wales) tell them to #CanThePlan and sex is real.

Our press is poor in Wales, says Sarah Tanburn. Keep pushing it, the iron is not going to get much hotter. Hit the streets, talk to people, friends, family, colleagues. Make them listen.
#CanThePlan
#WomenWontWheesht