I have to share a thing. Today was the very first day in my life where, at a pub in the temple bar district of Dublin, I was challenged in a bathroom because a lovely lady thought I was a man. She couldn't see my face just my hair from behind and what I was wearing.
Her words to me where "Excuse me, this is a women's bathroom", to which I turned around and replied "of course it is that's why I'm standing in it". I had a massive smile on my face.
I was not annoyed, I was not offended at being 'misgendered', or rather 'incorrectly sexed'. I was so pleased, I asked her if I could give her a hug and congratulated her for protecting women's spaces because that takes guts.
I received about 100 apologies after, but I told the lady it was perfectly fine and that she didn't do anything wrong at all. It was a genuine mistake, there was no offence taken and I do have short hair and masculine presentation after all.
Most butch lesbians don't get harassed in toilets by women, we get challenged by boundaried and concerned women who make an honest mistake and apologise immediately. This is how it's done 🔥👍
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There is no way to turn a lesbian or a gay man into a heterosexual. All attempts are cruel and futile. I have, amongst my friends, people who have survived conversion therapy.
It leaves deep scars that can last a lifetime.
The bill, however, defines conversion therapy as:
“any practice or treatment by any person that seeks to change, suppress and, or eliminate a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity and, or gender expression.”
I don’t often do threads, but I had a thought today. So here goes. The reason why we have single sex rape crisis centres for women is that we need spaces away from the men who have harmed us. We need to escape rapists, oppressors, violent men.
Some transwomen claim that “cis” women oppress them. How? One way they claim they are oppressed is by “cis” women demanding single sex spaces. Spaces that transwomen cannot be in. Do you see a problem yet? Let me explain one.
Raped women do not demand access to men’s spaces, to golf clubs, old boys networks, or hereditary peerages. They do not want to go anywhere near the men’s bar. They want spaces well away from men, to recover, to regroup, to heal.
Thoughts: I watched a BBC segment on a young transman this morning. It was very one sided, no input from the family or medical profession about feelings or facts, no information about transition and the medical reality of it. What happened to the BBC being impartial on topics?
The second thing I found interesting on the topic was this young person saying their dysphoria was so bad they couldn't get out of bed some days. I said to my wife, "If I call in sick tomorrow and use my dysphoria as the reason, how do you think that would go down?"
The point I am making is not that dysphoria is not serious. It is. It's not the thing that stops people getting out of bed though. That's other mental health factors. Why aren't we discussing the fact that this young person clearly has other underlying conditions going on?