Supporting survivors of sexual violence unless…
Survivors’ Network is righteously indignant:
Survivors’ Network is a charity supporting survivors of sexual violence and abuse. We support survivors of all ages and genders in Sussex and this includes Trans and Non-Binary people. We are committed to intersectionality, and trans-inclusive feminism is central to our ethos.
But does that mean women don’t get to have support without men around? It appears it does mean that:
We are disappointed to share that we have recently had legal action taken against us due to our trans-inclusive ethos. The claimant alleges that we have broken equalities law as (they allege) it is not legitimate or proportionate to welcome trans women into our women-only spaces.
In other words they refuse to provide women-only spaces, while pretending they do provide women-only spaces, so they both refuse to provide what the claimant needs and blow smoke about what they’re doing. It’s sly, it’s smug, it’s self-flattering, and it throws women who need a women-only space under a very dirty bus.
If you’re a charity serving survivors of sexual violence and abuse, and you pretend to provide women-only services but actually don’t because you allow men who identify as women to use them, you’re just re-abusing your own damn clients. And then you pat yourselves on the back for it. Ugly.
The most important thing for us is the continued delivery of our services supporting survivors of sexual violence and abuse, and we want to reassure all of our current survivors and anyone seeking support that we are still here for you.
Unless you need a women-only space. We’re not here for you then – in fact we think you’re a monster and will say so in public. Men who call themselves women come first, bitch. See you in court.
And they’re willing to screw over a huge number of women for a tiny number of men, men whose presence shows they are self-selecting as violators of women’s boundaries. I’d be willing to bet that a large proportion of TiMs who would have the nerve to invade these spaces are there for “validation”, or worse, for gratification, to get off on the women’s stories of abuse. If these shelters are admitting men who claim they are women as clients, are they going to also take them on as volunteers or staff? If they were allowed to work with female survivors, then these TiMs would be there without even the pretense of being victims of abuse. Mridul Wadhwa, anyone? The women who desperately need space and safety away from men end up being told to “reframe their trauma” by staff and volunteers. Once inside, assuming they decide to enter at all, these women run the risk of being reduced to becoming little more than providers of affirmation or entertainment for TiMs who have no right to be there.
If the service providers are willing to ignore the huge lie that these men are “really” women, how will they detect (comparitively) smaller lies about why they are availing themselves the use of these facilities? How would they weed out predators from prospective staff and volunteers if they aren’t going to weed out men from women to begin with? I would be disinclined to believe they would have any legitimate reasons, as they’re already demonstrably intent upon intruding on women’s spaces. If they actually had any sort of “female” conciousness, awareness or empathy, they wouldn’t be there in the first place.