Dispatches from Women’s Services
Women who know first-hand the importance of single-sex spaces speak out on how gender ideology is harming women in need of support and social services.
On Breastfeeding Support Groups:
“I was shunned by an online breastfeeding group. The admins blocked me after over a decade of good faith learning and contributing. All my pictures and memories I'd put there were lost to me.
The reason? I'd asked whether men were now being allowed in the group, and said I didn't want men with breastfeeding fetish using pictures of me nursing my child as masturbatory fodder.
I know this sounds silly, but I have had zero support for breastfeeding my kids from the women in my family. I was shamed and have actually been fired from a desperately needed job for nursing my 4-month old baby. I loved that group. I needed the sisterhood I found there, and never--NEVER did I imagine that my wanting privacy and safety from predatory men would be the reason they'd let me go.”
On birth work:
“[Transgender ideology] has curbed my ability to talk about female experiences freely, such as menstruation, pregnancy and childbirth. I am a voluntary doula and an activist for birthing women.
In October 2019, I was physically assaulted on the streets while I was having a conversation with a friend about why sex matters in a medical context. I was followed by an individual who overheard me, and then was punched in the back of my head.
Now, I have trauma about going out, always watching my back when I have to, and scared for the safety of my kids, because the person who attacked me was at the same place where I was attacked later on that day, when I was coming back home with my kids after their school. It's not fair to leave in fear like this.”
On homeless shelters:
“As part of my job, I was taking a tour of a women’s homeless shelter. As I had been reading about various aspects of shelters from FEMA documents, I asked where the separate section was for transgender folks, as suggested in the documents.
The staff looked at me and said ‘well since transgender women are women, they sleep in the same area.’
Pushing further, I asked what would happen if a woman was uncomfortable if she was assigned to sleep next to a transgender woman.
She told me if the woman has a problem with it, she is kicked out.
That’s right, a woman, a vulnerable woman with no other resources will be kicked out of a WOMEN’s shelter, if she is uncomfortable with sleeping next to, sharing a bathroom, or showering facilities with a man. Think of how many of these women are in shelters because of abuse from men, and now they must tolerate male presence in their ‘safe’ space or get kicked out. I just can’t.”
On Health and Healing Spaces:
“After declaring on social media that I felt that women were entitled to women’s only (dance, yoga) classes/spaces, I was immediately labeled a hateful bigot and TERF (and TERFs are called to the wall, as I learned), publicly by many of dance colleagues, some of which are known worldwide.
I was kicked out of my dance school and performance troupe, and had my own dance salon/event that I co-produced and hosted boycotted. I lost several very close friends in my dance community.
A few months later, I realized that the women’s-only substance abuse and recovery self-help organization that I myself used in my early recovery, and then went on to moderate meetings in my local communities for them, had changed to welcome ‘all those who identify as female.’
My co-moderator and I filed an official complaint but our concerns were not shared my the CEO, the board, or those who shouted aloud in response to our public cry for acknowledgment of this backward policy.
We have since gone on to create our own women’s only sober meeting, and I have opened a women’s community wellness center.”
Letters From the Front is a new series from WoLF curating stories from women about how “gender identity” ideology has impacted them. We’ll share new letters, submitted anonymously, each week. Write in to share your own story!
WoLF does not necessarily endorse the content of Letters.
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