Maya Forstater

Given the many ways in which women are under-represented and trans people are discriminated against, worry about trans people being favored seems like a very strange place to focus ones energy on when fighting for women's rights.

I know it does Dina, and I don't think that there is a conflict between supporting trans people *and* women's rights (and obvs the manel question was more of a thought experiment than a suggestion that manels is the place to focus energy) but I do think the move to equate...

We can do both. But you are insisting very forcefully that for many cases, we should privilege the use of sex over gender. I think in this way you are hurting a small and very oppressed minority and doing very little to help those of us born in a female-perceived body.

Yes i think there are limited situations where we allow a facility or programme to be selective about sex (in most situations someone's sex does not matter & whether you are male or female shld not be taken into account in your suitability for employment, entry, membership etc..)

It sounds like you had some bad experiences related to trans women. I imagine they were not about too many trans people appearing on public panels. What's your underlying experience that leads to you feeling so strongly about this issue?

No not at all. I have had some bad experiences with men (not awful, but the usual run of flashing, groping, street harrassment etc.. that it is pretty much impossible to get to adulthood as a woman without experiencing) and of course lots of women experience much worse.

So I think the principal of saying women have the right to female spaces is important -- and that there is no feeling in a mans head that allows them to identify into those spaces should be defended