One ‘gotcha’ thrown at GC feminists who say that in some circumstances it is inappropriate for women to share spaces with TW is that we wouldn’t tolerate someone saying they don’t want to share space/be treated by a black person (or indeed any other protected characteristic) 1/

This is true. We don’t. Even if someone demonstrated a pathological fear of members of a racial group, we wouldn’t indulge that and remove those people from the setting. So why is it different when it comes to men and women? Well, the first point to make is that even the TRAs 2/

Recognise that there *is* a difference and that segregation between men and women is appropriate in some circumstances. Most of them do *not* call for unisex facilities. In fact, they argue vehemently that it would be inappropriate for TW to share spaces with men. By this, 3/

they acknowledge that there is a material distinction between men and women and that segregation is appropriate. The dispute is merely *how* we segregate- whether it’s based on sex or gender identity. So already they have completely destroyed their own racism analogy. 4/

In fact, their claims that a TW would be unsafe in a male setting suggests that there might be something about male behaviour OR that norms of privacy and dignity make it inappropriate for a TW to share spaces with natal males. So their argument is that it *is* appropriate to 5/

segregate BUT that segregation should be based on a person’s identity. That makes little sense because nobody has access to another’s inner thoughts about their identity. Instead we are judged by how we appear to the outside world and nearly all of us will be clearly 6/

identifiable as either male or female- yes, even you, Judith Butler! So if we agree that it’s inappropriate for me as a woman to share spaces with males (due to safety AND dignity) then why do the inner feelings of the person I share with become of importance when I don’t have 7/

access to these and they don’t alter *my* perception of what is happening? How can it be wrong for me to share a prison cell with a male but unproblematic if that male declares themselves to have a female gender identity? Why am I left out of that equation so that my 8/

feelings of discomfort are normal in the first scenario but bigoted in the second, despite no material change having occurred. And this touches on an important truth which is that surgical modification and ‘passing’ are indeed crucial to the question of sharing spaces. 9/

This is problematic in itself because not everyone has access to surgery, not everyone can achieve the same results and surgery is risky and can leave someone with pain and loss of sexual function. Mandating surgery to be able to obtain a GRC is very problematic 10/

I don’t think we should do it. But the truth is that bodies do matter and we can’t divorce the mind from the body, like Judith Butler tries to. That means that if someone does pass as female, them using female spaces is unlikely to raise issues but the same isn’t true for 11/

someone visibly male and no amount of mental gymnastics will make it so because the human ability to tell male from female is so ingrained (and probably innate). So someone who appears male is likely to cause discomfort to many females. It’s illogical to label this as bigotry 12/

if we accepts it’s reasonable if the male were not transgender. That makes no sense. Same with safety and propensity to violence. Most TRAs (esp those claiming to be feminists) accept that men are on the whole more violent than women (you’d have to in order to found the claim 13/

that TW would be at high risk in male prisons for example. But again, this seems to be something that a person can identify out of. Most men aren’t violent yet we still segregate which shows that safety is only a small part of the concern and is a red herring. 14/

My male colleagues probably won’t rape or assault me but it’s still not appropriate for us to share a changing room. It’s about so much more than crime stats and the TRAs rely on it themselves but don’t think women should. So they need to stop the weak racism analogies 15/15