Nobody should be accepting mental health recommendations from anonymous people on internet forums and social media.
Another probably less favorable view: I recently tried to interact with a TERF organization in San Francisco. I use that term because they actually call themselves that. The organization seemed…
Nobody should be accepting mental health recommendations from anonymous people on internet forums and social media.
Another probably less favorable view: I recently tried to interact with a TERF organization in San Francisco. I use that term because they actually call themselves that. The organization seemed very insular and frankly, seemed to hold me in suspicion either because I'm older or because I'm heterosexual. They also required members to use WhatsApp. When I signed up for this, I found myself barraged with texts. The organization seemed to have an insider group. Newcomers were treated with suspicion. One member of the organization responded angrily when I told her by email that I thought that bating and yelling at Scott Wiener, a pro-trans California politician, was not an effective way of advancing a critique about the demotion of women's sex based rights, and parental rights, as secondary to gender identity rights. She told me that I was a "distraction" and then bad mouthed me to the rest of the members of the group.
So, my conclusion is that at least one TERF group in San Francisco is, in fact, very exclusionary and does not broadly represent women or women's sex based rights.
Other organizations such as Sex Matters in the UK seem to be on the right track with focusing on trying to defend women's sex based rights in policy.
The fact is that many corners of the internet are very dark. That goes for both sides of this debate.
The pandemic is over. It's time for people to talk like adults, without a hidden agenda or power grab, face to face.
Marnie, thanks for this. Can I ask if it was SF TERFS? I just got a suggestion to connect with them, but haven't yet. Did you find other organizations to connect with in the Bay Area?
I haven't found other organizations in the Bay Area working to preserve women's sex based rights in a vein similar to Sex Matters in the UK. Nationally, I think the Independent Women's Forum is the closest in terms of policy and strategy to Sex Matters in the UK.
An observation from a distance:
Nobody should be accepting mental health recommendations from anonymous people on internet forums and social media.
Another probably less favorable view: I recently tried to interact with a TERF organization in San Francisco. I use that term because they actually call themselves that. The organization seemed very insular and frankly, seemed to hold me in suspicion either because I'm older or because I'm heterosexual. They also required members to use WhatsApp. When I signed up for this, I found myself barraged with texts. The organization seemed to have an insider group. Newcomers were treated with suspicion. One member of the organization responded angrily when I told her by email that I thought that bating and yelling at Scott Wiener, a pro-trans California politician, was not an effective way of advancing a critique about the demotion of women's sex based rights, and parental rights, as secondary to gender identity rights. She told me that I was a "distraction" and then bad mouthed me to the rest of the members of the group.
So, my conclusion is that at least one TERF group in San Francisco is, in fact, very exclusionary and does not broadly represent women or women's sex based rights.
Other organizations such as Sex Matters in the UK seem to be on the right track with focusing on trying to defend women's sex based rights in policy.
The fact is that many corners of the internet are very dark. That goes for both sides of this debate.
The pandemic is over. It's time for people to talk like adults, without a hidden agenda or power grab, face to face.
Marnie, thanks for this. Can I ask if it was SF TERFS? I just got a suggestion to connect with them, but haven't yet. Did you find other organizations to connect with in the Bay Area?
Yes, it was SF TERFs.
I haven't found other organizations in the Bay Area working to preserve women's sex based rights in a vein similar to Sex Matters in the UK. Nationally, I think the Independent Women's Forum is the closest in terms of policy and strategy to Sex Matters in the UK.
The Women's Declaraton International conference is coming to SF in September. Maybe that will be an opportunity to find like-minded women?
Is there a formal announcement of this conference? I just went to the WDI website:
https://www.womensdeclaration.com/en/news/
I don't see an announcement for any WDI conference in San Francisco.
Yes - it's on the WDI USA site: https://womensdeclarationusa.com/wdi-usa-2023-national-convention/