I would have thought it was almost impossible to make me look like David in any circumstance, but the Goliath that is JKR & her followers might just manage it. I believe there is some middle ground where listening & understanding is possible, and I must prove it.
@KirstieMAllsopp I think Ms. Rowling has been extraordinarily restrained and polite given what has been hurled at her. No need for you to insert yourself there.
@SuzyQue27155082 If you go back to the beginning of this particular 48 hours period you’ll find that JKR decided to take odds with my views, I had never mentioned her name.
I'm interested in the words 'decided to take odds with my views', Kirstie, which implies that I was looking for some way to attack you personally, which I wasn't. I certainly do take odds with people trying to rewrite history, though, as you did in saying airily that we've always been able to debate so-called gender affirming care for minors. As I've already proved to you, many of those attempting to raise concerns around puberty blockers, and the ideology that led them to be used off-label, have paid for it with their careers, their reputations and their mental health. You've previously dismissed concerns about what's been done to young people in the name of ideology, along with the well-founded fears of women most in need of single sex spaces, as 'moral panic'. As far as I'm concerned, high profile people who've cheered all this on, without bothering to inform themselves of the real world implications of their feel good slogans, are complicit.
@jk_rowling @SuzyQue27155082 I have no interest in making this about me, or about you. I believe that there is a middle ground where people with a genuine desire to listen & learn can discuss these things with compassion. There are too many issues impacting today’s world which are scarily divisive.
@KirstieMAllsopp @SuzyQue27155082 It's as though I'm being lectured on the etiquette around dinner party table talk. Some very compassionate and knowledgable people who tried to find the middle ground on this issue received only violent threats and career loss in return, a fact you still refuse to acknowledge.
@jk_rowling @SuzyQue27155082 You know what this isn’t a bad idea, perhaps everyone should start behaving as if we were breaking bread under the same roof. The restraints that we impose on ourselves when accepting another’s hospitality would improve Twitter, and the wider debate immensely. 🍞
Throughout this exchange, you’ve focused solely on how politely we talk, rather than the substance of what’s being talked about. It seems you’d rather critique style than actually engage with the subject. Many in this debate don’t have that luxury. These matters affect them too deeply. I don’t think many women would want to break bread with those who’ve threatened them with death and rape, I’d be surprised if those who were bullied out of jobs fancy making small talk with their ex-colleagues and I doubt detransitioners want to pass the salt to therapists who shoved them onto hormones and approved them for surgery after woefully scant assessments.
@jk_rowling @SuzyQue27155082 So many of your comments look to the past, and I can understand why, but unless everyone looks forward and finds a way of communicating with compassion and without blame, then your aim of helping young people will be almost impossible.
@KirstieMAllsopp @jk_rowling @SuzyQue27155082 Why would we not apportion blame? Why would we not call out those who have caused great harm? Why would we not call to account those who have set women's rights and safety back years. Could it be to avoid men's hurty feelings?
@KirstieMAllsopp @jk_rowling @SuzyQue27155082 Oh, come on @KirstieMAllsopp share some ‘black humour’ about females chopping off healthy breasts…the world awaits….
Again, you prefer bromides to engaging with the issues. Young people have suffered irreversible harm. Are they supposed to feel compassionate towards the people jeering at them and threatening them for sharing their stories? Are lesbians supposed to be nice and polite towards the men trying to shame them into doing dick? Are rape survivors supposed to feel kindly towards those removing their few single-sex spaces? ‘Why can’t we all behave like we’re at a dinner party’ isn’t a solution, it’s a way of making issues invisible so people who don’t want to think about them aren’t made to feel uncomfortable. You lecture only one side in this debate and we both know why. You’re scared of the trans activists, and it’s far easier to tell women to be nice than face down the kind of people who issue death threats.
@KirstieMAllsopp @ILoveTrees20 @jk_rowling @SuzyQue27155082 The starting point for a reasonable and compassionate debate is acceptance that trans people exist. That trans women are women and that trans men are men. Everything flows from those truths.
@KirstieMAllsopp @jk_rowling @SuzyQue27155082 LISTEN TO HOW THEY (🏳️⚧️) FEEL ABOUT WOMEN, KIRSTIE. REALLY LISTEN TO THEM.
@KirstieMAllsopp @jk_rowling @SuzyQue27155082 LISTEN TO HOW THEY (🏳️⚧️) FEEL ABOUT WOMEN, KIRSTIE. REALLY LISTEN TO THEM.
Platitudes... Worse, virtue signalling platitudes. "Oh, let's not dwell on the past... let's look to the future!" As for "communicating with 'compassion' and without blame" - seriously? When women have been threatened with rape and murder, when people lost their livelihood and some their families - you expect them to have floofing compassion towards those who did these things??
@KirstieMAllsopp @jk_rowling @SuzyQue27155082 Ahhhh time to #BeKind again. Thank Cass for that!
Without acknowledging and accepting the past how can we even look to building the future? Gender ideology promotes ignoring the past, ignoring who you have been for a lifetime and claiming you are effectively dead and reborn for example with “dead names”. The fact that they only perceive the world through this lens makes it incredibly hard to even start a discussion as anything is seen as an attack. Merely stating facts send them into a meltdown, no critical thought, no thought to if they perhaps are wrong and someone else may be making a good point. So self centred at the past to them doesn’t exist unless it involves something they disagree with. I cannot, as a transsexual, look to my future without acknowledging and accepting my past. My disorder although debilitating at times doesn’t suddenly grant me privileges or special treatment and never should. Without accepting the full self these people will never look forward to a future where they can have discourse without full blown mental breakdowns from a few simple words of truth.