Contents

General Questions

Mental Health/Well-being

Question 1: Do you feel gender identity ideology has had any effect on your mental health and well-being?

	Not at all	A little	A moderate amount	A lot	A great deal	Total	Missing	Total

Number	130	410	694	803	899	2936	7	2943
%	4.4	14	23.6	27.3	30.5	99.8	0.2	100

Fig. 7

95.8% of respondents reported gender identity ideology has had an effect on their mental health, with 31% saying that it had affected their mental health a great deal.

Some women said that a clear distinction should have been made between mental health and mental wellbeing.

RESPONDENT COMMENT: “My mental health has almost totally collapsed. Mostly because I am excluded from all so called lgbt groups because I know that a heterosexual male is not a lesbian. I have had some terrible experiences with men in the past. It is too triggering to be in these spaces with males calling themselves lesbians so I have nowhere to go.”

RESPONDENT COMMENT: “I’ve found the whole situation to be extremely traumatic and damaging to my mental health. I live with a heightened sense of anxiety on a daily basis. I have been physically attacked by TRAs for leafletting and as a result felt frightened to walk down the streets in my local area afterwards. I have never wanted to scream something from the rooftops so loudly, as I recognise the importance of this subject and the immense danger it poses to women and children yet I am scared into silence. It is suffocating. Many people do not understand what is going on. It is exhausting, isolating and very frightening.”

RESPONDENT COMMENT: “I am a rape survivor who is currently taking out a civil action against my rapist. I have never been able to access Rape Crisis in Scotland due to the comments they have made. When the Forensic Bill was going through Scottish Parliament in Nov 2020 I saw the way SNP MSP’s (specifically @KirstySNP on twitter) talked about rape survivors and accused us of “weaponising” our trauma and I saw that Rape Crisis themselves discarded the service user feedback they received that stated same sex service needed and instead asked MSP’s to vote against Johann Lamont’s 6 word amendment to the bill, basically lobbying them to go against the express wishes of their own service users. As result of seeing the disdain with which policymakers view women who have survived sexual violence my mental health declined to the point where I became suicidal in November 2021 and I have continued to feel suicidal. I have sought support from my works Gender Based Violence service as one of my children identifies as trans and his behaviour at home mirrored that of a domestic abuser (which makes sense, as his father was a domestic abuser) however I didn’t feel that the service took my concerns seriously, minimised it and reframed it as “not agreeing” and as a result I wasn’t able to fully disclose the issues that brought me to their service that made me uncomfortable (in particular that he was stealing my underwear to use as masturbatory aids). My alcohol consumption has increased in the last year to the point where I have now decided to abstain entirely and I’ve self referred to addiction services through work and it is only now that I am getting the opportunity to discuss my rape trauma and its impact on my life – my mental health has improved and I am no longer suicidal. I will not be able to access Rape Crisis as I do not believe they are a service for women, I believe they now primarily exist to advance Gender Ideology in Scotland. As a woman I feel that society, the Scottish government and all the women’s groups established to advocate for woman have turned their backs on us.”

RESPONDENT COMMENT: “I don’t think I’ve ever been more depressed and anxious in my life than I have been the past couple of years, ever since I finally spoke up about my views and realized just how bad things really are. Every day it gets worse. I’ve struggled with suicidal thoughts recently for the first time since my teen years due to the constant awareness I now have of how women are being treated in our current political climate. I used to identify as a trans man and the same people who groomed me to hate myself online for so many years turned on me like sharks the moment I defended a woman they had labelled a “TERF”. I was completely ostracized and had to go into hiding on social media and start over in a radical feminist space just to be able to speak freely about my experiences. I have been banned from several social media sites just for standing up to trans bullies who were making violent threats to random women.”

Question 2: Have you had formal and/or medical/psychological support relating to concerns around gender identity ideology?

	Number	%

No	2663	90.5
Yes	275	9.3

Total	2938	99.8
Missing	5	0.2
Total	2943	100

Fig. 8

Some women reported having had negative reactions from mental health practitioners when seeking support, others self-excluded from formal support.

RESPONDENT COMMENT: “Thank you for doing this. I’ve been struggling and had a therapist change her attitude toward me then abandon me after finding out I’m a TERF. Was suicidal and she knew that.”

RESPONDENT COMMENT: “Just to say I can’t seek psychological help because every professional body (in the U.K.) is captured. Also because I am a mum of a trans-identified male I have to internalise a lot of this to keep him safe from the predators who want to separate us from our kids.”

RESPONDENT COMMENT: “Great range of questions getting straight to the point. Qu 2 I wouldn’t spill my heart to a therapist that would also support children to mutilate themselves.”

RESPONDENT COMMENT: “I don’t even feel like I can tell my therapist my views, given she uses the “people with uteruses” type language. And it’s stopped me from attending a women’s sexual violence support group because it was for “anyone who identifies as a non-man”… it’s the only women’s sexual violence support group in my area, but I’m not comfortable if there are male people there.”

RESPONDENT COMMENT: “I can’t seek mh support over this or anything else because amht (adult mental health team) wear stonewall lanyards and last time I saw my cpn (community psychiatric nurse) she said people can change sex and she supports young people to do so. So how can I trust them on anything?”

Question 3: Have you sought support or “safe spaces” to share your views relating to gender identity ideology issues? (For example, social media groups or meeting with like-minded others)

	Number	%

No	295	10
Yes	2636	89.6

Total	2931	99.6
Missing	12	0.4
Total	2943	100

Fig. 9

The survey was distributed predominantly through groups that have self-organised around concerns about gender identity ideology therefore it is to be expected that a large number of the respondents would report having sought out informal supportive spaces.

As the survey could not be distributed publicly, this meant that women who are isolated with their views were less likely to have accessed it.

The survey was only available online so required access to the internet. It would therefore exclude many women who live in institutions such as prisons, long term hospitals or other supportive settings like care homes or who have time restrictions due to demanding carer responsibilities.

The difficulties experienced by the researchers in distributing the survey without fear of organised attempts at sabotage is an example of how women are being silenced in speaking of these issues.

RESPONDENT COMMENT: “The issue has lost me work and gigs which you did not ask, and this caused seeking safe spaces, mental health counsel, etc.”

Question 4: Have you increased your consumption of alcohol, food or (non)-prescription drugs as a result of the impact of gender identity ideology?

	Number	%

No	2267	77
Yes	662	22.5

Total	2929	99.5
Missing	14	0.5
Total	2943	100

Fig. 10

A number of respondents observed that no question was asked about sleep problems as a result of concerns about gender identity ideology but that their sleep had been significantly affected.

RESPONDENT COMMENT: “You didn’t ask about impact on sleep, stress or feelings of anxiety. In case not covered later, these are the impacts on my mental health and I’ve suffered them for about 3 years now.”

RESPONDENT COMMENT: “I lost my job over gender ideology, hence mental health and drinking problems.”

RESPONDENT COMMENT: “I’ve developed an eating and anxiety adjustment disorder as a result of speaking up against gender ideology. I am completing this survey at 2am because I cannot sleep, my peace of mind is so wrecked.”

RESPONDENT COMMENT: “To emphasise 1st answer: I have literally lost sleep over this debate and as a mum who takes care of small child 24/7 it isn’t that I can spare some. Answer to 5th Q: I have not lost any friendships as I haven’t had many in first place but my family has subsequently further taken me less seriously because of bringing this up so the little support I had was brought to even less.”

Question 5: Have you lost friends or family members through your position/views on gender identity ideology?

	Number	%

No	1187	40.3
Yes	1742	59.2

Total	2931	99.6
Missing	12	0.4
Total	2943	100

Fig. 11

Many women who answered ‘no’ to question 5 replied in the open question that they believe they would have lost friends or family members if they did not self-censor to avoid conflict.

RESPONDENT COMMENT: “Gender ideology – or more specifically – those who promote it, has ruined my life. I have lost precious relationships with family members and friends over it. I feel that over five decades of fighting for women’s rights has been wasted. It has driven me to the brink of suicide and I despair for the future.”

RESPONDENT COMMENT: “Question 5 may need a few more options, e.g. No because I have not mentioned by views.”

RESPONDENT COMMENT: “I think question 5) could be improved. I didn’t lose friends over my gender critical views because I didn’t explicitly share them with anyone who I know would not accept them. So I ticked “No”, but the context is missing. You could add “I’m afraid to share my views with friends.” or something similar.”

RESPONDENT COMMENT: “Gender identity ideology has wreaked havoc on my immediate family. I see it as a destructive, dangerous and destabilising force in society.”

RESPONDENT COMMENT: “I’m sure that I would lose more friends than I already have if I were more vocal on the subject. I feel pressured into biting my tongue and I talk in whispers to trusted others. The constant fear of being targeted and called bigoted is damaging to my health. I have been off work due to stress because of this.”

RESPONDENT COMMENT: “My daughter has cut ties with me because of my ‘non woke’ views but specifically because I refused to incorporate transwomen (i.e. men) in my feminism. It breaks my heart but I will not bend.”

RESPONDENT COMMENT: “Lost 95% of my friend group and my roommates tried to throw me out of the house due to my “transphobia.””

Language

Question 6: Does the use of gender instead of sex bother/concern you? i.e., “please state your gender” rather than your “sex”?

	Number	%

No	80	2.7
No, as long as gender identity is only offered as an additional option	403	13.7
Yes	2455	83.4

Total	2938	99.8
Missing	5	0.2
Total	2943	100

Fig. 12

RESPONDENT COMMENT: “I’ve seen “gender” replace “sex” on surveys done by my university and other universities on topics like sexism, but also on health topics, both obviously fields where sex-disaggregated data is immensely important. In other, more every-day matters, too. It makes me feel hopeless at times”.

RESPONDENT COMMENT: “If we cannot name ourselves, we cannot organise as a class. Sex is immutable. Gender is made up 1950s bullshit.”

Question 7: How do you feel about the use of pronouns in work email signatures, LinkedIn etc?

	Very positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very negative	Total	Missing	Total

Number	24	8	113	563	2226	2934	9	2943
%	0.8	0.3	3.8	19.1	75.6	99.7	0.3	100

Fig. 13

RESPONDENT COMMENT: “I am shaking inside when I’m asked for pronouns. Why is this happening when sex is a protected characteristic rather than gender identity? Surely this is against the law? I’m shocked that it’s got this far. It is like being awake in a nightmare.”

RESPONDENT COMMENT: “I silently seethe through much of my working life due to increased use of pronouns and general gender-woo. I don’t feel able to be my authentic (GC) self at work.”

RESPONDENT COMMENT: “I am currently looking for work. I am concerned that I will be asked to choose my pronouns in an interview, or in a new job. I feel that using pronouns at work implies that I believe in gender identity ideology, which I don’t. A significant number of job adverts now use words like ‘inclusion’ and ‘safe place for diverse’ people, which in my view also implies adherence to gender identity ideology. This has prevented me from applying for some positions as I don’t feel these would be a safe place to work.”

Question 8: How do you feel about changes to the language used to refer to women’s bodies, for example “chest feeders”, “uterus havers”, “menstruators?”

	Very positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very negative	Total	Missing	Total

Number	9	5	12	59	2852	2937	6	2943
%	0.3	0.2	0.4	2	96.9	99.8	0.2	100

Fig. 14

RESPONDENT COMMENT: “The insidious ‘normalisation’ of these changes to language and definitions is extremely dangerous and makes me feel that my entire world view, life and experience is being deleted/reframed and appropriated. It is excision of our entire way of explaining, understanding and articulating how sexist oppression affects us. Many people use the word ‘chilling’ to describe it and I think that’s a great adjective- it is a freezing of our thoughts and paralysis of material analysis.”

RESPONDENT COMMENT: “The use of language to dehumanise and objectify women is terrifying in its implications.”

Question 9: How do you feel about the use of the word “cis” as a prefix to woman?

	Very positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very negative	Total	Missing	Total

Number	20	6	48	249	2613	2936	7	2943
%	0.7	0.2	1.6	8.5	88.8	99.8	0.2	100

Fig. 15

RESPONDENT COMMENT: “I refuse to be referred to as cis, which implies I conform with gender stereotypes and that some male bodied people can be women. It is insulting and degrading to be told that you must become a subset of your own category, furthermore I do not display many of the gender norms associated with womanhood so does that make me trans? I am not a stereotype, I am not a subset of womanhood, I am an adult human female who can express herself any way she pleases without it lessening her womanliness. Woman is any personality in a female body, not a ‘feminine’ personality in any body.”

RESPONDENT COMMENT: “My abusive AGP ex used coerced gender neutral language as part of the abuse. I find pronouns and cis very triggering.”

Question 10. Would you like to say more about the general questions?

902 women commented on the general questions.

Thematic coding was used initially to obtain a broad-brush overview of women’s concerns. The coding revealed the most commonly cited concerns of women relating to the general question were:

Codes	% of all themes identified
Changes to language	11.4
Psychological harms caused	7.8
Family and Friends – (impact on or loss of)	5.7
Compelled speech	4.7
Erasure of Women	4.4
GI in the Workplace	4.1
The promotion and methods of promotion of GI	4.1
Use of GI pronouns rather than sex pronouns	3.7
Feelings of fear for self and others	3.4
Loss of women’s spaces	3.4
Impact on women’s rights	3.4
Sex should be used instead of gender	3.4
Women being silenced	3.1
Misogyny in GI	3.1
Personal stories of harms caused	3.0
Impact on children and young people	2.6
Concern/worry about GI	2.6
Access, or lack of, to formal support with MH difficulties due to GI	2.3
Anger/frustration about GI	2.3
Role of institutions in promoting and enforcing GI	2.1
Distress/upset about GI	1.7
Sex Binary is real and cannot be denied	1.7
Male Entitlement as a factor in GI	1.3
Fear of male violence and loss of ability to name it	1.2
Impact on data collection	1.1
Employment problems due to GI	1.1
Seeking safe spaces to speak	0.9
Sexism within GI	0.9
Implications for healthcare	0.7
Legal protections for women lost	0.7
Homophobia as a driver for GI	0.6
Consumption of alcohol/food etc. increased	0.5
Shock about what is happening	0.4
Cultural comparisons	0.3
AGP as the main driver	0.2
Policy and regulations changed to promote GI	0.2
Media coverage inadequate or acting as propaganda	0.2
Impact on LGB	0.1
Female socialisation	0.1
Disgust at what is happening	0.1
Detransitioners being mistreated and/or denied	0.1
Other themes	5.3

Total	100

Fig. 16

Women’s Comments

“I feel worried about using public toilets but I have diverticulitis so don’t have a choice. I may have to have surgery next year and I’m terrified of going into a hospital ward with men. I’m terrified of my colleagues and manager finding out my views. I’ve lost friends, in particular my best friend of many years, and life feels lonely now.”

“The reaction to JK Rowling’s measured & empathetic essay made me suicidal. I had to leave my job because I was surrounded by people I knew would hate me & be OK with me being fired, not to mention threatened with rape & murder, if they knew I completely agree with her.”

“In terms of seeking formal psychological support, I’m not sure how you would even go about seeking out gender critical therapy, TBH. There’s nowhere to go.”

“Gender identity ideology is so draining because it constantly positions what it means to be women as a regressive, sexist stereotype, yet so many people are wilfully ignoring this and are actively punishing women who dare to raise it as a concern. I’m so tired of the world not listening to how offensive it is to be told that I’m a menstruator and that I’m a cis because I conform to the gender role I was assigned at birth. I hate it.”

“Not everyone who prioritises sex over gender identifies as ‘gender critical’ – I prefer ‘radical lesbian feminist’.”

“I worry the most about the erosion of material reality and fact based, provable and immutable “sex” in LAW. It should never be replaced by gender. Gender is completely subjective, cannot be proven and as an identity, can change over time. This is a dangerous precedent!”

“Identity ideology is terrifying. like being in a totalitarian state run by dangerous deranged narcissists. very depressed. Cis is a degrading insult to all women.”

“This gender lunacy is ruining my life. I’ve lost so many close friends over it including a friend who died before we could be reconciled. It’s been truly awful.”

“I want to mention the pervasive feeling of fear and dread I get in professional settings when I worry about a conflict resulting from hard line stances on pronouns and other aspects of gender ideology. The worry of being excluded or thought of as transphobic because of my views is a lot to carry.”

“Cis is a slur and implies women “identify” with the harms done to them on the basis of, and the regressive stereotypes associated with, their sex.”

“I consider this a disaster that erases women’s/female reality. I believe this is intentional.”

“All of the language nonsense associated with gender ideology is the coercive thought control of propaganda.”

“I have paranoia and I get DBT therapy through CMHT. In the pack they have a section on Radical Acceptance which talks of accepting reality. I have dropped out of this because psychologists and mental health professionals are not consistent in their approach to delusions (which I believe technically gender confusion is). How are psychologists allowed to treat some people with Radical Acceptance etc but affirm others. I tried to commit suicide twice in 2015 because did not want to live with a skewed sense of reality. It has been very destabilising having professionals now redefine reality to affirm delusions and has had a major impact on my mental wellbeing.”

“I feel that telling anyone how I feel about my answers to these questions is ‘offensive’ and will make people call me a bigot and a transphobe. I feel like no one in any position of authority cares that I’m offended and alienated by pronoun declarations and dehumanising language. My experiences of offense and alienation are potentially offensive to others. It’s extra alienating to be told you are a bad person for feeling like you’re being ignored and erased and like you have no right to complain.”

“GI is gaslighting and therefore abuse. Mind, who provide many of the mental health services in my area are now subscribing to this ideology. This adds greatly to my distress as they used to provide me with support and I have volunteered for them for some years, providing support for women whose MH problems largely result from gendered abuse. (There are a number of trans people at my local centre with whom I have absolutely no issues with whatsoever and who are, of course, fully entitled to support from the service too.)”

“I don’t know if I’m exactly the right target to the survey. I was among the first wave of Brazilian women fighting against the invasion of men in dresses, in 2013, and I was excluded from the start. After the initial shock of being victim of smear campaigns I realized I didn’t care, because I was better alone than with stupid.”

“I have now retired, so this has had less impact on me than on younger women. I would not have been able to deliver the Scottish Government ‘s PSE curriculum had I still been working because I believe it to be harmful to younger children, and particularly so towards the autistic young people I taught.”

“Although I have answered no to the question about losing family or friends because of my GC views, my daughter and I have become somewhat distant. She is totally captured by trans ideology. It is a source of great sadness to me.”

“I am not from the UK. I am currently under prison threat/investigation by my countries government because I was accused of being a terf. I am not OK. I am on the verge of suicide. I Just wanted someone to know and understand why I will die.”

“Every time I see another work email signature with pronouns at the end it’s like a tiny stab. I’ve now added my own suffragette ribbon into my email signature and it is going to stay there until I get told to take it off because it is a) hurtful or b) political or c) irrelevant. At which stage I will explain that pronouns are all three, and until our workplace remove these, mine is staying. I will do my best not to get fired. But I’ve had enough”

“As a base point, I’m a fairly stable personality plus as a former therapist of some 18 yrs, I have helping techniques at my disposal if necessary. So for me to be as angry & at risk as I am, about the threats posed to women & wider society by trans ideology, is a disproportionate shift for me. I’m concerned that more vulnerable women will be at even greater risk.”

“Gender ideology is misogynistic, homophobic, anti scientific, anti safeguarding nonsense. It is dangerous and makes no sense whatsoever.”

“I feel surrounded by a world that is increasingly and pitilessly wishing to erase me and all I have ever been.”

“There is so much I would like to discuss publicly without negative recourse on gender identity ideology. However due to current laws where I live and my profession’s current position on gender identity ideology, I do not feel safe to do so. Even in this anonymous survey.”

“Sex is immutable, and biological reality. Gender is the harmful reinforcement of toxic, regressive stereotypes, and should be discouraged. If so called ‘trans’ individuals feel uncomfortable in sexed spaces (for example, transvestites in male toilets), then men should be more accepting of differences, rather than women be expected to cede spaces to accommodate gender dysphorics and AGPs.”

“The language used to minimise women’s fears and coerce them into allowing men into their spaces, is the same type of language abusers use. Reducing women to body parts and bodily functions is dehumanising, offensive and dangerous. It facilitates misogyny and abuse. The most upsetting and distressing aspect of all of this, is that there is absolutely nowhere to go or speak, that is guaranteed to be free of men. The fact that I now have to say “male bodied people” sums it up. I don’t know a single woman who has not been sexually harassed, raped or touched intimately by a man without her consent. There is no other ideology in existence, where the oppressor group can claim the identity of the oppressed – and then abuse their new identity in order to strip women of language, safe political organisation, free speech, safe spaces and single sex services. This is all about ignoring women’s boundaries and removing women’s right to consent.”

“I used to think the bowdlerized usage of the word “gender” instead of “sex” was just stupid Puritanism but gave it a pass because it was ubiquitous, but now I’ve become really aggravated by any reference to gender on forms or surveys, particularly on medical questionnaires, job applications, school applications, etc, because it’s become inextricably intertwined with the current weird religion of gender ideology.”

“Have not sought professional mental health support regarding gender identity feelings due to current therapist’s work with gender identity. I’m concerned for her reaction, and considering discontinuing therapy with her due to her work in gender as well.”

“Not only has it impacted my mental health but I am not allowed to talk about how it has impacted my mental health. I am treated like I am the problem if I even mention it which impacts my mental health even further.”

“It is extremely important that data on sex rather than gender is gathered otherwise it loses all integrity and can cause major harm when discussing criminal and health outcomes. The use of the word CIS is highly offensive for many reasons the most important are 1, it presumes that everyone has a gender identity (I don’t) 2, it makes me a subsect of women instead of a woman 3, it implies that I have chosen to be abused and discriminated against instead of it happening due to my sex. The use of dehumanising language like menstruators and chest feeder is a purposeful attempt to reduce women to sub humans and divorce the word woman from those of us that it should mean i.e. adult human female. This is another way of removing women’s rights and protection if we have no words to describe us as a sex class how can we talk about ourselves and our needs. This eradication of the word woman is directly responsible for the increased violence against women and girls”

“I gave birth last year. It was really demoralising to be treated with gender neutral language. I’m a mother – not a birthing parent. It was the most primally female experience I ever had, linking me with every other mother in my ancestral line since we crawled out the swamp. But no – I was a birthing person, a chest feeder.”

“This issue has caused me to relive past traumas and feel more insecure regarding societies care of women given the level of violence against women and girls currently. It feels like we no longer matter.”

“As an atheist I consider ‘gender’ ideology to be a religion. I feel like I am being forced to pander to this vile, misogynistic, homophobic, eugenicist religion. It is hugely detrimental to my wellbeing.”

“I am a woman. I am quite a masculine woman. This whole thing terrifies me. The impact on the Tomboy I once was, had I been so now is frightening. I would have been forced down the Transition route.”

“It’s hard to get psychological support because you don’t know how a therapist would react to your beliefs, they are supposed to be impartial but no one really is. I’ve tried to bring it up in therapy but never wanted to impair the relationship.”

“I answered NO to the question asking whether I had lost friends due to my views. The truth is that I am scared to share my views with friends- most of whom are in teaching, as I was. Similarly, I never see them air their views publicly. I see what happens to people who say that they do not believe trans identifying males are actually women, and it scares me into silence.”

“It is appalling that a group of people made up of mostly men can infiltrate everything in our society that has had a positive effect for women. These men now even want to take our words from our mouths.”

“Gender Identity Theory / Gender Ideology is extremely misogynistic & homophobic. It promotes incredibly narrow views of what women & men are, teaches kids that perfectly normal personality traits should be medicalised, & seems hellbent in enforcing compelled speech, compelled belief & a refusal to accept facts. It undermines every aspect of the legal rights of women in the UK. In attempting to undermine the notion of biological sex in law, it undermines legal protections for same-sex attracted people. I cannot see a single way in which teaching kids about Gender Identity has helped them. It has totally reinforced very regressive ideas about who we all are & how we should all behave. We should just be teaching kids that there are two biological sexes and no right or wrong way of being either of those things.”

“I find these terms extremely offensive. It is completely outrageous that we are expected to use a prefix to make clear that I am the type of woman who does not have a penis. I vehemently reject this new meaning of the word that describes my sex class.”

“Conflating sex and gender identification is seriously problematic. Sex is not an identity, and gender is not a sex.”

“I have gone out less and have avoided medical screening because of concern about lack of single sex provision.”

“This is a clear attempt to change the meaning of the word ‘woman’ leaving us without the ability to describe or define who we are. If we can’t define who we are how do we organise? A shocking assault on women’s rights by men.”

“I don’t object to people describing themselves as cis. I object to people insisting I am cis when it’s not how I experience my reality. I am already having therapy to deal with the trauma from domestic abuse and the topic of gender ideology has come up as it threatens my sense of safety and my own power to have my own reality not overridden by other.”

“I was abused as a child. I stood strong for decades. I feel abused again, coerced, lied to, threatened. I have C-PTSD and it’s been triggered by gender ideology extremism.”

“The proliferation of genderist ideology in all of its manifestations is a constant, crushing reminder of how little women are valued in our culture.”

“I no longer work so email signatures are not an issue. I have been emailed by a complaints manager in a local MH setting, who used pronouns. I believe it was my GC views that fuelled my redundancy.”

“Gender ideology has revealed how deeply misogynistic and homophobic our society still is, which causes me great distress as a woman and a lesbian, for both myself and my wife. It’s hard to will myself to keep living now that’s I’ve seen the curtain drop on just how little this sick world cares about us.”

“I think all documents should have a sex question and an optional gender identity question. For example, I have just started uni and had to fill in a form today that asked me what my sex was and then asked if I identify with the gender I was born as. I could not opt out of this question (online form) and it meant I had to be complicit with an ideology I don’t believe in, like being made to pray to a god I don’t believe in. It also made me feel like I am going to be unsafe in this uni and unable to be myself. Myself is a woman who beliefs in biology and doesn’t believe in gender identity theory. I was brought up in a strict church environment. In many ways it was very damaging. I cannot sit in a church service now. It makes me very anxious and panicky. I fear I am going to be made to endure having this new gender identity religion constantly forced upon me and I know it will give me the same feeling of being trapped and not being able to get away or disagree if I want to stay on my training course and progress in my career.”

“I have had arguments and contention about gender ideology with friends and family, though I have not lost any over it. It cannot be stressed enough how much it impacts one’s life to be asked to self-redefine to fit into someone else’s delusion. It affects not only external experiences, but core self.”

“I feel alone and isolated and I have PSTD from a library talk from being picketed by 1000 crazy people who thought women discussing our rights was a hate crime.”

“It’s not just me- I have a daughter. Gender ideology is encouraging young people like her to behave badly, harm themselves, ignore their boundaries and judge people superficially while also taking away her right to fair sport, safe single-sex spaces and the dignity of having a word that describes her body as a part of the sexual dimorphism of humanity.”

“I am a woman who had experienced early grooming, rape, abduction, and life-threatening male violence all before reaching the age of fourteen. It was a long time ago now. There was a good deal of victim-blaming and silencing went on. It is difficult for me to find words adequate to expressing just how disturbed, depressed and isolated I feel as a result of being ‘silenced’ again and to the realisation that women’s right to single sex safe spaces no longer exists, really, even though that right still exists in law.”

“The continual encroachment on women’s rights is having a detrimental effect on my mental health. I’m now very aware of which public toilets are unsafe in my area and this has an impact on me when I am out.”

“I haven’t lost friends but I have had to not talk about it to certain people because I know we will differ and that difference could make friendship untenable.”

“What is happening to women and girls is the most evil misogyny I’ve ever known in my 66 yrs of life. Already, all public, single sex toilets in my area have been shut down, replaced with awful unisex kiosks, some where men and women have to walk into the same room/building to access these kiosks. I barely ever go out, as I need public toilets more than I once did and cannot bear to use these terrible places now. Huge danger to women and girls, hugely insulting and disrespectful and I’m sure many men hate them too. Back on The Urinary Leash it seems. “Horrific!”

“I believe gender extremism is very harmful and sets us back many years. It reduces women and men to a set of behaviors and looks instead of the simple biological states of being simultaneously adult, human, and male/female.”

“Completing this has made me feel less alone. But also more aware of the toll this is taking on me. Thank you for doing this.”

“No psychology sought for myself but for my daughter.”

“Creating an atmosphere at work and in general life where you are compelled to ascribe to an ideology that you don’t agree with or believe in is damaging to people’s mental health and wellbeing.”

“I feel women as a class are under attack by gender ideology. I feel frightened of the future. I lost some work due to an aggressive trans person I had to challenge in a support group but the employing charity chose to support him over me as scared of being accused of transphobia otherwise.”

“All these changes in terminology is entirely about eradicating women as a distinct group.”

“The topic is so disturbing that to maintain my mental health I’m taking a break from online discussions.”

“I need to stress that the effect on my mental health has been to do with anger and frustration at the amount of power TRAs have. It is depressing, but I am not suffering depression because of it.”

“I’ve had to delete social media after being called a ‘vile c***) after I shared articles from Women’s Place. I’ve been sexually assaulted and would not use any rape/counselling service that can’t guarantee me a female counsellor. And reducing women to body parts (menstruators, vulva owners) is horribly dehumanising.”

“The word Woman is being erased.”

“The atmosphere is so charged by men that I am physically afraid to try to ever discuss gender/sex or even be a woman.”

“I have been fairly outspoken on my gender critical position. This has left me somewhat isolated and lonely. I feel like I’m having to rebuild new social networks as a result.”

“These are great general questions, because the language issues are among the most ubiquitous and sinister. I care about women in politics, women in sports, etc., but do not participate in many areas of life in which a man is likely to be viewed as a better “woman” for the job, but of course I care about the opportunities being taken away from girls and women. The language issues are already affecting us all.”

“I have not lost family but avoid certain members because of gender ideology.”

“’Cis’ was appropriated from Transsexuals. The original meaning was this: Transwomen/Transman- someone on the transitional journey to become as like the opposite sex as possible. Cis woman/Cisman- someone who has completed their transition and is now as like the opposite sex as they can be. Becoming “Cis” was an important and celebrated part of the trans journey for many transsexuals. It was also an easy way to know if someone was completely “post-op” without awkward questions. Stealing this word and rebranding it to mean simply female was not only unnecessary, it was actively harmful to the transsexual community.”

“I haven’t lost friends because I am careful who I share my views with.”

“I have not exactly lost family members but had a huge disagreement with my brother over this. Our relationship is now very fragile. I am angry with him.”

“I do feel that all of the issues mentioned are having an escalating negative impact on my mental health and are creating a constant state of low-level anxiety, with increasingly frequent peaks of anxiety due to specific incidents.”

“I’ve not sought professional help with my stress levels centred on this issue because of the COVID lockdown situation but intend to do so. In relation to Q5, I have lost friends, but I also cannot be myself within my family, for fear of losing my relationship with my children, who sadly are both full subscribers to gender ideology. Even a civil discussion is not possible because anything I say is deemed “hateful”. That in itself is an unrelenting distress.”

“I would not dare talk to mental health professionals about my views on gender ideology for fear of their judgment.”

“I answered that I have not sought psychological support for the impact that this has had on me but I have thought about doing so and would benefit from it.”

“The personal impact on me of issues arising from the ascendancy of gender ideology would be very difficult to untangle from the range of other factors that have affected my life and mental wellbeing over the last few years, so although I know that is has been a contributing factor, it hasn’t on its own had a quantifiable effect. With language e.g. “gender” rather than “sex” being used on forms etc., it’s my belief that confusion and lack of precision around the use of these terms has been key in the political and legislative developments that underpin the practical consequences of gender ideology’s ascendancy. As such I feel strongly that these words should not be used carelessly. Where documents are referring specifically to “gender identity” as opposed to sex, this should be challenged, since not only is there no coherent account of what a “gender identity” is, but the question of whether any or all people actually have one is contested.”

“Watching the rights & language of women being eroded by the religion of gender ideology is deeply distressing.”

“I’m not a sub category of my own sex and I find the changes of language around women but not men expose just how misogynistic service providers and business are and that things very much feel like things are going backwards if we can’t even use our own language around our own bodies and experiences. I find this knowledge extremely depressing.”

“The impacts on my ‘mental health’ and ‘well-being’ are in the form of pessimism about the future for human society and the impact it will have on women. I have been researching, talking/writing about feminist issues, supporting and participating in campaigns for a few decades. The power of the gender identity ideology, that has captured so many significant institutions is devastating for women, and a dismantling of everything many of us have been struggling for.”

“The obliteration of language about women is harmful because it hinders our ability to organise and fight against the misogyny and sexism women as a sex class are subjected to daily. The invasion of gender ideology in women’s only spaces has limited by ability to work in the community. All the funders that used to support my community grassroots work will not do so unless I comply with their grant terms to allow men who feel like they are ‘women’ to enter my courses, workshops and programmes designed specifically for women. Because I refuse to bend my gender critical beliefs to men’s hate groups I no longer receive funding from the local authority or charitable trusts. As an older woman I am doing my best to maintain my health so that I am not shunted off to institutions where men can take advantage of vulnerable women, e.g. NHS hospital wards, mental health wards, care homes, men providing personal care services. It’s my absolute nightmare of strange men coming into my home or in a setting where I am based have unfettered access to my body. My anxiety is off the richter scale because I know from lived experiences of women I know and violence against women and girls data that men do not respect our boundaries and have a sense of entitlement to our bodies and when they’ve abused and violated us they then proceed to gaslight us with the support of the state and blame us for the abuse we’ve suffered. I never in a million years thought that I at my time of life pushing 70 would have to be pounding the streets and shouting for women only spaces and services to be respected and resources. Violence against women and girls is a reality, it’s not a figment of our imagination. Why are practically all the 44,000 public institutions along with household name charities in the UK supporting the erasure of women and girls. The war against women is brutal and unrelenting. I wanted to fight for action on the climate emergency but I’ve had to devote my time, energies and intellect towards this fight because if women and girls lose – we will have no boundaries and any man can lay their hands on us and perpetrate any form of violence against us with immunity. We already see that with the rape cases. Men can literally get away with committing the crime of rape because the police, CPS and judges will not take our testimonies/evidence into account. The moment we seek counselling support or are diagnosed with trauma or a mental health disorder or autism we are deemed by the authorities to not be a credible witness and the rape cases are dropped. The data is all there and still the state, the media and powers that be ignore the reality of women and girl’s lives. Some of us wept when the Taliban took over in Afghanistan; but we have it here as well – the transiban who are fully supported by the United Nations down to countries globally. I’m fighting for my 4th generation family members and children at large so that they are not denied the freedom to choose to have body integrity and not be mutilated by the transiban regime of Tavistock Clinic and can when they are ready choose their sexual orientation and be able to freely express their sexuality without dysfunctionality. This current madness is based on lies and misogyny. If women do not hold the line they will be coming for our children – no boundaries, no safeguarding, paedophilia will be normalised. Basically all what happens on the Porn Hub website – human trafficking, raping of women and children – will play out in the open. We will be the subservient class with no power to protect and safeguard children and vulnerable adults. The transiban have to break us in order to gain access to children. I will fight to my last breath. We cannot lose this work. Our planet is on fire and in the midst of this climate emergency women like myself are having to fight against this horrific women-hatred which is being systemised in legislation, policy and social practices. We have to wake up.”

“I am both concerned for the wellbeing and future of women around the world, but as a survivor of domestic violence it is also dehumanizing and feels very personal. The way “gender identity” is being used to minimize women’s sense of safety and self-worth feels exactly like the kind of gaslighting and blurring of boundaries that I experienced from my abuser. On top of all that, I greatly fear for my livelihood – I work for a large non-profit and I am fully confident that I would be fired and ex-communicated if I vocalized my dissent to gender identity, or was even perceived to not be fully for it. It is a daily struggle for me, I feel like I am right back to being terrified to speak out. I can’t believe how bad it has gotten at my workplace.”

“Gender ideology has had a seismic effect on my life in terms of the way I view myself (left wing, Labour supporter, inclusive, liberal). I’m not sure I am any of those things anymore and my life feels like a bit of a car crash at times.”

“Life has become a hyper-vigilant affair waiting for the next aggressor to come along.”

“This gender identity ideology is becoming a real threat to women.”

“I am extremely concerned about compelled speech and the anti-reality movement called “gender identity.” There is no such thing. And women are being bullied into accepting it as normal, when it is an assault on our fully embodied humanity.”

“Everything about gender ideology denigrates and damages women, children and even the people caught up in it.”

“Use of pronouns in a work setting immediately makes me feel like I won’t be supported. It’s basically like putting a political stance as a sign off that is opposed to my own. I’m already on edge before I start.”

“I’m appalled that hard fought women’s rights, lesbian’s rights are being eroded and sex based rights dismissed.”

“The erasure of words connected with women, only benefits men who dislike women. Gender is a way to be openly misogynistic.”

“As a survivor of extreme sexual abuse I feel coerced into using language to describe myself and other people that feels completely unnatural and inaccurate to me. I feel as if my identity as a woman is being erased and that someone else’s reality is being imposed upon me. I think that this is an infringement of my rights.”

“I feel a little scared to do this survey as they have so much power- I have a mental illness.”

“I think “gender” used to be used as synonym for sex, here in the USA. It was a more “polite” term and would avoid the answer “yes!” to the “sex?” question on forms. At some point, there was a move to split it off, to say “sex is the body, gender is the brain.” This sort of “mental sex” meaning of gender is SEXIST, relying as it does on the old “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus” nonsense that’s as old as the hills, but that was probably the high point of “logic” for the trans movement — MTF individuals would say they are MALE, but with a “feminine” or “woman” gender. But now, they’ve gone all the way to saying that “gender” replaces sex, that it’s all in the brain, which is not only SEXIST but is now actively erasing women and rolling back our rights. It is regressive as hell but somehow manages to wear this costume of “progressive” politics. All of the actual left-leaning political groups I participated in have drunk this idpol (identity politics) nonsense fully and I’m ostracized from them now. So, fighting back!!”

“I have MS and will need access to intimate care in the future. This is frightening enough, but has been so much worse since the obfuscation of my right to request same-sex intimate care. I sought help and advice via the MS society, but they couldn’t help beyond informing me that the CQC (Care Quality Commission) guidelines around access to same-sex intimate care are extraordinarily lax. The CQC recently announced that they will be endorsing pronoun badges. I contacted them via social media and their complaints service to ask whether this would mean that a male carer, wearing a “she/her” badge could be sent to my house, after I request same sex intimate care. They didn’t answer, but I did receive a great deal of abuse, dismissal and a rape threat. The CQC “liked” one patronising response that dismissed my concerns and accused me of being a bigot. Living with a degenerative condition is frightening enough, without the knowledge that the institutions responsible for upholding my human dignity and ensuring my bodily autonomy fail to see either as important or worthy of response. Why are my reasonable fears and my right to basic human dignity so easy to dismiss?”

“This ideology hurts women but it also really hurts children and adolescents. Because of this ideology my daughter had been socially transitioned without my knowledge at her public school. She is very confused and thinks she is a gay boy. I worry that she will access cross-sex hormones without proper treatment or parental consent. This is a medical scandal that is happening before our eyes.”

“The negative impact on my mental health comes from two sources – pressure to disidentify from womanhood by the reinforcement of gender roles, and the incredible hostility to female homosexuality. I came of age when same sex marriage was legalized in my country and gay rights seemed very popular. Now I’ve been physically threatened for saying something as simple as “under no circumstances will lesbians be attracted to biological males”. This survey should ask more about how the rampant homophobia which has overtaken the trans community due to the modern influx of white male heterosexuals, since that is what’s been most upsetting and the real motivation to seek out likeminded women.”

“I would like to note that the gender identity ideology has had a particular impact on my mental health, stability and physical safety, not only as a woman but also as a lesbian.”

“When I was first introduced to the idea of non-sex-specific pronouns, I was in a mixed-sex group setting. I was unsure of why stating pronouns mattered. I believed everyone would recognize me as female. Regardless I felt pressured to comply. Then I felt shameful. I wondered what would have happened if I had stated male pronouns for myself. I chose reality, but then I questioned my choice. I questioned my reality. Then I began to read stories in the news, and I began to see events in my hometown organized by the “LGBTQ Center”, and these stories and events used new language. The word “woman” was nowhere to be found, even in the context of sex-specific topics like abortion. The thing that pushed me over the edge and into a downward spiral of alcohol abuse was seeing the word “lesbian” represented by men. I had finally unearthed my authentic self from all the misogynistic crap of the world, found this sanctuary of a community of lesbians, only to be shot back in line with the threat of male violence from within this little sanctuary.”

“The manipulation control and policing of language disturbs me greatly, and as with everything within this transactivist movement, echoes coercive control and abusive relationships.”

“I have a child whose life has been negatively affected by gender ideology. It has almost destroyed our family unit. We are still working hard to fix it.”

“Yes. I would like to add, because I think it’s important, that I am and have been a leftist for my entire adult life. I even considered myself a trans ally for several years, and still would if I didn’t know that I can’t be considered such, because I don’t subscribe to a specific ideology- one based in anti science, sex denialism, and gender essentialism. Most of the women I know online and in real life do not agree with this ideology, and the resulting gender-based policy, degrading language, censorship, and attitudes toward women has damaged their mental health and well-being, along with many their ability to make a living and to feel safe in spaces that were made for them.”

“All of the details outlined above has contributed to a feeling of a steady erosion of my rights and opportunities and those of my daughter. The fact that politicians and lawmakers are enforcing this erasure makes me scared for the future. I do not trust people anymore as a result of this ideology. I find it hard to have any faith in public organizations that spout anything about gender and I generally have withdrawn from my social circle for fear that I would say anything that I could be punished for. I now have suspicion of anything related to women or gay rights as I feel it is a Trojan horse to undermine the status of women even more. This is the most misogynist time I can remember.”

“I am concerned that any activism I participate in may result in loss of future career opportunities. I have withdrawn from activism and put myself on herbal supplements to try and restore some calm to my nervous system which has been affected by months of negativity fighting gender identity ideology in my organisation. I have also resigned.”

“The impact is enormous. I will no longer work in my field of social services because of it. I lost my career because I refuse to go along with this, because I see vulnerable women losing safe spaces for male access and I see valuable and limited resources getting POURED into “training” for how to follow this lie and how to gaslight women into silence. There is also a whole category of former peers I know I could not befriend because of MY views (not theirs) – I am now a vilified minority for not believing people can change sex, or men can become women, etc.”

“All the examples given in questions 6 – 10 represent an assault on women’s language and rights. These things are pushed on us in our workplace, and if we object we are seen as a problem. This seems like a classic patriarchal crazy-making manoeuvre.”

“Though I haven’t yet lost any family or friends, I worry a lot that someday I will. One of my closest friends believes in gender ideology. If she asked me my views, I would tell her, but I don’t go out of my way to discuss it with her because I’m afraid she would hate me. She’s not on social media much, but I worry that one of these days she’s going to see my posts and confront me about them. The use of “gender” instead of “sex” doesn’t really bother me. This is probably an unpopular opinion among GC women, but the reality is that for the majority of the population, “gender” and “sex” are synonyms. The use of “gender” doesn’t automatically signal support for gender ideology. On the other hand, the stuff like stated pronouns, “vagina owners,” and “cis” does bother me. That stuff is all an explicit endorsement of gender ideology. When I see that stuff, the person saying it might as well be saying, “I think men should be allowed to compete in women’s sports! I’m okay with convicted rapists in women’s prisons! I don’t think women have a right to say no to being naked around strange men!” And as a woman, it’s extremely distressing to see people and institutions promote those views.”

“I am concerned about the impact that changing the language has on children and their mental health; how telling them that they can be born in the wrong body can set them up for mental health problems. I am also concerned that people are ‘using pronouns’ without realising the impact it has on children or that in doing so they are admitting they agree with gender ideology. I am concerned people think that this issue doesn’t affect them and don’t think further on the impact it has on their own children.”

“Use of words like gender, cis, the sight of pronouns, requests for pronouns etc., all fill me with a mixture of horror and anger. They make me feel stressed and angry.”

“I also feel bad about the term gender assigned at birth versus the concept of sex observed at birth – or before.”

“Qn1- It has affected me as I am a biological woman and relate as that. But my organization has started to move towards GI language and it is an obstacle to my work with girls, women, mothers, breastfeeding and I feel a lot of frustration and anger. That affects me and affects my family as well.”

“I believe calling women “menstruators” is dehumanizing.”

“I see it all as such a rewriting of reality and it is leading to so much harm to so many groups of people. Especially women and girls, gay people and dysphoric youth. It’s appalling. I think of women sharing space with violent male offenders in prisons and it makes me feel so distressed that it is happening and it seems currently unstoppable.”

“I feel like women (adult human females) are being erased by gender ideology.”

“It frustrates me that women are made invisible, put in an “alphabet soup” like FLINTA -PERSONS (F=Frau=woman in German, L=Lesbian, Inter, Nonbinary, Trans) and I am not willing to accept men as women – especially because lots of those Transactivists act threatening and aggressive. It makes me sad that women’s herstories are going to be erased again and especially young women (who define themselves mostly as Nonbinary) completely stand behind that. There are no more women only spaces / except one (Situation in Austria).”

“I am afraid of cancel culture and to lose safe spaces for woman and girls.”

“I have longstanding depression. Concerns about gender identity ideology exacerbate it.”

“I cannot believe what has happened with regard to the above – It seems all these changes have happened by stealth, without discussion, spread knowledge or concern for the consensus of women (adult human females).”

“I am nearly 60 years of age. I have experienced a lot of violence and trauma in my life. Yet nothing has ever frightened me and messed with my head like witnessing the destruction wreaked by this ideology and the consequences of its power.”

“It is scary what is done to girls and women, what I feel is an attack on our hard won rights. I am scared and deeply concerned for our future.”

“On Q6, it bothers me that the differentiation between gender and sex based on a largely unsubstantiated theory that gender is (more or less entirely) a social construct is so widely spread, taught and accepted.”

“I think it’s fine if people want to state their pronouns – it’s like wearing your politics on your sleeve. It’s rather strange and I will not do it, although I have not been pressured to do so. I wonder if some people do it just to make peace with whoever their customers or associates are. Mostly I just resent the fact that if you don’t bow to the ideology, you’re not a good person, even if you have all the empathy and compassion in the world for everyone who is different and/or struggling. I’m just an anti-conformist and don’t think anyone should be pressured to conform, and that includes conforming to gender ideology.”

“Gender ideology is misogynist and homophobic.”

“Haven’t yet lost contact with a family member (daughter) over this – but only by not talking about it.”

“I find all this utterly ridiculous but very very dangerous.”

“The use of “gender” instead of “sex” bothers me even if gender identity is offered as an additional option as someone could still put their gender identity as ‘woman’ and woman is not a gender identity. It still messes up the data and is wrong. I think there should be only one question and two answers: What is your sex? And the answers should be male or female? Humans can’t change sex.”

“It is great that someone is asking these questions. Thank you.”

“The erasure of women be they as a sex class or in our language is gaining ground swiftly with gender ideology. It is a misogynistic, homophobic movement in my opinion fuelled by Queer theory and big pharma.”

“Please don’t erase women to give one group an advantage over women. No other group has ever requested or expected this. Men who self identify as women are not women. They are men. Men should not be demanding access to female only spaces. An example, married couples of the opposite sex are not demanding more rights than couples who are same sex or vice versa. Sex is one of the nine protected characteristics please keep it this way and keep all the other categories protected too.”

“I have lost friends due to speaking out either in social occasions or on SM, but I have gained many more.”

“I haven’t lost family or friends but possibly that is because I am too scared to speak honestly. I tend to temper my speech according to the person/group I am with. Feeling that I can’t be honest (my true self!) has a very negative effect on my mental health. If gender identity is offered as an option – needs to be option to say that don’t have one!”

“I have not lost friends and family but only because I censor myself somewhat and I’ve found a group online.”

“Why is Women now a dirty word. Why am I afraid to call myself a Women and look for my safe space. Why am I threatened when I say you cannot change biological sex.”

“As an older lesbian who experienced the more benign form of conversion therapy in the 1960’s in the form of psychoanalysis, the damaging legacy of which was a persistent sense of there being ‘something deeply wrong with me’, I was only just beginning to gain confidence in the newly gained ‘accepting’ social context when we were hit by having T added to our LGB organisations which changed the whole focus. I cannot accept gender identity ideology which seems to me utter nonsense and I am in a permanent state of anger at the way all progressive organisations seem to have bought into it. It’s like living in a world I don’t recognise – a constant real life nightmare!”

“I am a survivor of DA. The way women are being treated on a societal level has triggered the same feelings as the abuser I was married to. The coercive control & gaslighting of women by government, charities, businesses all across society is so harmful to women, especially women who have experienced abuse. The abuse I have received simply by speaking up for single sex spaces is horrendous. All for men to play out their sexual paraphernalia on women. I always supported transsexuals but what is happening now is so abusive to women. This whole situation has had a devastating impact on my MH, I genuinely feel fearful of what is happening. I don’t want anyone harmed by their psychological issues, but we need a psychological approach not telling people they’re trans and are female, they are not. I’m so so sick of whole thing. It just illustrates to me, how hateful people in society can be to women when men want something.”

“I agree with everything JKRowling, Helen Joyce, Kathleen Stock and other well-informed moderate voices are saying. Trans people deserve to have their human rights upheld and to be treated with respect and compassion. And it is not OK for them and their supporters to shout down the issues that arise about protecting women’s sex-based needs and rights, in certain circumstances (e.g. prison, refuges, changing rooms). And collecting data disaggregated by sex really matters to measuring inequality – as well as recording GID. And it is not OK to have open affirmations of believe in the form of ‘pronoun use’ foisted on others at work by peer pressure and judgement, nor to label people ‘cis’, with all the assumptions that brings about private aspects of identity. Most worrying is the denial of science. Mammalian sex is binary and immutable. It should not be career-limiting to say so. It is as though creationism had taken hold and mentioning evolution is evidence of ‘hate’ towards creationists. The ‘no debate’ stance because raising these things ‘denies the existence of trans people’ and is ‘literal violence’ is so very scary – rational, science-respecting people do not argue in this way. The point is that discussion and debate matter. So hoping that the ways forward Joyce and Stock offer do bear fruit.”

“I will not use the word cis. If I’m asked for my gender identity I say other: sex is female.”

“I am angry that women as adult human females, have vanished. Men, in their position of authority, have made it so. Handmaidens follow them. Everything the suffragettes, and women before and since, can now be made meaningless. I am angry to despair at the stupidity of it all. I am afraid for vulnerable young people exposed to the lies being thrown about almost without challenge.”

“While I haven’t lost family over this, it has introduced a significant strain on my relationship. My partner thinks I’ve been radicalised online, become obsessed, and seems to attribute any difficulty I have to this bizarre obsession, which he thinks is absolutely no big deal that I’ve become hysterical about. I avoid discussing it at all costs because he will never see my point of view. I’m confident he will come around, but it won’t be because of anything I say – it’s like he can’t hear me anymore.”

“It’s especially concerning in medical contexts that ‘gender identities’ are even an option. I would feel differently if it was a follow-up question to asking one’s sex, such as ‘do you have a personal identity that doesn’t match your sex?”

“Trans women are not women.”

“I work for the NHS and even publications from my hospital and clinical documentation mixes sex and gender. I work with babies- they don’t have a gender and it’s so inappropriate in a medical setting.”

“To add to question 5: I have only ever talked about this with people offline where I was certain that they would either agree with me or at least not react overly negative to me if they knew my views (namely my mom and a few friends). I am nervous about speaking out more generally, because I’m not sure about my broader circle of friends, and I know that there are a few who at least have their pronouns on Zoom or LinkedIn. Also, I work in tech, and while my company has not drunken the gender kool aid quite as aggressively as others in the industry have, I would still be nervous about making my views public in that context.”

“I was verbally attacked and bullied, fairly relentlessly, on Facebook, from 2015 onwards, for not being willing to concede that “transwomen” were women, when it was very clear to me that they were, obviously, men. For a while, this has an impact on my emotional well-being, making me both anxious and low in mood. It also had an impact on my overall functioning, as I became obsessed at times about how ludicrous it was to find that so few people could see what nonsense gender ideology was.”

“Re sex versus gender. I do not really mind them being used interchangeable -as a direct substitute for biological sex. That’s how I thought it was meant in 70s to prevent sniggers when ‘sex’ was mentioned. I’m increasingly bothered as it fudges meaning.”

“Gender ideology is a regressive, misogynistic ideology.”

“While I haven’t overtly fallen out with people over my opinions on gender ideology, I have avoided them because I know their opinions differ to mine and I have lost all patience with them. I have also been told by a good friend that I talk about it too much (I don’t, not to him) and that it makes him feel ‘uncomfortable’.”

“We lost the game when lesbians used sexuality as the basis of women’s oppression, whereas it is our sex/biology which is erased v.a.v male sex, because the female sex has the power to conceive/reproduce the species.”

“It’s affected how I speak to my own older teenage children. I’m now very careful to keep the two youngest ones away from gender ideology.”

“From an old lesbian of the early 70’s view point I feel that I’ve gone backwards in time only now all women are under threat.”

“When asked questions about gender in e.g. surveys, forms, I refuse to complete them as even the act of completing the question makes me complicit in the ideology. However, often this means I am unable to proceed further in completion of the survey or form. So effectively, I’m being denied participation because of my beliefs and I believe this to be discriminatory.”

“The only way that one can argue against scientific fact and biology is to sow confusion. Gender ideology is using language to cause confusion and to make you feel guilty. e.g. If you see a person who insists her/his pronoun is ‘they’ it makes you feel insecure, because you are accused of being the one who doesn’t understand and it attacks your fundamental use of language. I worry about whether legal terminology will be affected. Regarding the use of ‘cis’, it is demeaning and very rarely used in connection with ‘men’. It seems disproportionate in the extreme if, in order to satisfy the miniscule minority of m-to-f people to be called women, 3,500,000000 human females have to be recategorised as ‘cis women’.”

“Do you feel gender identity ideology has had any effect on your mental health and well-being? It has a great effect as I feel excluded by the use of gender neutral language. There are loads of unpleasant exchanges within my breastfeeding organization, which is having a very negative impact. Changes are being imposed without previous discussion.”

“All of this is very disturbing. It puts me in the terrible position of having to stand up and be bullied or go along with what the future will judge as the biggest medical scandal in history.”

“I think it is the most patriarchal ideology that ever has been created for it deprives women for anyway of fighting back and turns women against each other. The damages to the lesbian community are so huge that it could be considered as a brutal and almost total erasure of several generations of lesbians. I hope one day it would be named as it is and that anybody who supported it would be rightfully ashamed.”

“I feel diminished by the word CIS. It feels derogatory.”

“These words have been added without any discussion on how it might make women feel, how it will affect them and how it belittles their experience of being female.”

“I have bipolar disorder and am also a survivor of domestic abuse. Friends and family insisting “TWAW” etc felt the same as the gaslighting from my previous relationship and triggered a major manic episode. I was confused about reality, became paranoid and extremely anxious. My alcohol consumption became so bad I now attend AA. Before finding women’s groups online I was completely isolated. I work in the arts and was ostracized by many and bullied and harassed by a few.”

“I have lost friends and I check myself before I speak my mind out of fear of being judged. My thought crime? That sex is real and has real consequences on women including our safety. As a lesbian, I have never felt so isolated from my local LGBT community which has become ideologically captured and cruel towards anyone who doesn’t conform to their ideology. It would be great if gender critical beliefs were protected in law here in Ireland like they have become recently in the UK.”

“As a woman and mother of a daughter, I am very concerned that gender ideology will have a significant impact on mine and my daughter’s rights. A woman is redefined in law to mean, anyone who self declares they are a woman, we cannot protect women from predatory males who seek to harm us. My daughter was raped at the age of 13. The impact of this on us was indescribable. As her mother, I need to take all action I can to protect her from ever being subjected to male violence again. Gender ideology prevents and frustrates our efforts to protect women and girls from male violence. Being disabled from protecting my daughter is a source of significant anxiety. The fight against the removal of the safeguards she needs is exhausting. Being demonised for wishing to protect my daughter and all girls is frustrating and depressing.”

“I am frightened by the direction this is going.”

“As a mother of two daughters who have been indoctrinated & captured by gender ideology prevalent in youth culture, it’s heartbreaking that they both think it’s ok to be kind even when it’s to their own detriment.”

“I consider trans ideological language to be the colonization of the language women use to describe ourselves and our fight. I will not use the language of my colonizers or oppressors.”

“Since there has been no debate allowed, the general public is often happy to go along with these changes without understanding the impact it has on the provision of women’s spaces, ‘just to be kind and inclusive’.”

“These are all things I feel have been imposed.”

“I still feel stunned at how far into my life gender identity ideology has intruded and the havoc it’s wreaked in my personal life — e.g., losing a long-time friend, making me want to leave my field (academia), making me lose faith in organizations I had long donated to and volunteered with (Planned Parenthood and ACLU)”

“It has been deeply disturbing to see the definition of woman completely dismantled to the point of being meaningless. The categories of Man and Woman based on biological sex are real and objective. In Canada Bill C16 has eradicated women only spaces, shelters, changerooms, prisons, and further demonizes anyone who dares disagree. It has mandated that I approve of a person’s fashion choices and worse, that Canadians are compelled to use language (pronouns) by threat of state punishment via the supposed “Human Rights” Commissions. It has allowed predatory men such as J. Yaniv to target victims and bring vexatious and mean-spirited cases, using tax-payer funded bureaucracies to punish them. It is appalling that the Human Rights Tribunal picked up his grievance – in essence believe he did have a case that was worthy of attention – the case that a male could force women to wax his scrotum. That women like Kathleen Lowrey are being punished for their views – and losing their positions at Canadian Universities for countering the gender ideologies is appalling. That British Columbia claims that it is being “kind” – by removing any gendered language – such as mother and father, is depressing. GENDER – one big concern I have with the definitions provided is that gender is a social construct. This is not true, there is strong evidence that there are genetically defined sex-typical behaviours. There is ample evidence on many dimensions (palaeontology, anthropology, geology, sociology, history) that support the truth that there are gendered behaviours is genetic. 1. Big 5 Trait Model of Personality – the most credible theory in social science – shows there are differences between men and women – that is the same across cultures and age demographics. 2. Male and female infants (days old) already start focusing on different shapes – before socialization. 3. Bonobos – males are attracted to male-typical toys and females to female-typical toys. Cross species evidence. 4. Across all cultures – males commit a significantly larger proportion of violent crimes. Same – females are significantly more likely to suffer from anxiety disorders. THIS is exactly one of the flaws in the Gender Ideology we see today – there is denial of this truth.”

“I’ve been bullied by a trans person IRL. This is a very important issue.”

“OMG, where to start? A quarrel with my best friend of 40 years has thrown me down the rabbit hole of gender identity ideology about a year ago. I haven’t come up for air ever since, and my friendship is no more. It’s been such a steep learning curve! The negative impacts have been severe – not just for my physical and mental health, but also for my relationship. I’ve had my fair share of woman hating attitudes and homophobia in the past, but I feel this is the worst thing that has happened to women – and especially lesbians – globally since the 1950s. We’ll be thrown back into the dark ages if we don’t fight this tooth and nail. I thought I could relax in my old age, but since there’s no chance of this going away any time soon I’ll keep fighting.”

“It has had a strong effect on me because I have a daughter in school that will suffer from this ideology.”

“The impact has been both positive and negative. It’s so good to be reconnected with a part of my community that I had not been involved with for a long time (work and family took over) but also negative in that I despair that the entire world, it seems, has been captured by a regressive and misogynistic take that demeans women and harms children.”

“I feel the use of so called ‘inclusive’ language strips women of their dignity and personhood! And the trend of using pronouns is not only compelled speech, it makes us all liars and participants in someone else’s fetishes!”

“It’s sinister what is happening to language in order to erase what a woman is.”

“I feel silenced and unable to speak about what worries me in a way that never, ever happened to me growing up in the 70s and 80s.”

“I feel absolutely enraged and really upset about current gender ideology. And scared too.”

“As the founder of a grassroots coalition the gender ideology has greatly impacted every day of my life.”

“There has been a general loss of support spaces for women to go to.”

“I feel women are being erased. I feel like it is sinking in quicksand and the more we resist the more we get sunk.”

“Erasing women is outrageous.”

“Reducing biological women to a subset of woman feels like we are fast becoming the last in society again.”

“This situation is so complex I can’t distil it in short form – but the basic cause is patriarchy – over millennia, still being a dominant paradigm.”

“Women’s and children’s safety is more important than men’s feelings.”

“For question 5, only because I don’t bring it up with those that will condemn me for my thoughts.”

“Women have a right to be women in this world – they do not have to state their pronouns; they do not have to ask for permission to be women, as in using Cis in a prefix; a woman is a woman. Just like a cat is a cat and a dog is a dog – we don’t even have the rights accorded to animals anymore. I belong to safe spaces on social media; my daughter works at a university and I hear regularly the nonsense that goes on there and what she has to deal with over gender being paramount. Horrifying is the only word to use.”

“I haven’t lost friends or family BUT I have to be careful as any discussion around the subject does cause emotions to rise in heated argument.”

“The only reason I haven’t lost friends or family is because I keep my views to myself. There is a ‘transgender’ child in my family. Some of us believe her to just be gay, but the mother is determined to help her transition.”

“I am horrified by the blind acceptance of this ideology that is maiming children and stealing women’s status as in human beings distinct from men.”

“Great to see this survey. Any views that are in the least questioning about the issues raised on this page have been silenced in NZ.”

“Q5. I have only not lost family because I have backed off strongly voicing my opinion.”

“There is so much to say; whole books have been written! My concerns are around the dehumanising effects of erasing women from sexed (not gendered) activities such as pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding. And I categorically reject the term “cis” as its purpose is to artificially create two different types of women. There is only one type of woman, an adult human female. Anything else needs its own category.”

“Q5 – more options would be useful. I haven’t lost friends yet because I have been careful around the friends who are supporting language changes in health etc. I will likely lose them at some point.”

“Being labelled a bigot before people have spoken to me / clarified my position is very demoralising.”

“None of these changes to language have been publicly debated. The impact on me and other women and girls who think like me, about the fact that gender identity does not exist, have been silenced. Feeling unsafe to speak, or to meet and organise and socialise on women only spaces is hugely detrimental to us.”

“I haven’t lost any friends yet, but I have lost acquaintances – on social media etc.”

“I feel like gender is a religion that I’m being forced to believe in.”

“I do not mind the use of gender instead of sex when it is obviously being used as a polite way to say sex.”

“No. Just a load of nonsense. First world fashion.”

“I’ve come to hate the word “gender”. On forms, if they want to avoid “sex”, they could just put “are you F/M?” If I can no longer even define myself, as a whole person, rather than just a collection of body-parts, that frightens me a lot.”

“People are born female or male I accept some people feel in the wrong body and want a sex change which I support, I also support people who want to wear other sex clothes and assume that identity. However I don’t accept he she him you’re one or the other I don’t accept taking away women’s identity I worry about risk to women particularly girls when anyone can identify as they want men posing as gay women or men posing as women it’s dishonest misleading and fake. Birth certificates must have the truth. Adverts with non binary children how mixed up will our children be? Equality and diversity all the way and live let live but this is dangerous bad “precedent.”

“Women are under attack by men who say they feel like a woman. It’s a dystopian nightmare.”

“It makes me feel like a sub class.”

“It feels like there is a movement to dismantle women as an actual group based upon our shared physical characteristics, and the language and tactics that are being used to do so are degrading and dehumanizing.”

“Being born a woman means fighting for the rest of your life just to simply be heard, taken seriously, etc. It is incredibly offensive to be told you HAVE to now accept that a man can and will be a woman right alongside you, regardless of them NEVER experiencing that same misogyny.”

“I feel that all of these issues relate to a general erasure of women as a sex class.”

“I’m afraid women will be erased. We’re not a gender that includes men. We’re women, adult human females.”

“The gender ideology has taken over so many organisations so suddenly, it’s as if a new religion has been enforced upon us all and we disbelievers live in fear of the consequences of speaking our truth.”

“Language matters. If there is no sex then there is no sexism.”

“Gender is irrelevant and harmful. Biological sex is truth, even when it is damaging at times re womanhood.”

“Constantly expecting verbal and online criticism and attacks.”

“The use of gender instead of sex bothers me very much. I know gender identity is now a politically & socially important thing to collect data on, and I would not mind it as an extra option on forms if it would be collecting accurate data – i.e. if people really understood what it means (a metaphysical belief in a male/female essence) or if there was a question to collect data specifically for medically transitioned people. The current confusion means that a question on gender is unlikely to collect any usable data.”

“As a non-Genderologist, I deeply resent Genderology being embedded into law and being expected by my otherwise secular government to participate in Genderologist practices.”

“Female isn’t a costume or a personality. Stripping Girls rights to safety and privacy and forcing new language is harmful!”

“This issue is belittled by family and other people as if it is simply a situation which I should forget about, so I would have liked a question which asks how I am affected by it.”

“Adult human Males, aka MEN can NEVER become Women: Adult Human Females.”

“I am also scared to discuss this too much with my therapist. Right now she is neutral and listens but if she ever challenges me or comes out as a GI I will feel forced to seek out a GC therapist. I find it so wrong and unethical when therapists take sides on this issue.”

“Doing things to resist the enforcement of this belief has taken up a lot of time I was hoping and planning to use for other things, and I resent that a lot. But I can’t unsee the risks I see in doing nothing.”

“I have been rejected by my professional association and censured by my regulatory college for having MY OWN VIEWS on this gender bullshit – that’s exactly what it is – bullshit.”

“The impact of gender identity ideology has a visceral effect on me.”

“It’s become my main concern. I am obsessed with keeping up with the news, both bad and good. I feel a community with strangers who agree with me on the dangers of the ideology. I feel sometimes that I fell into a rabbit hole in the internet but then I see the laws changing in my country, and affecting children. So it’s not a rabbit hole. It’s the reality. It sometimes is tough to grasp. I feel that we are at war with the ideology, with males in dresses.”

“Women are not allowed to express themselves and their concerns. All disguised as inclusivity and diversity it annihilates women’s and girl’s rights, children’s rights, and LGB rights.”

“The sexism and misogyny inherent in trans activism and lobbying is horrifying. The threats, harassment and abuse directed at anyone who questions these clearly fact-free and dangerous positions is appalling. Safeguarding must be the primary factor, as must women’s basic right to organise and associate without males present. The actions of activists clearly place women at risk of harm and that weighs heavily on me.”

“I don’t have children so although I care about that side of this madness it’s not my worry. I was in an abusive relationship and I know how the police were not great and I could have ended up in prison because of their incompetence. So my major worry is men in women’s prisons. That terrifies me.”

“I have only become keenly aware of these issues for a matter of months and have only been discussing my concerns with those around me in the last couple of months. I think the majority of the population is unaware of the issue but if there was more awareness I believe many more ordinary people would be deeply concerned.”

“When the word gender is used instead of sex I feel frustrated by the lack of understanding by the user and it shows me that the user does not understand what sex or gender is.”

“I am very concerned about the conflation of sex and gender and the erosion of women’s spaces but more so the erosion of civil rights from a legal perspective as biological sex is the lynch pin of all civil rights laws being the most immutable. Take away sexual difference and legislation and the rest of our legal protections around race, class, sexual preference, disability, and age – AND gender are removed. It is beyond belief.”

“I’m not sure if saying “lost” friends or family members is the best question; perhaps saying “created tensions with” would be more appropriate. Or maybe add a second question about that as there are negative consequences on relationships that fall short of “loss”.”

“This toxic gender ideology feels like a witch hunt against women. I refuse to conform to such an erroneous belief system. Feels more like a cult!”

“Much of the unease I feel is part of a greater sense of alarm at the general abandonment of reason and the rise of magical thinking among people who have power and influence and who can cause real harm to many people.”

“No policy or laws in society or employment/businesses/services should use “gender” as anything of importance. It is NOT reflective of material reality and biology/science. “Pronouns” are the “thin end of the wedge”. Allow/accept those to “be kind” (aka “be a doormat”) and we allow anything. 3rd person pronouns consist of three: He/him/his (m); she/her/hers (f); both of these reflecting reality of a person. It/Its/Itself (n). If anyone wants to NOT use female or male “pronouns” there is a perfectly acceptable one for neutral. Funny how none of these “ideologists” want to use that one. 3rd person pronouns are a publicly shared descriptor of reality of a person by the speaker. Usually used in the absence of the subject. These terms do not belong to individuals and cannot be “chosen” by individuals. Insisting that everyone else use “pronouns” chosen by an individual, is thought and speech compulsion. It is dictating that society perceives a person as that person *wants* to be perceived, even if that perception is an out and out lie. It teaches children and vulnerable people, those who do not think critically, blatant lies. Laws/employment policies/societal “punishment” – for not following a person’s chosen “pronouns” is reflective of an authoritarian and totalitarian society. Freedom of speech, thought and expression is then lost. It is also reflective of a narcissistic, controlling and intolerant persona of the person demanding “pronouns” whether these are stating the bleeding obvious, blatantly using incorrect ones for that person’s sex (which is always obvious) or whether using made up ones that have no business in grammar. I do not feel I can then trust that person, any basic respect for them is immediately lost. It will take a long time to restore – if at all. If the person is in a professional capacity e.g. a health care professional; business colleague/boss; law; politicians etc.; I will not feel safe around them as they have declared a political position from the outset. Again, I have no respect for them and cannot trust that they will be working for/with me in my and our mutual interests. I view them as intolerant and prepared to totally ignore, dismiss MY boundaries. “Cis” is offensive as it’s a term imposed on me by others without my permission and again as above, it declares a political position and shows the user as narcissistic and intolerant. Any other term that is descriptive of body parts or bodily functions to describe my reality, or deliberate misspelling of the word Woman, is effectively telling me that I am not “human”, not worth anything, except as functions and parts. Its offensive. I have not “lost” any family/friends **yet** but that is because my friends and some family, do not know my views. I am censoring myself around family/friends who I suspect of being fully into this offensive ideology. I have to keep myself anonymous (not my true self) even in safe spaces which are to support anyone who is a gender atheist.”

“Woman is an adult human female.”

“Right now I feel more concerned for others than for myself, but I feel this is very dangerous for women and girls & that what is happening in society is very sinister.”

“We are not free of patriarchy and another group seeks to define us? No.”

“This whole pretext of neutralising women’s terminology in favour of being inclusive drives me mad especially considering my profession (midwifery) and I refuse to indulge in these practices.”

“I was unsure how to answer Q1. I based it on the degree all this has affected me, due either to the degree I feel the need to discuss it, my shock and horror at how this is and has all been unfolding, the degree of fear I feel about being candid about my opinions on the matter (from personal experience of losing two friends over this, as well as seeing the torrents of vile, misogynistic abuse those who dare discuss this receive on social media and the Scot Gov state harassment of Marion Millar) and the amount this ideology and its implementation in society has enormously damaged my confidence in social structures, such as government bodies and universities, to have incorporated such anti-scientific nonsense.”

“The language of gender ideology is insulting and dehumanising to women and their reality. Woman is not an identity, it is a physical reality which cannot be ‘identified’ into by men. It is not possible to change sex and it’s insulting for women to be coerced into playing along with men’s fantasies.”

“About #5, I haven’t lost friends or family due to my view because I’m careful about expressing them and will stay silent if I feel my views will be negatively received.”

“Splitting women into body parts is not only dehumanising. Would the women’s movement have achieved what is has so far if were unable to name ourselves as women? If we had to refer separately, with no mention of womanhood, to all the different issues? What underlies all the issues is that we are women and we must be able to say so. Cis – I am not a sex stereotype, I am not a subset of my own sex. I am a woman. Gender identity ideology is a philosophical belief and you cannot force me to go along with it in a secular society. I do not believe people have a sexed soul, our bodies are our sex.”

“I feel afraid to openly have gender critical views especially in the workplace in case I am labelled transphobic. I have an ASD daughter who has been influenced by the ideology and wants to change her name and Pronouns. She often declares hatred of her body, especially her chest and menstruation, which is normal for someone starting puberty, but I worry that the idea of puberty blockers would appeal to her because of this. My youngest daughters (12) have several non binary friends who have changed their names and Pronouns and I worry about the extent of their influence on them because they like things which come under the social norms of both male and female genders. What if they are made to think they should change their names and Pronouns too? It’s OK to like boys’ and girls’ things but still be a girl. I increasingly see the word woman being replaced with different terminology but not the word man. I worry that society at large is not aware of this and that the use of the word woman is being phased out under the radar. The same applies to the word mother. These are 2 words which mean a great deal to people and that we should be proud to own and be called. Their use needs to be protected at all costs. As the mother of 3 daughters, I worry greatly about male bodied people being allowed to claim they are a woman to gain access to my children in order to abuse them. This is something which has been reported many times. They are my precious children and I want to protect them at all costs. No one with a penis should be allowed in their safe spaces. Yet the younger generation in particular are being brainwashed by the idea that it is acceptable for male bodied people who claim to be women to be allowed in women only spaces. What if they are accepting of this and are abused as a result? I have a niece who was physically attacked and almost killed by her male ex partner and ended up in Women’s Aid. What if he claimed to be a woman to access her in that safe space and actually did kill her? These are things which worry me on a daily basis. I feel like I need to be on high alert all the time to protect myself and my daughters from this ideology.”

“I find gender identity philosophy as a cultist movement, it’s undermining women’s actual safety, safe spaces and opportunities.”

“I find I cannot accept the denial of science/material reality. I am very impatient with the conflation of sex and gender. It invalidates everything else around it.”

“Language change is just the tip of the iceberg, but it is so distressing. These words leave me feeling dehumanised, diminished, lesser. I am proud of being a mother. I am proud of having breastfed. I am proud of being female. I am an adult human female. I am not cis which feels like a slur. We women are being erased by these language changes. How can we organise and campaign for women’s rights and needs if we cannot define ourselves as a group? I note that men’s language is not being erased in similar ways. The misogyny in gi is crystal clear.”

“I feel as if male violence is being ignored, as if men wearing stereotypical female clothing are considered incapable of committing violence. Even though this has occurred many times over.”

“The religious ideology has had such a significant negative impact on my life and the life of many of my friends. We are suffering greatly.”

“I also think telling children that people change sex is abusive.”

“I’m a detrans lesbian woman.”

“I do not identify as a woman. I was born a woman and have spent over 40 years fighting for women’s rights.”

“Cis is a ridiculous abomination and the sooner it is the dustbin of history the better.”

“I don’t mind gender used in place of sex in the way that it always has been. I am only bothered by it when it is used to claim that somehow your gender can be different than your sex.”

“Gender Identity is a religious cult. Noone can change their sex and all politicians, I’m in Australia, are betraying 50% of their constituents, Females.”

“Gender ideology says that women don’t exist. It is a mass campaign of males colonising womanhood. It feels like a war on women.”

“It is a cancer. This imported queer theory is destroying society. I will vote for any party who puts an end to it.”

“Trans is a religion I do not believe in. It is not based in any material reality and is dangerous for women and children.”

“The denial of biology is so idiotic I can’t find more words to describe it.”

“I’ve been lucky so far that I’ve not had any overtly negative response to my views but I get a lot of disapproval.”

“Gender ideology is offensive to many but for me personally has caused untold harm in my family with my ADHD socially awkward daughter deciding she is trans and taking cross sex hormones and distancing herself from family and spending almost all her time online. She is able to do this without any family counselling and only a few (affirming) visits to a gender clinic. Nobody is considering other reasons why she may feel unhappy or isolated but promote a path to sterilisation and lack of sexual function as a ‘cure’.”

“I despise the notion that I need to change my use and understanding of language and biology to suit a minority.”

“Re question 8: ‘Very negative’ doesn’t begin to cover it. ‘Outraged’ would be closer. Fulminating with RAGE is more like it. I grew up asthmatic in the 1960s when the drugs were so much less effective. The number of nights my ‘chest feeder’ or Mum’s ‘chest feeder (my Gran) sat up half the night with me in case I needed an ambulance so I didn’t fkn die (please excuse my language but this is how angry this b-s makes me feel), I couldn’t ever count. Dad never sat up. ‘Chest feeder’, ‘menstruator’ – how can these NOT be perceived as the heights – or perhaps the depths? – of UTTER, CONTEMPTUOUS, HATEFUL MISOGYNY? As for ‘cis’ – I am not a sub-set of WOMAN. I AM WOMAN. MALE IMPOSTERS CANNOT EVER BE WOMEN.”

“Has made me realise how angry I am.”

“The gender identity movement, men claiming to be women and the governmental support of their fantasies, is terrifying. It has led to the greatest erasure in women’s safety, hard fought for rights, dignity, and privacy in my life time, over fifty years. I have been assaulted and witnessed an assault by these men. It is the most misogynistic and terrifying time to be a woman I have experienced. The trans rights movement has advanced rape culture by leaps and bounds.”

“This ideology has had a profound impact on my life. I lost a huge number of my friends and have been trying to form a new circle of friends. I was aggressively bullied by people I thought were my friends and have been devastated by this. I have been fighting against sex role stereotypes since I was very young and find that I am now being told that those insulting stereotypes are who I actually am, so being called “cis” is an affront to me. I have been told I can call myself non-binary but that would imply that I thought that all other women conformed to these stereotypes which I do not. I am disturbed that I have been told to walk away from my womanhood. That I am a woman by virtue of my sex is intrinsic to who I am and what I have experienced in my life. I have been fighting against the restrictions of sex-based stereotypes, otherwise known as gender, since childhood.”

“I haven’t lost people but my daughters and some of my nieces hold very different views and it has caused problems especially with my daughters.”

“Biology is real, there are only two human sexes. A human’s sex is determined at conception, it is either male and female, and sex is immutable.”

“As a woman with endometriosis, I find the push to use dehumanizing language like “uterus havers” to be complete dehumanizing and it has made spaces that are supposed to be support spaces for women with my condition into places where I no longer feel like I can go for accurate information about my disease and or receive support from other women without being bullied for not using similar woman erasing language. At times in my life where I am in pain have the least amount of ability to remember the correct new language I am expected to jump through confusing language games where slip ups result in pile ons. It is an extremely toxic trend in women’s health and seems to be dragging us back to a time where women are afraid to talk about or bodies.”

“Any woman who has been directly impacted by the transgender movement would find it hard to say anything positive about it now. It is sad because there are a few people out there who will suffer from being clumped in with this craziness. But for the most part it feels like millions of people seeking an identity on social media are jumping on to this. It is so damaging and very painful when one if affected directly.”

“My daughter believes that if a mtf person with a penis should pressure her to have sex, she should consider this otherwise she is transphobic.”

“I am affected personally as a woman and viscerally as a Mother whose son is playing the role of a woman.”

“As a lifelong same sex attracted lesbian who has worked tirelessly for lesbian acceptance in society, and women’s well-being and independence/emancipation in society at the same time, my mental health is plummeting downwards now in the twilight of my life when I see the patriarchal takeover of everything that lesbians and women had gained for themselves. I cherish womanhood and lesbian sisterhood which soon if this legally includes men identifying as women, will have no meaning for me. I’ve been living with this threat for decades now and am feeling distraught for the loss of so much we had set up that was good and necessary for women’s liberation and safety from violence. The gender and trans movement is an outright psychic war against all women born female.”

“If trans women are called trans women why do I have to be called a cis woman? I am a woman NOT a cis woman. It detracts from the plain meaning of the word woman!”

“Gender ideology and trans activism lost me a job, in very abusive circumstances.”

“When I was studying linguistics back in 1994-7, an important tenet of that study was that semantics are determined by speech communities, not by authority figures. Yet we are now in a situation where certain bodies assume the right to redefine words, telling those who object that they are anathema.”

“I lived through the 60’s where it was often hard to know if someone was biologically male or female, I feel that this was a good thing. Being been seen as female seems to be such an extremely sexualise way of being nowadays.”

“The use of Cis makes me furious: there is only one kind of woman – we’re born this way. I accept post-operative transsexuals being referred to as trans women. My niece out of law was incensed at a nurse insisting that she was “chest feeding”. Despite insisting that no, she was breast feeding, the nurse persisted… I also think that the erasure of the word woman has a negative impact on women’s health – e.g. period items not being marketed to women; language being used that most women, but especially those with lower levels of education or with English as a second language, may not understand. E.g. asking “people with a cervix” to go for screening. It needs to be women who are encouraged to go. Presumably trans men know that this includes them, the whole language doesn’t need to be changed for them.”

“The fear that women are being erased has led me to spend at least one hour a day on social media supporting GC women.”

“I think the stress that it causes to gender dissenters could be more widely explored -e.g. I have had to have a conversation with my partner about how we would manage if there were an attempt to remove me from my job. This is not a conversation I had EVER envisaged having when I entered this profession, simply for believing in the reality and importance of biological sex.”

“I feel despondent about the current situation where ‘gender’ is superseding ‘sex’.”

“My main stress is that I can’t speak my mind about trans ideology in my work sphere (non-profit) because the large, multi-organizational coalition I work for and lead would be torn apart and targeted by the internal and external transactivists. I feel guilty because I’m not speaking up in this sphere to protect children and youth specifically.”

“Q6 If we can’t roll back gender ideology entirely, and gender ideologues / their allies actually engaged in meaningful adult debate and compromise re public/institutional policy, I could probably stomach a good faith additive approach i.e. the last option. Only today, I had to register online to buy a ticket for an event and was irritated to be asked what is your gender? Male / female/ prefer not to say. There was nowhere I could state my objection and correct the question to sex.”

“I have fear of discussing gender critical opinions with most people outside of radical feminist groups. I have fear of attending public venues where bathrooms are mixed sex and no other option, so gender identity policies have restricted my movements and my voice.”

“I haven’t lost any friends or family as a result of gender ideology, but only because I have been very cautious about who I speak about it with. If I was more open, I know that I would definitely have lost friends and family, and this makes me indescribably sad.”

“Having another’s reality imposed on you in such examples feels like all the other slights you get from being female, in non-‘prestigious’ work. Exhausting (and futile) to challenge every time. Its annihilation of my reality and I hope I don’t have this effect on others through the way I interact with them.”

“I’m furious and ready for direct action.”

“I feel that language is extremely powerful. Changing language to make one a subset of one’s own sex class is sinister and reeks of misogyny. These males retain their more powerful sex class while belittling women and removing our terms and references in order to promote their ideology and remove our distinct identity replacing it with their definitions. The ideology is regressive and relies on stereotypes derived from 50s US housewives and porn to define women. It requires non conforming people to change themselves rather than accept themselves and change the gender stereotypes to fit reality.”

“Q5 – I find I’m only developing friendships with women who I know are gender abolitionist or gender critical. I feel like this is detrimental; I like having friends with different views and even manage this over political divides but this issue is just impossible to manage. It’s like an active atheist trying to be best pals with someone who is deeply invested in religion and I think many women will be missing out on developing rich and meaningful connections, because GC get labelled as bigots.”

“About losing friends – I am careful what I say to some friends who are not interested or who don’t think it is important.”

“I am glad someone is asking this.”

“I object to questions that effectively ask me to declare belief in a faith I don’t share. E.g. the term ‘cis’ only makes sense if you believe that every individual does or doesn’t have a gender identity, and that gender identity may or may not match their sex ‘assigned at birth’. I don’t believe that, so I don’t want to answer questions that imply that I do.”

“I feel that I am unable to speak up without losing my job, without losing my support system. I feel like my friends do not see me as a human being, because I am a woman and I want to support my own rights. I feel like they do not see me as a human being with my own value, and my only value comes from my own needs being left behind. I am not a bleeder, a breeder, a cervix haver or a body with a vagina. When this language is used I feel demeaned. I feel unsupported and I feel unsafe. I drink more. I can’t stand it.”

“I am very upset and disturbed by the insistence of TRAs that everyday people change their language to support transgenderism. It’s a mental illness; no one is compelled to enable my depression. I’m also increasingly disturbed by the insidiousness of the pronoun stuff; more and more of my coworkers, male and female, are putting pronouns in their email signatures and Zoom handles. I took a pottery class during which the “non-binary” (female) instructor insisted that we put our pronouns on our shelf tags next to our work. I had been annoyed by the whole idea for some time but that was really the tipping point–there is no functional reason for someone to know my pronouns when I am simply putting clay objects on a shelf. It’s really insane.”

“QI don’t believe in Gender, I can behave and dress however I like, I find I am often unable to fill out forms etc as it asks for gender not sex, I am a woman I do not partake of stereotypical feminine gender things so I feel compelled to tick “prefer not to say” or “other” on forms as there is no way to express that I am a proud woman who will not conform to gender norms which are imposed on us. Also I am not a subcategory of my own sex, “Cis” is not a word I will ever identify with, I find it oppressive. I also find the demand for pronouns to be memorized and tailored to individual people both narcissistic and controlling, I avoid talking to people who specify what pronouns you are allowed to use for them, they are not worth the hassle of engaging with.”

“Before having to learn about the “medical treatment” of gender dysphoria, I could not believe that the medical profession would use irreversible and risky treatment options without scientific evidence, on young female patients. I have totally lost my trust in the healthcare system, and also the authorities letting this pass.”

“I’m grateful that You are doing this!! Women are not being heard today if we don’t agree with men and what they want. It’s terrible; never been worse during my life. I think that You should have graded the initial questions instead of yes or no.”

“It is men’s movement to control and erase women’s right whilst supported by the state via stonewall.”

“I don’t like the fact that women are becoming a second category to transwomen with the use of “cis. What is cis anyways? Women are women. Transwomen are men.”

“Having studied biology, gender ideology does not make any sense for me. I started by having” a neutral and “whatever works for anyone” type of thought about these but it rapidly evolved to a malicious activism to erase the rights, as well as the definition of womanhood.”

“For question number 5, I haven’t lost any friends or family members but it has caused really toxic arguments and negatively impacted on relationships especially with my partner.”

“I’m not sure I’ve lost friends, but I think if I truly spoke my mind I would, I do feel silenced in some sectors of the LGBT world.”

“It’s thought control in the Orwellian sense.”

“I have not gone totally public with my views so expect to lose more friends when I do. As a mother, the erasure of words around motherhood is most abominable.”

“Gender ideology is harmful and teaching it to children is just asking for trouble. These kids who have dysphoria need proper counselling and support not access to surgery and hormones.”

“Women are women. Mystified and angry that I need to argue for sex based rights with men. Still!”

“I haven’t lost friends or family members over this issue, however, it has created tension. I find it hard to engage with most friends on this topic. Most just don’t want to know, don’t want to get caught up in something they are told is ‘toxic’. This includes many left wing friends and family, members of the Scottish Green or Labour parties. Those who are more open to talking about it quickly see the difficulties, especially when I talk of the impact on the most vulnerable – young children, prisoners and victims of rape or sexual violence. My male partner is very supportive, understands why it matters, but is not keen to talk of it outside the home. I have had some contact online with other GC women and that has been supportive. We have a local group, but we haven’t met face to face yet. I hope that happens soon!”

“Although I would say the effect on my mental health is ‘moderate’ because I am a very resilient person, I also constantly managing myself in the light of it, and have to do a much greater amount of self-care. My husband believes it has become an ‘obsession’ and my attention to it is bad for me. It is certainly time-consuming and leads me to spending many hours on social media I would not otherwise spend.”

“My sex has implications for immutable rights. Not gender.”

“The imposition of pronouns and chest binders etc., etc., makes me absolutely furious.”

“Cis reduces women to a subset of their own sex. We aren’t. The debate is also polarised around women. The erosion of words for men, male medical issues just isn’t happening on the same scale, if at all.”

“Sadly my brain isn’t firing on all cylinders. Not as a direct result of gender madness; but it’s certainly had an extremely negative impact.”

“I just wish the TRAs mob would leave women and women’s spaces, sports etc. alone.”

“I haven’t lost any friends as a result of my views because I keep my mouth shut! I am too afraid to say what I really think except to a small number of close friends.”

“None of this is good for women and girls.”

“Just to say the whole invention of the ideology of gender identity has made me very angry and I continue to be very angry. Being angry is not a mental health problem, but it can make me very weary at times.”

“I haven’t lost friend and family members over this issue but I worry that I might if I talked about it with some friends or acquaintances. Also that it might cause trouble at work. So my answer ‘No’ reflects the fact that I don’t always talk about it with people although I am getting braver.”

“Being expected and often forced to lie about what I see in front of me increases my anxiety. I fear going to the hospital where pronoun badges are worn. My loss of legal protection and support is frightening. I feel vulnerable.”

“I am being erased as a woman by constant misogynistic attacks on all words that are vital to name and describe my lived experience. I will not be coerced into lies.”

“There is no need to change language when additional or new language can be used as the clearest option. Diminishing women’s language applying to oneself has a demeaning effect amounting to erasure.”

“I would like to be more open about my views but I have serious concerns about the social and personal repercussions.”

“It’s difficult to assess impact of one thing on my mental health or well-being. The loss of one friend in particular is difficult but it’s also unclear what exactly is the cause or if we will reconcile (it is more drifting apart living multiple times zones away from each other, plus disagreement on gender ideology). And of course sexist bias and sexual harassment has had a huge negative impact on me. To some degree, the lack of a coherent women’s liberation movement has led to that outcome. And I believe the incoherence in the movement is currently most *internally* caused by a mix of gender ideology, misapplication of cultural relativism (which otherwise is a useful lens!), and sex work as liberating and not at all a capitalist exploitation of sex and a feature of rape culture, often being rape itself.”

“I am an Italian woman and I am looking at the rise of support of gender ideology in public discourse. Being aware of the impact this issue has had in other countries, I am deeply concerned of the direction we are taking in my country. We are learning nothing from other people’s experience, nobody is informed on the matter. Dogmas are rising here too.”

“What we have seen here is the emergence of new-age misogyny which is no different to the old style.”

“The framing of gender critical views as transphobia is a hate speech technique, a means to silence women. As a mother, when I hear that trans women are women, my own negative experiences return: my medically controlled birthing experiences and my whole experience of losing agency and self-confidence because of the conservative societal attitudes to motherhood in my home country, and sometimes my previous relationship with an abusive man, too. It makes me feel traumatised, frustrated and powerless to be robbed of the words that describe women’s experiences in patriarchy.”

“It struck me that it hasn’t even occurred to me to ask for professional help in this. I don’t think I’d find anyone who’d care about it or understand it. I would expect them all to be too worried to be woke and be quick to not validate women’s concerns in this matter.”

“Age 64 I was largely unconcerned about the rights of women until I encountered gender ideology and the misogyny behind it. Now I am aware, I am frightened for younger women across the world.”

“I feel that I’m being drawn into an ideology that is simply nothing to do with me and is promoted as though it’s orthodoxy, when in fact it’s very novel and not believed by anyone sensible.”

“’Trans’ women are men. There is no such thing as ‘cis’ and we should not be using trans activist language.”

“I can see it creeping into my workplace more and more (a University). HR staff emails with pronouns are particularly galling. I absolutely don’t feel that I can speak up out of fear.”

“At first I was energized by the renaissance of what I saw as second wave feminism after so many long years in the desert, but then it became personal, was scary and is now just deeply sad.”

“I am Really concerned about my daughter’s Future. I See everything I thought feminism was about is going to get lost.”

“I am a woman, mother, grandmother, friend (although I’ve lost most of them to this cult), ******************(redacted to protect identity), sometimes DJ until the cult killed our community, Social Worker (I recently lost my job for being a Lesbian and now I’m working P/T and looking to reboot my career), and I am angry, at the freedom that Gender Identity Ideology has had to destroy my community, destroy Lesbian community, and to pit friends against one another. What I am most angry with is that willingness of society to go with this, to accept men are women, and not even think to ask, or purposely didn’t to keep it on the sneaky side, and now we have to rebuild and restore our rights, community, lives that were derailed… Make this end soon, give us our community (LGB) back, but especially give us the Lesbian community, free of men and their dominating attitudes towards us.”

“Woman, as a sex class, is being erased. Homosexuality is being redefined. Children are being groomed. All to please a minority. I think it’s all political and young girls will be the biggest victims to it. We need to stop replacing facts with feelings. Words matter. Women matter.”

“I am a mother to two young autistic children and I have watched in disbelief how a friend’s daughter has gone through the transitioning process who only came out after being brainwashed at university. I am so worried that my children would be the ideal prey for this ideology and I am angry and disappointed as to the extent of indoctrination that seems ubiquitous at the moment and has permeated all kinds of institutions and private sector companies. It is very frightening.”

“So angry and upset that the word woman has now become political and social minefield.”

“Issues such as gender identity trumping sex, pronouns and the removal of women’s language has made me feel extremely angry and also depressed. I spend a lot of time thinking, worrying and talking about these issues which has had a detrimental effect on my happiness and energy levels. I feel that we are going backwards on women’s rights and that women’s views are not considered important or relevant. I feel devalued as a woman and worry for my daughter’s future.”

“I haven’t lost friends because I don’t dare discuss it – otherwise I would.”

“As a CSA survivor with ptsd bpd and have a visual impairment I have been threatened with rape, I have stopped socially interacting with anyone who has pronouns in bio and my stomach sinks every time I see the trans flag. After being groomed by abuser not to tell, that my feelings were not valid. I had to listen to the FM (first minister) tell me after years of counselling and medication and being told they were valid to she says they ain’t. I really went down hill and if it wasn’t for my daughter I would have self harmed more.”

“Gender is a social construct. It is not real. Trans people must be protected from violence, harassment and discrimination, but the hard won rights of biological woman must be respected. A transwoman is not a woman. A transman is not a man. Law and policy should be based on biological reality, not magical thinking.”

“I hate how gender ideology has strained my friendships and how I’m ever on alert so I don’t say the wrong thing – these friends and I have always shared so much and now, because they have trans kids, I have to walk on eggshells and I worry I’m complicit in their children’s abuse. It’s hell. Any other situation where children were at risk, I’d know how to help but there’s no authority who will be on my side. I can only try to subtly influence from within. I am obsessed now with this topic and it’s impacting my productivity at work.”

“Using words other than woman erases us as a sex class and is a deliberate tactic to erase boundaries and therefore rights.”

“I feel at times overwhelmed by the sheer stupidity of gender identity ideology but this is offset by working with other like-minded people to push back against it.”

“Appalled at the speed with which gender ideology has been applied to so much.”

“It is emotionally distressing to see young women enduring pressure to transition to male or non-binary, rather than celebrate all the freedom to be female and woman in every expression.”

“I haven’t been all that open yet about my views with the people around me. Mainly this is because a) I live in an area where gender identity ideology has made great inroads at all levels and b) because my employer is completely captured and I need my job. I would maybe think about finding another job except I doubt any employer of people with my skill set in my region isn’t captured (see point a).”

“I feel like I’m affected in several ways: 1. My reality is being challenged by a very small number of very vocal people. I am a woman and no one will convince me otherwise. 2. This crazy new reality is being adopted by many people with whom I would normally share a world view. 3. Having been active in the past in women’s and working class groups, I find it unbelievable that there is such loud and general support for this ‘underclass’. 4. It is infiltrating everything. I wrote to my local council and asked that they stop avoiding the use of the word sex where appropriate. 5. On the other hand, many people refuse to engage in discussion because, to them, this is so crazy that it can’t really be happening.”

“I will resist all and any attempts to replace sex with gender. Sex is a biological fact and must be recognised as such.”

“I am fine with the word “gender”, so long as it is used as synonymous with “sex”.”

“I am retired and had I still been working for the NHS on the issue of violence against women, I am sure I would have been impacted far more because of some of the mainstream women’s organisations such as Scottish Women’s Aid and Rape Crisis Scotland caving in to gender ideology.”

“The negative connotations and feelings have grown over the course of 2 years. While before I had no objection to calling someone their desired pronouns, today the whole issue including rainbows, stars in writing etc. are associated with severe bullying of women. I am afraid to say something and feel like people knowing about my criticism would endanger my children, friends and family.”

“This whole movement acts dehumanizing towards women. They aim to destroy us as a protected class.”

“Very important questions!”

“You can’t identify into your own class based oppression. “Cis” is gaslighting.”

“I find the promotion of gender identity frightening as it erodes the meaning of what it is to be female. I also worry about males being allowed access to female single sex spaces.”

“I am a second wave feminist. I believe gender in the sense of expecting women and girls to behave particular ways and structuring society to encourage conformity is sexist. I believe strongly that women and girls need separate spaces for their own protection, nurture and mutual support. I am opposed to genderism because it can only exist in the sexist world we live in. I believe sex-based rights cannot easily co-exist with trans ones and sex-based ones should never be over-ruled by trans rights.”

“This kind of gender ideology is threatening the well-being of lesbians, women and children. I’s not about making women more visible at all out actually makes us more invisible.”

“As a result of examining gender identity ideology I have exposed myself to damaging pornography which has twisted and affected my sexuality.”

“Gender ideology only has an impact because it is being used as the basis of public policy and social groups that take rights away from women.”

“I haven’t “lost friends or family members through your position/ views on gender identity ideology” because NO ONE I know believes in this shite.”

“I feel like I am being force-fed gender ideology. I don’t understand how such a tiny population generated so many enormous social & political changes that have huge negative impacts so quickly.”

“I don’t usually express gender critical ideology around people who wouldn’t be receptive, or I probably would have lost friends over it at some points in my life. Nowadays I just try to avoid forming friendships with vocally trans positive people, since it’s so against my views.”

“The enforcement of gender over sex has had very negative consequences for me and my community, especially lesbians.”

“The recent changes in language are very deliberate, dehumanising and dangerous. Also compulsory speech issues.”

“I feel generally enraged about the situation- it’s impact on young women and the lack of awareness about the whole concept of “be kind”.”

“I have not lost friends yet, but I’m not open with many about my viewpoints and fear I would lose many of them about it.”

“I haven’t exactly “lost” friends due to gender ideology (yet) because I am (so far) pretty quiet about it but have distanced myself from friends and acquaintances because of their beliefs in gender ideology. It is an emotional loss even if we are still “friends”.”

“I come from a conservative, very misogynistic country. This new flavor of misogyny doesn’t phase me enough to affect my mental health as much as it might affect a western woman, since I’m way too desensitized at this point, but it does make me worry about my safety in women only spaces.”

“#5 is difficult to answer yes or no; I’m worried that I could lose friends by voicing opinions so I keep them to myself. Feeling like I have to keep secrets negatively impacts my mental health.”

“I think “very negative” is not a strong enough term for how I feel about these practices.”

“It troubles me how quickly this ideology has been embraced by mainstream society.”

“I feel very negative about going to work events or work in general because seeing men in the restrooms makes me want to avoid using the restrooms. And I can’t hold my pee in all day so I’ve been isolated at home 9hrs a day, 5 days a week.”

“My partner of two years broke up with me because I expressed my views. She is a non binary identifying female. I have had difficulty finding young lesbian and bi women community because of the prevalence of gender identity ideology. Much of my friends are non binary identifying females and so when I express gc views they didn’t want to be friends anymore.”

“Gender ideology is slowly creeping in to my work place, and I am terrified to say what I really think about it, for fear of losing my job or at the least, being bullied.”

“Even reading the gendered terms for MTF raises anxiety. Example: chest feeders.”

“When I say I have lost friends, it is me who has distanced myself from some friends, subtly, because I just can’t respect grown people who accept this codswallop. My young adult children have bought it as well, in some cases because I think they are worried about being shunned (with reason). We have dealt with the disagreement by agreeing not to talk about it. No debate essentially, which is frustrating. I just have to hope they will find their way eventually.”

“My family has silenced me on this issue. I have a NB-trans gay grandson who used to be just a fem gay guy. I refuse they/them pronouns. One of my daughters thinks there is science somewhere to support trans, the other knows there is not but she is a believer. But what she believes is unclear.”

“It’s sad how far it has set back feminism and contributed to the destruction of the lesbian community.”

“I probably would lose friends if I was super open about being gender critical, but I’m more subtle about being a radfem.”

“Gender ideology while not impacting me overly much personally, it is setting feminism back years.”

“As a senior/retired woman, who is also a lesbian I have been impacted by this in several ways. 1) I feel enormous anxiety about public restrooms, medical issues and being disappeared as a lesbian. Also I don’t like being told who I am.”

“Women are adult human females.”

“After a woman’s health group was disbanded online, I was recruiting for a female-centered social media, so those women would have a place to talk about their difficulties without having to tiptoe around aggressive “gender specials.” The mere mention of this space attracted so many explicit violent/sexual threats, it shocked me. It all caught up with me, the years of this violent, depraved rhetoric. I had an argument with my husband, who dismissively blamed it on American politics. I have been told by men that I am “upholding the patriarchy” for not playing along with the public fetish or dysphoria games. When I sought counselling for the marital discord and PTSD from former life events, I participated in small therapeutic groups that knew my history yet insisted on my announcing pronouns in groups unrelated to gender, even when I would make a noncommittal, but friendly, answer. The push was notable and inappropriate in a medical setting; the practitioners (chaplain, social worker, RN) were more concerned about me complying with gendered language rituals than addressing the trauma that brought me to their care. I was breathless and sobbing at one point. I never cry in public. I left the program and never returned, but did file complaints with the counselling program and regulatory bodies. I started to see transitioning children when my daughter was in fourth grade. She is in eighth grade now, and knows a male that is medically transitioning. This affects me and my community, the children we should be protecting. This interrupts classroom instruction in small and large ways. Gendered expectations and forced compliance are not an abstract offense to me. This is in my life, my child’s life, her friends’ life. I no longer trust that any of the girls in my care can go into a public bathroom and be safe. I don’t even just stand outside; I go inside with them. Women and girls have to travel like fearful packs of prey animals bc of male sexual fantasies dominating public discourse, and the legal protections of such men.”

“I have never thought that a man can become a woman (or that a woman can become a man). I have always thought it appropriate for women’s spaces to be for WOMEN, since “identity” does not negate male strength or male tendencies towards violence towards women. I have lost friends in the sense that I simply CANNOT express my opinions on this issue AT ALL, and that has greatly impacted on my sense of connection with them. I have never been censored before by my friends EVER. It is very distressing to be “shut down”. I resent the use of “cis” because I am not a subset of my own sex! I will NOT call a man any kind of woman. They are “trans-identified MEN”, and I will NOT use “preferred pronouns”.”

“I haven’t lost friends because I don’t talk to my “in real life” friends about my feelings. I have two very good friends who are trans women, and I don’t want to lose them as friends, but I see them getting upset by the online “discourse” which upsets me, I know they just want to live their lives. The way women are talked about and threatened is also really upsetting to me.”

“I find myself becoming very frustrated and agitated when people can’t see that male centred language and other aspects of being a man are not affected compared to women’s. Yet women are being targeted and harassed and jobs threatened when we raise basic concerns! I’d also like to highlight my specific concern around ASD and transitioning as there doesn’t seem to be nearly enough support or investigating, just affirming! And being a professional and a mother to a child with ASD, I find this disturbing and frightening!”

“I understood ‘gender’ to simply be another term for biological sex, used to be more polite. So I’ve no issue with the word gender used instead, but do when gender identity is asked instead of biological sex.”

“Because of the T and its derivatives, the lesbian community in Tranada is now non-existent unless you allow TIMs in the groups. No more bars, no more women-only meetings.”

“I am a biological woman who has always spoken out against gender stereotypes (pink / blue stuff in short). I watch the present development with great concern because men with wigs, make-up and dresses (and maybe even with an amputated p*n*s) can never be women. Never ever.”

“I am genuinely frightened by this turn towards gender ideology and its increasing acceptance by governments, institutions, and within educational settings. It is massively detrimental to women and children, is intellectually bankrupt and scientifically baseless, and is eroding my trust in public bodies. I no longer believe that women will be kept safe from this predatory land grab of their spaces, nor that people with mental illness will be understood or counselled about their dysphoria, as opposed to the dangerous affirmation of self-asserted gender, and the complete denial of reality from all quarters and the bullying and intimidation of those who seek to resist this.”

“To reduce my existence to organs when addressing, for example, uterus holder, is extremely belittling. As if I were an object and not a sentient human being, without identity and personality.”

“Referring to question 1: Although I reject gender ideology, it brought positive things into my life, because it connected me with other radical feminists and made me becoming active in a new women’s movement.”

“Much more suicidal.”

“The only thing I am aware of is the use of she/her. I have not heard of chest feeders or the other bizarre!”

“Not so much negative as extremely angry.”

“I absolutely hate the use of the word “Cis” and do not identify with it at all.”

“The reason that I feel like I haven’t lost friends over gender ideology debates is because I actively avoid talking about it / hide my views from most of my friends and colleagues through fear of being ostracised.”

“I take issue with any ‘movement’ that denies debate, calls concern or criticism ‘hate’ and ‘phobia’ and seems to spend all its time telling others what they can and cannot do, what they ‘should’ call themselves and producing flags. I take issue with deceit and lies that hide beneath any ideology claiming to be ‘on the right side of history’ and shouts about representing the marginalised and vulnerable that then witch-hunts those that are seen not to agree 100% who are usually the marginalised and vulnerable. I have issues with groups that turn on their own when they suspect any form of dissension or disagreement and I don’t like men’s rights movements that masquerade as something else.”

“The whole insane situation has added to my general frustration and tiredness to living. I feel desperately worried about girls and children and younger women and women in prisons and shelters. Etc.”

“I like these questions, thank you for being thorough.”

“I was in a feminist group with young women and few men and was introduced to the pronoun go round. I thought it was silly. I now think it is cult grooming to indoctrinate people into the idiocy of gendah identity ideology. I refuse compelled speech.”

“Men can never be women and the idiots who support them are as bad if not worse in their violence and lies.”

“After not smoking for 8 years I have felt the need for some kind of escape or way to decompress from the intensity and toxicity of this ideology.”

“As someone who had language to describe imposed on me such as Mrs. I feel CIS is regressive as it describes me relative to a genetic male – as Mrs did. I feel that removing words relating to women’s bodies in medical leaflets will disadvantage women with learning difficulties for those from minorities who would not know if say if they have a cervix.”

“I haven’t increased my use of addictive substances, this could be a trick question. I have protested instead. Hate this gender ID. Absolutely hate it. Class and female Socialisation has got us to this mess. I will never capitulate.”

“I feel like I’m walking on eggshells at work. It’s very stressful. I fear it’s only a matter of time before the tra mob come after me. It’s an Orwellian nightmare.”

“In linkedin, I prophylactically block any profiles that come through my feed with pronouns specified. I don’t want to do business with someone who expects the customer to pay with emotional (trans-coddling) labor instead of simple currency.”

“I think Dr Kathleen Stock says it all on her radio 4 woman’s hour interview this week. I feel my identity as a woman is being eroded by aggressive Trans people (the ones who are MALE by birth) Women’s rights and safety are being eroded at an alarming speed, when every person I talk to feels the same way, but many are too frightened to speak up. We will lose our rights if Stonewall have their way. I am terrified.”

“There are so many things to say about gender ideology. But the worst of it is that women and girls stand to lose so much from it. The passive complicity from influential decision makers who stand on the side lines doing and saying nothing. The active complicity from those who cannot? Will not? See the damage and who repeat meaningless fact free mantras and justifications. The brainwashing of our children and grandchildren. The demonisation of women with opinions. The unwillingness to engage with arguments which challenge and question the ideology. The lack of spaces for women to meet free from harassment. We are being silenced by a men’s rights movement and so few are willing to talk about that. I think I feel betrayed by a world that told me I could have it all.”

“When we apply any of this to race we see the utter flaws in the theory.”

“I am increasingly concerned about the eradication of the word ‘woman’. This is misogynistic and deeply worrying for women everywhere. I find it deeply offensive that ‘cis’ is being used – effectively making biological women a subset of their own sex in order to ‘make space’ for men.”

“I take particular exception to the made up ‘cis’ term. I become angry, it’s demeaning. There are only biological women, we are not a class of our own sex, equal to the insanity of men who pretend to be women.”

“I feel I as a born female, I am being eradicated.”

“I think we should look at whether we have been the target of harassment or violence or online abuse about GI stuff.”

“I live in the middle east where gender ideology basically doesn’t exist. It doesn’t affect my life directly. But I am from Canada where things are really bad. I discuss these issues, and read about them every day on social media and I am very upset about what’s going on. I worry that if I go back home to live teachers will target my kids because they are gc like me and their dad. I worry teachers would try to mess with their minds about gender ideology. I worry for women who are living in these countries like Ireland, Scotland, Canada, USA, where things are really bad. I was “punished” several times on social media for speaking honestly. Never threatened anyone just said something a little too directly without choosing my words. And was “punished”. I was told “die” by someone, reported it and nothing was done. But calling a man “a man” gets you suspended or banned. Gender ideology is poisonous. I used to be more accepting. Now I’m not. I feel sad for some people who identify as “trans” I met. They are lovely people who I believe I would get along with. They agree with women. Unfortunately their views get them in trouble because this ideology accepts no challenge whatsoever. I don’t believe I am transphobic. But the actions of the trans extremists have made me very intolerant now. I’ve had enough. I would tolerate no exception. And no-one should be allowed to change their biological sex officially. Thank you.”

“I am happy for people to use pronouns, but they should understand that it is easy for others to slip up when trying to remember them. I have often done it. We should not be vilified for this. I also feel like women should be able to call themselves women. A trans woman is not a woman in the sense of being female. This new use of language about women is very dangerous and threatens women’s safety. I am very upset about it. Also the term cis is a trans term. I am not trans, I am a woman and I am offended by the term cis.”

“l feel more than negative, l am angry and disturbed by the whole matter.”

“Gender ideology is just that, a belief. A belief that people should be entitled to follow, and conversely, not follow. The law should not force people to believe this on pain of fines or prison or any other punitive form.”

“Gender ideology is destroying, family, friends, children’s bodies, homosexuality and women. It’s total BS.”

“Cis makes me feel like I’m being forced into believing human being can change sex.”

“There has been no consultation on any of the genderisation of language, expectations, behaviours etc. Trans ideology trumps everything and everyone, even the needs of children which is unacceptable at any level. What women need, understand, do, expect on every level even biologically (which is non negotiable) is being unquestionably challenged by predominantly men, the majority of whom have little or no understanding, or interest, or need for, women. Complete ignorance disrespect and disregard. Inhumane behaviour which cannot be allowed to perpetuate. It seems the toddlers and adolescents are running our governments, public services, corporations, education and health and welfare organisations.”

“Gender identity ideology is cult like.”

“I feel insulted by all the language changes.”

“I think our sex is a material reality. I’ve read things that purport to define gender identity but I believe gender is a social construct. I believe it reinforces rather than challenges gender stereotypes.”

“Women are being erased. Firstly words to describe us are being done away with. We are not allowed to discuss issues which relate to us. We are accused of being filled with hate when we are just feeling scared by the apparent erasure of our rights without any consultation.”

“It is an erasure of our rights across the globe by establishment.”

“As a physical scientist, I have lost my research partner, a social scientist, because she would not use the word ‘woman’ to speak about menstruation, preferring to use ‘people’ or ‘women + trans men + non-binary’. She cited her reputation as a social scientist, and that “It’s what the kids want nowadays”. I cited my oath I take every year as a registered member of a regulated science and engineering group that promises to uphold truth, facts, science. We ended up parting ways. I have been silenced and threatened with legal action for hate speech if I continue to share my views on men in women bathrooms, this at a city-run advisory group (an advisory group whose members were asked to share their views). I have been called a TERF for expressing reservations about trans-ideology. I have lost sleep, experienced anxiety, and basically questioned my motivation all because of the vile backlash against women who dare speak truth about biological sex.”

“My 40yo daughter hasn’t spoken to me for 8 months following a disagreement about gender related topics.”

“Gender over sex has been very harmful as a lesbian. Biology males insisting that they are lesbians has been very harmful to me as a lesbian and is harmful to young lesbians.”

“I feel this issue has split people even more than the Brexit vote. the abuse and isolation resulting from gender critical views is all encompassing, in every area of my life. I either say nothing or am immediately ostracised from every social interaction except the community of radical feminists and gender critical people I know on-line and in real life.”

“Gender identity politics is a cult and it’s destroying women’s movement.”

“I am very sad about this.”

“All this gender ideology is affecting me but I’m feeling a little more confident for fighting it in the open.”

“I have not lost friends or family (q 5) only because for the most part I don’t talk about it because they’re generally in the dark and I don’t feel like “educating” them.”

“I am afraid to bring this topic up in public for fear of retribution. However, I am seeing more and more encroachment onto women’s sex-based rights because of the ignorance and absence of critical thinking on this issue.”

“It was like some kind of mind virus took over everyone around me. Very isolating.”

“I’m from Canada. I’m a woman, a daughter, a sister, and a mum, and at no time did any gov or corp entity or industry consult with me or anyone I know about re-defining language or enacting unconstitutional laws and policies that clearly endanger and discriminate against women and children. This whole identity politics mess has been a deliberate sneak attack by elites with a divisive and harmful agenda.”

“I have not lost friends but have backed off from acquaintances who declare themselves non binary. Friendships with GC people have been strengthened.”

“Gender ideology needs to be stopped – bc autism groups are so saturated I am too scared to send my little one to a support group lest she falls for the cult – Already had to deal with “auti gender” it would be much worse if she thought she were a man. I don’t take women’s groups seriously anymore – nor do they interest me – there is no such thing as a woman’s group as long as any male is allowed in cut penis or not. Single sex spaces matter.”

“I remember the time when “gender” replaced “sex” on forms to fill. I found it very stupid and prudish. But the change of language didn’t stop there. I feel like our existence is being stolen from us through our language, the very words we use in our everyday life.”

“I was born radfem I found out.”

“I have not lost friends for my opinions, because I’m not open about them. I would lose certain friends if they knew my opinions of gender identity.”

“That a woman could be defined as anything other than an adult human female strikes at the very core of my being. To have Biden claim that a male is female shows that hatred of REAL women and females generally is endemic. I have lost all faith. At 60+ years of age, I feel I need to re-invent myself, but there are no words that haven’t been appropriated by males and their supporters.”

“I haven’t yet lost any friends but they are not in the same social media groups and don’t know about my GC views. I know I will lose some if they come to light.”

“I have a daughter who is lost in the gender cult. Beyond that I am extremely worried about single sex spaces for women and girls. Additionally, I fear there is a generation of young women willing to mutilate their bodies in the name of gender. It is a frightening state of affairs.”

“I haven’t lost friends or family members, but…it is a topic that must not be spoken of (according to two friends/family members) lest our relationships disintegrate…”

“Language matters & there’s so much pressure now to conform to trans positive group think. It’s dangerous (and very annoying!)”

“I work in Health and am extremely concerned about the actual & potential harms of using gender neutral language instead of sex-based language.”

“The left wing misogyny unleashed by so-called ‘gender liberation’ is extremely similar to the hysteria directed against me (and others) who stood up against sex with under-aged children by adults.”

“I feel that it is an imposition on me to be expected to accommodate niche beliefs that others insist on – those others being mainly men in support of an ideology created by and driven by men insisting women make way for them. I feel violated by it.”

“The authoritarianism of the gender ideologists terrifies me.”

“I am not a subset of my own sex class, I’m proud to be a woman and hate that others feel compelled to refer to me as something other than just woman.”

“Attempts to change the very meaning of language is worrying.”

“Language matters, and the hijacking of words to make them have different meanings makes it difficult to talk about things e.g. if ‘woman’ includes ‘man who identifies as a woman’ then it becomes impossible to talk about women.”

“Sex/biology/our material reality should be the basis for everything, not a nebulous concept like gender identity. It scares me that the concept is implemented everywhere without being questioned and when I question it, everyone says that I’m hateful towards trans people. You can’t say any criticism anymore. In my country self-id is on its way and I feel very bad thinking about it. Sex, sexual orientation, the problems of women won’t be relevant. I’m glad that so many like-minded women exist and fight against that ideology!”

“My friends feel the same way I do, but the workplace is a mine field. Tread very carefully.”

“Watching the dogma of gender ideology encroaching upon my life in so many areas while being unable/dissuaded from discussing it has been traumatizing. My relationship with my boyfriend is suffering because of our discussions about the topic. It weighs all the more heavily on me because I have been estranged from my family for 6 years, and gender ideology is creeping into my estrangement support groups/I have no solid ground to stand on or feel like anyone would help me if I were to become homeless/unemployed by speaking out.”

“I feel that the recognition and valuing of women’s sex based experiences, concerns and differences are undermined by the trans ideology. I accept, even rejoice in my sex (it was a privilege to give birth and breast feed for example) but I reject the gender identity imposed on me – I don’t self ID as a gender but as a sexed being.”

“I am sick of gender identity being used over sex. It’s affected most areas of my life.”

“First question might be better worded Mental Health Or Well Being. Or split into two questions. My answers, no to mental health, and yes to well being.”

“Words to describe women (as a sex) are important as otherwise it erases the reality of being a woman.”

“I am fortunate to be in a position where I can influence the approach of the organisation I work for, therefore, I can say that we will not be having pronouns in our email signatures. I will not use cis. Women are not a subset of our own sex class. I will not use language that erases women.“

“I am an older woman. I do not *identify* as a woman, I was born female and the term WOMAN is the descriptor of my biology. Biology has determined my sex, my place in the world, my path through life, my ability to conceive, gestate, give birth, breastfeed, and my status as a MOTHER. These terms are important to me to be able to describe my experiences as a female, as a woman and as a mother and grandmother. In common with many other women, my experience as one born female has been profound and despite success in other spheres of my life, my role as a mother has been pivotal to my life, and how I view the world and how the world views me. Without the very words that belong to women, how do we enunciate our experiences, our pain and our struggles?”

“These terms for women’s bodies are extremely offensive to girls and women – how does it affect me? It makes me feel scared, angry, furious and deeply resentful. I feel like my whole identity as female, as a mother is being obliterated by an ideology I never voted for.”

“I have not lost friends yet because I don’t talk about this topic outside gender critical groups. I work and do a fair amount of socializing in a very small cultural group and know that once my views are public, I will lose friends. As for my family, I live 4 000km away and I have not discussed this with any of them.”

“Changes are being imposed on women and there is a negative reaction if women object. I refuse to be called cis. We don’t need pronouns in work emails and I will not allow myself to be reduced to body parts. I note most of the expected changes are directed at women, not men!”

“It is not unusual for minority opinions to try to change social attitudes but how has this got so much traction?”

“The whole story of gender identity is an unhealthy fad which boggles the minds of the younger generation.”

“I have not lost friends because I am worried that they would leave me for my views so I avoid talking about it, it has left me isolated at times.”

“I’m scared to state basic facts. This makes me angry.”

“I used to use my own personal experiences of sexual assault/rape to explain my position, but I found this incredibly triggering, especially when this was challenged as not being valid. Now I can only engage on a general level as I was being pushed into a bad place mentally, thankfully I realised and could pull myself out of it.”

“What I find most disturbing is that the language is only changing for women. Men are not being subjected to the same erasure in terms of language. Which underpins the misogyny driving so much of this.”

“I believe women are at risk of discrimination due to terms being changed within the workplace and health sector. I also believe children are at risk of being silenced into an ideology that doesn’t fit into biological facts. Sex based rights will also be lost putting women and girls at further risk of being seen as an identity rather than born females.”

“Cis is unnecessary and abusive – the other things re not referring to actual WOMEN is appalling misogyny and sexism.”

“People cannot change their sex. I do not want to share female only spaces with men.”

“As a survivor I have spoken publicly about my need for single sex spaces, innocently thinking people would be compassionate. The opposite is true. The impact of this is huge and language such as ‘cis’ etc triggers me as it reminds me of the secondary trauma of losing single sex spaces.”

“I haven’t lost any friends or family over this issue. However it has impacted and caused difficulty in some relationships. I have not sought psychological help specifically in relation to this issue but it has been over the last year and a half an ongoing subject I have discussed in psychotherapy I was already having.”

“I feel the pressure to use pronouns or adhere to tenets such as Trans Women Are Women as signifiers that you are a ‘good person’ extremely oppressive. Because you know that many people will immediately perceive you as a bigot if you dare question them, whilst not wanting to listen or being unable to understand your reasoning. I have never felt social pressure akin to this from any of my political or social views before – I’m 50.”

“I feel that I have to conceal my views at work or be perceived as a bigot. I would like to see a question about this.”

“On the question 6 – about capturing data on sex versus gender and the 3rd option to say that you’d be happy if sex and gender identity both would be asked. I would have selected that last one IF there was an option on gender identity to say that it doesn’t apply to me. I don’t have a gender identity.”

“I am enraged by the pressure of compelled speech in so many settings.”

“Re: Q5, I have only not lost friends because I am very careful with whom I express my views. I have lost some social media connections for being more out with regard to my views recently.”

“I’m scared and self censor to avoid rejection from friends.”

“The use of pronouns reinforces sexism. It’s completely unnecessary and it is detrimental to women.”

“I hate all this gender nonsense!”

“As the mother of three, with 3 complicated pregnancies and 3 long term breastfeeding experiences under my belt, the change in terminology being backed by orgs who are supposed to support me definitely takes the biggest toll.”

“I find the gender identity theory very oppressive.”

“I have avoided discussing this topic with friends as I fear no one wants to have a genuine discussion but quickly jumps to labelling any questioning as bigoted and attacking the person trying to form their own views.”

“As a woman and a lesbian gender ideology is directly harmful to me. This is because my safe spaces have either been colonised or under threat of being comprised by men identifying as women.”

“We should not be calling men ” trans women” … They are not women… Another question that should be included is have you been attacked, abused, threatened etc verbally or physically for challenging gender identity policies and trans ideology.”

“Gender ideology has had a negative effect on my mental health and wellbeing, as I worry about meeting a man who claims he is a woman in women’s spaces, which causes me to feel anxious. It also causes me to feel de-humanised and de-valued as both a woman and a lesbian, as it empties both words of meaning, if a man can identify as a woman and a lesbian. I feel very depressed by the de-humanisation of women and lesbians that has been made possible by gender ideology. I also feel anxious, depressed and angry that as a lesbian woman there are no spaces, groups or dating apps I can go to or use to meet potential female partners, due to gender ideology enabling heterosexual/bisexual males to identify as lesbian women and colonise these previously female only spaces. Since I became aware of gender ideology and its negative impact on women and lesbian women in particular, I have participated in forums and social media so I could talk to people who also felt similarly. However, most of these platforms are very strict in their moderating, so a lot of the time I feel restricted in what I can say, and also feel worried about being investigated by the police for a hate incident if I do voice my views publicly, and the problem with anonymous forums that have little moderation is that they tend to be full of trolls. However, I did meet my last girlfriend on one of these anonymous forums whilst talking about gender critical issues. I haven’t lost family or friends due to being gender critical, but that is because I wouldn’t discuss my gender critical views with someone who I knew was deeply into gender ideology, and I only know of maybe one or two family members who openly approve of gender ideology. The use of gender instead of sex bothers me, as I reject gender ideology, I have a sex but I do not have a gender identity. I think the use of gender when the word sex should be used confuses the meaning of gender with sex. I feel that the use of pronouns in the signatures of work emails is alienating to women who have gender critical views, as it indicates to me that the company has adopted gender ideology, which is an ideology I consider misogynistic and homophobic. So I consider such a company to be against my rights as a lesbian woman. I feel the use of language to refer to women’s bodies such as chest feeders, uterus havers, menstruators is de-humanising and reduces women to our body parts, rather than respecting us a full human beings. I feel the word cis is used by gender ideologists to try to reduce women to a sub-group of our own sex, so that men can say they are a just a different type of woman, e.g. men can then say they are trans women, and women are cis women, that we are both just different types of women. I find it deeply offensive and refuse to ever use it.”

“The word woman is sex specific to female people, in law, practice and policy. No practice, policy or law should impose, promote, or compel adherence to, any belief as a mandatory condition without which state service provision, participation will be withheld, e.g. Doctors, Citizen’s Advice Bureau, councils, schools. Requiring people to specify their “gender” to gain access to public services and defining “gender” as “the sex you identify as”. Sex is factual. To “identify with/as” is a matter of belief. Records requiring a person’s sex should not be replaced with beliefs which many either do not hold, do not understand or profoundly oppose.”

“This is something I changed my mind about over the past 18 months. I used to think it was harmless, but the more I learnt, the stronger I felt against it.”

“Not sure what will come up later. As a Professor in a university I had to have security guards on my lectures for 6 months, take down name from my door, was advised to be careful no one followed me home etc. This certainly affected my sense of security at the time.”

“I object to being referred to as cis. This is not a choice for me and I find it deeply offensive to be categorised as such.”

“It’s insulting. Years of campaigning for equal opportunity and now I have to be called cis.”

“I feel women are losing rights to men. I want to be able to go to the bathroom in a female only space. I don’t want the word woman to be treated like an offensive word.”

“I’ve lost friends who would rather assume the worst and label me a transphobe or terf, instead of listening to what I actually believe.”

“This is making dissatisfaction to gender ideology into a psychological issue. It has made me angry and has impelled to fight politically against an ideology that undermines women and invades their right to private spaces, seeks to violate the bodies of children through medical interventions.”

“No one should *have to be* out about their sexuality or gender identity and many people prefer this to be private rather than broadcast to the world through mandatory pronouns on their bio or email signature. It will be declare your sexuality next, mark my words. It’s like the badges the Nazis made prisoners wear.”

“I find the changes to language very concerning.”

“It feels like women, an already oppressed and marginalised section of society are being further pushed into the shadows and our access to public and political spaces are being closed down. Our hard-won rights are at risk. You only have to look at the very extensive influence and real life changes that have been achieved in favour of trans identified males in such a very short time to see that this is a reactionary men’s movement. Meanwhile, women still suffer as legal rights sit on the shelves in the Parliamentary library for decades with no government interest in implementing those laws.”

“I haven’t lost friends yet, but feel some are on the edge. Q6, I could also answer that gender alongside sex as an option is ok.”

“I feel unable to share my “GC” views with even close friends as I am scared of losing them after one of my oldest friends recommended I get my ROGD daughter along to Mermaids for puberty blockers and was taken aback when I said no. I suddenly felt scared and alone.”

“It is difficult to find a woman-only safe-space to discuss this issue. This is very distressing.”

“I am scared for the futures of women and girls. Our rights are being undermined, we are constantly threatened and gaslighted.”

“I have been wondering lately about the mental health of women who are upset by this. It seems no one cares about that and they should because women are often the primary carers of children and adult parents. I really feel it is genuinely detrimental to my health and stress levels and is a cause of my depression. It also affects my relationship with my husband. Being confronted by these stories daily in the media takes its toll, as does worrying about the impact of gender ideology on my daughter who is at university. Also when raising the issue with friends and family (because I feel I must encourage others to talk about this) I can feel my stress levels rising because of the fear of being misunderstood. The stress shows itself physically through sweating and palpitations.”

“I feel very uncomfortable about speaking out about the question of ‘choosing gender identities and changing sex, to sex of choice – which is in my view impossible.’ due to the fear of confrontation and rejection. A man is a man – whatever he chooses to wear or call himself. A woman is a woman. But a man can never be a woman and vice versa.”

“I see this as an attack on women and girl’s rights.”

“It is very hard to accept this total disregard for women in a modern Liberal society. I am so shocked and disheartened by what has happened. However I am so proud to be British and see we have such wonderful brave and intelligent women standing up.”

“I don’t believe we should be changing our language to appease men who identify as women.”

“I am worried about erasure of women’s language, rights and right to debate.”

“I’m so traumatised by it all; it was making me mentally-ill. I have C-PTSD and reality is really important to my well-being. I used to cry for two-weeks at a time, periodically, for a year, until radfems on Twitter gave me strength and clarity, and I was finally able to write an article that turned all that chaos into the most important points; that article was the only thing that held-space for me. Due to pronouns in emails, I was unable to find ANY support-staff to talk to. I started drinking, listening to ethereal music, and leaving my body. Since this is anon, I will say one other thing I’ve never told anyone: my own body started to feel fake to me. It’s hard to explain, but having a female body, connected to nature, and other women, it started to affect my connection to my own body. My breasts felt not-real, like rubber, or a costume. My womb felt completely ignored, like my sex was nothing but a barbie doll with a hole. It’s hard to explain, but fucked me up a bit. There is also WAY too much public-talk about female-anatomy; I prefer those conversations to be private, medical, sexual, or artistic. Not the way women have to discuss sex/organs to defend being a woman.”

“I prefer traditional language to describe my adult human female body and its functions. I was female at conception and will be all my life until I’m dead. Even after death my bones will still be female. Biological sex cannot be changed. Lifelong medical treatment, surgeries, chemicals and psychologically affirmative therapy do not help children or adults find healing for depression, anxiety and self loathing.”

“Woman is a sex based reality!”

“I am very worried about gender identity ideology, but it is the intolerance of debate shown by those who adhere to this ideology that has caused most harm to my mental health and damaged or destroyed friendships.”

“The levels of misogyny currently from the Trans rights activists and their allies has had profound effects on my mental health and on my sense of feeling safe to express views on factual female biology and in single sex spaces now designated open to men.”

“Gender identity appears to be creeping into our language especially in the workplace without any prior debate or discussion.”

“As I have a non English name, people cannot always tell my sex when reading my name from a list or email, so I see one benefit to including a sex marker such as F/M on platforms such as LinkedIn. It would make daily life more convenient, but it would also allow for more bias.”

“One member of my family has fully transitioned F to M. Another is planning a bilateral mastectomy as she does not feel female. Both are on the autistic spectrum. This makes me very sad as I feel that the route they are taking will not solve the original problem of not fitting in.”

“Gender is a feeling. Sex is biological fact!”

“I haven’t yet lost friends because I’ve quite guarded in ‘coming out’ with my concerns and have sought out those who I know are on a similar wavelength.”

“I had gender dysphoria when child and young. I do feel affinity to the pain. But I was a child and youngster a long time ago and never heard of anyone like me until 2011-2012. And I matured out of the pain. So to me it’s crucial to have the right to define myself as a woman because of biology without identifying as anything. But I’ve been ostracised from feminist groups because of me saying I have the right of my own definition. But what really scares me is the denying of girl’s rights as my children grow.”

“The new language adoptions are ideological and I yet I feel coerced into using them. I don’t though.”

“I am a woman and a mother. I breast-fed my children. I refuse to be told that I am wrong to say this.”

“Have been more or less full time on the campaign for sex-based rights for nearly 4 years now.”

“Comment to 6. The use of gender instead of sex bothers me, but I can accept it if gender identity is only offered as an additional option. But it bothers me.”

“It feels like we are being controlled in how we see ourselves, think and speak.”

“One of the things that has happened to me is anger and frustration. I could easily go off on a rant about this topic. Frustration.”

“Only biological women can breastfeed. It needs to be recognised that there is a difference between a biological woman’s features and experiences and a man who wants to have the features of a stereotypical women.”

“The misuse of the term gender gets me so angry and feels like gas lighting as when you try and correct the mis use and ask to use the correct term sex you are made to feel it is you that is wrong or transphobic.”

“I haven’t lost friends because only one friend knows of my views on this. Many of my friends are very vocally pro this kind of ideology and I don’t want to lose them so I don’t talk about it.”

“I am concerned about the brainwashing of young people especially vulnerable girls/women.”

“I dislike the word negative, I would generally say concerned or dismissive, erasing rather than negative because this word locates a problem within me – rather than outside me. I do not feel very negative. I am very concerned.”

“May not have lost friends yet, but certainly would if I were open about my views.”

“No other religion tries to compel the speech of nonbelievers.”

“I am so worried about this. My mum is a survivor of male sexual violence and at the moment can only access medical care if it is an all female setting. I’m worried that this will no longer be an option. I have two daughters and I fear that they will not be legally entitled to set their boundaries with men (single sex spaces, ability to organise etc). I want to campaign about this issue but I am frightened of speaking out. I’m also afraid of joining other political campaigns or social activities because I will have to use preferred pronouns, lie and say that men are women. It makes me feel really uncomfortable. I am afraid to organise anything for women or around women’s rights because I know that this issue instead of what was intended (sic). This is a profoundly sexist and homophobic ideology that is frightening and regressive but it is being pushed everywhere. If I say anything I will lose more friends, be bullied, threatened, loose work opportunities. If I don’t women will lose any gains that feminism has ever made.”

“The public promotion of sex-roles as a “gender identity” is anxiety provoking and distressing.”

“These changes were introduced as a minority take issue with some of the words, however changes have been made with no consultation with the majority (women) who use these words to describe ourselves & it was assumed we would just accept changes in the words we use to describe ourselves as if our identities are less important than other identities.”

“I find the Orwellian newspeak of gender ideology offensive in the extreme. I am especially disgusted by language which reduces women to body parts.”

“The questions are well put together … I answered because am only in my 20’s and it scary to think that what I am: a woman. Everything behind that term, its meaning and connotation is being changed. I have nothing wrong with people that want to live the way they see fit, a way that make them happy I understand that. But I also believe that we need to tread more carefully on such a things and throwing things willy nilly everywhere around do more harm than good. Also let’s talk about the violence women and girl receive if they dare express their concern. That scary. This madness needs to stop. It insane to believe in 2021 women are shun again for expression their opinions.”

“Q5 I haven’t felt able to discuss in full as yet at how much I am worried it will affect women’s rights, although some points I’ve made have been welcomed (by son).”

“People cannot change sex. Gender is a load of bullshit.”

“Women are being erased and I’m furious!”

“Changing language results in Orwellian Newspeak as well as clumsy and ugly prose. Removing feminine words makes women heretics even in areas that are quintessentially female such as birth and breastfeeding.”

“Our kids are growing up in a confusing environment. My daughter was trans for 4 years and then decided she was fine as a female without hormones or surgery (luckily). I have been threatened in terms of my job if I express any gender critical views under my own name.”

“I now understand how previously incomprehensible movements in history got started, and escalated. People who disagreed will have stood by, thinking changes to language didn’t matter, or didn’t impact them. I hope there is still time to stop the destruction by this movement.”

“The gas lighting and reduction in safety for women as a result of institutional capture has re-triggered distress linked to CSA. I see men putting their feelings and wants ahead of women and girl’s safety – that is the parallel. It has been very distressing.”

“I believe that language is critical in our fight for women’s rights.”

“I would like to have sought formal mh support but can’t trust that the nhs would respect my need to see a female therapist. And it’s hard to access any time for my mh support when I’m overwhelmed with the unpaid labour left to women (caring for disabled daughters) and advocating for their safeguarding (because schools all accept and teach gender ideology here and think department of education guidelines don’t apply to them and that resources used don’t need to meet the working together compliance).”

“I found the first question quite difficult to answer. I have grave concerns about gender ideology and its implications for the safety and rights of children and women, so it’s definitely something I’ve been forced to think about much more. I also feel very much gaslighted in that I’m expected to deny the evidence of my own eyes, knowledge and experience to appease the demands of trans activism in areas of law, education, health etc. However, I am confident in my own view that sex is immutable, and will defend the rights of women and children against any attack by the gender lobby to replace science based evidence with self declared identity, to the detriment of our rights as women.”

“Good questions, as language is important.”

“The discourse around gender identity is an attack on women. We have spent decades learning to be proud to be a woman and now we cannot even claim the name or our body parts. Women are not safe, the murders of Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa plus countless others have shown how men see us and value us. The use of gender neutral terminology such as people with vaginas etc undermines our status and value. I don’t hate transgender people, I want them to live their lives in the way they feel comfortable and safe but this does not have to mean that the word woman should be abandoned. I do not see the same pressure on the word man or description such as people with a penis.”

“I am careful with whom I discuss my views as I fear criticism, hate or harassment personally or professionally.”

“Have not lost friends over gender ideology because have not spoken of it outside anonymous social media. I think I would lose some friends if I did.”

“I think gender ideology is a cult-like movement based on lies.”

“I have never conformed to any stereotype. Perhaps a question on this is appropriate?”

“This gender ideology thing is part of a backlash against feminism. I’ve noticed how words like ‘woman’ are being replaced by phrases like ‘people with cervixes’ while men are still men, and not ‘people with prostates’! And I dislike the way that the ‘trans’ lobby, which demands that the rest of us accept their self ID imposes ‘cis’ on us without our consent.”

“Q2 – my mental health has taken a nose dive leading me to request more help from GP, CMHT and mental health charity Support in Mind. Q4 – Anorexia has flared up so I’m consuming less in an attempt to retain a sense of control.”

“I feel women are under threat in the most direct, organised way. Society’s misogyny is revealed in its true extent. It’s shocking.”

“It has had negative effect on me because stalked, harassed, bullied, gossiped and slandered and when begged it be stopped, it got worse. Minor also was targeted.”

“I fear the future for myself, other women, and my future children.”

“Exasperated every day by the trans lunacy.”

“This bullshit gender ideology has PUSHED us women and the lesbian community into the dark and it is now the ONLY place where we can find a place to be safe and talk about issues only women can experience. This movement has done nothing but be regressive and take all that women have accomplished and crushed it into the dirt. ENOUGH is ENOUGH. People need to open their eyes and see what they’re doing is not for the best or helping anyone. This gender ideology is just sexism/misogyny in a dress and no one asked to be called cis, whatever happened to not forcing labels on people?”

“While I have not lost any family or friends *YET*, I have seen how absolutely demolished other women’s social lives have become because they dare to not be so open-minded their brains fall out. Seeing those situations has raised anxiety for myself in not knowing who would be willing to ‘flip a switch’ on me for expressing any sort of opinion that even slightly goes against ‘gender identity ideology’.”

“Haven’t lost friends/family due to having to keep my views secret.”

“I’m hoping the tide is beginning to turn on this insulting nonsense. The Lancet was the final straw for me. The Nolan podcast is the start of change.”

“I haven’t YET lost friends through my position on gender ideology but so fear I might if I were to speak out.”

“I feel invisible, as if I don’t matter as a woman and as a mother. I have no voice anymore.”

“We wanted to home school our daughter because we are afraid of identity nonsense making her unsafe in school. We haven’t because she is in an SEN setting due to her Autism. We are deathly afraid of her being groomed when she’s older by the gender woo cult knowing the stats on transition & Autism.”

“I feel depressed that women’s rights are always put dead last in our society. Society, courts, institutions – everyone – would rather infringe on the rights of all women (to single sex spaces, sports, language, etc.) than risk offending even a tiny number of men who want to take those rights away.“

“Much more political attention should be paid to this issue. Women are being written out of life.”

“I have not gotten formal support to discuss gender identity because counselling services have been in short supply during the pandemic. I did want to speak to someone professionally. Also, I was worried that many therapists have been indoctrinated into gender identity ideology so it may be difficult to find an appropriate therapist.”

“This constant erasure of women is very worrying.”

“Concern for safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults in what is a toxic environment, focused on identity instead of a respectful debate of core issue of balanced rights and protections for all.”

“I am fizzing mad that those organisations tasked with protecting women and children from male violence – and organisations responsible for health have failed to stand up to this ideology. Biological sex is a fact not a belief.”

“I have been beaten up in the streets for saying that biological sex matters in a medical context.”

“It’s only used against women not men.”

“All these things, pronouns, language changes it’s come around very quickly and unnecessarily. It’s a double edged sword though as if it becomes more mainstream it can be called out more easily, the issue is that women are put at risk, erased and ignored, sacked, abused in the process. I think these big names taking a stand we’ll get us where we need to go and hopefully it won’t be too long.”

“Men aren’t called ‘penis havers’ – why is it only women who are called by their body parts?”

“I haven’t lost family or friends because I am very careful who I discuss this issue with.”

“I’m a middle-aged woman who is becoming increasingly despairing at the slow erasure of women – and how people aren’t clocking that the perpetrators are mostly men and it’s just another way to cow and silence women.”

“Transwomen are very aggressive in the work space.”

“For most of my life, I’ve been ignored and dismissed, specifically because I am female. Now that ‘female’ as a sex class is being replaced with ‘gender’, I am silenced and erased.”

“I used to feel positively about transgender people but now I feel that I am not able to be truthful around them and this inhibits my friendships with them and with some others. I feel sad about this and also angry about the dismissal of women’s concerns.”

“This entire situation has left me feeling threatened and uncertain.”

“TRAs are misogynistic as hell and their ideology has infected every corner of society.”

“As a retired health professional with an academic background in human biology I find the whole tranche of self ID and the GRA not only anti woman in particular but also completely anti science.”

“While I haven’t lost family members, my younger sister (mid 30s, liberal modern feminist) refuses to discuss the topic of gender ideology with me and says she is ‘disappointed’ in me.”

“If men/women go through gender surgeries then fine. Children under 18 should be banned from surgery and medication. Men SHOULD NOT HAVE ACCESS TO WOMENS PLACES.”

“I’m not sure increased consumption is a general question, when avoiding certain places/orgs/businesses isn’t, since I think that’s more likely for most women.”

“The terms sex & gender are not interchangeable but are frequently used as such, causing potentially more confusion & giving opportunities for falsehoods & disingenuousness.”

“Removing women’s rights and safeguards in favour of men is damaging to women. Humans can’t change sex. We all KNOW that.”

“I’m concerned that when speaking to anyone about the subject that unless I start with asking what their understanding is, for example, of a trans woman, we can be debating two very different issues and that most people think a trans woman is someone who has undergone surgery etc.”

“Thank you for this.”

“Survey should note geographical region. This is posted on twitter and while I’m personally aware western countries are affected, where I’m from, “gender issues” per the new definition is still regarded as nonsense, and “gender” is still regarded as the polite reference to sex.”

“Women have been discarded, used, humiliated and attacked throughout human history. We are not having it anymore.”

“If I were an extreme misogynist, exactly what I’d be advocating for would be to call women people with vaginas, menstruators and chest feeders. It’s extremely disturbing to me.”

“Gender ideology is harmful to women. Lesbians are unable to have safe spaces away from men.”

“The forced change in language is erasing women. If we can’t describe ourselves as women, we can’t fight for our sex based rights.”

“I have not lost any friends or family members because of my views because I do not share my views unless I know I’m in a gender critical safe space. I’m terrified of the reactions I may get otherwise.”

“What affects me more is the “born in the wrong body” thing… I was born with a genetic disorder and I have no choice but live with the physical and psychological pain that comes with it. I wish I could say I was “born in the wrong body” and switch bodies with an abled person, but the reality is that I *am* my own body and no medical or plastic surgery will ever change that fact.”

“One reason I have not lost friends/family members is because I do not completely openly share my views on gender religion.”

“I feel women are being erased from our bodies, our health care, and our issues. This feels hostile and the group I felt I once belonged to now feels misogynistic.”

“Yes, I am affected as are all women but I’m most concerned about the most vulnerable and marginalized women in prisons, shelters, hospitals, etc. as well as for children and youth who are being affirmed in making drastic, life-changing decisions before they are of age.”

“I haven’t fallen out with family members, yet. However; there is a ‘split’ over this issue and one family member is very assertive and demanding that others comply to ‘their’ POV on use of preferred pronouns and trans ideology beliefs i.e. they are set in stone and I am ‘on the wrong side of history’. I hate the term ‘cis’ it puts women in a sub-set, in a secondary position to trans-women who demand to be called ‘women’: no prefixes for them!”

“I am a woman. An adult human female. I don’t ‘identify’ as anything else. IF I ‘identify’ as a man, sexual harassment, wage inequity and misogyny do not stop. I am recognizable as female.”

“I cannot understand how we have conflated being considerate to trans people with denying that women are a separate sex class with distinct rights and needs. The way that politics, academia, ngos and the media have capitulated to this denial of reality is Orwellian.”

“I feel that Thor ideology is extremely damaging to the rights of women & girls to single sex spaces, health, education & more. I’m concerned that compelled speech e.g. enforced use of pronouns is coming into more & more workplaces.”

“I find the continuing hounding of high profile women who speak up is frightening.”

“We use language to define who we are. These changes in language effectively erase women and reduce us to our bodily parts – like cervix.”

“I personally have not been impacted professionally or socially except for worrying about a young female relative who is working in a very captured sector and who finds it difficult to be herself among social groups of her age. I worry about her future very much indeed.”

“What bothers me most is looking glass world in which feminism is turned on its head to the detriment of women: placing the damaging superstructure which is gender at the centre. That is elevating exactly what feminists seek to destroy as the basic aim of feminism. Secondly I hate that they have attempted to undermine both women’s and the English language’s existence.”

“I’m so worried for my granddaughter, the rights of women and girls are being dismissed as unimportant. Did the suffragettes fight for this?”

“I’m a woman. The default kind. Not a cis woman.”

“I get annoyed when it says gender on a form and often write additional info on the bottom.”

“The general public has not invited gender ideology into their lives. It has been imposed and the results for half the population i.e. females, are disastrous. Most people are gender critical, yet this ideology has crept into every avenue of life in an attempt to be inclusive, but in reality, it is disastrous.”

“I always support free speech and free thinking but the transborg tries to force control. If I have to comply with controlled speech then I must also control and change my thinking to catch and deliver the approved Words.”

“C*s is a slur used against women to support a false belief that woman are a subsection of human female. Women are a biological reality and women are the default women. Men cannot change sex to assert the title woman. C*s is often accompanied by threats to harm, rape and kill from T Activists. It’s hate speech and even though women themselves refer to themselves as c*s it’s not a valid title to support.”

“Would like to make a very clear distinction between genuine transsexuals and men who self ID with no intention of changing their physiology.”

“I am not cis I’m just a woman and trans women are trans women.”

“The fact that the questions identify the separation of sex & gender is to be applauded. As we are a sex not gender.”

“I am very concerned about the way women’s concerns regarding women’s safety and safeguarding for children are being ignored in the rush to push through transgender ideology. There is a clear conflict in prisons, schools, women’s refuges, sports, and other protected spaces.”

“In all my 60 years on this earth I’ve never felt so intimidated, hated or threatened than I do now, it is quite frightening to feel that you have no voice, can be labelled bigoted and hateful for standing up for the safeguarding of women and children, women are being silenced due to being female.”

“I am all for anyone dressing how they like, but that does not change sex. I do not understand how in 5 years we have lost the way so much that thousands of years of sex classification is somehow now discriminatory. My oppressors are still my oppressors they have just put on a dress to now harass me in the small spaces women have carved out.”

“My feelings are entirely in line with existing law in the UK. Referring to the Equality Act 2010 now constitutes “hatred” in most quarters.”

“I feel that gender ideology is a threat to the rights and safety of natal women and girls. In particular it has an impact on very vulnerable and traumatised women such as rape survivors or domestic abuse survivors who are finding the services that would normally support them are either defunded or are now incorporating males.”

“Q5 Have you lost friends or family members through your position/ views on gender identity ideology? No, because I am forced to hide it from most.”

“I always knew misogyny was rife but it’s been incredibly upsetting to see how normalised it’s become in the name of progression. Signed a raging wumin who won’t wheesht.”

“I’m a senior NHS midwife and the erasure of female language in maternity services is rife right now. I’ve been a midwife since 2003 and I’m now looking for other jobs outside the NHS because it’s too heartbreaking seeing what is happening.”

“The enforced language change, the redefining women, mother, conversion therapy – all very sinister and frightening. I am scared for me and my daughters.”

“Just because I have not been to the doctor or taken to drink does not mean I have not been greatly affected. I am frightened. Really frightened by trans activists, their bullying and their power and the way that organisations that should protect people like schools, universities, trades unions, the police, the NHS have all been captured by a biology denying campaign.”

“I feel as though women’s rights are being taken from us by men who promote an entirely baseless ideology. Adopting feminine stereotypes and then demanding to be able to force others to say you are a woman is male supremacy and oppression of women and children. I’m genuinely afraid for my safety and that of other women as this is such a misogynist and hate filled ideology driven by male rage.”

“I’m so tired of the erasure of women and of our sex-based rights!”

“The construct of gender is important to retain and acknowledge particularly in relation to violence against women and girls and inequality. The causes of both are about the social constructs and not simply sex.”

“Avoid discussing with friends or family who are unable to listen to the facts and debate as they have been indoctrinated with the need not to be transphobic- must be nice to poor suppressed trans people. Never mind the fact they have no idea what trans means these days.”

“I, and many others, are afraid to say too much for fear of being identified. The capture of political parties and public bodies is bewildering. It seems like madness.”

“Yes only females are women. Please leave us alone. Sincerely females. #NoToSelfID #WomenWontWheesht.”

“I’m the only person at work who doesn’t use pronouns on email. I’m lucky my male partner, sister and closest friends all agree with me. It was so important to find other women to connect with on this issue. Pre covid meeting irl was vital.”

“Any question at work that would mean that I either have to pretend to believe in gender ideology or be combative is stressful. I don’t really want to talk about politics at work, I don’t want to put myself in a vulnerable position by saying that I don’t want to declare a gender or a set of pronouns. I think non-trans people should be able to choose their own “labels” and not have them forced upon from outside.”

“If we can’t define woman as adult human female and use the language associated with being female, we cannot defend our rights. If we can’t define sex, we can’t fight sexism. All these will have negative consequences for women and girls.”

“Gender identity ideology is hugely regressive and misogynistic.”

“I have not lost friends or family due to my GC beliefs because so far I have only felt able to discuss this subject openly with my partner & two friends I trust not to judge me negatively.”

“I have censored my views around others for fear of losing friends especially young gay male and young friends.”

“I feel that biologically I am being erased.”

“If people wish to use pronouns then fine but it shouldn’t be expected that all should.”

“While I have not lost family members, it is unpleasant to find that my children consider me a ‘bigot’ for my gc views, despite my reputation as someone who was very open, and my steadfast support of my bisexual child in coming out.”

“I haven’t lost friends etc as I have broached the subject with them. Only scratch the surface with sister but am helping her see little by little,”

“The position of believing in biology – male and female – should not be under question – it’s insane. The language changes (some of which have appeared in some dictionaries) are creating a situation where the female experience will be invisible-ised, and women as a political and biological class will no longer be identifiable. Who asked us that this should happen? No-one. It’s a disgrace that this has got so far.”

“Sex and gender are 2 different things”

“The question about friends is interesting. I have to be very careful who I speak to about my views because I’ve noticed one or two friends can be twitchy about it. So no friendships lost. But that’s because we don’t talk about it.”

“I don’t have a gender identity, I’m not “cis” I’m a woman & as such I’d like to be referred to as a woman & female. Dysphoric males and AGP males aren’t & can’t ever be women!”

“I am disgusted on the attack on women for states my biological reality. I worry about my daughters’ future and how this will affect them on a daily basis.”

“Gender stereotypes should be suppressed not reinforced.”

“The erasure of vocabulary and rights relating to women makes me like a second-class citizen in Scotland. This has really affected how safe I feel, I am very worried about our future rights, all the time.”

“Will only speak about this in safe places. Do not want trouble at work or with friends.”

“I used to be more indifferent, and less negative over it all. But the more I see of its real world and personal influences as the ideology and language progresses, the more I see the harms.”

“Pronouns in a work capacity particularly are forcing women to make a political statement.”

“I’m happy to be inclusive of others’ beliefs, without my own beliefs being eradicated. I have suffered greatly due to my sex, not gender. I have been raped repeatedly, been a victim of DV, suffered terrible life altering birth trauma. I earned the title woman, I paid for it in blood, it isn’t for men to just take. They are proud beautiful transwomen. Not women. Cis implies that I am a subset of my sex. I am not. Woman is a sex, not a suit of characteristics someone can put on. Not an act. Not a dress sense. Not fake femininity. It is so very insulting to be reduced to men’s idea of what being a woman is. They have absolutely no idea of my lifetime of struggles against abuse. It isn’t ok for race why is it OK for sex? Why do men just take what they want? Why don’t my daughters matter? When we are referred to by the organs of our abuse, vagina cervix, menstruators etc it is dehumanising and traumatic. Vagina, the place men force themselves in to. Cervix the reason you needed so many operations and your baby nearly died. Menstruator the shame, the smell, the feeling of pain and being disgusting. Just stop it. It is painful to remember these things every day triggered by reducing terminology. I am an adult human female. I survived untold trauma at the hands of men and biology, because of my sex. Not because of the idea of what a woman is in somebody else’s head. I cannot take much more of this dehumanising. Being called a bigot by the man in charge of Edinburgh rape crisis centre, because I won’t believe men can change sex and become women. I did a degree in physiology, not once was gender mentioned , yet we learnt in detail about sexual function. Now I am supposed to forget a lifetime of knowledge and education and believe some crazed ideology that makes no logical sense whatsoever. I can’t. I’d rather kill myself.”

“When the issue first started to gain prominence a few years ago, I was broadly sympathetic and intrigued by issues surrounding pronouns, etc. I thought there were some interesting conversations to be had! The first time I asked a question, I was denounced as a transphobe. I asked what the word “woman” meant (as it became apparent that myself and my interlocutor were talking at cross purposes). I’m concerned about the way statistics are losing their meaning and I’m very concerned at the confusion that this movement is creating in our young people.”

“I feel like the world is going mad and wonder who on earth is in charge? Are they determined to undermine the human race?”

“These things haven’t made me feel mentally unwell they make me feel angry and the unfairness of it all enrages me.”

“There are many things people would regard as small, but which cumulatively have a large effect, a lot like sexism really. People think using someone’s pronouns costs you nothing, but it’s lying to me and in cases where, for example, a woman must refer to her rapist as she it is both enraging and undermining.”

“The wording of any “gender identity” question is important; if it’s optional and/or has a “none” option then I’m mostly ok with it.”

“Impact on friendships and relationships have not really occurred yet, because I am careful who I speak to on the issue.”

“Dislike the pervasiveness of the ideology pervading everywhere without consultation and risk assessment. Particularly concerned re data for health & policy.”

“The capture of institutions is so complete that it is impossible to answer some questions truthfully. The questions are framed up as if GI is universally accepted – they’d never demand to know a person’s religion and give them ONLY the choice of Christian, Jew or Muslim.”

“I am upset and angry that the words to describe me have been stolen to appease people who pretend to be women. This affects the safety dignity and privacy of women in society. We are being pushed to the margins again and being put in danger in prisons etc.”

“It’s very dangerous to dehumanize women defending their safety, dignity and boundaries and may lead to the escalation of the violence against women. And it’s exceptionally scary that males’ feelings are put on top of the females’ safety on all institutional and societal levels.”

“To use “cis” and “assigned at birth” requires belief in, and submission to the faith of Gender. It makes insulting and demeaning assumptions. The use of Cis, “anyone with a cervix” or menstruators etc., is deeply dehumanising. The more we let “woman” be turned into an unsayable word for female people, the more women become marginalised.”

“I am frightened by the implications of Self ID.”

“As I am not ‘out’ as gender critical to all my family or friends or at work, I feel I am not able to speak freely or unconsciously. It is like living in a mental prison.”

“I am a person in my own right, I have always treated others with respect, I don’t understand why biological women have to step aside and be disrespected when we have never insisted that any other group stand aside and be disrespected by us.”

“Using gender instead of sex causes discriminatory and reinforces negative stereotypes of women.”

“My employer’s job application form only asks for ‘gender’ so they have 1- no way of measuring sex discrimination 2- no way of ensuring patients get a same sex carer if they request one (i.e. a health organisation providing personal care!!!) 3- I don’t believe in the idea of gender- it’s a social construct with no basis in reality. As a result, I could not ‘identify with a gender’ when I was appointed. I am therefore listed as ‘prefer not to say’. I am a woman, but could not choose a sex, only an identity.”

“I feel my identity as a woman has been belittled & erased by the changes in language particularly.”

“This ideology has overwhelmed the last few years of my life, I can’t see a time when we can each concentrate on our own battles such as FGM or DV as long as we are all fighting the battle to be named not erased. I’m scared for my daughter and my son.”

“I feel women are being erased and colonised.”

“It is turning giving human rights talks and discussing politics into a minefield. I am concerned that I will be thrown out of civil society organisations, with whom I am active in a political and social way.”

“I haven’t lost friends or family due to my views, but that is because in relation to some of my oldest friends, I have kept these views to myself as I know it would destroy the friendship.”

“I am extremely worried by misuse of ‘gender’ in NHS material. I worry that if I correct the wording or express my disagreement I will be subject to discrimination leading to worse health outcomes.”

“No XY in XX prisons”

“Collectively the questions you have asked above make me feel totally powerless to anything about what is happening right under our noses. How society is allowing women to be extinguished in this way is totally insane.”

“I don’t have an issue if someone want to identify as trans, but I resent having to fit into their labels. It erodes hard won rights for women who are oppressed because of our sex.”

“I feel extremely negative about pronouns in business email signatures. It’s pushing gender ideology without any opportunity to engage, discuss or debate. I think many people adding pronouns have no idea what they are supporting and pushing.”

“I view gender dysphoria as a mental illness; this movement is normalising mental illness such as dissociation, paraphilias and so on, and normalising identity and appearance which appears to be based in cartoons; then pushing that illness etc, onto others. I view this as a cult social contagion brought about by mass media and social media, in an age group who are unaware that the sexist stereotypes that they were exposed to as kids in the 2000s onwards, were a backlash against feminist progress in the 90s. A generation who have been educated by low-IQ adults and social media.”

“I am directly impacted, have been targeted as ‘transphobic’ within my housing co-operative, by a letter sent to all members stating I am transphobic and need educating. I didn’t even say anything other than that transwomen wanting to access women’s safe spaces was a cause. Using the word ’cause’ apparently means I am transphobic. As my co-op is situated on 3 streets, and I live above the communal rooms, I have felt anxious about leaving my house, felt unable to participate in the running of the co-op and it has impacted on my mental health badly. I feel strongly about women having safe spaces away from men. Til I was targeted in this way I had little knowledge about the difference between ‘sex’ and ‘gender’, have read and researched what is going on, and now am strongly opposed to them being viewed as the same thing. I am a woman, not a ‘ciswoman’, and know that no man can become a woman. Basic biology being classed as a belief seems unbelievable to me.”

“It makes me very sad and very angry that women are being erased and so many people are oblivious or simply don’t care.”

“Whatever I am doing, this battle for our sex-based rights along with the betrayal of women by those on the left, and by the very organisations that women set up to support and liberate our sex, is a constant cause of anxiety and distress. The colonisation of our language, spaces, services and opportunities, and the venom directed against us by gender ideologists is really hard to handle.”

“To clarify: I haven’t not lost friends, but that is because I am afraid to speak of it with others than a select few.”

“It is offensive to reclassify natal females as cis women. We are women, not a type of women. Men who identify as women are not the same as us on a biological or psychological level.”

“If the word woman is meaningless i.e. anyone can identify into it, then it is impossible to protect women’s spaces, sports and rights. You can’t defend what you can’t define.”

“It concerns me that women have to fight to protect the category of woman when there are so many others things that need attention.”

“It should be clear that sex is male or female. Gender identities are man made social constructs which only a minority of people believe in. It’s a belief system like a belief in God. It’s an insult to women that we are told we are the same as men with gender identity issues.”

“I am particularly disturbed by the obliteration of women’s human rights in public discourse. It proves women don’t matter.”

“Women’s and Homosexual Rights are being erased by Gender Identity.”

“There is a myth that terfs are all old. It’s not true. I’m 21.”

“I choose not to be alone in public spaces with males. This has created few problems in the past, but as a sexual violence survivor, I am now continually reminded men who say they are women have more rights to the shower at my gym than I.”

“Cis is offensive. We don’t need an adjective in front of woman as we are just women. We are not a subset of our own sex.”

“I was very disturbed recently to see gender neutral toilets in a primary school.”

“The lack of responsive support for women’s concerns troubles me greatly.”

“Cis means there is a category of female. Which is a lie.”

“I have every sympathy for transpeople, but don’t believe anyone can change sex & it shouldn’t be seen as hateful to say so.”

“I have lost touch with a longtime gay friend which may be due to my openly gender critical attitude. I am not sure and frankly do not want to know!”

“I dislike the fact that women’s issues cannot be so much as discussed amongst ourselves without some handmaid introducing gender ideology. I hate that women are being erased and that out bodies’ terminology and language are being altered to include MEN in dresses. Women are being erased, we are being reduced to cosmetics and “feeling” rather than the biological reality of what we are, and the risks and difficulties we face being born as such. Women – or more accurately, our pornified, male gaze generated, “aesthetic” is being fetishized. The entire thing is repugnant, and we are being shut down, doxxed and fired for having our beliefs rooted in reality versus just going along with the demands to comply as we lose our hard earned rights, and safe spaces AWAY from men (and the violence that comes with them). The fact that we can’t even discuss gender ideology without facing certain social/financial/ professional ruin should be a big indicator of how corrupt and foul this entire movement is.”

“I have to go underground to avoid attack by trans terrorists just because I don’t agree that trans women are female. They are not.”

“I feel upset that women are not considered as important so words are changed without our consent. I am very grateful to be retired and away from workplace pressure re pronouns etc.”

“Q5 – I have not lost friends or family members because I have hardly raised it with them. Amongst friends, there is a daughter who now identifies as male, it would be insensitive of me. Amongst family I have responded to my mother-in-law who was making sympathetic noises about a friend’s grandchild, she was quite taken aback by my response and hasn’t mentioned it to me since. My father-in-law was surprisingly receptive!”

“It feels like a niche ideology which I think is dangerous and misogynistic is being forced on us. I find it very offensive.”

“I feel more unsafe because of the forced teaming.”

“I have been very badly affected by the rise of gender ideology. I am a lesbian and I have a long term partner. We have both experienced negative treatment to our lives both at work and at home, however we now feel that everything that we have worked for over our long lives is being destroyed by gender ideology. I am lucky to have a partner in my life as this would be more difficult if I didn’t.”

“Sex matters in law and policy. Accurate sex data should be kept (sex as defined as adult human male, adult human female). Gender identity (a subjective personal sense of identity) should be collected but as its own separate category because they are not the same thing. Organisations should be clear about those two terms and not seek to use them as synonyms. Cis is a nonsense made up term that requires the user to pretend that women are a subset of their own sex class. It requires me to accept a belief system I completely reject.”

“Gender ideology is a systematic attack on the rights, opportunities & protections of females. Our rights are being eroded & given away to males who pose as more vulnerable than us. Despite the fact females are oppressed globally by males, because of sex. This is frightening. I am frightened for my granddaughters growing up, my daughter, myself needing sex segregated medical care & not being able to get it. I hate the attack on/ erasure of words to describe our uniquely female experiences & bodies. It is dehumanizing.”

“I get told constantly that I don’t know anything about biology because I refuse to say that TWAW. I have a bachelor’s degree in biology. There are people in the medical profession that believe the Gender Woowoo and get mad at me for stating biology facts. I hope more people get peaked at how ridiculous the Gender Woowoo is.”

“All the changes centre males and literally stop the inclusion of vulnerable women e.g. victims of child sexual abuse.”

“Have you detransitioned? – yes.”

“I feel like until now I have been silenced, with the threat of losing my job and social standing if I say anything about how vulnerable I am as a woman.”

“Whilst I have enormous empathy for people with gender dysphoria, and would advocate for support for them, I am terrified at the risk to women of AGP males who can use this movement to erode the rights of women and girls, namely our language to describe ourselves as a sex class and our right to single sex spaces. These AGP males despise women and self ID leaves us very vulnerable to those who wish us harm. The pattern of male violence does not change with men identifying as women.”

“This issue has become the hill I am prepared to die on and I have told my MP as such. Luckily he is broadly supportive.”

“I haven’t lost friends or family because I haven’t publicly declared my views on genderism. I am in private social groups online. The majority of people I work with don’t support gender bs, so I don’t have the problems many others do.”

“It’s erasing women’s identities and rights, and although I mentioned I haven’t lost friends it’s because I’ve had to keep my opinions to myself or I’d be ostracized.”

“It mostly impacts my mental health in the sense that I see a lot of very sexist posts on social media that claim to be trans-positive.”

“Reference question 6, I didn’t use to mind people using gender instead of sex, in fact I used to prefer it over sex, but that has changed in recent years.”

“Fine with pronouns in signatures, but very negative if I were required to include them myself.”

“I live in Canada and I now use female instead of woman because the legal definition of woman is now along the lines of anyone who identifies as a woman.”

“I resent mightily being erased and resent mightily having to share sex-segregated spaces with men. I am tired of “non-binary” and pronoun silliness. I am tired of being threatened because I speak the truth as I know it to be, because I do NOT believe men can be women nor women, men; because I do not believe sex can be changed, and because I find the butchery of children and sterilization of children to be just like “Joseph Mengele”. I can go on; do you want me to? How long do I have? Been at this fight for YEARS.”

“All of the above! Cis makes my skin crawl. I have been invited to use pronouns at work in many instances, but not compelled. I would take them to court if that ever happened.”

“I started off irritated by the compelled speech of cis etc, now it frightens me how widespread it is and how people have lost the ability to think critically. Even though GC views are protected, there is still social stigma around ‘admitting’ you can tell man from woman and sometimes I feel compelled to lie, which makes me extremely uncomfortable and sometimes quite angry with myself.”

“I haven’t had any help from my therapist regarding this issue because I’m afraid to talk about it with her.”

“It feels as though the word woman is being stolen from us. As George Orwell demonstrated so well in 1984, you need to have the words to be able to think, and reason, and discuss. If the very word for our identity is stolen from us and reinvented to mean something completely different, how can we protect women and girls? How can we protest the loss of their rights? How can we even collect data on what is happening? And the social opprobrium heaped on anyone who dares to suggest that biology actually matters is causing real harm. Ironically, the groups being harmed include young people who identify as trans, and who are being heedlessly and negligently rushed down an over-medicalised and irreversible course.”

“Women are already a defined group. For statistical and medical and social reasons, we need to keep the meaning of woman as adult human female. Not male who feels like it today.”

“I haven’t lost friends or relatives but I feel that I might if I spoke out. I just haven’t spoken out.”

“I have come close to heated arguments with my daughter (26) over sex/gender trans etc, but have not lost her from the family. I bite my tongue now.”

“Just that learning about and trying to combat this issue has added a great deal of stress to my life.”

“Re question 5, I have not discussed my views with friends and family, for fear of arguments.”

“Being made a subset of my sex class angers me and I am not an angry person.”

“For me being a woman is a negative thing and I’m only one due to biology.”

“Gender ideology is pure misogyny.”

“I don’t like other pronouns. I am a woman.”

“Only to note that I have not stated my GC views in public which may be why I have not lost friends or family members over this.”

“I do not want to be a Cis-Woman. This is a belief that Transwoman is the default and cis therefore means non-trans. I’m a woman. That’s all I should need.”

“I need my nouns.”

“Trans visibility and ideology are not very prevalent where I live, but I have already had some conflict with pro-trans friends. I am horrified to hear about what is happening in other places and what is on the way for us. I have to take breaks from it because it is distressing.”

“I think it is not only disrespectful but more hurtful for women who suffer from dysphoria to be referred to by our organs as though we are broodmares. Sexist language will not kill me but it is not acceptable at all.”

“I am a woman, an adult human female. I don’t need to qualify that with ‘cis’ or anything else. People who are not women are not entitled to call themselves women.”

“I refuse to let this gender nonsense affect me.”

“It seems like the entire world has drunk the gender Kool-Aid”

“Many women, including myself, are scared of speaking out on this. Many of us, including my 18 year old daughter, have been lectured by men on what “woman” means and we are scared to respond honestly.”

“Women need women only spaces and places.”

“It was only 3 months ago that I became fully aware of the full extent of the attack on women and our erasure. I now feel fearful for our future and access to services and not being able to trust I can be in women only safe space or if I request it to save my dignity. I will be discriminated against for just wanting my privacy.”

“I feel women’s language is being erased and our second based protections removed. I am seething angry and frightened for myself and daughters.”

“I am worried that due to going into hospital soon that there may be males in female only spaces. This worries me a great deal.”

“This language – cis, it’s being forced on me. The whole movement is coercive and controlling. As a domestic abuse survivor, I feel there is gaslighting and manipulation on a massive scale going on.”

“Cis is gaslighting us: we are not a subset of our sex. Phrases like bodies with vaginas are the worst biological reductionism. Pronouns are Rohypnol.”

“I haven’t lost any friends because I have fathomed out who I can talk to about gender ideology harms, and who it’s best not to talk about it with.”

“I haven’t lost friends or colleagues but they are not tuned into the same channels and I censor myself.”

“Just that the language abuses apply only to women. Men are not being redefined and relabelled in the same way.”

“You want me to write a book? I could. As a member of the Lesbian communities since 1981, and very in need of Lesbian and Female spaces away from ALL males to be myself, feel powerful and free, I have fought this for 30 years, seeing it only getting worse and worse till basically the Lesbian communities are in tatters and few womyns spaces left for refuges. When we left the San Fran Bay Area my Butch partner and myself, Butch on Butch Female proud LESBIANS started having others refer to us with male pronouns. Even here in the rural midwest I have been they’d a few times. We are proud Lesbian Females and as us Butches are constantly told ” you just wanna be men”, this is like a self fulfilling prophecy. NO we want all the privileges and opportunities men have, but we do NOT ‘wanna be men’”.

“I think that in terms of demographic questions, the first question should always be what is your sex followed by a question asking your gender identity (where the answer none is an option). This feels like a fair compromise and means that accurate and important data on sex is still recorded.”

“I feel like I’m being coerced into lying.”

“Pronouns function as compelled speech and signal adherence/non adherence to gender ideology. As such I find their use oppressive in the workplace and other organisations.”

“I feel dismissed. Like there is a concerted effort to erase me and my lived experiences as a woman. I feel like women’s history and struggles are considered irrelevant. Men rule and continue to rule society and my life.”

“It is really important to be clear about the distinction between sex and gender. It’s noticeable that it is only the words woman, girl and mother that are being removed to be ‘inclusive’, not man, boy or father. The few friends and relatives I have spoken to about this are also GC, or become so when I have explained the issues. Some of my family are right of centre so I haven’t been too worried about talking to them about it. I haven’t terfed to the left leaning family members. I’m not sure what their reactions would be.”

“It feels as though I am being erased as a woman.”

“Pronouns refer to you when you aren’t there, so why announce them to people in person?”

“I am very worried about the barrage of gender identity “information” that is being pushed in schools.”

“I’m happy to support individual needs, but not by changing the language for women.”

“I feel that I can’t share my thoughts and feelings about this issue for fear of being labelled transphobia.”

“The overall distortion of language requires a form of cognitive dissonance which is exhausting and distressing.”

“I find the word “cis” not only “very negative” but actively insulting.”

“I haven’t lost friends but I also don’t dare to talk about gender ideology to all of them.”

“I have not sought professional/medical help for my symptoms of distress about gender ideology because I know that no professionals would understand or support me. I would be called a bigot and phobic. I have lost a ton of friends over this issue. I have not increased my intake of alcohol and drugs because I am in a sobriety program. I have not increased my intake of food because I am in a program for eating disorder recovery. However, some other negative behaviors have increased so that I can dissociate from my discomfort, fear, anxiety, and anger over the encroachment of men who call themselves women into every area of my life. I am in constant fight or flight because I live in a big city, I encounter these men often and I’m always worried that I’m going to be asked to lie or play pretend. I had to stop volunteering because these men and women were coming into the situation and I would have had to use wrong-sex pronouns. So I stopped volunteering.”

“When I think back through my life, I have been disadvantaged by sex far more, & more severely, than by gender. Replacing sex by gender would severely disadvantage women.”

“I believe that women world wide suffer from patriarchy due to their biological sex. I also believe that gender identity is the ultimate neoliberal project.”

“Whilst I haven’t lost family members, I’ve definitely been in some heated arguments and been called bigoted and stupid for believing in sex based rights.”

“It’s cancelling women out, it’s offensive.”

“I understand that some people have a strong internal sense of their identity. What I would like them to understand is that not everyone has this, I certainly don’t, but this doesn’t mean we can’t co-exist.”

“I am autistic and very concerned about the number of autistic young people buying into gender identity ideology.”

“I haven’t lost friends because too scared to mention any of this. Only discuss with my niece.”

“Sex not gender.”

“The removal of women’s right to describe ourselves is the ultimate act of legalised and forced disenfranchisement. If we cannot accurately describe ourselves, we can’t describe the conditions which keep us being raped, murdered, trafficked by men and underpaid, undervalued and abused by institutions around us. I hate the term ‘cis’ and the dehumanisation of women in calling us cervix havers and menstruaters concerns me greatly, it is the first step on the ladder to more heinous crimes committed against a discrete group on the basis of their immutable characteristics. I’m extremely worried.”

“It seems like women are under constant attack, receiving abuse, even death threats for simply relying on science and common sense. It’s really depressing.”

“Transgender ideology is nothing but misogyny and homophobia on steroids and benefits men only, especially predators and paedophiles!!! IT IS EXREMELY DANGEROUS FOR WOMEN!!”

“My mental health has been an issue for over 25years but it has never felt like this. I have never felt this unsafe and ignored. I have always felt I have had to prove my right to live growing up female and not just to be here to have babies. This ideology has made me feel lost and unimportant.”

“I am not suffering, but I am angry, very angry.”

“I never used to be concerned about pronouns but now I realise this is part of the same coercive tactic that initiated all of the consequent language issues.”

“I have recently had to sign a declaration stating that my gender identity is none in order to complete my statutory regulators yearly sign up. It did not ask for my sex. I’m a social worker! It’s horrifying. And now I’m waiting in anticipation to see if they contact me about it, they’re known for punishing wrong think. I’m a single parent, with a physical disability. I can’t afford to be disciplined by my regulator but I also cannot tell them I have a gender identity.”

“I suspect I have lost ‘acquaintances’, those who don’t understand the issues and don’t bother asking.”

“I would add that woman is not a feeling.”

“I haven’t lost friends or family because I rarely talk about these topics unless I know the other person’s views align with mine.”

“Forced language and thoughts is completely against freedom. Those of us not in this gender cult deserve to be left alone and not terrorizes by internet mob. We did not sign up to participate in their mental health issues with them.”

“I don’t have a gender identity. I have a sex. Cis relegates me to a subset of my own sex class.”

“I refuse to use pronouns it is ridic.”

“Defending my rights and that of my daughter (all women & children) is the hill I will die on.”

“The erasure of the word woman is particularly difficult in the medical profession.”

“I first heard the word cis at a feminism talk at LSE before hearing about self id. I was sitting next to a 2nd wave feminist friend and we were not impressed. We noted that the man who presented as a woman dominated the conversation. We weren’t impressed by that either. The women going along with the language were naive.”

“I haven’t lost family but it is fraught and I avoid certain topics with my children. It is also the mental effort of having to be careful of what and how you say things. And it even harms my relationships with Trans people as it makes it a very them and us situation.”

“Biological sex is different from the social construct of gender and conflating them (as a transgender activist tactic or through well-meaning ignorance i.e. be kind etc) makes me feel my life experience as a human female is being written out of history and current discourse.”

“It has become impossible to have civil discourse with “woke” people. No potential to organize for positive social change, no critical thinking, and no exchange of ideas. The history of the struggle for women’s rights has been erased.”

“I’ve not lost friends SO FAR AS I KNOW but I’m cautious in some contexts. I speak out loudly in others, so this isn’t just cowardice.”

“Just hope we recover the rights we are losing due to the interest of pharmaceutical industries and patriarchal mindsets.”

“Why are tiny minorities allowed to dictate to the vast majority.”

“I feel alarmed about the speed at which gender ideology is taking over.”

“Gender ideology is totalitarian and against human rights and free speech.”

“I am a woman. Not a ‘cis’ woman. I’ll always object strongly to that label! I’m not a chest feeder et al. I’m a WOMAN!”

“This is just another method of men to take over and erase women.”

“I’m unemployed at the moment. The thought of working for someone captured by this ideology is very distressing for me.”

“I find this control and distortion of language really, really disturbing. Time and again I am reminded of the worst of history and truly fear for the future. I am 54 and have never felt so silenced.”

“I have been very careful about who I discuss this with and luckily my home and family is a truly safe space where we can discuss the impact of GII. I have only obliquely made comments about this with a couple of colleagues at work and one full conversation with my manager where I nearly cried and told him I was trusting him even discussing my concerns with him – we both agreed we had to be careful who we discussed these issues with We have ‘Women in IT’ discussions and diversity groups at work and feel anxious that I will be put in a position where I will have to speak up. I will always be respectful but I cannot allow an ideology that is so harmful to children, women and the gay community be unchallenged.”

“I feel gaslighted and muzzled on this subject, to the detriment of my wellbeing. Further – I expect you will come to this, but the thing that keeps me going despite the personal cost is the damage being done to young people in particular, to their mental health and to their bodies. The whole ideology is regressive and harms women and children especially.”

“I’ve not lost friends because I only share the more obvious posts about how transgender ambitions will affect them – such as labour saying women shouldn’t have single sex spaces in hospital etc.”

“I feel so very angry about this attempted erasure of women. I feel sick to the stomach when I think about men accessing women’s prisons, refuges, toilets and changing rooms. It triggers my trauma reactions.”

“Feel strongly that this is about the erasure of women. Men don’t care because it doesn’t affect them.”

“I haven’t lost friends or colleagues because I carefully self-censor – I know who I can express myself around, but otherwise I’m extraordinarily cautious. I work in the public sector and even mildly critical views can lead to consequences I’d rather avoid.”

“Manipulation of language is so undermining.”

“The sliding away of language that we use is very disorienting, and I regularly feel infuriated and misjudged that women are supposed to be so accommodating of others in our own language use and yet constantly get labelled with ‘cis’ and worse things that by now, everyone should know is aggravating to some. There’s a kind of low-level erosion going on, all the time, with occasional outbursts of overt conflict.”