Thank You Julie for having the courage to speak the truth. I was hounded out of the activist community in northern England for questioning transexualism. I have watched the Feminist community tear itself apart over this issue.I have seen ANYONE who even dares to question transexulism totally attacked and destroyed. Funny we are never allowed to hear about the folk who have changed their minds and are not mutilated. I suggest we send all the Trannies and their fanatical supporters to Iran or Russia where it is a crime to be Lesbian or Gay and were Lesbian & Gay people are forced to have trans surgery to 'cure'them, Funny no one is talking about how deeply homophobic and downright sexist transsexualism is. And really sad that if I was a little girl now I would be being diagnosed as Trans because I was a tomboy and refused to wear dresses, etc. And sickening that young Lesbian & Gay people are being pressured by the so called 'Genderqueer' community to be transexual and not Lesbian or Gay.

Terribly argued. This "feminist" is doing great harm. As a ciswoman I want to express that I disagree with both the author's conclusion and the poor reasoning she uses to arrive there. She has become the enemy she once fought against, the new oppressor.

This kind of view is what gives trans people a bad name. I know that I just feel wrong in my body image. I look at myself and I hate myself. When I dress as a woman (not a prostitute) I wear normal clothes. I wear womens products and perfumes. I know your point and so does every transwoman that they will always be "a man". But they can do their very best to feel as comfortable and normal as possible. Its so depressing knowing I'll have to live as a man all my life. I can't see any way out of it. I don't want to disappoint my family. I think that I'd be better off dead than coming out. So I dress in secret. Which makes me feel a mixture of ashamed and relieved when I find something that I look passable in. And I have a slim feminine frame! But there are poor transwoman who have to cope with huge broad bodies and size12 feet. And they are so mentally strong to deal with this.

I have lived my life as a very masculine male. But I have felt I should have been born a female. When I dress in female attire, I am not pink and fluffy. I like to wear leggings, tunic and knee boots. Make-up I enjoy but it's not essential. I feel being a woman is in essence how one feels inside. At 48 years old this year, I have suppressed my female feelings for a long time. This year is the first time I have decided to let go of my fight and be who I feel I should be. A masculine female.

Ciswomen are to transfemales as Men are to Ciswomen... OPPRESSORS...DOMINATORS! But yet they just don´t get it! There are many transfemales who ARE the nature and spirit of women...yet the arrow in the eye blinds. Transfemales do not need to be assimulated into the cisfemale world. This is their world...their creation. The transfemale world is different and this needs to be well understood and communicated. Transwomen are a separate gender with their own herstory...of pain and struggle since birth. We get it... and we are moving onward towards building our own world based upon our realties and triumphs. We do not need the miserable and continuous self pitying grumbling of ciswomen who can not accept themselves for who you are and live onwards. In all realities they should really question...(not those who are in the home working their heads off maintaining the hard realities...) but those who have nothing better to do than travel around the world crying how unfair their lives are and how much they would love to be men!!! Just do it! Just get it... it is envy! Real women understand the power of their female gender...that it is much more than what men have. Real women understand...through biological processes that men are testosterone created and in the end of their lives the testosterone is cut off and they return to female...estrogen dominance of their bodies. Men are second plane...testosterone created... and testosterone debilitated by its absence in the final years. Women... real women can see their place as first and front line... can be proud to see that "FEMAlE" is the basis of all creation en utero. Female you begin and female you will end even though your exterior is masculine. Estrogen dominates!!! Testosteron is used in our bodies to create estrogen...the feminizing hormone...do your studies. Stop being a cry baby...rise up...smile... fight the fight to help other women be happy. Fight to teach the feminine spirit...not the combative aggressive male spirit that separates and destroys. Together... we shine appreciating our differences and giving love...compassion... which builds strength in our children and future for our communities. Stop the transbashing.... we are equal as humans to you ciswomen. We are not wanting to take your place.... only occupy a space by you side... to live and breathe each day in peace. Be our leaders...show us how to live in peace...defend the weak...lift them up if you have so much power to offer! Get it? Stop being babies!!! Grow up to be real women! Grit it and gut it... the baby comes out!!!

There were no valid points in her argument at all. No positive comments on men or transsexuals either. In her view it's all about whether you were born with a second x and are worthy of "the struggle." The neigh sayers are simply threatened by the lines of gender getting tossed out of the window. It's just very sad to see inequality being promoted by people who claim to hate it. Nearly everyone else is satisfied with their gender, there's no reason that I shouldn't be able to be as well. Bottom line: We're here to stay and the subtle differences that people attempt to divide us on will not stand up to ever advancing medical techniques.

And what about me? I have been diagnosed with gd. I WANT the surgery. Because I personally feel that I need to have a vulva and vagina. I HAVE phantom sensations down there. I don't barely even want to think about what is down there right now. I am also stable. I don't dress like a prostitute, I'm a major gun and knife nut, I consider myself conservative, and actually rather normal. I have my own dreams. But in all of them I am allowed to be me and to make my own decisions without hindrance nor pressuring. I want the right to choose whether I get the surgery or not without anyone but me having any say in the matter. Once I get the surgery, it'll just be one less thing to worry about. If anyone has anything to say against me on the matter, I'll say this: 'Who are you and what does it matter to you? If you want to get involved, fine, but don't you dare tell me how to live my life or what to do with my body, cause if you do, I'll micromanage your life to the point where you feel death is the only escape. Often, too often, that is what people like me wind up feeling: Trapped. Let us be us and we'll let you be you. ____J

Ms Bindel should come and witness the effects of denying surgical help to trans people. In my career in healthcare, I've dealt with people who have literally hacked their genitals off. If gender is a social construct, then why the obsession with having the world neatly boxed into 'men' and 'women'. This article isn't just evil. It's profoundly stupid.

I don't know how any woman who values the innate uniqueness of womanhood could not be offended by the various trans movements. We are women because that's how we were made. I do not cease being a woman when I wear pants and workboots. Nor am I more of a woman on days when I dress up and put on jewelry and makeup. My womanhood is not something that is defined (or redefined) by when I last shaved my legs, or by whether or not I bear children, or by how much money I earn, or by how athletic I may be. Yet, those involved in the trans-world seem to think WOMAN = lipstick, a hip-wiggling walk, oozing emotionalism, and an ability to accessorize. And the trans interpretation of masculinity is equally grotesque, as if men are somehow less than manly if they're not sporting facial hair and "butching" it up. I am most disgusted by the rabidly misguided parents who are using childish role play as an excuse to sacrifice their children on the altar of trans ideology. Considering the odds are overwhelming that these children will reject their "trans" identity when they reach adulthood, it seems especially cruel and abusive to construct a false childhood for them.

I have enjoyed reading pieces by Julie Bindel but on the issue of trans-women I really do feel she acts a gender fascist intent on policing her own view of gender purity and I suspect she does so less because of a concern for women's welfare and safety than her own personal sexuality and preferences. She has written elsewhere of how only a lesbian relationship can capture the purity of love and in other writing has clearly been emotionally hurt when potential or actual girlfriends have left her for men. This piece seems much more motivated by her lingering resentment towards men. None of the arguments really stack up. They are mostly just "these transwomen don't look physically perfect" - well how many women do? or "one or two trans-women used to be dangerous men" well there are dangerous, violent and abusive cis-women too (e.g. Rose West, Irma Grese - the list would be very long). The article is just mud-flinging and a self-pitying whinge about how she's rightly been called out for advancing really quite unpleasant argument.