Tanya Stephens Concerned About “Female Spaces Being Invaded By Men”
The possibility of male sex offenders being allowed into female spaces, by claiming to be “transwomen”, without undergoing sex-reassignment surgery, has been met with dismay by Dancehall singjay Tanya Stephens.
On Tuesday, the Rebelution artist who says she has been the victim of multiple sexual assaults, shared a question extracted from the Instagram page of Gays against Groomers campaigner Magay, an openly gay woman, which posed the question: “If gender is different from sex, then why is a sex change surgery classified as “gender affirming care”?”
“I repost because I have the same confusion. If a man knows he is a woman, what is ‘woman’ that he knows he is? If he identifies as what we already are…why do we have to change ANYTHING to accommodate him?” Stephens asked.
“This is scary to me! I recently listened a town hall meeting in which someone quoted the number of men awaiting approval to be transferred to women’s facilities…ALL SEX OFFENDERS WHO VIOLATED WOMEN!!!! This is madness!” the outraged artist noted further in the discussion.
Stephens’ initial statement was supported by many of her followers. However, some dissenting voices challenged the St. Mary hitmaker, claiming she should ‘leave well alone’.
As usual, Stephens refused to tolerate being ordered around by anyone. She instead pointed to instances in female sports in some countries in which men who maintain all their male characteristics, have been allowed to compete, and thereafter dominate due to their masculine strength.
“It is my business that female spaces are being invaded by men who aren’t even trans because trans women created a loophole for them. It is everybody’s business that a failed male athlete can become the most successful female athlete, successful only at stealing female space,” the Boom Wuk singer declared to one commenter.
“It is my business that I get criminalized for going about 50 years of ‘normalcy’, not encroaching on anyone’s space, then suddenly have to relearn the entire world in an entirely new format because someone who is now identifying as what I AM is demanding I CHANGE so they can IDENTIFY as what I am. This is not a pro/anti trans conversation. Engage on a critical thought level or don’t engage at all,” she added.
Stephens responded in the affirmative to another comment that men who got up on a whim, and casually claim they feel like women and try to dictate that women acquiesce to them, was an affront to all female human beings.
“This is the conversation we are having! That people who have absolutely no way of having ANY of our specific experiences should not be commanding ANYTHING pertaining to womanhood and most certainly should not be anything but grateful if we welcome them into OUR space!” the St. Mary native stated.
The It’s a Pity singer also pointed to the hypocrisy of Western nations, who decry any kind of deliberate alteration to children’s genitalia in Africa, but accept and promote sex-change surgeries in their countries.
“What compounds me is calling it ‘Gender affirming surgery’ in the West but ‘genital mutilation’ in countries in Africa for alterations to private parts that are just as severe,” she said.
Stephens also contended that men who still maintain their genitalia and all their other masculine characteristics, but demand to be called women, was misogynistic, and the ultimate bid to erase the female sex.
“This is such a complex issue! I used to be so angry at ppl who spoke of female erasure some years ago but now I see it. To not be able to identify ourselves as what we unquestionably are, is erasure. To lose space which is definitively ours is erasure. Sadly many females don’t get it yet, so they’re defending this as a trans issue but it is most certainly not!!! Trans men are not disrupting men. They still only disrupt women. The patriarchy has won😢,” she stated.
In early December last year, the Daily Mail had reported that women’s rights groups had been “warning of ever more male-to-female trans detainees serving time in women’s prisons, despite rising incidents of rape and other horrors in what were once women-only cellblocks”.
“They point to more cases of trans women — including powerful individuals with penises who are attracted to females — sexually abusing and harassing women inmates in New York, Illinois, Californi, New Jersey, Washington and beyond,” the report had said.
The Daily Mail had also noted that whilst a full picture of trans prisoners is not available, data obtained from federal and California officials indicates “more trans male-to-female inmates, more transfer requests, and more pressure on wardens to approve them”.
Also, in February this year, the BBC reported that rules banning some transgender women from female prisons in England and Wales had come into force, and would apply to trans women with male genitalia, as well as those who are sexual offenders and trans women convicted of violent offences.
The new rules, the BBC said, were being implemented in order to “improve safety” for prisoners, and would apply whether or not offenders have a Gender Recognition Certificate.
The BBC also quoted a government official as saying that the government wanted to have a “liberal, sensitive, tolerant approach” to the LGBT community, who “suffer a lot in this country” with mental health issues.
“We will introduce new rules which mean that any trans offender with their male genitalia intact, or who have been convicted of a sexual offence and, adding to that, if they have been convicted of a violent offence, they will not be allowed into the female prison estate,” the official stated.