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US residents: You have until September 22nd to tell HUD that they should allow shelter providers to have women-only services again! You can write them here: https://womensliberationfront.salsalabs.org/hud2020shelters/index.html
If this offends you ... “When women report harassment by men in the shelter space, or approach staff to voice their discomfort, my coworkers’ customary response is to ignore the women’s reports completely.” ... go upthread and let HUD know. https://www.feministcurrent.com/2020/09/13/protecting-men-at-the-womens-shelter/
Outraged for these women? “[T]he shelter requires them to shower in groups, &... a person who identified themself as a transgender woman who made lewd and sexually inappropriate comments, and leered at them while they were naked.” Go upthread. Tell HUD. https://abc30.com/fresno-homeless-poverello-house-sexual-harassment/3514544/
The Human Rights Campaign has described a return to allowing single-sex emergency shelter as putting “lives at risk,” for requiring people to seek shelter based on their sex, and a trans-identified male could still access a men’s shelter. https://www.hrc.org/news/hud-proposal-to-gut-equal-access-rule-puts-transgender-lives-at-risk
An influential report on adopting gender identity in shelter policy was the 2003 publication, “Transitioning Our Shelters,” by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, now known as the Task Force. The report is hosted by the Sylvia Rivera Law Project.
https://srlp.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/TransitioningOurShelters.pdf
https://srlp.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/TransitioningOurShelters.pdf
From the start, it’s established that trans-identified people of both sexes are at risk from being around men, in male shelters. If you think the direction this is headed is that the women’s shelters are going to have to accommodate everyone who wants in, you’d be right.
“All people have a gender identity,” they incorrectly assert, in trying to establish a definition, and say that it means a sense of being “male, female or something else.” At least they’re defining their terms.
Here’s the most important part of the shelter guide, according to the authors: “This policy of respect is the only mandated policy recommendation in this guide,” and, “The Policy of Respect: People should be treated according to their self-identified gender.”
This is the gender identity movement in a nutshell. Everything flows from their one, foundational demand: “People should be treated according to their self-identified gender,” by which they mean an internal sense of sex, as distinct from their actual sex. They mean it literally.
In 2003, most people still understood the term “transgender” as being synonymous with “transsexual.” The guide corrects this: “The policy of respect for transgender people looks instead to a person’s self-identification only...”
In explaining why they support self-identification of sex, the authors assert that concerns “primarily expressed by women’s shelters,” are “unfounded.”
“Women’s shelters—just as safe with transgender women,” the headline insists, on page 13. “It is not fair or correct to assume that just because a person is transgender or has male genitals that they are a physical threat to others,” the report continues.
“Language is one of the most powerful tools we have and can be one of the most harmful as well. ... Failure to honor a person’s self-identification creates an unwelcoming and unsafe shelter.” - p. 14
“Their freedom to define themselves through self-identification and expression should be honored in every way, including in the language that staff use to refer to them as well as with their housing, bathroom, and shower placement.”
Hope everyone’s feeling very honored by now.
Hope everyone’s feeling very honored by now.
On page 18 of the Transitioning Our Shelters report, the authors warn shelters that they may face many thousands of dollars in fines for not treating trans-identified people according to their stated preferences, and encourages written policies for staff.
“Non-transgender residents of shelters are often extremely respectful of their transgender brothers and sisters when they are given education about why the policy of respect has been put in place.”
Women: respect these men or you’re out on the street!
Women: respect these men or you’re out on the street!
The section on harassment, p. 33, highlights the “very real threat of escalating into physical harassment and assault,” and then describes “wrong pronoun” use as a type of harassment.
When women persist in being afraid of men in their shelters, even after they’ve been trained in how important it is to “show respect,” staff should have a discussion that “covers the fact that there are no men in the shelter (transgender women are not men,)” to fix things. P.35
P. 37 of Transitioning Our Shelters is how the hierarchy of concern is supposed to be set up. “A woman who has a history of sexual abuse runs up to you, hysterical, saying that there is “a man in disguise” in the women’s bathroom.”
Hysterical, huh. Okay.
Hysterical, huh. Okay.
“The first thing to know is that this was not the trans woman’s fault,” the guide says. The “first thing.” Implied is that the “hysterical” woman has caused trauma, while only having her own trauma triggered. The authors “believe in the ability of all people to heal from abuse.”
Having the wrong pronouns used is actionable harassment, and physically dangerous, making people unsafe, according to the authors. But a traumatized sexual abuse survivor is expected to “heal,” and learn that the actual man she sees needs her respect, also her lying submission.
On p. 38, we get other scenarios. A trans-identified male in prostitution leaving residents “confused.” A trans-identified male lashing out and being aggressive. A trans-identified female feeling unsafe in a men’s shelter. None of the situations are surprising based on sex.
Looking again at the situation with the trans-identified male, the authors’ main concern is that staff might label this as “exhibiting aggressive male behavior.”
It says, “Trans women need to know that they are understood to be women.” Even when they’re obviously scaring women.
It says, “Trans women need to know that they are understood to be women.” Even when they’re obviously scaring women.
Buried in this 40+ page report, in this story about an FTM afraid to access a men’s shelter, is this: “There have been incidents of gang rape towards FtMs in men’s shelters.” And then, “There are many places where women, trans women, and trans men safely share space together.”
Let’s read that bit again.
“There have been incidents of gang rape towards FtMs in men’s shelters.” - Transitioning Our Shelters, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, 2003
They went ahead and pushed these policies, anyway. Encouraging transitioned women to walk into danger.
“There have been incidents of gang rape towards FtMs in men’s shelters.” - Transitioning Our Shelters, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, 2003
They went ahead and pushed these policies, anyway. Encouraging transitioned women to walk into danger.
Here’s the p.41 model policy for safe shelters: “Our policy is to respect the gender of each person as they self-identify it. ... People are who they say they are.”
This is it. This is the simple foundation from which all else flows.
This is it. This is the simple foundation from which all else flows.
In 2016, the Obama administration entered a federal rule very close to the Transitioning Our Shelters recommendations into the federal register. It updated a 2012 policy that left open the question of applying self-ID to shared accommodations.
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/09/21/2016-22589/equal-access-in-accordance-with-an-individuals-gender-identity-in-community-planning-and-development
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/09/21/2016-22589/equal-access-in-accordance-with-an-individuals-gender-identity-in-community-planning-and-development
Instead of addressing “dangerous conditions in the shelters that correspond to their sex assigned at birth,” and we can guess they mean trans-identified men in male shelters, this policy functionally demands that women’s shelters take in all comers.
If the women at a shelter have concerns, the Obama administration directed staff to, “treat those concerns as opportunities to educate and refocus the occupants,” and then maybe expel them if the training to be respectful doesn’t take.
The comments opposing the shelter rule on gender identity are summarized here, the Obama administration flagrantly ignored every single one of them.
The penalty for noncompliance by staff or residents is loss of federal funds, and the ruination of the shelter.
If you agree that this is a bad policy, please go to the top of this thread and submit a comment to HUD requesting that single-sex shelters be allowed once again.
If you agree that this is a bad policy, please go to the top of this thread and submit a comment to HUD requesting that single-sex shelters be allowed once again.
