Legislation against violence against women should talk about sex and not 'gender identity': open letter to the European Parliament

Violence against women will not be combated if the texts of laws and treaties do not clearly refer to sex and not 'gender'. We join feminist and gender critical groups in an appeal to MEPs who will vote on the Commission's anti-violence proposal: write clearly in the text that women and girls are the female sex and leave no room for gender ideology
Please be aware that the translation of contents, although automatic, has a cost to Feminist Post but is provided to you without any charge. Please consider making a contribution via the "Support us" page if you intend to use our translation service intensively.
The contents of this site are translated using automatic translation systems without the intervention of professional translators.
Translations are provided for the sole purpose of facilitating reading by international visitors.
Share this article

We too signed the letter to the European Commission on combating violence against women and domestic abuse drafted by WORIADS, coalition of citizens-i gender critical which aims to inform and raise awareness on the dangers of gender identity.

The letter calls for European regulations on violence against women to clearly recognise the biological sex category. Below is the full text that will be sent to the members of the European Parliament who will vote on the proposal at the end of this month, among whom is Italian Pina Picierno (PD, Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats group).

The problem is that the Istanbul Convention -which is the European treaty of reference on violence against women- mentions the expressions 'gender identity' and 'gender', referring, however, 'to women's freedom from gender stereotypes, i.e. the non-obligation to conform their behaviour to the roles assigned to traditional femininity', Marina Terragni explained in a recent article (here).

The subsequent re-signification of the word 'gender' has in fact turned the convention into an instrument of LGBT pressure groups despite the fact that it was originally intended solely and exclusively for women. Although the text of the convention cannot be amended, it is necessary to construct normative safeguards against this misinterpretation and cannibalisation.

Nelle norme contro la violenza sulle donne si parli di sesso e non di "identità di genere": lettera aperta al Parlamento Europeo

Frances Fitzgerald (EPP, Ireland), Evin Incir (S&D Sweden), Nathalie Colin-Oesterlé (EPP, France), Pina Picierno (S&D, Italy), Maria Soraya Rodriguez Ramos (Renew, Spain), Lucia Duris Nicholsonova (Renew, Slovakia), Diana Riba i Giner (Spain, EFA), Sylwia Spurek (Poland, EFA), Christine Anderson (Germany, ID), Nicolaus Fest (Germany, ID), Margarita de la Pisa Carrion (Spain, ECR), Assita Kanko (Belgium, ECR), Malin Bjork (Sweden, Left) and Eugenia Rodriguez Palop (Spain, Left),

We write to you regarding the European Commission proposal on combating violence against women and domestic abuse and the amendments to this proposal that are currently being examined by the European Parliament's Committees on Civil Liberties and Women's Rights. WORIADS is a non-partisan coalition of citizens, activists and professionals from all over Europe who insist that biological sex is real, important and immutable and should not be confused with gender.

We believe that the proposal could be greatly improved by recognising that biological sex is now often confused with gender identity and that this has serious consequences for women's gender-based rights. MEPs Lukas Mandl and Nathalie Colin-Oesterlé tabled amendments recognising that women are a biological sex class with specific needs and experiences and we ask you to support them. These amendments:

They recognise that biological sex is 1) real, important and a key factor behind violence against women and 2) provide clarity in terminology, data collection, education and training programmes by defining women (and girls) as 'female' persons (AM 745 Mandl)

Ensure that no female victim of violence self-excludes or suffers retraumatisation because she is forced to share accommodation and toilet facilities with menmaking specific provisions for the shelters 'exclusively for female victims'.. Such refuges can of course exist alongside 'gender-neutral' refuges. (AM 564 Colin-Oesterlé)

Ensuring that women, parents, health workers and others can speak freely about sex and gender issues that affect themmaking it an aggravated offence to commit acts of violence against a person as a result of a hostile attitude towards the victim on account of his or her 'political or other convictions or opinions' (AM 956 Colin-Oesterlé).

We wish to insist that women and girls suffer a disproportionate level of male violence and sexual assault on the basis of their sexual bodiesregardless of any internal sense of gender or 'gender identity'. For this reason, we ask you to reject the numerous amendments that seek to replace the term 'sex' with 'gender' and to extend special protections to sexual minoritiessuch as homosexuals and males who self-identify as women. These groups should be covered by other legal instruments, such as the EU directive on victims.

We also ask you to reject the amendments paving the way for controversial concepts related to gender in children's sex education and those suggesting that children may consent to hormonal and surgical procedures altering their lives to change their sex. In particular, we invite you to oppose the amendments 345 and 800 by Mr Angel and others and Amendments 355 and 808 by Mr Spurek and others, referring to the ability of children to give informed consent to sex confirmation treatment as if the issue was already widely accepted and resolved. In reality, Countries such as Sweden, Finland and the United Kingdom have already recognised that there are very few evidence or scientific consensus on the fact that the use of puberty blockers, opposite-sex hormones and surgeryoften with irreversible effects and lifelong medicalisation of healthy bodies, is the best option for these children. We also reject the idea of 'comprehensive sex education' which, according to UN guidelines, advises asking 5-year-olds to 'reflect on how they feel about their biological sex and gender' and asks 9-year-olds to recognise that everyone has a 'gender identity' and to 'learn to define their own'.

Furthermore, we believe that Amendment 390 by MEPs Angel and others seeks to silencing medical professionals and parents who speak out against the model of care based on the 'affirmation' of genderequating their concerns with 'hate speech' and pushing the coercive and unfounded narrative according to which these children will commit suicide if they are not indulged. We ask you to reject Amendment 390.

Sincerely yours,

WORIADS

Original text here

Organisations:

Genspect

Cry for Recognition (BE)

Observatoire des Fondamentalismes à Bruxelles (BE)

AMQG (CH)

Initiative 'Lasst Frauen Sprechen!' (DE)

LGB Alliance e.V. (DE)

WDI Finland (FI)

WDI France (FR)

Ypomoni (FR)

44 Vilaines Filles (FR)

Le Partage (FR)

Women's Space Ireland (IE)

The Countess Advocacy (IE)

WDI Italy (IT)

RadFem Italy (IT)

Standing For Women Sweden (SE)

Women's Rights Network (UK)


Much of the news published by Feminist Post you will not read elsewhere. That is why it is important to support us, even with a small contribution: Feminist Post is produced solely by the voluntary work of many people and has no funding.
If you think our work can be useful for your life, we will be grateful for even the smallest contribution.

You can give us your contribution by clicking here: Patreon - Feminist Post
You might also be interested in
22 September 2023
The real world in reverse
There is no straight world -tradition- versus a crooked world -trans-progressivism-. The two opposing worlds perpetuate patriarchy in different ways but with the same goal: to maintain domination over women. A millennial distortion: male usurpation of women's physical and metaphysical spaces
The political and social debate sees the supporters of two world models clashing, a metaphysical and philosophical clash rather than a strictly political one. A controversy that as women we observe with perplexity: two opposing and seemingly irreconcilable models, tradition versus modernity, ancient and sacred values versus ubiquitous fluidity, the family of yesteryear versus the queer family.... On one side and on the other, champions of the patriarchal world who speak the language of the ideologies of the 'short century'. All claim to be on the [...]
Read now
20 September 2023
UK, you can no longer say 'woman' or 'mother': woke provisions of the General Medical Council
Decision of unprecedented violence by the British Medical Register: the word woman must be deleted at every level. It cannot even be mentioned when discussing motherhood, childbirth, breastfeeding, menopause. Even 999, the emergency number, can no longer ask what sex the person asking for help is. The woke know very well that the female body is the main obstacle to the transhuman project. And they want to erase it even in language
It keeps happening: women and mothers must also be erased from the vocabulary, at every level. They do not give up because the maternal symbolic is the most resistant obstacle to the transhuman project. We will not give up either. Forget it The General Medical Council -the public body that maintains the official register of doctors in the UK- has replaced the word 'mother' with neutral terms in its maternity guide for staff. The updated guide for employees who become pregnant omits [...]
Read now
11 September 2023
Female wombs in male bodies
The envious dream of all time -to be able to have children without women, to erase mothers, in short, the Grail- is getting closer and closer to being realised: in five to ten years' time, even biologically male trans people will be able to receive a womb transplant and conduct a gestation. An 'inclusive' wish-right that would improve their quality of life and alleviate the symptoms of dysphoria. While the lives and health of girls and boys born from these practices are of no concern to bioethicists
Euronews reports on the rapid progress of research on the uterus transplantation front, with particular reference to the request of trans MtF people whose bodies remain biologically male, while FtM people, if they retain their female genital apparatus, can undertake a pregnancy like any other woman: the 'pregnant fathers' that the mainstream press likes to report on are none other than women who self-identify as men. In the article, which we translate here, women are referred to as cis- women, suffixed [...]
Read now
7 September 2023
Appeal to the FDA: no more silence on puberty-blocking drugs
A petition asks the US drug agency -which has never authorised the off-label use of these substances for girls and boys with dysphoria- to counter the misinformation that propagates these treatments as effective and safe and to demand studies to prove it.Between 207 and 2021, the number of minors treated has more than doubled and the FDA can no longer pretend it is blind.
On his site Gender Clinic News Bernard Lane reports on an important petition to the FDA (Food and Drug Administration, US drug regulator) to take urgent action on the unapproved (off label) use of hormone suppressant drugs to block puberty in girls and boys who identify as transgender. Although this use has never been approved by the FDA, it is not possible for the agency to ignore the possible harm to minors who are subjected to these [...].
Read now
29 August 2023
Greece, womb and baby trafficking: babies 'kidnapped', couples stuck waiting
Team from the Mediterranean Fertility Institute in Crete arrested on suspicion of human and gamete trafficking, fraud and forgery. Many dozens of poor women from Eastern Europe persuaded to allow themselves to be exploited in order to supply children to mostly Australian principals
The Mediterranean Fertility Institute, a surrogacy clinic in Crete, was raided by the police on suspicion of human trafficking and fraud, and the entire medical team was arrested and taken to prison on charges of child trafficking. According to Greek police, a group of traffickers had co-opted 160 poor women -Ukrainian, Romanian, Moldavian, Albanian and Georgian- convincing them to provide egg cells and lend themselves as wombs for rent for a few tens of euros per month, housing them in [...]
Read now
15 August 2023
Denmark: no more hormones for children! Even trans people say so
After the UK, Sweden, Finland, Norway and the Netherlands also Denmark says stop to puberty blockers for gender non-conforming girls: those drugs are experimental and there is no scientific evidence that they work. But here the government initiative is supported by important LGBT associations: this is the first time it has happened. And in Italy? You cannot even know how many minors are treated
Denmark is also backtracking on puberty blockers for children confused about their sex: the Danish health system will henceforth offer psychological therapies and no longer drugs to adolescents who have not reported discomfort with their birth sex since childhood. This was announced by Health Minister Sophie Løhde during a parliamentary debate that rejected a proposal by the populist Nye Borgerlige (New Zealand) party to completely ban gender transition for minors.
Read now
1 2 3 ... 54