The forthcoming Victim’s Bill requires ‘Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) and local authorities to work together when commissioning support services for victims of domestic abuse, sexual abuse and other serious violence. …It will … ensure that victims can access the services they need, regardless of where they live.’
This sounds wonderful, and matches concerns raised by us and other groups
https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/16837/pdf
https://fovas.wordpress.com/ .
Sadly, it is unlikely that the Bill will succeed unless the statutory organisations the Bill makes responsible for commissioning services take responsibility for making single sex spaces available to victims, particularly victims of domestic abuse and sexual assault.
The Equality Act allows single sex services but does not require them. When we approached the Charity Commission and the Victim’s Commissioner, we were told that the law allowed ‘by women for women’ charities to enable men who identify as women to access their services and this was the responsibility of the government
Local Authorities – actively ending female only victim abuse support
Is your local council one that is aiming to end all female only victim support services? Instead of commissioning female only and mixed sex services, some local authorities are happy to exclude women in order to fulfil demands from trans activists. This obviously impacts the partners and children of trans parents.
Police and Police Commissioners do not support female-only services for abuse victims
When you are report domestic abuse to the police, officers providing initial contact will often give you contacts for further support. However, in areas such as Bristol, this is support victims cannot access. For example, the Freedom Programme in Bristol is a service set up by Nextlink. This was given project funding by the previous Avon and Somerset Police Commissioner to make all provision of domestic abuse support mixed sex, excluding women and girls looking for safe single-sex spaces. According to the rules of the Freedom Programme, only women who believe that men who identify as trans are actually women can access support.
Here is Nextlink’s policy:
‘Women-only services should be accessible to and welcome… trans women… and trans men should feel welcomed and supported by other specialist support services’ https://nextlinkhousing.co.uk/nextlink2016/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/ImprovingAccessToDVservices_LGBT_Report.pdf
CoTs asked the current Police Commissioner at Avon and Somerset police about the lack of female only abuse support commissioned and pointed out his ‘Victim survey’ last year replaced ‘sex’ with ‘gender’ beliefs – so female victims couldn’t respond if they don’t believe in ‘gender’ and issues affecting female victims due to their sex would be hidden (for example the lack of female only victim support).
He responded: ‘In terms of the survey in question, it was developed by a sub-contracted organisation called TONIC. We have since raised your feedback with them and discussed how to suitably rectify this oversight. I am therefore grateful that you have brought this to my attention.
To clarify, my office has a role in the commissioning of some victim services more directly than others. Therefore, beyond our remit (such as the specialist domestic abuse services you refer to), I have asked the team to consider your feedback in our partnership work with other service commissioners such as local authorities’.
One wonders why the previous police commissioner funded a project to end female only domestic abuse support if it’s outside the Commissioner’s remit, and why the current Commissioner hasn’t intervened.
What’s going on? It’s clear that this has been some capture and that a lack of clarity means that funded services intended for female victims of sexual abuse are failing to provide adequate services. CPS guidance at one point tried to criminalise female victims of domestic abuse by trans husbands and fathers for not cooperating with our abuser. CPS guidance even tried to criminalise female victims of domestic abuse for refusing to submit to our father’s demands:
Integrated Care Boards will not represent female victims who want privacy and dignity
We checked the website for the ICB in Bristol, which listed one organisation as by and for women. This was Womankind, an organisation which is in fact a motivated trans-rights activist organisation which refuses to provide safe provision for women. When we notified the ICB about this, it then told us, “The ICB does not have any contracts, or listed providers, related to ‘single sex services’.”
https://www.womankindbristol.org.uk
Looks lovely! Calming suffragette colours! Their website clearly states ‘Womankind is an established charity that is run by women for women’. The Charity Commission website states they exist ‘for the relief of mental distress and the resulting suffering and isolation, experienced by women and girls (including, but not limited to, as a result of sexual abuse or violence) ‘
However, the organisation is committed to providing mixed sex only services. In correspondence with us, Womankind clarified:
‘Womankind is for women and for those who identify as such in a significant way, including those who experience discrimination as women for instance transwomen, intersex women, and non-binary people. Our website is in the process of being updated, part of which will be ensuring information like this is very clear for those seeking to access support with us’.
So far they haven’t corrected their website (as of time of writing – the 12th April 2024), so it seems meant to deliberately mislead female abuse victims that Womankind will provide a safe space. Womankind have further confirmed that there is not one abuse support service in Bristol and that it advises Bristol women to try London instead.
‘We are afraid we are unaware of other organisations in Bristol that would offer services that are not also open to transwomen, intersex and nonbinary people. However our helpline is a space where calls and chats are always answered by women who can offer emotional, listening support. So if you, or any women ( 16+) that you work with want to reach out to us for emotional support our helpline can offer that support. You may also want to reach out to Nia, an organisation in London that supports women and also offer helpline support: https://niaendingviolence.org.uk/’
Of course the volunteer helpline is not guaranteed to be staffed by women:
‘Our volunteer roles are for women and for those who identify as such in a significant way, including transwomen, intersex women, and non-binary people.’
We asked SARSAS, the UK charity which provides support for survivors of rape and sexual abuse in Bristol. They responded:
‘We can provide women only counselling and support work. Our group support is trans/non binary inclusive.’
We double checked but they confirmed that their ‘women only’ group counselling for rape/sexual abuse survivors is mixed sex. They are knowingly lying to rape-sexual abuse survivors, completely uncaring about the further trauma this can cause.
We asked ‘Bristol Women’s Voice’- the organisation for women, who represent women’s voices to the council and police, to help the women excluded from all abuse support because they can’t pretend men are women. They refused.
On Wednesday, 20 March 2024 at 10:01, Info <Info@bristolwomensvoice.org.uk> wrote:
We are not doing anything to challenge this. You can find our position on trans inclusion here: Trans+ Inclusion Bristol Women’s Voice (bristolwomensvoice.org.uk)
As BWV have representation on the Police Women’s Independent Advisory Group, Cots then asked how to contact the Chair. They ignored our request. (We then found out the same Director who refused to help female victims of abuse IS the Chair!).
The Police Women’s Independent Advisory Group is an Independent Advisory Group subject to Police Ethics whose responsibility is to advise the police about issues affecting women in the force area (including female abuse/crime survivors) and to act as a ‘critical friend’ – in order to ‘build trust and improve policing.’ The fact there is no accessible abuse support for women who need single sex services in Bristol, that officers are referring female victims to services they can’t access, and that members of the police service contributed to the decision to end female only support is a clear example of police failures affecting female victims of crime the WIAG should have raised. But here are the draft Terms of Reference of the WIAG (which conflict with the Equality Act).
‘In this group we use ‘woman’ as a term which is inclusive of the legal protected characteristic of female sex, and gender identity as well as gender expression so that we are concerned both with those who are perceived and treated as women and those who identify as women’. https://www.bristolwomensvoice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/WIAG-Terms-of-Reference-002.pdf
This is how organisations subvert an obligation to provide appropriate services to women. By refusing to acknowledge women as a sex class, they conflict with the Equality Act and fail the women they should be protecting. The Chair won’t speak up about issues negatively impacting female victims of crime if the victims can’t pretend men are women – and according to the police IAG handbook the Chair is responsible for appointing group members. The voices and feedback of women who can’t pretend men are women are being excluded – which may explain why this force has such an abysmal record of not just sexual assaults by male officers but trans policies which ignore the legal and human rights of women, including their own female staff. We know from the recent WRN report ‘State Sanctioned sexual assault’ (to which Cots also contributed) many police forces don’t think the Equality Act or basic human rights should be allowed to protect women- especially if a man wants to be present when an unconsenting female is undressed.
We are paying for this, remember. The IAG is tax funded for a police force required to abide by Police Ethics and the Equality Act. How can we fight abuse and improve women’s trust in the police if the senior officer responsible for IAGs allows this to persist?
These organisations are part of an informal campaign in Bristol to exclude women who don’t believe ‘transwomen are women’ from abuse support and public life. And yet they also include the agencies the Victim’s Bill requires to work together to commission victim services for female victims of crime.
This article highlights the groups in Bristol who undermine democracy and use Avon and Somerset Police and Bristol City Council to undermine women’s rights to safety, privacy and dignity in pursuit of an extremist trans rights agenda. This isn’t a one-off policy, it’s not an individual within an organisation. This is the overarching ideology of organisations in Bristol funded to help women who are happy to take our money, intended to support women, and give it to men who identify as trans.
How can we have a Victim’s Bill when organisations refuse to cooperate?
The organisations above are not alone – this issue is nationwide, wherever trans activists gain influence over policy and women’s services, single sex services are ended and female victims of male abuse who need them left isolated, unsupported and traumatised. No one campaigns for other specialist services to be ended, just female only support. It’s straightforward for both specialist and mixed sex services to be commissioned and delivered based on the needs of victims and it is purely an ideological decision to end female only support when there’s such a need.
The case of Sarah Summers, who is suing Brighton’s Rape Crisis Centre Survivor’s Centre for refusing to provide a women-only peer support group is illustrative of what is happening right now.
https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/help-sarahs-legal-challenge
In Edinburgh, JK Rowling has funded Beira’s Place (https://beirasplace.org.uk/), a woman-only service, after it was revealed that there was no such provision in the city. The trans-identified head of Edinburgh Rape Crisis, Mridul Wadhwa, has suggested that rape survivors who want women-only services are ‘bigoted’ and should be educated.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/19509343.outcry-plan-educate-bigoted-rape-survivors-trans-rights
Domestic and sexual abuse are primarily sex-based crimes – the perpetrators are male, the victims are female. Yet female only services are being ended across the country and female victims left traumatised and uncounted as they can’t access mixed sex support.
This failure to value female citizens needs intervention from the Justice Minister, Police Minister and Women and Equality Committee. The government has failed to amend the Equality Act, and failed to ensure statutory bodies commission single sex services female victims of abuse can actually access – and until they do, the Victim’s Bill will be useless for many female abuse victims.
Children of Transitioners 