Bimini: There’s a real threat to women’s safety – and it’s not trans people

At a time of global unrest, economic disparity, and deepening inequality, there’s a cruel irony in who society chooses to target.

This week, with a ruling that narrows the definition of ‘woman’ to biological sex, trans people have once again been cast as a scapegoat in a conversation that should be about safety, rights, and liberation for all.

Let’s be clear from the start: The biggest threat to women’s safety is – and always has been – men.

Not trans women. Men.

Yet somehow, the political narrative has fixated on trans women as the problem. Not the perpetrators of violence. Not the architects of war. Not the billionaires hoarding resources while public services crumble.

But trans women — a group statistically far more vulnerable to violence than any threat they are purported to pose.

The facts paint a very different picture.

In 2020, ONS data found that trans people were twice as likely to be victims of crime as cisgender people. Hate crimes against trans people in England and Wales hit a record high of 4,732 reported offences in 2022, which is an 11% rise from the previous year.

On top of that, trans people face significant barriers to healthcare. A Stonewall survey found that 45% of trans respondents reported that their GP did not understand their needs as a trans person.

The tired narrative around public bathrooms is also a myth. There is no evidence of widespread attacks by trans people in toilets. In contrast, 68% of trans individuals report verbal harassment, and 9% have experienced physical assault when using public restrooms.

Devastatingly, nearly one in four trans people has experienced homelessness, often due to family rejection and structural discrimination.

These numbers don’t suggest a threat. They show a community under siege.

So it begs the question, what do cis women actually gain from this ruling? Very little — if anything.

This ruling doesn’t introduce new rights or protections for cis women. It simply narrows the legal definition of ‘woman’ under the Equality Act to mean ‘biological female’, offering clarity, not change.

At most, it may impact things like board representation quotas or access to single-sex spaces — but even those were already open to legal interpretation.

In my mind, there is no measurable improvement to women’s safety, no new funding for support services, and no expansion of protections against gender-based violence.

So what’s really been gained? A technical win for bureaucracy and a symbolic win for exclusion.

As for what’s been lost, it’s the freedom for trans people to exist without fear, the freedom to live openly, without having to justify their humanity, and the freedom to be recognised — not just legally, but socially — as who they are.

This wasn’t about adding protection. It was about drawing a line. And those lines don’t just exclude — they isolate, divide, and ultimately harm.

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When you strip it all back — past the headlines, the outrage, the moral panic — ask yourself: Who actually benefits from this ruling? Not cis women. Not trans people. Not survivors of violence. Not the working class. Not the public.

The only people gaining from this are those in power — the ones who’ve built and upheld the very systems that harm us all. The ones who thrive on distraction, division, and chaos.

While we argue over bathrooms, definitions, and identities, homelessness is at record highs, the housing market is broken, the cost of living crisis feels deepening (while energy companies post billion-pound profits), NHS wait times are abysmal, mental health services are underfunded, trans healthcare is virtually inaccessible, food bank use is skyrocketing, climate targets are being missed, and wealth inequality has exploded, with the richest 1% holding more wealth than 70% of the entire population combined.

But no — let’s debate who gets to use which toilet.

This is classic power play: Stir up fear, feed the frenzy, and watch the people turn on each other while the powerful keep hoarding the wealth. Divide the masses with identity politics so no one notices the billionaires laughing behind closed doors.

It’s not about safety. It’s not about fairness. It’s about control. And those at the top are counting on us to be too busy fighting each other to notice that the real enemy is already in the house.

At the end of the day, the binary is not natural. It’s structural. It’s designed to maintain control. It tells us what a woman should be, what a man must do, and punishes everyone who dares to exist outside of that frame.

When a trans woman doesn’t conform to society’s narrow standard of femininity, she becomes a threat. If she does conform, she becomes invisible. Either way, her identity is policed.

And here’s the deeper hypocrisy: This affects everyone. What about cis women who don’t ‘look feminine’? Trans men who are erased entirely in these debates? Non-binary people forced to pick a side? The binary harms them all.

It doesn’t protect anyone — it limits us all. You don’t have to fully understand someone else’s identity to show respect.

You don’t have to agree to be kind. But when confusion becomes justification for cruelty, we’ve lost something essential.

Trans people exist. They always have. They always will. No law will change that.

So from here, we fight the real threat – not each other. We protect the vulnerable. We listen. We show up. We question the systems that divide us and ask why they were built that way in the first place.

This moment calls for clarity. For solidarity. For humanity.

Because the truth is simple: Trans people are not the enemy. The people who made you believe they are? They are the enemy.

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk. 

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