As the politicians seem incapable of defining a woman then I thought I would give it a go. Women, not least my wife, have given me a wonderful life. Firstly, my mother stuck by us after our father ran off with the bosses secretary. Mum was instantly forced into poverty and the stress undoubtedly caused her ill health and early death. To me, women are a little special, being both caring and reliable. Secondly, I had three sisters and saw how poverty and puberty gave them a difficult start. Consequently, I have always been comfortable around women and wary about men. Can you blame me? My violent stepfather made my early years a misery. Then, experiencing male bullying in my first workplace at the age of 15 years came as no surprise. However, it reminded me that the male sex has a problem.

Throwing darts

I got into this vein of thought whilst watching BBC North. They featured a trans woman upset that some (real) women in the darts team didn’t like him competing. He (am I transphobic?) seemed to have no awareness that he was intruding in women’s space. I simply cannot understand how a man dons lipstick and a frock and then states they are a woman. This person never experienced a period or can understand years and years of hormonal change. That comes with so much emotional stress which no man can understand. Men must not intrude into women’s space. The thought that a man could simply change sex with a sheet of paper is sheer absurdity. Indeed, that he could go to hospital and demand to be treated as a woman. His prostate rather gets in the way.

Defining a woman

My work in bereavement exposed me to real women. I interred countless fetal remains and stillbirths and worked hard to improve the services we offered. These women experienced one of the ultimate human challenges, that of loss of a child. I cannot experience or understand that and neither can any man. For any man to profess to be a woman simply by donning a frock and signing a piece of paper is an profound insult. It demeans the entire female state and I find that unacceptable. It cannot and must not happen.