Transgender debate: Why JK Rowling's new women-only sexual violence support service, Beira's Place, is vital – Susan Dalgety

When a woman, or girl, suffers sexual violence, it can take a very long time before she comes to terms with what has happened to her. Sometimes she will never be at peace.

Beira’s Place, a new sexual violence support service for women in Edinburgh and the Lothians, was founded and is funded by author JK Rowling (Picture: John Phillips/Getty Images)

More than 50 years after I was abused as a child, the experience still haunts me. It changed my life. My adolescence and early adulthood were scarred by the trauma, and the anger I feel towards my abuser is still a feature of my psyche, emerging unbidden, often at inopportune moments.

I never sought help. I could have. Scotland’s rape crisis movement was established in the late 1970s, first in Glasgow, then Edinburgh. Today there is a network of 17 centres across the country, each offering support to survivors of sexual violence.

So why, if there is such a well-established movement, funded by the Scottish Government and working with others such as Police Scotland and the NHS, is there a need for Beira’s Place, a new sexual violence support service for women in Edinburgh and the Lothians, founded and funded by author JK Rowling and run by some of the most expert women in Scotland?

It’s simple really. The rape crisis movement is no longer only for women. It offers support to anyone who has suffered sexual violence, including transgender people. And the chief executive of the Edinburgh Rape Crisis centre, Mridul Wadhwa, is a male who identifies as a transgender woman. All of which is fine. Every victim of sexual violence, male or female, should be offered support to help them recover and I’m sure Mridul is a good administrator.

But, with greatest respect, Mridul has no concept of what it means to be a biological woman. No man who identities as a woman does. They may feel solidarity with us and they can be vulnerable to male sexual violence too, but they have no real understanding of the horror of vaginal rape.

They have no understanding of the visceral fear of being pregnant after having been abused. No understanding of the physical power a man exerts over a woman. Since time immemorial, women and girls have lived in fear of sexual assault. It’s as much part of our daily routine as brushing our teeth.

That is why, when the worst happens – as it will to one-in-three women, according to the World Health Organisation – we want to be safe in the company of other women. We want, need, to share our experience with other women. A woman who knows.

When the rape crisis movement was set up, it was for women, by women. Society has changed since then, mostly for good. A person can love who they want as long as it is consensual, without fear of ridicule or worse. We can dress how we please, change our name at will, be our true selves.

But biological sex remains immutable. Men retain social, economic and cultural power over women. The threat of sexual violence continues to haunt us. So, if we need to heal, whether in the immediate aftermath of a violent rape or decades after sustained sexual abuse, we need to know we can seek support from other women.

We need safe, women-only spaces, where we can start to rebuild our lives. JK Rowling understands that in a way only a woman can.