By Julia Gasper
I went to a women’s rights meeting in Oxford on 25th April, which had to be held at a venue kept secret until the last possible moment because of the threat of disruption, intimidation and violence that has blighted several previous meetings of the same kind this year. Why? Because the meeting, held by the group “Woman’s Place UK” was about defending women’s rights against the encroaching tyranny of transgender ideology and legislation, a tyranny that is getting worse all the time as successive governments just capitulate to the demands of self-appointed extremists without even consulting women.
Fanatics and bullies did their best to stop this meeting. They sent out messages on Twitter and elsewhere demanding that their gang should protest to the hosts to call off the meeting on the totally spurious grounds that Woman’s Place UK is a “hate-group” that encourages “violence against trans people”. Both are false. In fact, the meeting was a chance to explain to women what our rights are under existing legislation, and what we have to lose from the imminent new laws introducing “gender recognition” without any diagnosis, certificate or treatment. The fact is that we have got an awful lot to lose: privacy, safety, fairness, visibility, the basic fundamental right to self-definition. Woman means an adult female, with XX chromosomes. If there is no biological definition of woman, it does not mean anything to “identify as a woman”. What are you identifying as? You are identifying as someone who identifies as someone who identifies as someone who identifies as … but what is a woman? Many of us have been trying for years to draw attention to the gaping holes, nonsense and lack of scientific support for gender ideology. I have written to my (Labour) MPs for years complaining about the blatant injustice of letting men compete in sport as women. I have had nothing but brush-offs and sneers about “bigotry”. It is nice to know that some other people are finally waking up.
Outside the meeting, which was by advance ticket only, a mob of about thirty extremists stood, armed with megaphones and placards, bellowing slogans and demanding the meeting be banned because “trans rights are not for debate”. But why should anyone’s demands, which they call “rights” be granted without debate? What sheer arrogance and aggression! At recent meetings of women to discuss this issue, masked male activists have used violence, knocking down a 61-year old woman and smashing her camera. Online they advocate violence against “terfs” as they call them.
Nicola Williams from Fair Play for Women argued that transgender “rights” should not be prioritized over other people’s and there has to be a balance so that women can have safety for example in refuges or prisons (where sex offenders must be kept away from women) and in sport. But when has the LGBT movement ever acknowledged any “balance” between different people’s wishes, rights and needs? It has always trampled on others and treated them with contempt. Stephanie Davies-Arai of Transgender Trend said that since she had started campaigning against the imposing of transgender ideology on school children, many of whom are encouraged to embark on a lifetime of dangerous hormone treatment and surgery, she had been subjected to “a Tsunami of abuse, defamation and attempts to silence me”. But of course – the LGBT movement has always operated by means of abuse, defamation and attempts to silence people. What do you expect? Others, including me, have had years of it. What she and her group are saying needs to be listened to. The education system in this country is in the hands of a tiny minority of self-appointed fanatics, who are imposing their agenda on schools, universities and the Ministry of Education. Children are being taught dangerous rubbish about “choosing your own gender” which means they end up as eunuchs mutilating their bodies and taking drugs for a lifetime that have many severe side-effects. The number of children classified as “trans” in this mass hysteria has risen by 2000% in the last eight years! They are being given puberty-blockers and even taken abroad for castration. This is government-sponsored madness. Transgender Trend hopes to raise parental awareness and resistance – but of course, anyone who raises concerns will just be labelled a “transphobe” and a “bigot”, and denounced as “hate-group”. Those are the tactics the LGBT movement has always relied on. It is disgraceful that Children In Need, Wellcome Trust and the National Lottery give funding to pressure-groups who are imposing transgender ideology and schemes on Local Education authorities. The same false, confused ideas are promulgated by Stonewall, the Guardian, the BBC and every TV channel.
Raquel Rosario Sanchez of Feminist Current argued that women will be weaker, less visible and less protected if denied the right to boundaries and a biological identity. She deplored the way that changes of the law are being pushed through without a public debate in which women take part fully. She said that laws have to take everyone into account and that women should be able to hold meetings without intimidation – well, that will come as news to the LGBT movement which has always closed down meetings and dished out severe reprisals to anyone who attempts to debate their agenda at any level. Already in this country you can be dismissed from your job or have your bank account closed for “transphobia” yet the ideology has no scientific basis and no democratic support.
Philippa Harvey of Woman’s Place UK pointed out that across the UK there is actually a huge problem of sexual molestation and assault, much of it going on in schools. Girls need more privacy and protection, not less. Girls need a “safe space” and so do women. We have always been entitled to it and we have never signed or voted it away! We also want to have reliable statistics on crime, health, pay etc that are sex-specific. I wonder how soon the LGBTs will try to get Ms Harvey sacked from her job as a primary school teacher. I am sure they are attempting to do so at this very moment, writing to her employers and calling her a “bigot”, saying that she is advocating “anti-trans hate and attacks”. They will take hostile steps against anyone who allies with her too, labelling them all “terfs” (an insult) and “fascists”.
Two books on this issue have come out this month, indicating what a hot topic it is. One is Transgender Children and Young People: Born in Your Own Body, edited by Heather Brunskell-Evans and Michele Moore, Cambridge Scholars Press, April 2018 and the other is The New Normal: The Transgender Agenda, ed. Moseley and Saunders, published by the Wilberforce Press.
At the end of the meeting one of the floor speakers said she was a Conservative, but hoped that women across the political spectrum would be able to work together on this, as it is so important. The response was mainly positive. It will not be easy, but unless we do that, we are unlikely to get our voices heard. Recently a new group has emerged, HATAC (Hands Across the Aisle Coalition), an attempt to bring
together radical feminists, lesbians, Christians and conservatives who
are concerned about the transgender legislation from many different
standpoints but are prepared to work together to challenge it. There is little time left and the government is under pressure from the European Court of Human Rights to push through worse and worse laws. I recommend that everyone interested in this topic goes to the websites of all the organizations concerned (see below) and find out more. Follow them on social media. Write to your MPs and councillors. Spread the word. Do something!
Julia Gasper.
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