Conway Hall no-platforms Rad Fem Event

There is a bit of a silence on what is included in the "Terms and Conditions" bit, which appears to be outside of the requirements of the Equalities Act 2010. I'd spent a few years booking venues and being questioned closely on what we/I plan to do (usually relatively harmless TU events). And people DO get twitchy if it's at all 'political' or in any way controversial....

But isn't this a case possibly of the organisers negotiating their way into a corner, of their own making? i.e "we want to do something potentially illegal". Answer: "well you can't do it here. Sorry. " Response: "That's not fair and we are appalled!"

Naive in the extreme?

Good idea Beach. Most people don't realise or maybe acknowledge just how radical the suffragettes were for example. Some were too radical for me really!

I agree, this is not good. I wasn't planning on going but I see a great deal of value in holding these events.

I am a socialist, I am permitted to attend meetings with like minded people without the threat of the EDL turning up to a closed meeting and being antagonistic and threatening. I see this in similar terms, women need safe spaces without threat or fear to discuss issues that are specific to them. If at the end of the day RadFems come away from the meeting and decide in future to engage with the trans community all well and good too but they will never reach that conclusion without open discussion which simply won't happen if trans people attend.

You know, something that would be theoretically interesting, is if all the gains for women's status and rights that have their origins in radical feminism, disappeared overnight. For a year.

A lot of people might reconsider their position.

Just so long as we all know where we stand

So OK for trans women to get together to talk about how to break through the "cotton ceiling" with anyone MAAB who cares to come along.

Not OK for a group of FAAB women who have experienced sexual abuse to get together to talk about that.

Righty-ho.

WW did you not read the entire conversation on the other thread about this exact topic?

We've been through all of this.

wikipedia definition of gender queer

Still don't see what is offensive about trans women discussing a problem they face and can't escape at all. I'm grateful that I don't have to and never had to worry about coming out to a potential sexual partner and possibly risk ridicule if not worse.

what are 'gender queers'?

And what SQ said. Plus I agree with NarkedPuffin.

This is not good.

Blame the backlash, blame transactivists, blame Conway Hall, blame patriarchy, blame all or none of them.

But just THINK about what this means.

I know there are a lot of people on here who don't get on with radical feminism. OK whatever. But put that to one side for a minute and really consider what this means.

Even if you, as a woman, don't see the point of women only spaces (i.e. women meeting together as an oppressed group), are you happy that the choice to have them or not is being eroded?

Think carefully.

"Not sure whether I agree with the exclusion of non trans/gender queers"

They aren't excluding them, as long as a person is MAAB they can go.

They are only excluding FAAB people.

Didn't you read all the stuff on the other thread?

And interested to see you think it is OK for that meeting to exclude lesbians when they are the group being discussed. Yet that was a big reason given for trans having to have access to fem 2012, even though a huge range of topics were being discussed and AFAIK there was no session to talk specifically about trans.

WW I mentioned 2 conferences.

"WW how do you know which conference oncemoreintothe was asking for a link to???"

You mean the posting which asked for information about a conference you mentioned, right after the posting you mentioned it in? Don't need to be Sherlock Holmes (or Miss Marple, if you prefer) to work that one out.

The description of the workshop actually doesn't even read that vile to me as it had been made out in the other thread, even though the title probably could have been chosen less provocatively - I can imagine that trans people of whatever orientation have a problem when and how to come out to potential sexual partners. And probably get a lot of heartbreak and atacks from it.

Now I guess if you fancy someone, thinking she was a woman, and she turns out to be trans, that's quite a shock. And there's nothing wrong with that. I'd probably would have to have a think if it happened to me.

But that doesn't mean that it's not an issue trans people should not be able to discuss. They'll have it harder finding accepting sexual partners, just because of their nonconformance with stereotypes. And it's not as if it's a lifestyle choice. Not sure whether I agree with the exclusion of non trans/gender queers, but I wonder whether that's for the same fear of disruption/atack which radfems cite as reason for their exclusion policies.

You do not need a legal exemption to organise men or women's only events meetings in public spaces - I know, I organise both. You need to be able to prove there is a good reason for having women only or men only meetings/events. That is all. There is nothing illegal about this conference.

There's the Toronto Planned Parenthood conference that Proles linked on the previous thread and one in Philly.

Can't link as on phone but both are easily googleable.

Cross posted, sorry

If only it were a figment of our imaginations.

Overcoming the Cotton Ceiling: breaking down sexual barriers for queer trans women

"Overcoming the Cotton Ceiling will explore the sexual barriers queer trans women face within the broader queer women?s communities through group discussions and the hands-on creation of visual representations of these barriers. Participants will work together to identify barriers, strategize ways to overcome them, and build community. Open to all trans women and MAAB genderqueer folks."

Here you go, WW pleasureandpossibilities.com/programming/workshop-descriptions/

It was on the last thread.

WW how do you know which conference oncemoreintothe was asking for a link to???

WW we've been through all this

Someone linked a ?twitter? conversation between two people about lesbians being transphobic for not wanting to have sex with pre-operative MTF trans

Someone on the thread said that's all made up

The conversation had mentioned the event where it was happening

So I found it and posted a link

Didn't you see that? It was quite a lengthy exchange.

"As I understand it the people who objected strongly to this have now turned their attention to another feminist conference which is generally open to all but has one women only session for survivors of sexual violence." Yes Sardine :(
Gonna post this again:[[
gendertrender.wordpress.com/2012/05/30/women-up-north-feminist-conference-protested-no-platformed-for-scheduling-a-female-only-survivor-of-sex-abuse-workshop/]]

Really, really sad. They could've just set up their own workshop.

SQ - the one which allegedly is set up by men and trans women to discuss how to get into lesbians' knickers. Without a link I think it probably must be a figment of your imagination

Which one?