Calling all London Spartaci!!!!

Very glad to hear that some of you went along, met each other, met the speakers and, in the end, enjoyed a chat and a drink.

Coincidentally, I have just today received a response from my MP, Maria Caulfield, to my letter outlining concerns about the GRA. She essentially said sweet FA about the issue herself but had forwarded my letter to Nick Gibb. Here is his beige response -

On the train home. I missed the incident entirely. We were all milling around at speakers corner and the plan was to leave separately so that the activists didn't know who to follow, and Miranda who was very identifiable and therefore easy to follow, took a cab. The protest was, frankly, lacklustre. They had one poster, and every 15 minutes shouted out something about terfs. To be honest it was shaping up to be something of a damp squib.

Me, DS and three other women (including Lily Maynard) went and had a drink, because the plan was to meet at eight at a very specific, private location (little pieces of paper with the postcode were handed out discreetly).

When we got to the location (a private members club) two female transactivists were objecting to the fact that they weren't allowed in, arguing with the doorman.

He eventually came out and put his arm across them so they couldn't enter whilst allowing us through.

We had entirely missed the incident with the poor woman. But people were very upset. A young girl started crying in my arms because she had engaged with the TRAs and was now suffering from shock/ adrenaline/emotion.

The talk went ahead amidst the chanting and shouting outside. It was rushed because it had started late. Suddenly the organiser said we had to wrap it up, because of complaints about the noise.

The plan was to meet at the pub in Leicester Square. Which we did.

I met Julia Long, Sheila Jeffreys and Miranda. As well as pencilsonspace and CuntAmongstThePigeons. Which was a huge highlight.

On leaving the original venue, the police presence was evident. Two women were yelling and telling everyone to fuck off. They were banging on about transwomen being their sisters. I asked them whether transmen were also their sisters/brothers.

Unfuckingsurprisingly I got a slightly confused look and a yeah whatever.

I am hoping that someone recorded the incident. Either way, this poor woman ended up with a bruised face. And transactivists are trying to wriggle out of their disgusting violence.

On the plus side, my son went from interested to radical feminist ally over the course of the evening.

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Glad you are all right

Majority protestors actual born women? That's depressing.

I'm so glad you all got out OK.

Countess, as far as I can see,left, right and middle are all on their side,in terms of politicians.

Still not sure what the public in general feel.

So I've just left the pub after the meeting and I'm on my way home. Everyone is fine although I think some are a bit shaken.

I'll do a quick rundown of what happened. I arrived a bit late. People were milling round peaceful at speakers corner. There were two basic factions. TRAs which could be identified by their signs and their multi coloured hair. I was probably there for about 10 mins of milling around before they started chanting and I decided to slip off to the location.

At some point during this Miranda took a picture of one of the activists who then stole his phone and tried to run off with it. Miranda did get it back and took a cab to the venue, losing the activists who tried to follow.

Once I arrived at the venue we waited for about 40 mins as people arrived in drinks and drabs, trying to avoid being followed. Unfortunately when the last group arrived they were unable to lose the activists and they attempted to enter the venue. When this was denied they started shouting outside.

We then heard about the attack against the woman. From what I heard (although all second hand) they objected to her filming them. Attacked her, smashing her phone to the ground and then hit her and pushed her to the ground. There was one main instigator who was a MTT. I don't know if the others were MTT or women. The majority of protesters were female bodied. The police were here but it didn't seem like they were that helpful.

With all of those was started very late and the protesters kept chanting outside it was a relatively small group by this stage. Maybe 6-7 but they were making quite a disturbance in a quiet and very upmarket part of town with lots of 5* hotels. The police came but were protecting the protesters.

With all of this the venue asked us to leave before we were finished (although probably not before the time we had originally booked the room for.) both speakers spoke as did Sheila Jeffries (wish I'd have known she'd be there-I'd have brought something to be signed!)

We then left as a group and split up in different directions but met up in a pub in a different part of town and had a few drinks and a chat. That was probably the best part for me. Really great to meet other Rad Fems in London. I have told them all about the TERFyness of Mumsnet so I hope some join.

I was there & met Datun & Pencils. We all got out ok. We could hear them shouting and chanting outside all through the meeting. Understandably, locals were annoyed. But the solution was apparently to close the meeting early, not to make them shut up.

Incidentally, one of them also snatched Miranda Yardley's phone & was right up in Miranda's face. The phone was recovered though.

Janice Turner was also there so I hope she writes about it.

Posted on chat thread but will add here too in case anyone was worried I was fretting about them

Have heard from someone who was at the event and it sounds like everyone got out OK (and at least some have gone to the pub for a well earned gin).

I can't believe what this turned into. Actually really scary.

Anyone else feel like they're in a pretty surreal version of The Emperors New Clothes? Where no-one is allowed to state the bloody obvious for fear of upsetting the petty tyrant?

It's not the fact that a few people are doing this that is scary but that the left are basically on their side, if not condoning the violence itself at least supporting the attempts to shut the discussion down.
How did we get here? Why aren't the police doing their job?

It's appalling. A group of four biological males have strangled, punched and pushed over a 60 year old grandmother who was attending a meeting to hear a two speakers, a lesbian and a trans woman, talk about what gender means. The men who did this were whipped up into it by transactivists bragging that they were going to "fuck up some TERFS".

I really want to hear how the trans allies are going to spin this one to make it feminism's fault. Let me get in there first: it was just some bad apples. Not representative.

No. that isn't good enough. No.

I hope all the mn attendees are ok?

Yy, are the sparticii who were there all OK?

But they don't have to say the attackers were trans. All they have to say is that they are trans activists and that would be the truth.

Maybe I'm thick but I find the articles referencing anything to do with trans more and more confusing

So if the media report "protests during gender debate" and detail with "a group of trans activists hijacked an event debating the new gender identity laws" only someone who is already aware of this issue will have any idea what that means.

And if I didn't know anything drastic was happening, that headline wouldn't be enough to alert me.

If a paper reports "woman beaten up by trans activists" then that might get some attention. But what we need is "woman beaten up by four men because of saying that sex is biological".

Fucking hell. I will never understand how we got this buggered this quickly.

Has anyone heard from Datun and the others?

I'm sure there will have been a few handmaidens.

They could discuss the protest issues and the sides without explicitly stated that the violent git was trans - if they were? I'd imagine not all of the protesters were actually trans

@IamalsoSpartacus but the transgender status is very relevant here, I don't think they can avoid mentioning it (or at least I hope they can't)

Fucking bastards.

ferrets, it won't hit the press, because the press code says someone's transgender status shoudn't be mentioned unless genuinely relevant to the story - and that's a really high bar, the transgender runner who tried to kill the man investigating their competition record was not described as transgender in most of the court reports.

So if the press report this, it will be "some women attacked another woman."

The police turned up and pretty much didn't care.

reports on twiiter from the event state that the police were called but did not intervene to protect the woman who had been assaulted or to protect those at the meeting from the intimidation. Abolutely horrific.

The description on twitter is that she was pushed to the ground and kicked.

A 60 year old woman.

But using the wrong pronoun is actual violence, m'kay...

Have started this thread in Chat:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/3033126-London-meeting-to-discuss-Gender-Identity-attacked-by-transactivists?watched=1

I'm not here much any more, but am very active on FB - some of you probably know me there....

I hope this hits the press.