Who‘s coming to FiLIA?

Are you suggesting that all I have done regarding trans widows is discussed them on FWR @ParmaVioletTea?

I agree with pretty much everything @ArcheryAnnie has said. I'm very experienced at organising conferences, and there are all sorts of things that one has to juggle. @TinselAngel has told us she has refused to engage with FiLIA in the way they have requested. There are other women who are knowledgeable & active in this area (eg the latest podcast by Louise Perry which features Ute Heggen & Emma Thomas), which is one sub-field of resistance to gender extremist ideology - but it's by no means the whole of feminism! And posting /discussing things on FWR is also not the whole of feminism!

As @ArcheryAnnie says, the field is open for others to organise their own events. Kellie-Jay Keen & Let Women Speak are very successful at this; Women's Place UK, and Fair Play for Women did this when they were active; Women's Declaration International do it; Women's Rights Network has had public and more local private events. The wonderful women at UCL (including Prof. Alice Sullivan) ran a great event there a couple of years ago, with 1000 women of many different political views participating.

There's lots of room.

Is anyone travelling over from NI?

Surely at the very least it’s simple courtesy to tell somebody you’re using their idea for a panel (on a topic you’ve been in correspondence with them about for six years) but are excluding them from it, despite panellists asking for them to be on the panel?

As previously said, I’m not blaming Emma, Vaishnavi or Abigail and I hope the workshop is a success.

I'll do what I can, @GrumpyMenopausalWombWielder.

@ArcheryAnnie , Tinsel is a legend and has been very badly treated by the Filia organisers. If you have never attended Filia before you won't be aware of the half of it.

Thank you for saying this. I do hope you get the chance to ask a question of Filia & not the panelists themselves, as to their appalling conduct over this.

There’s nothing like ‘faux reasoning’ of the unreasonable. Tinsel’s exclusion was deliberate & handled appallingly. Tinsel has said she’s been trying to get Filia (and other orgs) to platform trans widows for years. Filia took her entire idea for this years panel & specific details from Tinsel’s suggestions, and then did exactly as she’d asked, to then not only exclude her from the event that was her idea, but didn’t even tell her they’d done this before announcing it. Do you have any idea how many people then contacted tinsel, angry at her exclusion & expecting she knew what had happened, when she was deliberately kept in the dark?

All the good intentions of many women volunteers tainted by the petty vindictiveness of some within the org who could do with having some decency & integrity given the responsibility they choose to take on.

It’s beyond pathetic to realise some women don’t move beyond the petty mean girl squabbles of their teens when they get a taste of power over other women. It never should have been the case that it took this long to even have a panel on the subject, never mind showing the level of disrespect evident towards the grassroots work Trans Widows Voices have done & continue to do. To not even have the decency to tell Tinsel they’d organised a panel and excluded her, before announcing it, is about as far from decency as it gets.

If anyone has any actual quotes from Filia to explain how this all happened, I’m all ears. Until they can explain how they came keep the trans widows subject at arms length for years only to turn round and use the specifics of Tinsel’s suggestions & exclude her, keep her in the dark & leave her to field questions on what happened, I’ll repeat my absolute disgust at what they’ve done here.

I've been going to feminist events for many, many decades, but this is the first year that I will be attending FiLiA. I'm really looking forward to it. Will some of it piss me off? Undoubtedly - I don't think I've ever, ever been to an event where I've agreed with 100% of their choices. But that's the thing: if I want to have influence over an event, then i offer to volunteer, and if I want control over an event then I start my own. If I don't agree with too many of the choices then I don't go, as some posters here have said they wouldn't, and that's ok, too.

I've been an event organiser for many decades. People offer themselves as speakers all the time, if it looks like an interesting event, and there's lots of reasons why you gently turn people down beyond "I want to no-platform and silence you, and negate the years of work you have done". Nobody is owed a place on a panel organised by someone else, however great they are, and I think it's a real mistake to treat it like a snub.

I have no idea why this panel was set up like that, but it's not the first event on transwidows and children of transitioners, nor will it be the last, and it's not the final word on anything. I'm going to attend, because I really want to hear Emma speak, and I'm going to accept the panel for what it is, not what it could have been.

If I hadn't already laid out £500+ on tickets, trains and a hotel I'd certainly be seriously considering not going. But I have and I'll use my time there to ask difficult questions of various people. I've met Emma before and she is doing great work, but I take real exception at Tinsel being sidelined. So if during questions and answers after Emma's event someone stands up and says how bloody annoyed she is that Tinsel has been excluded, that may well be me.

I do have an inkling of how difficult it must be to organise an event like this, and it must be a nightmare trying to schedule new voices, new projects and keep a decent balance between all the issues. But the political discrimination is now so clear that my sympathies are being stretched to breaking point.

Sorry not you it was from Iwanttoretire- no offence

I’ve not mentioned KJK?

@TinselAngeli don’t really understand stand why you are excluded but i cannot see from other thread KJK even wanted to speak at Filia. If that is right then it’s disingenuous for some to say she is excluded. I am genuinely interested in hearing about issues outside the gender debate. This does not mean it is not important but there are so many other things. Everyone fights for women’s rights in their own way

Thanks @IwantToRetire, I’m also struck by how passive women seem to be about others being excluded.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I did email FILIA to ask whether my exclusion was deliberate or accidental, but they said they would only discuss it with me if I agreed to a Zoom call. I wasn’t comfortable with that as I was so upset and I spent years being told by my ex and others that I’ve handled things wrong so I’m not volunteering for some kind of struggle session that might be more of the same. I asked them to discuss it by email but they refused.

I get there are disagreements and I cannot say I know all the ins and outs (I have a very busy life - am not a hive mind) but I think Filia has a place with global voices and I am genuinely looking forward to going. In the spirit of the original OP I look forward to meeting some of you there

Excluding Tinsel from the transwidows discussion not only looks spiteful and a glaring omission it's stupid and unfair on those attending. She knows more about the history of how difficult it's been to get transwidows a voice than anyone and supported so many other transwidows. Everyone there could only benefit in hearing from her. All those currently attending could attend too - there's room for them all and the session would be even better if they ALL were there.

Tinsel is a known voice who is very respected and excluding her just seems really petty and mean. Honestly, talk about shooting yourself in the foot.

I'm guessing it's the speaking up about platforming men with lady feelings that did it, but surely that's what someone advocating for transwidows should do? What's the impact on the wives / ex-wives and family of those men if they're given a platform to speak by so-called feminists?

I think what is depressing is so many women willing to passively accept what is an events organising group who is or is not politically acceptable.

This year they have no platformed a well known lesbian feminist activist, because years ago she attended the meeting that was allegedly funded by the Heritage Foundation.

This is exactly the poisonous vindictive attitude that made WPUK eventually so pointless.

You may enjoy being in a room with a lot of other women, but if the price for doing that is being spineless, not sure what the point is.

Would any of you even bother to say to FiLia, seriously we are grown ups, you dont get to say who is or is not the right sort of feminist. You aren't a political party, and many women doubt you are feminist.

I wont post it here but on the other thread about FiLia no platforming you can see some of the post from Julia Beck who is the woman who has been no platformed.

And having now seen about TinselAngel I am shocked that FWR as whole has not risen up and sent FiLia an absolute condemnation of their behaviour.

This is of course typical of left wing cooption of women's autonomous organising.

For heaven's sake, if you want to fritter you money away that's of course your right.

But if in doing that you are colluding with silencing women, not sure I would be able to enjoy myself.

How truely depressing.

Love glosswitch - always hits the nail on the head! Is she speaking at Filia?

We all know this

Not just that but a chapter interviewing KJK & recounting events from her point of view.

The whole book is an excellent read, by the way.

Ah. I prefer Sex Matters' approach — that fighting for women's rights involves women across the political spectrum.

Me! I’m going on my own too so would love a MN meet up

Fiona’s in a different FiLiA session on Sunday though.

She was going to be part of the separate book launch event but now isn’t.

Because Terf Island has a chapter about KJK, apparently.

@ArealAdultHumanFemale thank you and I do remember the FiLiA app from Cardiff - and will make sure I check it carefully!

I really enjoyed Cardiff and was sorry to miss Glasgow! Can’t wait for Brighton!

We may not all agree on everything but I still like hearing the opinion and experiences of others - and surely we all want our sex based rights?