Radfem2012 banning trans people

[allthegoodnamesweretaken]

www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/may/25/radical-feminism-trans-radfem2012?fb=native&CMP=FBCNETTXT9038

Has anyone seen this? I don't really understand this bigotry against trans gendered people.
If we're trying to make the world a better and equal place through feminism, surely excluding people who also want to do this because of their genitals or the gender they assign themselves is going to make this impossible and is a bit hypocritical?

It's disgusting that she's been banned; utterly disgusting.

have we got the full text of Conway Hall's decision?

This is crazy. We can't have a radical feminist speaker at a radical feminist conference because some people born with penises don't like her? Have I understood this properly?

It's extremely sneaky too, because they haven't banned the conference, although everybody attending will be on the same page as Jeffreys. So they've fucked up the conference but probably made it difficult to get money back or compensation.

So a bigot was banned from a conference? Good. Because it breaks the law.

We shouldn't have a conference where we can discuss the merits of discrimination on the basis of race. Why? Because intelligent and critical discussion of something does not somehow make it above discrimination. Discrimination means exclusion based purely on being members of a certain group who share common features.

I hope that the people who want to ban transgendered people from their conference have a good way of venting who exactly is transgendered and who isn't in a fair way. How they can actually do this I'm not sure.

By all means ban disruptive and deliberately confrontation people. Thats different. But don't ban someone purely on the basis of which group they might happen to belong to. Judge people as individuals and on their own merit.

There are a lot of feminist things that DO apply to transgendered people. Why should they be excluded if they aren't disruptive.

BIG DIFFERENCE.

NyacWell, I'm on a similar page-ish, but I'll risk being in the same room for a couple of hours

freedom of speech in Conway bloody Hall, anyone?

Hmmm If a speaker proposed the solution to racism was to bleach Black people, would that be OK?

The belief that a woman is nothing more than a man with his penis removed, or a man taking hormones, or even just a man with a feeling that he is a woman, is deeply misogynist.

The bigotry (woman-hating) is believing that.

I don't understand.

I don't know who this woman is and I don't know why she has been banned.

This all seems utterly bizarre.

Are the death threats serious?
Upthread someone said about threats to burn the venue down while the conference was taking place.
Is there a real risk of violence from these people?

Sheila Jeffreys is the reason the conference is happening.

She's a famous radical feminist who has written books on the beauty mandate, on queer theory, on religion amongst other things. She is also heavily involved in working against the sex industry for which she has received a huge amount of flack. She is also critical of the institution of trans and has received similar treatment for that position.

bizarre-ish, you're not wrong

SQ - she's a prominent radical feminist author who is violently anti-trans and wants gender reassignment surgery banned. If you had read any of the links on this thread you'd know who she is.

There are other speakers though, it's not just her.

Singling one woman out and excluding her is outrageous behaviour and the only way to deal with it is to stand in solidarity with her, not ignore her in favour of other speakers. This isn't a get together this is a political event, and our politics have just been seriously attacked. Like I said, most of the radical feminists who are attending will be on the same page.

But the whole bleeding conference isn't about transgenderism is it.
It's a whole bunch of people and a load of speakers.
This is all utterly bizarre.
I personally have no interest in discussing transgenderism at this conference, and I'm sure I'm not alone, how has it suddenly become the whole focus of it.

Well, if she was so good at coping with opposing views, why the keenness on banning those opposing views?

From all I've seen, the only people who are welcome at Radfem2012 are those who are born with 2 X-Chromosomes, and nothing but 2 X-chromosomes and live according to their X-Chromosomes and who share the same very narrow spectrum of views. This conference - just by going how it presents itself , and by what its proponents say - is just about reinforcing stereotypes. Nothing challenging there, as they only want to preach to their own.

(That said, I've no doubt that there are some obnoxious trans activists too, but that doesn't change the hatefulness of Jeffrey's words)

So basically the thing is all over the papers
There have been death threats
This is an event that a lot of women would have been taking children to
These violent tactics disgust me quite frankly. I have never threatened anyone with violence and yet again a bunch of women who just want to get together are being threatened to stop them. Nothing new there is there.

Really fucked off.

I don't want to be told that I can't discuss abortion, childbirth, contraception and all the rest of it because it's transphobic, thanks.

Fucking bastards.

The conference is happening because Sheila Jeffreys is in the UK. She's a radical feminist leader. It would be like the Democrats meeting but no-platforming Obama or Hillary and saying but there are plenty of other people coming.

Transgenderism is a focus because radical feminists disagree with the institution of trans and understand it as an attack on women, and on women's politics.

I'm not sure I'll go if SJ doesn't speak and the organisers go along with it. It would be appalling.

SJ is unequivical in her opposition, but should she be banned? not happy about that

Reinforcing the stereotype that women are raped en masse in war zones, that girl children are murdered when they are born, that females are denied an education and treated as second class citizens, the stereotype that women die or sustain terrible injury in childbirth all the time

All of those STEREOTYPES yes we can't have anyone talking about them can we.

For FUCKS SAKE.

There are plenty of other things that I wanted to talk about and plenty of other people I wanted to listen to.

I was really looking forward to it.

Fucking bastards.