Hadn't heard of Linda Bellos until recently?

[SuperLoudPoppingAction]

Here she is! And other awesome women. Talking about their activism and about women-only spaces eg shared houses. Brilliant.

Me neither. I am ashamed to say that when I first paid attention to the transgender issues I came across LB being described by young feminists as vile (I was very confused about the whole thing at this point as it was all so new to me and I certainly didn't wanted to be on the 'bigoted' side of the #nodebate) and so I didn't look her up until I saw the documentary you have posted. The women in that documentary are fucking amazing and women have so much to thank them for. LB has done so much incredible work for diversity and equality, it is so saddening that some feminists have such little regard for her.

Bumping.
So very worth watching.

You're probably young, OP.

Back in the 1980s, Linda Bellos was in the papers A LOT.

She was leader of Lambeth Council, usually derided by the right-wing press as a "loony left" council. In those days, councils were at the forefront of the fight against Thatcherism, so there was always masses about them in the media, usually exaggerated stuff about crazy loony left activities such as supposedly banning Baa, Baa Black Sheep in schools.

She also founded Black History Month, which is no small achievement.

And just to add - the amount of abuse Bellos got was horrific. You had to be absolutely bloody resilient to put up with that shit. And she was (and is) a black lesbian, so an obvious target for abuse from the right. The thought that some people are now calling her a bigot just shows how pig fucking ignorant they are.

I was listening to R4's The Moral Maze last night and really wasn't impressed by her at all.