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Trans activists think debate is hate speech
janice turner
Feminists want a reasoned discussion on the law but face opponents who use social media and boycotts to silence them
A Woman’s Place has six demands, including “respectful and evidence-based discussion” and for impact assessments on how proposed changes to the GRA, allowing natal men to self-ID as women, will affect data-gathering on crime, health and the gender pay gap. Pretty extreme stuff. This (Cardiff Mercure) was the latest event to be cancelled after trans activists bombarded venues with intimidation and abuse. Glasgow, Lewisham, the Conway Hall . . . even Millwall FC, famed for their slogan “fear no foe”, withdrew a recent room booking after their switchboard was jammed and protests threatened. A Woman’s Place must ticket an event without revealing its location until a few hours before the start. Even then, as in Cardiff, it must secure a back-up venue. (A primary school whose governor activists are now hounding).
How does this happen? This is a complex debate but on the phone to meek receptionists and scared middle managers, trans activists keep it simple. They say: “These evil women are social conservatives who hate trans people. They’re like Tory bigots who brought in Section 28 and hated gays. They want to eradicate trans women; they incite violence against them. They deny their humanity and want them dead. Do you want your company to be part of that?”
It is ludicrous, of course. The feminists, including many lesbians, have fought for LGBT rights: without exception they believe trans people should live free from violence, indignity or discrimination. (A Woman’s Place has trans members and speakers.) Moreover gay people sought only the right to love who they wished and for that love to receive equal recognition: gay rights had no impact upon the rights of anyone else.
Gender self-ID has serious implications for women’s rights, yet the Tory minister Maria Miller led an inquiry that proposed it should become law without hearing from a single women’s organisation. Hundreds of women have contacted me expressing concerns they daren’t raise in public. They were incensed that self-ID would allow a rapist with intact male genitalia into a women’s prison; infuriated that male-bodied athletes, like the New Zealand weightlifter, Laurel Hubbard, can enter women’s sporting competitions; fearful that predatory men (NB not genuine trans women) will exploit self-ID to prey upon them in changing rooms or dormitories; outraged by an ideology that insists a penis can be a female organ. Above all they are sick of being told, mainly by left-wing men who love lecturing feminists from presumed moral high ground, to shut up and make way for “progress”.
Yet the simplified trans version cuts through because it plays to a company’s worst fears: being hounded on social media. Mumsnet is a rare forum where feminist anxiety about trans ideology is allowed to be aired. The website takes no position, it merely upholds free speech. However, activists are now threatening Mumsnet advertisers, telling them to stop “funding bigotry” or face a Twitter storm and possible boycott. They hope that, fearful of losing revenue, Mumsnet will delete and ban the debates.