I have just sent this email to Judith Blake and wanted to share it here as well
Dear Councillor Blake
I write to express my disappointment at the cancellation of the 'A Woman's Place UK' meeting on the 28th September 2018 at Leeds Civic Hall, I was a ticket holder for that event.
The government is currently holding a consultation for interested parties to give their views on proposed amendments to the Gender Recognition Act 2004. Like many women I am concerned about the impact of the proposed changes to allow legal recognition of a self identified gender and I wanted to listen to the speakers and discuss these concerns before I respond to the consultation. Although the meeting went ahead at an alternative venue I was unfortunately running late and therefore did not meet with the other attendees. As an elected representative you used your position and power to deny my right to freedom of assembly and speech.
The proposed amendments to the GRA and the surrounding discourse concern me because I live in a society where my sex places me at a disadvantage and I want to change that. Words have power and the re-definition of language and demographics that is central to this debate are making it impossible for women to organise and challenge sexism and misogyny. Women need to be able to define ourselves to be able to make any progress with the inequality that we face. Instead we find that we are silenced and labelled bigots. A Woman's Place UK is campaigning for the law to remain unchanged, I cannot understand why that is being construed as hate speech.
I recently attended the Women's Place UK meeting in Sheffield and listened to articulate women make reasoned arguments for preserving women-only spaces and discussing their importance. I heard concern about the practical ramifications of a law change on women and children, particularly girls. I did not hear any hatred. I heard plenty of anathema to the ideology that a person's feelings about their gender identity are unquestionable truths. I would like to share some of the reasons that I am opposed to this ideology and its enshrining in law, for the sake of brevity I have chosen three examples.
In 2011 I was raped and this contributed to a significant period of poor mental health. When I told a counsellor what had happened, she suggested that perhaps I hadn't been clear enough in the boundaries I'd set. As a young woman trying to process what had happened to me I was constantly confronted with the view that it is my responsibility as a woman to set appropriate boundaries to protect myself from physical and sexual harm, crimes largely perpetrated by men. In the immediate aftermath of being raped the reaction I had to strange men was visceral and based on instinct not reason. The needs of women who find themselves in this situation should always be paramount. Services for female victims of male violence use have always been used and provided by members of the female sex, this is central to allowing victims to feel safe and respected and cannot be lost to gender identity. I am concerned that the provisions that allow these spaces to remain single sex are not robust enough to protect them as more people legally change their sex. Talking to other women was critically important to me being able to feel that I had got control of my life and my mental health back and I still appreciate women-only groups as a place of inspiration and refuge. I am incredibly grateful for the help I received and will continue to preserve them for women who will need them in future.
As a university student I joined the women's rugby team, having previously avoided sport because I was self conscious and not athletic. Being part of that team played a massive role in my social life and it also helped me to be happy in my own skin. Rugby is a contact sport and it is therefore considered dangerous for women to play with and against men, due to the inherent physical advantages of male biology. Including those with male bodies in women's sport excludes women, whether through disadvantage or increased risk of serious injury, it is not equality.
Finally my own transition from passive agreement to active involvement in the campaign against the amendments to the Gender Recognition Act 2004 came following the protest by a group of women at London Pride 2018. The protest was against the marginalisation of lesbians within the LGBT movement and the view that lesbians should not exclude transwomen as potential partners. A male friend explained to me that the protest was an act of bigotry and that lesbians are women who find members of the female gender, regardless of biological sex, attractive. As a lesbian I disagree. I am attracted to women, for which some would call me a 'vagina fetishist'. My right to have a relationship with a member of my own sex is protected by the Equality Act 2010 and yet more that one person has told me that I am wrong to do so. This is an assault on the boundaries that I have so firmly defended since my experiences as a younger woman and I find the fact that the current atmosphere around these issues emboldens others to hold forth that my innate homosexuality is inherently prejudiced deeply worrying.
As a female politician I hope you are aware of the struggle of previous generations of women that allow our sex to take part in politics and public life. I believe we must continue to build on this for the benefit of future generations of women and girls. Despite over one hundred years of courageous women breaking ground we still do not have equal political representation, we still do not earn a male wage and there is a dearth of role models for young girls aspiring to hold positions of power and influence. History tells us that equal rights for women are hard won, by women who stand together in common cause to oppose the patriarchy. We cannot do that by excluding women who renounce gender as oppressive whilst unquestionably accepting the views of those who align with our gender but not our experience. This is not an attack on transgender people, this is feminism.
Women must be allowed to discuss these issues because there is a clear conflict between the rights of women and the trans-activist agenda. Whatever your personal opinion on this matter, as a supporter of democracy how do you reconcile your role in shutting down debate? How dare you prevent women from meeting to speak in Leeds in 2018, the week before an event to celebrate the Suffragettes. A group of women who successfully used direct action, including arson, civil disobedience and occasionally bombs in a campaign to give women agency and a vote.
I would like to discuss this issue with you further in person and would be grateful for a reply. I have copied this email to my MP, XXX, The Yorkshire Post and will also be sending a copy to Women's Place UK
Yours Sincerely
PegasusRex