Complaining about an "anti-TERF" workshop at YIWW - help please!

[GraceMarks]

There was a thread on here a while back about a workshop that was being run as part of York International Women's Week called "Why we fight the TERF wars". I'm planning to write to the YIWW organising committee and complain about its inclusion, but I need to do it in such a way that explains why the word t**f is offensive and anti-women without trying to get into the whole "TWAW" debate. The people who run this thing are ultra-woke and anything I say that could be interpreted as transphobic (i.e. pretty much anything other than wholesale agreement with their ideology) will only result in my complaint being ignored.

I have been trying to find the details of the ruling by a judge that t**f is a misogynistic slur, but I can't for the life of me remember in what context it came up. Was it in the civil case against Miranda Yardley? Can anyone point me towards it?

I don't think the "TERF is a slur" website would be especially helpful, as I've noticed screenshots on there recently which seem to suggest that some TRAs see it as a badge of honour to be included...

And we're talking about people with gender dysphoria from an early age.

Bear in mind too that under this brave new world men who just like to dress as a woman on Tuesdays, men who are perfectly happy with their male bodies and beards but just like calling themselves women and using women's spaces, men who find cross dressing sexy especially with other women around them in personal spaces, men who have autogynephilia and sex offenders who see a ticket into the sweet shop are also supposed to be able to be 'women' without any questions asked. Stonewall's umbrella is used as standard and includes all the above.

The extract below is from Ani O'Brien's brilliant speech at the Speak Up for Women Conference in Auckland, NZ, on February 26.

Her take on the use of the term TERFS. I hope it is helpful.

Now, before we go on I want to clarify for those of you who do not know that the word “TERF” is a slur. It may once have been a benign descriptor for “Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist” but it is now used as an insult and a silencing tactic.

Much like the word “transphobic” it has been so liberally slung around that if applying popular usage of the word virtually everyone in this room would qualify as a TERF

<span class="italic">If you do not believe that transwomen are 100% biological females you are a TERF</span>.
<span class="italic">If you think putting violent male criminals in women’s prisons is a bad idea you are a TERF</span>.
<span class="italic">If you want women and girls to be able to change into their togs in the female changing rooms at the swimming pool without fear of an entirely intact male exposing his genitalia (and be completely within his rights to do so) you are a TERF</span>.

If you think it is unfair that male-bodied athletes can compete in women’s sports competitions you are a TERF.
If you are a lesbian or heterosexual man and refuse to consider transwomen as sexual partners because you are not sexually attracted to male bodies you are a TERF
Have you bought Whittaker’s limited edition Plunket chocolate? TERF.
Do you say breastfeeding instead of chestfeeding? Utter TERF.
Have you spelt ‘transwoman’ as one word instead of two? TERF
If you believe that we are born male or female with the exception of a miniscule number of intersex people and cannot change our biological sex you are a TERF.
And, if NZ twitter is anything to go by, if you defer a Bill due to insufficient public consultation, you too are a TERF. Sorry, Tracey!

Ok. Now that we have established that you are all hateful bigots who should “die in a fire” let me take you through the three demands we had for our Government and which they seem to have delivered on.

speakupforwomen.nz/speech-lets-talk-about-sex-self-id-event/

I think this would be exceeding useful for you GraceMarks. It is imperative that people understand why women are speaking out, what the issues are and why the knee jerk reaction to any criticism of Self ID by using the words transphobic and TERF is intellectually lazy and dishonest.
Citizens of any country, (one that allows free speech!) have the right and indeed had the permission of the Government to make submissions on the proposed change in the GRA. I hope you read the three demands that SUFW made of our Government. Reasonable
demands which have been met with a deferral of Self ID proposal here in NZ.

Hi OP. Thanks for taking action on this. These organisers who are happy to use an offensive term against older feminists (they think- but actually the term TERF gets used against anyone dissenting so it’s just a term of abuse... ) pre misogynistic, stupid and dangerous.

Maybe if they think they are woke they don’t want to be encouraging hate speech against a protected characteristic in the EqA 2010: lesbians.
You could make it quite short if you want.

Dear organisers, you’ve used the word TERF as it if we’re a neutral description word. It’s not. Are you happy that lesbian women are being called TERF because they won’t have sex with penises? Because they object to men in lesbian venues and spaces?

^Are you happy that the TERF word is being used against lesbians to call for them to be physically manhandled out from spaces which claim to be LGBT friendly? To make them feel unwelcome in their own lesbian and gay ‘village’ spaces which generations of lesbians have worked to build together with gay men? Whuch provide a lifeline out of isolation and a real life (not online) community for lesbians that they should be able to freely access? Where lesbian-owned and run businesses offerinf lesbian- friendly goods and services should be able to flourish?
Are you happy that the TERF word is used to advocate physical and verbal violence against lesbians?^

Are you aware that being a lesbian is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010 therefore anti-lesbian rhetoric such as TERF is not only offensive and dangerous to lesbians (and to all women) but could also be illegal under EqA when used against lesbians? Is your session actively trying to exclude lesbians on purpose and to make lesbians feel unsafe, and/or is your session intending to make lesbians actually be unsafe? Which would be a police matter.

Point them to the London 2018 and Manchester 2018 Pride threads - links on here
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3443042-The-misogyny-continues-in-Manchesters-Gay-Village

• are misogynistic, stupid and dangerous.

Not ‘pre’ misogynistic

Sorry my formatting hasn’t had coffee yet

Just a quick update to thank everyone who has offered suggestions and provided links. I've sent the email and am now bricking it slightly in case they go after my job...

I stayed away from the TWAW thing altogether and focused purely on why t**f is a slur, why it's sexist, and why it makes women feel alienated and/or threatened. I used a lot of ideas from Deborah Cameron and scoured terfisaslur for examples of threats and violent language.

I felt like the whole issue of single sex spaces (not to mention the cotton ceiling) was the elephant in the room and I did want to include those arguments too, but considering what I know about the people who will be reading this email, I thought it best to stick with the semantics.

More power to your elbow Grace

Well done Grace

Thank you. Te*f is a slur, they could have run that event without the bigotry.