TRAs planning a protest against A Woman's Place meeting on July 10th

[NotTerfNorCis]

The theme of the WPUK meeting is Why female sport matters, and why we must protect it. Effectively the TRAs are protesting against fairness in women's sports.

Details of their protest are below. Protesters are advised not to be violent, to carry offensive banners, or to try and physically stop the meeting from going ahead. 'This is a response, not an attack.'

www.facebook.com/events/2255386031382613/

Women's place UK are a transphobic hate group that work towards the rolling back of trans rights. Their meetings are recruitment drives where they peddle transphobia and their endless justifications for transphobia.

This is happening in our town. Where we live. We need to show them that we won't let hatred towards our trans brothers, sisters and everyone else stand without a response. A fun, musical, party response.

The protest itself will not be taking place at the National Gallery. That is only the meeting place due to it being a large area next to several decent transport routes. Women's Place UK don't release the venue until several hours before the event, so we will move there as soon as we know the location.

Cis allies are encouraged to attend. Allies are needed. Trans people cannot do this alone.

Some ground rules.

1. DO NOT ENGAGE WITH ANY ATTENDEES OR WOMEN'S PLACE UK MEMBERS/SPEAKERS DIRECTLY.

Stay away if you cannot keep it together. Do not directly engage, even if you are baited. If anyone does bait you and you cannot ignore them, walk away.

2. WE ARE NOT ATTEMPTING TO STOP OR INVADE THE MEETING.

This is not the goal. This is a response, not an attack.

2. THIS IS A NON VIOLENT PROTEST.

If anyone is suspected of having any violent intentions, you will be asked to leave.

3. BRING BANNERS THAT WOULDN'T UPSET YOUR MOTHER

We want this to be a family friendly protest. Please avoid swears on your banners.

4. BRING A GUITAR

Singing is fun.

5. DO YOU DO CIRCUS THINGS? BRING CIRCUS THINGS

Every protest needs a juggler.

Nobody should have to be told not to be violent but I guess some people can’t help themselves.

Record everything. Every shout of abuse, every tussle, every weapon, every banner or t-shirt that invites violence. They are their own worst enemies. Let people see them for what they are.

I really do think that if your beliefs require you to object in principle to the concept of female sport, then your head is in urgent need of a wobble.

I do struggle sometimes with the concept that my desire to have women’s sport showcasing, nurturing, empowering and giving joy to women and girls is literally so unspeakable that in order to discuss how that can be enabled to happen, I have to go to a secret venue while people attempt to intimidate us all from attending because they believe they are being, somehow kind and inclusive. It’s fucking bonkers, but hey ho. Bring on the jugglers!

This person is advising TRA protesters on how to act. Apparently it's:

Alert other people to the (feminist) gathering with hash tag and photos.

Block the feminists from view.

Cold shoulder - don't shout at the feminists or give them any justification for calling the police. 'The less you say, the less chance you'll say the wrong thing!'

The advice was originally about targeting feminist protesters at Pride, but this person has just volunteered it for July 10th.

I have no problem with peaceful protest. I am sorry not to be able to come to this meeting and hope it’s great. The last one was!

Block the feminists from view.

How do they not see that this just reinforces the point?

Tall beefy men blocking women from view could literally be the definition of patriarchy.

Block the feminists from view.

I'm not anticipating being in view while attending an event about science and sport - so I'm a little unclear as to who needs to be prevented from seeing me/attendees/feminists.

I don’t dislike transgender people but I cannot fucking stand jugglers. Fingers crossed no one brings any bongos. Or a didgeridoo.

Shudder.

Police them, punish them, don't listen to them and block the nasty women from view. How completely radical. I wonder why repressive regimes the world over and throughout time haven't already thought of this.

Its fascinating they've decided to protest this WPUK meeting, I dont think there have been protests for a while.

Not that surprising. Sharron Davies is a big name outside the world of gender politics. The meeting has proved so popular that WPUK had to arrange a bigger venue than the original.

And as someone else said, with Sharron’s name involved, and a truly controversial subject such as male bodies in women’s sports, it’s quite possible that there may be more media interest.

I'll shield you from the jugglers DuMondeB.

I find the "don't engage" thing very telling. I.e. whatever you do don't have a conversation with attendees. Or else you might discover they're not transphobic in the least and have some reasonable concerns about sport?

I cannot fucking stand jugglers. Fingers crossed no one brings any bongos. Or a didgeridoo.

OTOH, a few clown cars and a one-trick pony would be strangely apt for a TRA protest.

The don't engage thing is telling re what happened at Lancaster pride it looked very much like youngsters were being manipulated by a few older people.

Don't ask questions just bark what we say.

Erase critical thinking.

Perfectly entitled to peaceful protest.

Jugglers and guitars might make the crowd look lovely and harmless but going to be a bit harder to disguise this is a protest against fairness in women's sport/ against rights of biological women. And I hope someone interviewed manages to pop in the reason why EVERY single location has to be kept secret, and about the pressure to cancel and the smoke bombs and the bomb threat and the kettling, and the one woman punched and the other woman escaping a punch due to three security guards. Absolutely jolly lovely people....

But misogynist, anti woman activists are as entitled to their legal rights as everyone else. (Including women, you twits.)

Again, with the lack of critical thinking.

Juggling, a guitar? They could all wear halos and wings. None of it will matter when people ask what they are actually protesting about.

What is the actual problem? They will be asked.

Um...

Can we please all chip in for a big box of circus stuff to leave outside the meeting with a sign saying "We heard you like circus stuff, so please help yourselves. We support your right to peaceful protest. As always, the content of this meeting will be made freely available online, should any of you wish to draw your own conclusions."

Maybe a few boxes of biscuits or something as well. Just take the wind out their sails by being super nice about it.

That event page is a joke. They've put pictures of Posie's Stonewall protest up and said that's who the meeting is by. Someone tried to correct them and got their head bitten off. But hey, who cares about facts when there's an angry mob to whip up! Only one person's replied to the group so far and that's to say they can't make it, so doubt it'll be much of a protest.

let's hope that more than 9 people turn up for this one as, the last protest that was advertised on here didn't attract much attention. 😉

Yeah, can't help but point out that if your call to protest has to include a serious warning not to be violent, it really does say all that needs to be said about the things which often happen among those of your acquaintance.

Thuggery seems a hard habit to break.

"Can we please all chip in for a big box of circus stuff to leave outside the meeting with a sign saying "We heard you like circus stuff, so please help yourselves. We support your right to peaceful protest. As always, the content of this meeting will be made freely available online, should any of you wish to draw your own conclusions. Maybe a few boxes of biscuits or something as well."

This is such a great idea. Please, please can we do this or something similar. I can't go to the meeting but I'll happily donate if someone who is going wants to do a crowdfunder. Even just biscuits on their own with a super nice sign saying something like "help yourself! We know that protesting is hungry work! The chocolate wafers are good" would be amazing.

every time I hear that transwomen should be able to compete alongside females I now think of this
www.xkcd.com/2167/

Can we please all chip in for a big box of circus stuff to leave outside the meeting

please don’t encourage jugglers!

/shudder

You'll be there then will you Bespin? Any particular biscuits/ circus equipment you'd like us to get in for you?

I presume they want the guitars + singing to try and drown out the talk inside.