Feminist Laywer Sarah Phillimore

[MarieIVanArkleStinks]

I've followed Sarah, a family lawyer, on Twitter since she offered her vocal support to female victims of childhood sexual abuse in the wake of a vicious tirade against these women. What happened was that a fellow-barrister (whose Tweets are now protected) began to accuse them all of being liars, peddled lots of literature about 'false memory', then attempted to sue (for defamation) anyone who took issue with her. She took to the courts in pursuit of Phillimore, who refused to back down, and lost. The Times newspaper also took that same barrister to task for allegedly making death threats against students.

Fast-forward to yesterday evening. I watched Phillimore engaging in Twitter-conversation with a handle calling itself 'Trans Globe'. She was consistently measured, calm and polite. Her unworthy adversary was consistently sound-bitey, irrational, accusing her of hateful behaviour (she wasn't), cowardice (she was posting under her own name, they weren't), twisting her arguments to 'reducing women to menstruation' (she didn't say this) and ultimately reporting her for misgendering (she didn't refer to a trans woman as 'she', but was discussing simple differences between the male and female sex).

Her standpoint is that she'll willingly respect others' rights to believe in the Gods they believe in, and respect their religion. The same applies to trans ideology. What they don't have the right to do, is make her believe in the same gods, or re-classify her own identity to fit with someone else's version of it.

Sarah expects her account to be gone by today and possibly to follow in the same position as Alison Bailey. If this happens, having witnessed the exchange and not seeing one hint of transphobia but merely respectful disagreement, I'll be contacting Twitter with these observations, and also Phillimore's chambers, in support of her. In fact, I'll be doing the latter in any event.

These women are being incredibly courageous - indeed risking their careers - by putting their heads above the parapet. Hope others will join me.

Sarah's brilliant and measured woman and therefore a perceived 'threat' to MRAs, just like Allison.

Take screenshots for your complaint, if needed.

• bloody commas - she's a perceived threat like Allison, not an MRA!

Placemarking so I don't lose this thread as I'd like to be updated if some bastard tries to hound her out of a job.

Thanks @HandsOffMyRights. I've done that. The account's still up as of now and I hope it remains so. But I've seen colleagues of mine 'de-platformed' for pretty much the same thing; sometimes for less. And on occasions where I do see these things play out live, I'd jump to defend them in the spirit of not having activists' ideology silence women's voices altogether.

Barbara, it's happened before when she tried to uphold the rights of women. And extraordinarily enough, by another woman (unrelated to trans rights).

Just goes to show how recent onslaughts against women, women's rights and women's safeguarding issues (#MeToo and its backlash was my wake-up call) is legitmizing misogyny, in a way I've never seen in my lifetime.

I've had the privilege of speaking to Sarah face to face. She is indeed formidable, intelligent and measured.

I am a great admirer of Sarah Phillimore

Sarah 💪⭐️

thank you very much for the support.

My Twitter account is still active, which is a surprise, because as you say, I have seen women suspended permanently for pretty much exactly what I am saying. This is the problem with Twitter - its rules are opaque, seem to shift from day to day etc. I can only assume this is deliberate to keep us in a state of fear and to stifle reasonable debate.

Therefore the only position I can adopt is to speak the truth as I see it and not try to second guess what the response of Twitter will be.

If I do lose my platform there, it is not the end of the world. There are other ways to engage with people, not least of all Mumsnet which has been responsible for enabling thousands of women like me to find their voice and the courage to raise it.

I hope the tide of madness is turning. The Fair Cop judicial review hearing could be really significant about all of this, and I will hopefully be in court on November 20th to see the arguments kick off. Please do see their Twitter account and website if you haven't already.

www.faircop.org.uk

Nice one, thanks Sarah. And if any Mumsnetters can come to the protest outside the RCJ on 20th November, we'd love to see you there ;-)

There will be placards! and leaflets! and very nice V neck T shirts...
Or if you can't make it during the day, we are meeting in nearby pub afterwards for drinks and nibbles and hopefully some interesting post hearing discussions.

Your advice and insight has helped me greatly in the past spero as a lurker in another board here. Thank you for that. And I'll be supporting any developments we are made aware of on this thread

Thank you & well done, Sarah. I'm in awe of the women speaking out at such great personal risk.

Thank you Sarah

Much admiration for you spero and all women who speak out in their own name - truly brave

Thanks for the response @spero and for your fantastic commitment to speaking out in support of women. It's much appreciated. And I can't help but contrast your own responses with the 'whataboutery', 'that never happens' and inevitable personal attacks that characterizes the usual, and very typical, pile-on from the activists. There's nothing constructive in that debating, just fingers-in-ears, 'la la la' and c*s women who don't roll over and concede their spaces are hateful transphobes.

How depressing that this stuff is now infiltrating its way into public policy. Will be watching fair cop with interest.

Thanks Sarah for everything that do - and in your own name too. I'm glad you're still on twitter!

I follow her too.

Thanks Sarah for all that you do. I follow you on twitter and have such total respect for the way for your interventions and the way that you conduct yourself.

another thank you from me!!

Another thank you here!

I am someone who shares the unnamed lawyer's concerns about false memories.

However I am appalled by her opinions on the law of consent and feel that she does rationalists, skeptics and activists against false memories and psychotherapy quackery no favours with her bullying and outrageous behaviour towards Spero and others (there are others).

I am also grateful to Sarah for her activism and courage on a range of issues.

Thank you Sarah, I salute you for your courage

Spero, thank you and all power to you.

Thank you again for the kind words and support, it really means a lot and I do appreciate it.

I can only hope the tide is turning and enough people are now speaking up to mean that we cannot be safely ignored or easily silenced.

My twitter account is still there! Which seems nothing short of a miracle.

I hope to see some of you outside the RCJ on November 20th!