Roll call of legal cases fought for women and free speech!

[thinkingaboutLangCleg]

Women’s rights have been undermined very suddenly over the past few years, and free speech has been called a hate crime. This happened so unexpectedly that at first there seemed to be no real resistance.

But now we’re starting to see a lot of lights shining through the murk.

Women Speak Scotland has compiled a superb summary of legal cases brought by women and free-speech campaigners since 2018. It’s a clear and detailed list, including brief timelines, of each of the cases we’ve followed on Mumsnet or in the news, by people fighting injustice. Fifteen of them so far, the first two signed off with the encouraging words “Case won”.

womenspeakscotland.com

A valuable resource for anyone (like me) at risk of starting to mix up their GIDS with their Girlguiding or Bristol with Bath Spa.

I’m not shocked by the number of injustices, because sadly these are already well known. But I am delighted at the growing number of people who are fighting back, standing up for women and free speech, for reason and science. Heroes, every one of them*.

And now I have a ready resource for whenever I'm asked what that case was about the lost job, the cancelled research, the police 'checking your thoughts', etc etc.

"I think a hero is any person really intent on making this a better place for every person” - Maya Angelou

Thanks.

So well put together. thanks for posting.
Chilling when you look at them all together isn't it?

Great, thank you.

None of my work, I hastily add! I only discovered Women Speak Scotland's site today, from a Mumsnet thread about the WSS open letter in support of JK Rowling.

I had to start this new thread because the summary of legal cases was the best resource I've seen on the subject, and bang up to date.

I agree it's chilling, Echo. But at the same time I'm excited to see women and our friends fighting back on so many fronts.

Thank you for starting the thread, thinkingaboutLangCleg.

We at WSS are glad that you and others are finding the summary of cases a useful resource. There were so many building up that it was definitely tricky to remember what they all were about. We'll try to make sure we update it now and again to keep up with changes.

It's proving to be very popular so far and has already been accessed 127 times already. 😊

This twitter thread from WomenUnitingUK also lists some of the important cases to help us keep up.

twitter.com/womenunitinguk/status/1300729222613397506?s=21

Being a bit of an oldie these days, I was getting a bit despondent a while back. Everything seemed to be unravelling that we had fought for.
Things like zero hours contracts coming in, the hijacking of women's spaces and so on.
Just mainly lurking on here gives me heart when I see women organising like this. The groups like WSS, WUU, TT, LCB and L Alliances and so many more....
You are all amazing, courageous women. Take a bow.

Hello, we have an updated version available now for use as a reference and to pass around.

womenspeakscotlandcom.files.wordpress.com/2020/10/crowdfunding_18_oct_20.pdf

Cheers,
Women Speak Scotland

That’s one hell of a roll call on the right side of history.

Thanks for posting.

Great list. Tragic that women are having to go to the courts to protect women's rights and to safeguard children but needs must.

Thanks so much for posting. It's a really useful list that I might not have found otherwise.

Thanks for the informative list, a couple of earlier cases there that I didn’t know about as I’ve only recently had my eyes opened.
Thinking about Keira's case, how long is usual, roughly, for an outcome of a JR, does anyone know?

Hey NonnyMouse, thank you so much for this list! Crucial work these brave women are doing, and I don’t underestimate the personal strain on them.

You're welcome GrinitchSpinach. I can't take any credit for it. Will let the woman who puts this all together know that her list is appreciated.

I was thinking of suggesting that we start a list like that as it is so hard to keep track - really glad it has already been done as it is so useful, and not in here so won't disappear.

The site also has an excellent collection of resources (I've been poking around).

womenspeakscotland.com/useful-resources/

Updated version as of 29 Oct 2020.

womenspeakscotlandcom.files.wordpress.com/2020/10/crowdfunding_29_oct_20.pdf

As always, you can access the latest version on our website home page.

Cheers,
Women Speak Scotland