Kelly-Jay currently being arrested in Leeds

[BettyFloop]

She's live streaming on YT

All the women there would have been quite happy to go ahead and speak just like they have done on numerous other times previously, however, the situation changed as soon as the police became involved. Poise decided she would rather be arrested than accept a fine for doing nothing wrong. That would give her a chance to fight her cause in court. What a brave woman.

This exactly. They, we, want to be able to speak freely. If that had been allowed, happy days. But as that didn’t happen, then yeah, the next best thing is to not accept a fine for doing something legally allowed and to fight against these tactics the police are employing against women, while allowing other groups to have their freedoms. Did they all suspect the police might not allow it? Possibly. But why should women be content to allow this illegal, discriminatory behaviour from police?

this is a deliberate tactic which has been used in the past by people who would rather some things were not publicised/discussed at all

It is. But it isn’t working. I wait optimistically for Liz Truss’ announcements tomorrow.

Leeds Resisters and Standing for Women.

Announcement was today, Milly.

www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/plans-to-let-transgender-people-self-identify-are-shelved-p98dgpskj

(Sorry, never have managed to do share tokens - someone with better app-wrangling-skills than me may be able to put one in)

Oh thank you! I missed this news!

However one thing bothers me:

“The full benefit of the increases in clinical capacity that we’ve been able to secure will lead to greater patient choice, shorter waiting times, better geographical coverage and easier access,” Ms Truss said. “It will also make it easier to fulfil the medical requirements of obtaining a GRC [gender recognition certificate].”

Where is this sort of commitment to wait times and care for women’s health issues? I feel there is preferential treatment here but I’ll find the thread to talk about it rather than do so here.

There's a thread about Liz Truss's statement here Liz Truss WILL make a statement today www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4030346-Liz-Truss-WILL-make-a-statement-today

I'm waiting to hear if there's been any news from Ann Sinnott about her potential judicial review. The EHRC were due to respond today.

If it wasn't for me, your thread would never have reached 'trending'.

Thank God you turned up, then.

I am trying to understand how women needing single sex spaces and services following CSA is nothing to do with feminism - the only thing you have said in response since then is that you disagree with my posts or they're not worth responding to. That says it all, suppose.

I feel that the EHRC will be viewed as unethical if the say they misrepresented, but don't inform all those to whom they gave duff information.

Big vote of thanks to MNHQ for some excellent modding in a difficult situation!

I'm waiting to hear if there's been any news from Ann Sinnott about her potential judicial review. The EHRC were due to respond today.

Oh were they, thanks I’ve had unwell cats so missed a couple of important things happening!

@CaraDuneRedux

Big vote of thanks to MNHQ for some excellent modding in a difficult situation!

What difficult situation?

 Leeds Resisters and Standing for Women

Missed off the !

Leeds Resisters and Spinners and standing for women 🌸💐

@CaraDuneRedux

Big vote of thanks to MNHQ for some excellent modding in a difficult situation!

Yes. Thanks for not permitting the insincere, to achieve in closing this thread. It’s been a very interesting discussion.

I didn't know asses got stoned! You learn something every day

Re Posie, I imagine it's less about actively wanting to be arrested, (who wants that?) and more about thinking on her feet in terms of publicity. Either for the cause she went there to talk about or, subsequently, the way that these talks are dealt with by the police.

Police have stood by whilst women have been intimidated, police have ordered lesbians off chairs, police have mounted their horses to disperse women handing out leaflets.

There are two strands to this debate. Firstly the actual issue, and secondly the way women taking about the issue are shutdown.

Posey quite clearly makes snap decisions all the time when confronted with the unpredictable.

And this is what she did.

She wasn't going to allow the illegal prevention of her talking about this issue. And she was going to let the world see it.

It's not difficult to understand.

And I took from her commentary that, given the preparations for the protest, she was simply aware that if the police did arrest her it would be a political act on their behalf.

First of all the narrative was that the women were disgusted by not being allowed to speak. ... Then the narrative was changed - within hours - that they had actually wanted to be arrested in order to appear in court ... If they don't get their day in court I suspect the narrative will change to 'we made our point, don't need hassle of a court case'.

I'm puzzled by your comment, SorryImKnew. This is real life, not a scripted drama. The situation was changing fast and women were having to react quickly. What would you have them do?

I for one would have been stunned by the police action, against women obeying the law, after police have allowed so many illegal gatherings. Those illegal gatherings were also antisocial, in spreading the coronavirus.

The big difference, of course, is that certain men enjoy attacking women. Really bad news when those men are police.

I don't think anyone turned up planning to get arrested. We wanted to have our safe, planned, socially distanced speaking event, exercise our democratic rights to free expression and assembly, then maybe break into bubbles and go to the pub or something.

Since we weren't able to do that without threat of, or actual, fines and arrest, women had to respond to the situation in which they found themselves. As thinkingabout mentioned, you don't really know how you will react in a high-stress scenario like being threatened with arrest, financial sanction and undignified jostling if you've done nothing wrong. Some women froze up, some reluctantly complied, others argued, some did a Posie. Some like the third speaker didn't really get a chance to decide at all, as they just grabbed her as she was walking away from them.

I was expecting TRA hecklers and had even prepped some withering one-liners for that situation. Didn't expect to see police yelling in faces, women in handcuffs or being loaded into the back of vans. It's an escalation and one we should be seriously concerned about - and one that had little to nothing to do with coronavirus. We were masked and distanced, there was a contingency for if too many people turned up, we did everything by the book. I used so much sanitiser I can still smell watermelon [ boak ]